A month in the life....

Glam fan? Well.... The dressing-up & makeup & high-heeled shoes never did much 4 me, but: Bowie, Roxy, Mott, T. Rex? Yeah, there's some good stuff there....
Ian Hunter's DIARY OF A ROCK 'N' ROLL STAR (1974) follows his band Mott the Hoople thru a 5-week tour of the US in the Winter of '72, just after "All the Young Dudes" barely grazes the Top 40.
Tho accepted as a "classic rock" oldie now, "All the Young Dudes" (which Bowie wrote & produced 4 Mott) wasn't that big a hit at the time -- I didn't hear it 'til YEARS later. Now it sounds Just Like 1972.
Luckily, SOMEbody out there heard it, Mott decided 2 stay 2gether (they'd bn considering breaking up B4 Bowie urged them 2 hang in), & as a result of making the charts they play some pretty big cities during this tour -- NYC, LA, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Memphis, etc.
Which doesn't necessarily mean they have a Good Time. Tho the concerts go down well -- there's scarcely a bad show in the entire tour -- the weather is mostly awful, they constantly have planes delayed or lose members of the band & crew in transit.
& the picture of America in the early '70s isn't 2 flattering. Lots of people stare at Mott's long hair (in '72? Well, probly....). They seem 2 visit lotsa towns where it looks like the bombs have already dropped -- especially parts of St. Louis, but also Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland....
& tho it's a FAST read, less than 160 pgs, overall the book's kinda ... drab. Hunter's diary could B the day-2-day musings of any businessman stuck on a long, gray, grimy road trip far from home. A pretty clear, detailed recounting of what tedious drudgery touring can B.
The only diffrence is they usually fly 1st-class. & yer avg businessman probly wouldn't spend so much spare time in pawnshops hunting 4 cheap guitars.
There is a little bit of drinking that goes on, but not 2 much partying & suprisingly little womanizing -- every1's basically 2 tired. There is a little bit of self-medicating -- mostly downers 2 help the band sleep after a gig -- & also 2 help calm guitarist Mick Ralphs, who CAN'T STAND 2 fly. & he gets 2 live thru some fairly horrifying plane flights....
The descriptions of concerts R fairly brief -- Xcept 4 the couple of bad 1s the band survives, & a couple of really great 1's that Hunter is suprised by. Mosta the really dodgy concert situations the band ends up backing out of.
& there's more: Hanging out with Bowie & his entourage; looning around LA with Keith Moon -- including a late-nite visit 2 Frank Zappa's house; encoring with Joe Walsh; actually getting a few steps in2 Elvis's home, Graceland, late at nite; brief scenes with Mick Fleetwood & others.
There's actually VERY little about songwriting, which is suprising since Hunter wrote mosta Mott's stuff. There's some discussion of it in the context of the recording process -- about how Hunter tended 2 introduce new stuff at soundchecks & then would start pushing if he thot something was really good. But this is only discussed as part of the recording process -- in which Hunter sez he's happy if only 1/2 of what he intended comes across in the finished recording.
At the end of the book, on his way back 2 London, Hunter mentions that he needs 2 get some new songs 2gether -- these become the album MOTT, which reflects summa the Xperiences of this American tour, & 1/2 of which turns out pretty great ("Honaloochie Boogie," "All the Way from Memphis," "Violence," "Ballad of Mott," "I Wish I Was Your Mother"). But Mick Ralphs would leave the band after that album 2 form Bad Company, & Mott would begin a slow slide down in2 legend.
But as Hunter notes in the book, by the time he starts keeping this diary the band had already bn on the road since 1969....
They shoulda had more success. At least 2 trax on MOTT coulda bn hits. But as Hunter sez in the book, maybe they just didn't have the killer instinct & the drive that Bowie had. Tho there R occasional grumbles & complaints & everybody's dead-tired by the end of the book, the band comes across as just yer avg buncha guys stuck 2gether on a long bizness trip. ...Who just occasionally happen 2 take the stage & wow a coupla 1,000 screaming fans.
Worth tracking down if you're 1 of those fans....

Coming Soon: Al Kooper's BACKSTAGE PASSES AND BACKSTABBING BASTARDS.... Should B lots of good musical history in there....