Released one full year after
Slaughter on 10th Avenue,
Mick Ronson's second solo album,
Play Don't Worry, was partially recorded during his brief tenure with
Mott the Hoople, and it is no coincidence that the finished item reflected only half of what was really intended. Pair it with bandmate
Ian Hunter's own eponymous solo debut, however, and it is not only that duo's own entwined future which spreads out before you, it is also an indication of just how powerful
Mott could have been if that combination of players had worked out.
Ronson's epic recounting of the
Pure Prairie League's
"Angel #9" was already part of
Mott's live set when they split; so was
Hunter's
"Lounge Lizard" (from his solo set), and live recordings from the first
Hunter-
Ronson tour, promoting both
Play Don't Worry and
Ian Hunter. Those two albums blend with one another seamlessly, to the point that only occasionally, today, do either of them actually live up to either of their makers' reputations.
Play Don't Worry certainly has its highlights, however.
"Billy Porter," the psycho-on-the-street opening track; the guitar-lick magnificence of
"Angel #9"; a killer version of
"White Light White Heat," left over from
David Bowie's
Pin Ups sessions, and the yearning Italian melodrama
"Empty Bed"; all echo the highlights of
Slaughter on 10th Avenue, but never duplicate them. That album was
Ronson finding his way; this one is him knowing precisely where he is, and there's a fiery rendition of
Little Richard's
"The Girl Can't Help It," rearranged with all the twistingly nostalgic elan which the participants (a pseudonymous
Hunter included) could muster, astounds as much for its audacity as for its delivery. But elsewhere,
Ronson's own dislike of the solo game shows through, and only gets louder once the album ends and the bonus tracks (appended to the 1997 reissue) kick in. Only two of those tracks date from the
Play Don't Worry sessions themselves: a dense and despairing version of
Annette Peacock's
"Seven Days," and a lifeless alternate take on the regular album's closing
"Woman." The remaining tracks were taken in the main from the aborted sessions for a third album which
Ronson had no intention of completing. They are interesting for a solo rendition of
Bowie's
"Soul Love," and a studio version of the coincidentally (but otherwise utterly un-
Bowie related) titled
"Is There Life on Mars?" which was
Ronson's contribution to
Dylan's
Rolling Thunder Revue. But compared to what
Ronson had long since shown himself capable of doing, they are weary and weak, and compared to the live cuts appended to the similarly reissued
Slaughter on 10th Avenue (all taken from the still unreleased live album taped at his first solo London gig), they hardly bear repeated plays. ~ Dave Thompson
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