Song Of The Day 9/8/2016: Mike McGear – “Norton” + “The Man Who Found God on the Moon”

This is another pick from that Rolling Stone article from last year where I got yesterday’s SOTD from. Mike McGear was actually Michael McCartney, and yes he was Paul’s little brother. If you believe, as I have come to believe over the last 15 years, that Paul was really the most experimental of the Beatles, hearing some of his sibling’s work might make you conclude that it ran in the family. Most of this assessment comes from McGear’s having been in The Scaffold, a ‘60s group that owed as much to Peter Cook & Dudley Moore as any band that might have been around them. Or more to John’s prose than Paul’s string arrangements. They were pretty great, and had the weirdest song on the smash boffo hit mixtape Sincerely Yours, Sunbrite.

After living out of all his most arch tendencies with the Scaffold and his bandmate Roger McGough, McGear struck out on his own in 1972 with the album Woman before finally doing the logistically sound thing of collaborating with his brother on the 1974 album McGear. Paul co-wrote most the songs with Mike and also contributed a couple from his solo satchel as well. For good measure McGear also throws in a Roxy Music cover. The backing band is, basically, Wings, including Linda on backup harmonies. Mike does his best to bring his off-kilter subject matter and delivery to Paul’s only slightly more traditional pop music. Sometimes the temperance is a bit awkward but it’s a pretty nice riot. “Norton” and “The Man Who Found God on the Moon” are, all things sorted out, the extremes of McGear’s artistic poles. Tell me if you find Linda.