Search - Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson :: Yui Orta

YU Orta buy it!

Thin Timmy | New Orleans, La. | 07/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hunter & Ronson made many albums together and made a

great team. Hunter's writer is always top notch and

Ronson's great guitar playing made it even better.

This album was a masterpiece by the duo. American Music,

The LOner, Women's Intuition and How much more can

I take? just great rock n' roll. Again overlooked by

critics and radio, it did little but fans of them and

Mott would love it. It's ashame that they never got

their due. They belong in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Highly recommended."

Possibly Ian Hunter's best.

Jack Apple | Big Apple | 07/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson's "Y U I Orta" might be one of the greatest album's ever made that practically nobody has ever heard. It's up there with Ellen Foley's "Night Out" (which Hunter/Ronson produced and which was recently released, at last, on CD) and ex-Pistol Steve Jones' "Mercy." I hope that one of these days Hunter gets the credit he's due. He's an amazing songwriter (easily on par with Ray Davies)and a superb performer, as was Mick Ronson (seriously recommend the Ronson tribute album "Heaven and Hull" (if you can find it). If you haven't seen Hunter live, don't miss him. He still tours and usually headlines small venues. This guy is as good as they get."

Mott" YUI ORTA"

Kim Fletcher | Pattaya, Chonburi Thailand | 04/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every time that Hunter and Ronson got together to make an album's worth of material there was always a lot of magic in the air. Unfortunately this only happened three times. Once for Ian Hunter's first solo album in 1975, then four years later in 1979 with the fabulous "Your never alone with a Schizophrenic". It was not for another eight years that the two of them finally got back together again. The recording process was only undertaken after the Band had been on the road for six months with a set that included nearly all the material to be recorded for "YUI ORTA" (the title being a play on the old "Three Stooges'' catchphrase). So if there is a live feeling to this album it is hardly surprising. With Producer Bernard Edwards at the controls, the whole album was recorded over a seven week period at the Power Station in New York City.

Hunter's songwriting throughout is nothing short of superb, but the overall feeling of greatness that is put across cannot be laid entirely at the songwriters feet. The rest of the band is so tight they make identical twins seem like strangers. Micky Curry plays the drums as though they are a lead instrument, instead of a time keeping device. Pat Kilbride really comes of age here as one of Rocks leading Bassists, keeping the groove of the album going in one continuous Whoosh. The great Tommy (Mad Dog) Mandel handles the keyboards, and is best served whilst bashing out the rhythms on piano, which always suited Hunter's songs the best anyway. Here Mandel can be heard at the height of his powers before he was later submerged in the Bryan Adams Band. Then, of course, on every instrument with six strings there was Mick Ronson. (In many people's opinion Bowie has done nothing of real merit since he parted company with his main collaborator when he split up" The Spiders from Mars".) Whether playing some quiet tasteful licks behind Hunter's ballads like 'Livin in a Heart', where Hunter sings of the regrets he harbors for the breakup of his first marriage and the guilt that he feels, or the straight ahead party time Rock 'n' Roll of 'Big Time', every note is perfect, making each song come alive.

Add to this some of the finest songs to come from the pen of Ian Hunter, during his long and illustrious career, you have here an album worthy of the tag `Milestone' in Rock 'n' Roll. Nowhere will you find a finer rapid fire salvo of opening tracks than 'American Music' with it's references to British radio, which only played Rock 'n' Roll music very occasionally in the late fifties and early sixties, and completely at random, so you had to listen to an awful lot of dross whilst hoping for a bit of Jerry Lee Lewis. Follow this with 'The Loner' (one of Hunter's favorite songs) and then the hard rock of 'Women's Intuition', a song of vengeance concerning the theme of injured love. You are left breathless by track four. And believe me, there is a lot more to come, including this Dog's favorite ever Hunter song, the gut wrenching 'Beg a Little Love', plus the album's closing song, a guitar instrumental of the Don Gibson song 'Sweet Dreamer", which was originally a hit for Dolly Parton, but in the hands of Mick Ronson it becomes a thing of rare beauty.

With Hunter's redoubtable songwriting skills and idiosyncratic vocals. The snap, crackle, pop, and flash of Ronson's guitar playing, this album is a timely reminder of the talents of two of rock's mavericks, whose influence is still recognized by many of today's young Buckaroos.
I will leave you now with some of the lyrics to `Beg a Little Love'
"Life takes a little piece of you away
Everyday of your life
You learn to get wise, you learn to compromise -
You learn to criticize yourself
I guess we all grow up `cos one day everything -
Seems further from the truth
And you try find yourself - in this endless youth
You try find yourself - and you
Beg a little love
When my mind had gone
When both of my minds had gone
When all of my minds had gone".
Mott the Dog"