Noel Harrison

The Windmills of Your Mind.com 

Mount Hanley Song (1979)

LP only.

If any Noel Harrison record was to be rated a 'lost classic' it would be Mount Hanley Song.

After leaving Hollywood and moving to Canada, Noel hung out with some of the country's best musicians and put together this gem of a record 10 years after The Great Electric Experiment is Over had been released.

In a change to his previous records, the majority of the songs were written by Noel himself, with only three of the 11 tracks being covers.

Stand-out tracks are Wild Child and Southward Bound, which were both written by Harrison and rank among some of the best he has ever recorded.

Another great song, and still a live favourite until his death, The Middleton Fire Brigade, is a humorous song which, strangely, tells the story of Noel's house catching fire.

Other tracks, including Spread it Around, Love Don't Come Easy, Do What You Do and Lilly also rank among some of his best songs and while the beautiful title track may only be short, it is another classic.

Track list:


Middleton Fire Brigade

Love Don't Come Easy

Wild Child (listen)

Down on the Farm

Do What You Do

Lilly

Southward Bound (listen)

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo

Spread it Around

Buy Something Pretty For Margaret

Mount Hanley Song

Sleeve Notes:


The Musicians

Noel Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica

Mendelson Joe: acoustic guitar, celeste and harmonica

Jerome Jarvis: drums and percussion

David Woodhead: bass and percussion

Michael Heydon electric guitar

Mark Rutherford: piano and flute

Ben Mink: violin

Kimberley Deschamps: steel and dobro guitars

Melody LeBlanc: Background vocals

The Great Guido Basso: trumpet and flugelhorn

This album was engineered by Ken Friesen at Eastern Sound and mastered by Mr Cub at JAMF

Cover painting and design by Mendelson Joe

Thankyou To: Margaret, Rex, David, Liz, Jay, Andre, Larry, Brent and ultimately this record is dedicated to The Middleton Nova Scotia Volunteer Fire Department.

Produced

by

Mendelson Joe

Single:

To help promote the album, Posterity Records released the single Spread it Around, with Do What You Do as the B-side in 1979.


Makem and Clancy


In 1977, Noel appeared twice on the WENH-TV show Makem and Clancy, hosted by legendary Irish folk musicians Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy. 


He performed five tracks from Mount Hanley Song - Middleton Fire Brigade, Wild Child, Down on the Farm, Lilly and Southward Bound.


The recordings from the Makem and Clancy programme are the only footage in the public domain of Noel performing tracks from Mount Hanley Song on television.


Tapes of the full shows were published on YouTube by the Ward Irish Music Archives in 2023 after they restored the original footage.


Noel did perform other tracks from Mount Hanley Song on a number of other programmes in Canada at the time.


Recordings of Noel performing live versions of Do What You Do, Spread it Around, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo and the beautiful title track from Mount Hanley Song are known to exist in the CBS archives, but sadly they have not been made public.


For more videos from the Makem and Clancy show, go to its dedicated page.

Watch:

Watch Noel sing Middleton Fire Brigade live at East Budleigh, Devon in 2008.