McGough and McGear

Real Gone

Apr 18, 2012 McGough and McGear By Austin Trunick

Roger McGough and Mike McGear were both members of the music, poetry, and comedy troupe The Scaffold, which had a short string of hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The pair recorded this one-off record on the side a year previous to The Scaffold taking off, looking at it as a more straight forward record of pop and poetry, and dropping a bit of the comedic act.

Neither McGough nor McGear were skilled instrumentalists, but they knew plenty of people who were. Mike “McGear” was actually Mike McCartney, little brother of the Beatle Paul, who produced the duo’s self-titled album and even made musical contributions in several parts. While that makes this album notable as a semi-obscure piece of Beatles ephemera, perhaps even more notable is the stellar supporting cast that Paul brought along for the sessions, which included Jimi Hendrix, Graham Nash, Dave Mason, John Mayall, Spencer Davis, former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith, and Viv Prince of The Pretty Things.

Most of the fun in the record is in hearing some of these guys, who were contractually forbidden from being credited on the album, jam outside of their regular musical trappings. The brothers McCartney share harmonies on “So Much,” with Hendrix on lead guitar and backed by The Experience. Hendrix lets loose a particularly delirious bit of wah-wah guitar elsewhere, in “Ex Art Student,” which also features Mason on sitar and Nash singing backup. As interesting as these appearances are, the songs are interspersed with a number of poetry readings (often comedic in nature) from McGough, which kill the record’s flow, and are so cheesy and dated that they’re distracting. It doesn’t help that outside of the famous musicians involved, many of the songs themselves are indistinguishable from the glut of sunshiney popsike that flooded record bins in those days.

As you’d expect, this reissue of McGough and McGear won’t kick start any new arguments over who was the more musically talented McCartney brother, but it’s a worthwhile curio for fans of any of the above-mentioned artists. The primary duo went on to bigger success with The Scaffold and, later, in their own endeavors: Roger McGough is still a prominent poet, and now a radio host in the U.K., while Mike McCartney is an accomplished rock photographer. (www.realgonemusic.com)

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