Patto - Monkey's Bum (1973)

A self-requested re-up. Actually, there was a long time I wanted to improve the sound of this overlooked gem that was refused by Muff Winwood, the then boss of Island. Couldn't reach the standards of an officially released LP but it's much better (for me) than the version (bootlegged) released on various labels to this day, and that I had posted initially. Such a misery nobody has ever released the master of this album. There's surely a reason but I don't know which one. Meanwhile, you can catch this slightly better one here to have a taste of what great album it could have been. I changed the previous cover sleeve I had done (rather ugly) for this much better one. After all, this blog is better and better as I'm getting old. And I forgot to say to fuck off to the shitload that wrote the first comment but this omission is now repaired.

Like Jack Bruce's Jet Set Jewel (here), this album is one of these great LPs refused by their label, here not by RSO but by Island, a label that benefits from a good reputation but which was able to reject such a great record on the simple basis that progressive was out (but the music here is certainly not progressive, they must had glue in their ears) and because Ollie Halsall quitted the band during the sessions (it's true the guitarist was an important piece of the puzzle but Mike Patto shows here that he was competent enough to take the band in charge, composing all alone 4 songs) and they did not want to release an album without a tour featuring the guitarist that played on it. Many say that this album was rather good with some excellent songs on it. I consider it is great and as a whole, would have been the best thing Patto would have released. On the songs recorded after Ollie Halsall left, Mel Collins played sax and it's a perfect alchemy with Mike Patto voice. Unfortunately, contrary to Jet Set Jewel, no official release with the original studio sound has been done (shame on Island) and all we got is a rather crappy sound, but songs are so good I listen to it quite often actually, one of the rare albums I accept to hear in these conditions. There were 2 unofficial versions, one on Audio Archives and one on Akarma (I included the back cover in the rar file so you can have the song titles) but both are bad either. I decided to do another sleeve since the 2 of these releases are rather arbitrary. I illustrated the title, which is not really about the butt of monkeys but about a chess strategy, the reason why I took this chess game showing I hope, the famous Monkey's Bum disposition (although it's a strategy, so no fixed image can illustrate it). In hommage of this great band, don't hesitate to dl it, hoping someone at Island one day will have the courage to release it in respectful form. "Pick Up The Phone", an unusual Patto song, has a superb Kinks flavour (Preservation era) and would have deserved to be a hit.