The Scaffold - Just The Songs (1974)

I was listening to The Scaffold's 'Fresh Liver' album the other day, and I'd forgotten just what a great rock band they could be when they put their mind to it. The Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, consisting of musical performer Mike McGear (real name Peter Michael McCartney, the brother of Paul McCartney), poet Roger McGough and comic entertainer John Gorman. From as early as 1962 the members of The Scaffold were part of a performing revue group known as The Liverpool One Fat Lady All Electric Show, which also included McGough's fellow Liverpool poet Adrian Henri. Working almost exclusively as a trio under the name The Scaffold from 1964, Gorman, McGear and McGough performed a mixture of comic songs, comedy sketches and the poetry of McGough, and they released a number of singles and albums on Parlophone and EMI between 1966 and 1971, with several more on Island, Warner Bros. and Bronze later. In 1967 they had their first hit single with 'Thank U Very Much', and they followed this in 1968 with their best known recording 'Lily The Pink', which topped the UK singles chart. They also composed and sang the theme tune to the popular BBC TV comedy 'The Liver Birds', which aired from 1969–1978. Mike McGear was the only member of the band who could be described as a professional musician, and so the songs on their early albums were often augmented by session musician such as Elton John, Jack Bruce and Graham Nash. In addition to the hit singles, The Scaffold's output included four albums: the live 'The Scaffold' in 1968, and 'L. The P. 'in 1969, both on Parlophone Records, 'Fresh Liver' on Island in 1973, and 'Sold Out' on Warner Brothers in 1975. All of their albums contained a mixture of straight rock songs, comic songs, sketches and poetry, and as I mentioned at the start, the pop and rock songs were good enough to have been recorded by any number of top groups of the period. Some of the sketches and poetry don't really bear repeated hearings, and even some of the comic songs are best heard sparingly, so what I really wanted to hear was an album of just their rock and pop recordings. As they were primarily a comic trio, their four albums only yielded 10 songs that were played straight, but with the addition of a couple of unreleased tracks from Abbey Road, including an early take of 'Take It While You Can' which was re-worked for GRIMMS' 'Rockin' Duck' album in 1973, that was exactly enough for what I wanted. So here is the album that I will probably play more than any other of theirs - just the songs of The Scaffold. 

Track listing

01 Devon's Dead  
02 Plenty Of Time
03 Today
04 Uptown And Downtown
05 Oh To Be A Child
06 Take It While You Can
07 Fax 'N' Figgers  
08 Jelly Covered Cloud
09 Nuclear Band  
10 I Can't Make You Mine
11 All The Way Up
12 Leaving Of Liverpool

For anyone who wants to burn this collection to a CD, SmithWorksGrafx has designed some groovy artwork for it. 

Jimi Hendrix - ...and on guitar (1970)

