As Billy Connolly used to say, sometimes my mind sees pictures, and since I heard this short guitar instrumental, which was recorded as a b-side to Wild Jimmy Spruill’s 1964 single*, Country Boy, I’ve been picturing forming an unlikely Terry and Gerry type duo.
In the red corner, Jimmy Spruill, session guitarist on hits like Wilbert Harrison’s version of Kansas City or the gorgeous original recording of Dedicated to the One I Love by The Shirelles.
In the blue corner, Jimmy Yuill, an actor perhaps best known for his appearances in the Cornwall set police series, Wycliffe, as well his work with Kenneth Branagh, both on stage, on screen and on soundtrack. You can hear an example of this latter talent on Branagh’s short film of Swan Song by Anton Chekhov.
Spruill and Yuill certainly trips off the tongue as a name, but how well their respective styles - cigar box guitar r & b/classical acoustic guitar - would have melded together remains open to debate. I suspect alternating solos would have been the way to go. Plus, Spruill’s death in 1996 means that bringing them together will only ever remain one of my pipe dreams.
This blog will feature more mentions about Jimmy Yuill when we reach 1997, given that I worked as an extra on that year’s series of Wycliffe and was in the background of a number of his scenes in various episodes.
It’ll also feature more tracks of Jimmy Spruill’s if Peel continues to pull out pearls like Scratchin’. Once you get past the first 15 seconds, which sound like the theme tune for an unfunny radio sitcom, we’re into a short, sharp r&b workout that must have thrilled the young Jimi Hendrix, who borrowed a number of Spruill’s visual motifs (playing the guitar behind his head or with his teeth) for himself. The bouncy central riff and brass backing put me in mind of Lonnie Mack’s Sa-Ba-Hoola, which came out the same year. Mack is more of a virtuoso than Spruill, based on the evidence of the two records, but when Spruill cuts loose between 1:04 and 1:19, it sounds as though his guitar has burst into flames.
*Vim, the label that issued the Country Boy single, credited him as Jimmy “Wildman” Spruill, but as this appears to be the only one of his records issued under that name, I’ve chosen to go with his more widely known monicker.
Video courtesy of avi botton.
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