In the Spring of 1973, the band headed back to the studios to record
their fourth album titled "Monkey's Bum". Muff wanted
the band to take a different approach on this record and promoted the
idea of emphasizing Mike's songs, which were more commercial and accessible than
the material on their previous albums. Their previous albums had
always focused on tracks written by Ollie or jointly by Ollie and
Mike. The idea of shifting the focus to Mike's material created
conflict between Ollie and the rest of the band. There was also
frustration due to the lack of success after years of trying hard.
During the sessions, Ollie refused to put a lot of creative effort
into some of the songs, particularly those written by Mike. Ollie
decided to quit the band and left an incomplete album in his wake.
Rather than throw in the towel, Patto decided to replace Ollie's less
inspired bits with sax solos from Mel Collins and completed the album.
Island, however, was not interested in releasing an album without a
band to tour and promote it.
John stated in a 1992 interview in the Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine
that it was only Patto album he wasn't happy with. The band had
lost the fun. "I liked some of it, but we were trying to
write songs - Patto thought he was Randy Newman."
Check out the May 5, 1973 Melody Maker
article to read Mike's thoughts about the album and the band breaking
up.
"Monkey's Bum" still has never been officially released,
which is a shame because there are some great songs on the
album. Indeed, the music is simpler, hinting at the type of music
that Mike and Ollie would play in Boxer a couple years later -- not a
lot of time signature changes or jazzy chord progressions. The
band plays well, of course, and there are some brilliant guitar moments from Ollie, proving
that he was there creatively for at least some of the the sessions. Mike
plays a lot more electric piano on this album.
An unofficial copy is relatively easy to pick up on CD from the Audio
Archives label. Surprisingly, they've even been seen on the racks in
certain major music stores in London. The quality is listenable,
but the source tapes used are rather poor -- songs are significantly distorted
and plagued with dropouts at times. You have been warned. By
the way, the artwork for the earliest copies of the CD was green instead
of black.
There has been talk for years of Muff Winwood putting together an
official release. Maybe there is some legality of ownership issue
holding things up (anybody know the scoop?). Hopefully it will
happen eventually.
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In
April 2002, Akarma (a division of Comet Records) released a 180 gram
vinyl edition of "Monkey's Bum" (Catalog # AK
201).