"Roll Away The Stone" by Mott The Hoople

Birthday wishes go out today to Morgan Fisher, who joined British glam rock band Mott the Hoople as its keyboardist at the apex of their success; in other words, at just about the time it would be rent asunder by the egos of its members and the greed of their label... Not that I'm bitter.

Roll Away the Stone originally appeared on the band's 1974 album The Hoople; to me the band's sound is a melding* of Ray Davies of The Kinks and David Bowie**. Their real claim to fame, though, wasn't Fisher but Ian Hunter, who went on to pen the iconic song Cleveland Rocks - which has been used as the theme tune for The Drew Carey Show, albeit in a cover version recorded by Presidents of the United States of America.

*Which I'd have been well into watching at the time, since back then they were both still hot...
**Who actually produced the band's earlier albums (including 1972's All the Young Dudes, a personal favourite of mine).
*

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