A Dorset songwriter is celebrating the ‘miracle’ release of a new album on 4 April – more than 50 years after it was recorded.
Mr Super Cool is the long lost 1973 album by Graham Dee, an unsung hero and fixture of the 1960s London session scene, as well as a prolific songwriter and producer.
“I thought only a couple of tracks had survived on a battered old acetate disc that was made at the time – but by some miracle we now have the entire album,” says the 82-year-old musician who lives in Bere Regis.
Graham has been enjoying a 21st century career reboot after signing to Acid Jazz Records for the 2011 release of The Graham Dee Connection: The 60s Collection and its follow up Carnaby Street Soul & West Coast Vibes in 2020. Both collate recordings made during the 1960s and 1970s, mostly from his time as an in-house producer for Atlantic Records in the UK.
He made other recordings as well before relocating to the United States, where he combined successful songwriting sessions with Prince Phillip Mitchell and work at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound studio in Alabama, moonlighted with The Allman Brothers Band, and even spent time as a snake wrangler!
With his record label eager to release more archive recordings Graham shared the acetate of side one of an album he had recorded in 1973.
“The master was in a state and, at best, only two tracks would be salvageable,” explains Acid Jazz boss Eddie Piller.
“This is where events took a weird turn…”
Around the same time, Piller was contacted by a record collector after coming into possession of 15 master tapes in a house which had once belonged to the songwriter Gerry Shury, whohad worked with the likes of The Bee Gees, Barry Blue, Lynsey De Paul, The Rubettes and Graham Dee whose name appeared on some of the tapes. Only a few of the tapes were good enough to be digitised.
“Remarkably, what came back were both sides of Graham’s original lost album!” adds Eddie.
“It sounds like some long lost film soundtrack. Highly evocative of its time, it offers a fascinating insight into early 70s record-making and is a reminder of Graham’s unique talent, and the joys of serendipity.”
Graham had recorded the album, titled Mr Super Cool, in 1973 at Sarm Studios in East London. It featured the talents of guitarist Colin Pincott (Eric Burdon, Joan Armatrading), bassist Phil Chen (Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart), and drummers Barry de Souza (Lou Reed, Labi Siffre, Kate Bush) and Henry Spinetti (Bob Dylan, George Harrison).
“I could hardly believe it, hearing those songs again after all this time has been such a thrill,” says Graham. “I’ve always felt very at home in the countryside, especially now in Dorset where I live pretty quietly these days with my friends in the village, but this blast from the past reminds me of another life.”
Graham Dee was a prominent guitarist for hire throughout the 1960s, moving alongside the likes Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck with his skills as a session player. After beginning his career playing on the Small Faces’ first single, stints followed playing for John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Jerry Butler, Them, The Walker Brothers and Carl Perkins. He filled in for Syd Barrett in the early Pink Floyd, appeared on TV with The Rolling Stones, and played in front of The Beatles as part of the Bobcats, the house band at famed 60s night spot the Scotch of St James.
Listen to the title track:
