Now we’re going back a bit. What a cover! PETE FRAME, the famous Rock family tree guy is on the editorial board and does the layout. The first feature is on ‘THAT ALL-AMERICAN ALIEN BOY’ IAN HUNTER. The reason for the headline is that Hunter is now considered a tax exile, but in his own words says one of the reasons was that “I had really got into a rut with my lyrics. I remember sitting in my flat in Wembley, totally bereft of any inspiration.” Negative Melody Maker reviews of the HUNTER-RONSON tour are disturbing him. Hunter recalls meeting BOB DYLAN who was sitting in a restaurant singing songs from “Desire”!
Apparently, Dylan knew all the songs from the first MOTT THE HOOPLE album. Mick Ronson would go on to join Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour. The only band that knocked Ian Hunter out was WEATHER REPORT!
An insightful ZIGZAG review in the same issue says that JON ANDERSON’s “Olias of Sunhillow” must rank as the greatest contribution to the expansion of mass consciousness since PATRICK MORAZ’s “Story of i” – touché!
Next time: “The Goodole Days of Jethro Tull”