30 in 30, 9/23/11 - "Once Bitten Twice Shy", Ian Hunter

In high school I had a friend named Mark, and we were very close. I knew him pretty well into my early 20s, and we eventually drifted apart. Mark was the kind of person who, as he got older, would hustle guys at pool in the Plush Cue in Whittier for hundreds of dollars a night, sometimes more; he owned a three-unit apartment building at what I thought was FAR too young an age, which lead me to believe, along with the weapon options he kept in his car, that perhaps he had some fingers in other pies (as the kids are saying). At any rate, he tracked me down in the mid-90s and we chatted a time or two. I was in Ann Arbor and he was down near San Diego. Then, again, the connection faded. Last year, via a somewhat complicated process, I discovered he'd died in 2003 at age 39, leaving behind a wife and five or six year old daughter. Based on the brief obituary I could find on-line I'm guessing some kind of fast-moving disease.

Ian Hunter's You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic came out in 1979, and Music Plus on Whittier Blvd. (not that far from the Plush Cue, in point of fact) had a special where they guaranteed the album - if you bought it and didn't like it, you could return it no questions asked. I listened to it once and forgot all about the guarantee - soon I was collecting other Ian Hunter records and sharing them with my friend Mark, and he became a fan immediately.

One day Mark told me he'd been browsing a used record store and come across some albums by a band called Mott the Hoople and lo and behold guess who was the lead singer? So, then, I listened to the Mott albums with him and became a big fan. And at one point he said to me, 1980 or so - I may not have the words exactly right, but along these lines - "How great is that? You turn me on to Ian Hunter and then I'm able to return the favor with Mott."

I combined Ian and Mott for this installment of the 30 in 30. The line-up featured in this video I saw several times, most notably at the Country Club in Reseda, CA, in 1981 with seats literally at the edge of the stage and directly in front of (and I mean by that inches) the late and sorely missed lead guitarist Mick Ronson (author of, among other things, so much of the amazing guitar work on the early 70s Bowie records).

Ronson has been gone nearly 20 years, Mark nearly 10. I shook hands with Ian Hunter that evening in Reseda; he was 42 and I was 18. I saw Ian this January past at the Fillmore in San Francisco and he was 72 and I was, well, older than HE was when I shook his hand. Which is to say, in essence - what the fuck...

Once Bitten Twice Shy...

IBL:mm