"Born Late '58" is a single taken from

Mott the Hoople Mott the Hoople were an English rock band formed in Herefordshire. Originally known as the Doc Thomas Group, the group changed their name after signing with Island Records in 1969. The band released albums throughout the early 1970s but fai ...

's seventh and final studio album ''

The Hoople ''The Hoople'' is the seventh studio album by United Kingdom, British rock music, rock band Mott the Hoople. The album peaked in the UK Albums Chart at No. 11, whilst its highest chart rating in the US was No. 28. A remastered and expanded vers ...

''. It is the only Mott the Hoople track credited solely to, and sung by group bassist Peter Watts, prior to the group reforming as simply "Mott". Just prior to the recording, de facto group leader Ian Hunter left the recording studio in frustration with the group's new guitarist

Ariel Bender Luther James Grosvenor (born 23 December 1946) is an English rock musician, who played guitar in Spooky Tooth, briefly in Stealers Wheel and, under the pseudonym Ariel Bender, in Mott the Hoople and Widowmaker. Grosvenor was born in Evesham ...

. As a consequence, this is the only track in the seven albums credited to Mott the Hoople that Hunter had no direct involvement in. Ironically (perhaps intentionally), the track features Bender's

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

as the most prominent instrument. The song tells the story of a romantic encounter with girl (born in 1958, therefore 16 years old in 1974).

References

1974 singles Mott the Hoople songs 1974 songs CBS Records singles {{1970s-single-stub