I Wish I Was Your Mother

Alejandro Escovedo

“Ian Hunter wrote some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Not only did they talk about the messiness of being young, they also spoke of the messiness of being an adult, and that was beautiful to me.”
—Alejandro Escovedo

Mott The Hoople – I Wish I Was Your Mother
Mott, 1973
Amazon
Mott The Hoople – I Wish I Was Your Mother

Today’s spotlight falls on one of Ian Hunter’s most enduring compositions with Mott The Hoople, “I Wish I Was Your Mother.” I thought about posting it yesterday for obvious reasons.

Ironically though, “Mother” isn’t really about mom or motherhood. It’s a touching elegy to the grounding influence of family, but framed in a deceptively clever, inside-out fashion. Over a bed of tasteful, Ronnie Lane-esque country-pop, we learn that the narrator is actually, by his own admission, something of a bastard. He’s prone to screaming, cursing, and hating. Yet, his woman — for the sake of argument, let’s assume this is a guy singing to a girl — is caring, wears pretty clothes, shares, sparkles, and glows. So, what’s his problem? If she’s “so good,” as he concedes, why on earth would he sing, “Is there a happy ending? I don’t think so?” The rub comes in the chorus:

“I wish I was your mother
I wish I’d been your father
And then I would have seen you
Would have been you as a child
Played houses with your sisters
And wrestled all your brothers
And then who knows
I might have felt a family for awhile.”

You don’t need a graduate degree in psychoanalysis to know that miserable, lonely fuckups hate being around the happy, grounded, and familial because it’s a painful reminder of what they don’t have. It’s probably fair to say the narrator doesn’t actually wish he was the girl’s mother, he simply wants to feel like he’s part of a family. Brilliant lyrical content aside, I think Hunter’s masterstroke was using a mandolin as his melodic focalpoint. After all, the mandolin has long been associated with country music, a genre formally grounded in family values since Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family hooked up with Ralph Peer.

Maria McKee getting her smolder on

Maria McKee – I Wish I Was Your Mother
You Gotta Sin To Get Saved outtake, 1993
Maria McKee – I Wish I Was Your Mother

Maria McKee covered “Mother” during sessions for her great 1993 album, You Gotta Sin To Get Saved. Alas, the song didn’t make the cut, which is too bad. This is a sublime cover and a nice change of pace hearing it sung from a woman’s perspective. If pushed, I’d probably say this is my favorite version, but that may be due to my longtime crush on Maria, especially during her mid-’90s peak of hotness. In fact, stop looking at the picture, she’s mine.

(Read Keeps Me Wonderin’ What Might’ve Been, my post about You Gotta Sin written 5 years after this post.)

Alejandro Escovedo – I Wish I Was Your Mother
The Mint, Los Angeles
August 16, 2007
Alejandro Escovedo – I Wish I Was Your Mother

Alejandro Escovedo has been covering “Mother” for years. You can find versions on his Gravity and Thirteen Years reissues. Unlike Maria, who stays faithful to Hunter’s wistful country-pop, Alejandro’s version is haunting, like a chamber ensemble interpreting a funeral dirge.