Considering the many, many hours of Jimi Hendrix recordings that exists, including both studio and live tapes, it's surprising at just how little there is of him collaborating with other artists in the later years of his career. There's the famed bootleg of him jamming with members of Traffic, and one album from Irish psyche-poppers Eire Apparent, for which he acted as producer and played guitar, but apart from those his guest appearances were limited to helping out friends Robert Wyatt, Arthur Lee and Stephen Stills, doing a favour for Paul McCartney, and appearing with a stellar cast of mates on two sessions, for Lighting Rod and Timothy Leary. 
Eire Apparent (a pun on their Irish heritage) hailed from Northern Ireland, and launched the careers of both Henry McCullough and Ernie Graham, but their main claim to fame is getting Hendrix to act as producer and play guitar on their sole album 'Sunrise' in 1968. The link is that both artists were managed by ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler, and at one point both were signed to Track Records, for whom Eire Apparent recorded one single. Following this the band were sent to tour America, firstly with The Animals, and then later with Soft Machine and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and while in Los Angeles they recorded songs for their debut album 'Sunrise', with Hendrix producing and playing on the record. 'Sunrise' went the way of a lot of albums of the late 60's, selling a moderate number at the time, but being re-discovered in the 80's as a 'lost classic', and original copies now go for large sums, helped quite a bit by the Hendrix connection. 
Also is 1968, Roger McGough and Mike McGear were members of hit Liverpool art/rock/poetry band The Scaffold, and fancied doing a duo album of their own stuff. They roped in Mike's brother Paul McCartney to produce it, and between them they managed to engage the services of Hendrix to provide guitar on two of the more song-orientated tracks, both of them mid-to-late 60's pop/psyche offerings.
At the end of the tour, on which Eire Apparent supported Hendrix and The Soft Machine, The Experience gave Robert Wyatt access to their recording studios after hours, so that he could record some demos, and Hendrix added guitar to one of them, 'Slow Walkin' Talk'. 
In 1969, The Last Poet's member Lighting Rod was perfecting one of the earliest example of rapping, and wanted to record his outlandish tale of the prostitute 'Doriella Du Fontaine', so persuaded Buddy Miles and Hendrix to improvise in the studio with him. They recorded a basic 8 minute take which was eventually released as a 12" single in 1984, together with an edited four minute instrumental version of the track.
In 1970, Hendrix provided guitar on one song from Stephen Stills' debut solo album. The pair had known each other for years, and there's an hour-long jam session of the two of them in Stills' basement in 1968 available on Youtube, and during the sessions for the album the pair also recorded a jam called 'White Nigger', which Stills later turned into 'High And Dry' for his Manassas project. This was actually a re-acquaintance of the two in a recording studio, as the previous year Hendrix had invited Stills to a session at New York’s Record Plant, and it was there that Stills performed the Joni Mitchell song 'Woodstock' for the first time, a year before it would appear on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's album ‘Déjà vu’. Stills and Hendrix then recorded a version of the song, along with a take on Stills' '$20 Fine', both with Stills on vocals. 
Also in 1970, Hendrix was invited by Love's Arthur Lee to contribute to his band's album 'False Start'. Hendrix returned to Olympic Studios, the recording facility where he'd recorded 'Are You Experienced' and 'Axis: Bold As Love', and he and percussionist Remi Kabaka joined Love in recording 'The Everlasting First'. The three musicians recorded sixteen takes before a basic track met Lee's approval, and they also taped two takes of Hendrix's own 'Ezy Rider', before they took part in an extended instrumental jam session, later titled 'Loon', before departing. This album doesn't aim to include everything that Hendrix was involved in outside The Experience or Band Of Gypsys, but it's more of an overview of his collaborations, so I've picked just two songs from Eire Apparent's album, on which his guitar-playing is particularly up-front, along with the two 'McGough & McGear' songs, three with Stephen Stills, the Robert Wyatt demo, and the recording with Love. The Timothy Leary recording is nice to hear once, but doesn't really warrant repeated plays, so if you want to hear it you can do so here. I  haven't included the Love versions of 'Ezy Rider', as Hendrix sings on them and so they just sound like normal Hendrix out-takes, and 'Loon' is just a ten-minute jam, and I've also omitted '$20 Dollar Fine' which is available on the 'Both Sides Of The Sky' album. If you like the two Eire Apparent tracks then do check out their album as it really is excellent stuff.  

Track listing

01 The Clown (from 'Sunrise' by Eire Apparent 1968)
02 Mr. Guy Fawkes (from 'Sunrise' by Eire Apparent 1968)
03 So Much (from 'McGough & McGear' by McGough & McGear 1968)
04 Ex Art Student (from 'McGough & McGear' by McGough & McGear 1968)
05 Doriella Du Fontaine (by Lightning Rod 1969)
06 Old Times Good Times (from 'Stephen Stills' by Stephen Stills 1970)
07 White Nigger ('Stephen Stills' out-take 1970)
08 Woodstock (out-take with Stephen Stills 1969)
09 Slow Walkin' Talk (from ''68' by Robert Wyatt 1968)
10 The Everlasting First (from 'False Start' by Love 1970)

Now that this has turned into a series, I've updated the artwork on this post to match the others, although I've left the original cover in the file. If you want this cover then just right-click and save it from the post.