IAN HUNTER - "ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY"

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you probably know this song. if i were to say to you, "great white"...you see, now? great white, as you may remember though certainly don't care to, were an awful hair metal group. i knew that this song was an ian hunter original, but i couldn't imagine any talent, no matter how great, that could make it listenable.

well, i was wrong. hunter, former lead singer of mott the hoople, plays his cards exactly right: the lyrics are great ("i didn't know you got a rock n' roll record until i saw your picture on another's guy jacket..."), the singing is very bowie-esque, and the track rocks in just the right places. the dynamics are wonderful; whoever produced this deserves much plaudits. the track comes across as a mix between bolan and the rolling stones (the bolan stones! ugh). it begins as a low-key rocker and half-way through, the guitars come in and...YEAH!

it's hard to imagine, then, what great white could've done to fuck this one up. i'm not really that anxious to hear their version again, so i'll go on memory. there was something very unctuous about them as a group and the production was uninspired. oh, and that VIDEO. i guess they deserve some credit for at least knowing the song, but then they erode that by DESTROYING the song, and totally cooling anyone's interest in the original. i'm glad that i have some friends, then, whose glam roots run deep.