Ian Hunter is the oldest rock star I am aware of. He is – as we speak – 83 years old. By comparison, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards are 79 years old, and untold millions of dollars richer. I first saw Ian Hunter live on June 13th, 1970, a week after I graduated from high school, at the Cincinnati Pop Festival, when he was the lead singer & primary songwriter of Mott The Hoople. The most recent time I saw him was at the stellar Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland in 2016, giving him the Ricki C. Record for live performer seen over the greatest span of years – 46 – beating out Bruce Springsteen by a few years. (I didn’t see Bruce the first time ‘til 1976. And since it very, very unlikely I will ever see Springsteen live again, Hunter probably has that record sewn up for all-time.)
I mention all this age stuff because today’s “This Song!” is from Ian’s s upcoming album – Defiance Pt. 1 – to be released April 1st and is, in my humble opinion, as good as ANYTHING Hunter has ever recorded. In fact, of my five favorite rockers on the planet – Bruce Springsteen, Elliott Murphy, Lou Reed, Joe Strummer & Hunter – it’s as good as anything ANY of them have done in my 65 years of living and loving rock & roll.
Enjoy. Play it LOUD.
Ricki C. turned 70 years old sometime last summer. His first favorite rock & roll song was Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” when he was five years old, riding in his sainted Italian father’s Oldsmobile. He figures his last favorite rock & roll song will be by either Elliott Murphy or Ian Hunter, sometime in the future.