This past week I had the chance to reread Keith Richards’ 2010 memoir, Life, and somehow I only just now learned that keyboardist Ian McLagan was part of The New Barbarians, a rather unlikely musical aggregation that brought together Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Keys, and McLagan, with legendary instrumentalists, Stanley Clarke and Joseph ‘Zigaboo‘ Modeliste — but only for a single tour and without producing any recordings. [Not completely true: I would later learn that McLagan was able to rally the group into Zuma Beach’s Shangri-La recording studio at the conclusion of the tour to lay down their 12-minute take on “Truly” by The Cimarrons – according to the BBC, the UK’s “first self-contained indigenous” reggae group.]
[L to R: McLagan, Wood, Keys, Modeliste, Richards, Clarke]
Not too many years ago, my brother Bryan had given me an autographed CD of Ian McLagan‘s second and final album for Mercury, 1981’s Bump in the Night, upon which Ian had written “Hi Chris, this one’s for Steve & Ronnie” (Marriott and Lane, undoubtedly — former comrades-in-arms in The Small Faces). Tight-fisted Mercury would only allow one single for McLagan’s first album and none for its follow-up; nevertheless, if I were in charge, “Not Runnin‘ Away” would be my choice for the A-side:
“Not Runnin’ Away”
Ian McLagan (1981)
Guitar, Keyboards & Lead Vocals: Ian McLagan
Bass: Ricky Fataar
Drums & Vocals: Ricky Fataar
Lead Guitar & Vocals: Johnny Lee Schell
Horns: Bobby Keys
Song written by McLagan, Fataar & Rob Fraboni (producer).
I’m happy to report that McLagan’s memoir All the Rage is, as widely reported, immensely good fun. And also informative: Phil Chen – who we encountered last week, as one of the principal producers at UK early reggae label, Doctor Bird – would also be a dear friend of McLagan going back to the early 1960s, as recalled in All the Rage:
“Thanks to the constant barrage of phone calls to agents and bookers, we got to play at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, Soho, quite a few times, opening for Graham Bond or Gary Farr and the T-Bones, or, more usually, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, whose bass player Phil Chen is still my old mate. The Jamaican Chinaman or Chinese Jamaican, whichever way you look at him, never seems to get any older, or like me, any taller. Years later he toured with Rod Stewart and in 1979, joined the New Barbarians for our final gig at Knebworth in England.”
Sadly, McLagan, a long-time resident of Austin, Texas, left us December 3, 2014.
“Lucky Ladybug“: Still Reigning Champ –
First Use of Phasing?
McLagan’s remarks in All the Rage on the use of phasing in Small Faces’ classic “Itchycoo Park” immediately brought to mind Zero to 180’s piece from July, 2013 about the first use of phasing in a popular recording and whether (a) 1959’s “The Big Hurt” by Miss Toni Fisher – as Rhino claims in its Nuggets II box set (and McLagan concurs) – or (b) November, 1958‘s “Lucky Ladybug” by Billy and Lillie – as Zero to 180 asserts – was the first to employ this futuristic sound effect. At the very beginning of the song is where you can most easily hear the phasing effect, which is especially pronounced on the cleaned-up/remastered version on CD.
