I got my bags/I got my boots/I got my wits about me I got my roots," sings Ian Hunter in "The Loner," one of the tougher cuts on Y U I Orta, Hunter's sharpest rock & roll since his 1975 solo debut. Those roots coil back to Hunter's early-Seventies stint as Mott the Hoople's main man and the Glam glory days that spawned his current soul mate – the former Bowie sideman, guitar ace Mick Ronson.

Holding to the true believer's faith that all fundamental rock is a footnote to Chuck Berry, Mott brought muscle to Glam's mascara party, as well as a dandified angst as evidenced by the band's aching rendition of Bowie's anthem "All the Young Dudes." A more practiced Keith Richards to Bowie's Ziggy Stardust-period Jagger, Ronson was Glam's best musician and a sometime Mott collaborator.

Recharging primarily Stones-ish licks on Y U I Orta, Ronson displays a vet's deft wit – "Tell It Like It Is" revamps T. Rex's "Bang a Gong" and its sly crunch; an instrumental take on Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" gorgeously soars, confirming Ronson's status as the most melodic of metal-leaning guitarists. Bassist Pat Kilbride, keyboardist Tommy Mandel and drummer Micky Curry keep things smartly simple; Bernard Edwards provides roomy, but crisp, production.

And, whether snarling or pleading, Hunter turns in an urgent primer of rock & roll styles and concerns. The elegiac Spector sound of "American Music" ("I love the names of the cities/I hear the echo/Echoing") gives way to the cartoon vengefulness of "Womens Intuition," one cool recycling of the old theme of injured love ("You got the judas in you babe.... You're a lie/You're a television").

Like Lennon before him, Hunter is the hard guy whose shades hide tears; the soul baring comes strong and tender in "Beg a Little Love" and "Sons 'n' Lovers." If some of Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" is reverberating in a new generation's ears, the time may be right for the genuine old master. And, as Hunter and Ronson progress from swagger to maturity, their rock seems not only solid but refined by the polish of hard time and tried faith. (RS 571)

PAUL EVANS