Peel favoured gritty, rough and bluesy 45
Despite his brief appearance on the international underground scene in 1968, Rabbit Mackay is something of an engima. John Peel was moved enough by his LP "Bug Dust" to write in International Times that "in these days of very clinical recordings it is good to hear something that radiates happiness like this", and he was keen enough on this single to play it on his Top Gear show.
Across the Atlantic in Ventura County where he lived, Mackay's dirty, scruffy, bluesy folk rock tunes were impressing a number of heads at local venues, colleges and coffee houses and to a more limited extent, across the choosier, hippy friendly venues of the USA. His activity appeared to give Uni Records the incentive to issue a second LP, the perhaps unintentionally appropriately titled "Passing Through" in 1969.
Then? Nothing. Not a sausage. Another track of his appeared on a charity compilation entitled "La Conchita... Remember" in 2005, which would suggest he had continued performing throughout the intervening years - or perhaps had made an unlikely comeback - but sadly he died on 10th August 2017 without making any additional marks on record store racks.
Both sides of this single are rough and ready. It's sandpaper harsh material which isn't progressive, psychedelic or dreamy, instead choosing to bang and scrape its way through to your life with lo-fi force. It's not surprising John Peel liked it. He always had a taste for the home-made and authentic. It's also not surprising, though, that it didn't sell more widely. Stuff like this is an acquired taste, and the files below will probably repel as many people as they attract.
1 comment:
Put me in the repel category.
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