The lyricist Joe Elliott considered better than Bob Dylan: “All three still ring true”
There’s a lot to be said for time passing, influencing how we see certain artists. For some, the falling grains of sand can only add weight to your legacy. There are countless musicians who have gained gravitas following the first awkward years of their career passing by.
For others, with time moving on, so does the zeitgeist from which they were born. A band that feels decisively 1980s might have flourished in the decade, but looking back 40 years later feel more than old hat. Bob Dylan, however, seems to be one artist who escapes any notion of time itself.
Bob Dylan’s position at the top of the lyrical mantle is hard to debate. Even if fans didn’t agree with everything he said, what Dylan did for the music community at large is monumental. He broke down barriers for what rock and roll was supposed to be and how the world could mean so much more than just a handful of party songs. For as dense as Dylan’s lyrics could get, though, Joe Elliott always preferred listening to Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter instead.
While Dylan was a commanding presence whenever he got behind the microphone, there was always a sense of sanctimony that was hard to ignore. Regardless of how well-crafted his songs were, there would come a time when many people would think that Dylan wasn’t telling a story but lecturing his audience about how, according to him, the world should be.
That kind of approach is bound to get monotonous, and Hunter was much more flamboyant whenever he went on the road. Although Dylan was certainly an influence for him, hearing him reinterpret tracks like ‘All The Young Dudes’ felt like all the best pieces of rock and roll jammed into one track.
Once the band started writing their own material on Mott, Hunter came into his own as a lyricist. There would be the occasional tune about rock and roll debauchery. Still, tracks like ‘All The Way to Memphis’ were Hunter telling a story about wild abandon rather than just throwing the right buzzwords together.
For Elliott, this was the eye-opening moment that he needed to hear before forming Def Leppard. Countless poets like Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy would sit down and write before even putting a melody behind it, but a lot of the best Mott the Hoople seemed to arrive fully formed. ‘The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ isn’t necessarily the most complex song ever written, but as Hunter sings his heart out, he’s painting the picture of that sweaty club a lot better than anyone else ever could.
Dylan was more into abstract musical passages. His work would unfurl like a great novel, littered with philosophical study wrapped up in personal meaning. But Elliott thought there was no better lyricist when it came to rock and roll than Hunter, saying, “I wouldn’t know what you’d have called it when I was eleven years old, but now I would say it was in distinctive vocal delivery, ‘better than Dylan’ lyrics and the fact he didn’t come across as someone unaccessible. All three still ring true to me.”
Then again, it might come down to how Hunter performs. Whereas Dylan could change verses out on the fly or put different inflexions onto every word, Hunter was the complete package of rock and roll poet and glam rock superstar whenever he took the stage, which would become the template for when acts like Def Leppard began.
Hunter’s lyrics are half the reason why Leppard feels one notch above the standard hair bands of their day. They weren’t the most thoughtful band or anything, but someone who could write something as gripping as ‘Billy’s Got a Gun’ wouldn’t have happened if Mott the Hoople hadn’t reached those heights first.
