Bubbling Under: Jackie Lomax

The Cavern Club in Liverpool launched the careers of many Liverpool-born artists. (Getty Images/Paul Barker/AFP)

Each week, Billboard magazine’s “Bubbling Under” chart features singles that rank below its famous Hot 100 chart. Some of rock’s most noteworthy performers have appeared on this chart, and each weekend we spotlight one of them.

Growing up in Liverpool along with the Beatles, singer Jackie Lomax eventually took the same Liverpool-to-Hamburg ride they did. Lomax and his band were popular in the north of England through the mid-1960s. When the Beatles were looking for artists to record on their new Apple label, they brought Lomax aboard. What happened next should have made him a star. Somehow, it did not.

At a session in early 1968, George Harrison brought some friends along to play behind Lomax: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, and Nicky Hopkins. The superstar band cut a single, with “Sour Milk Sea,” written by Harrison, on the A-side and “The Eagle Laughs at You,” a Lomax original, on the B-side. Further sessions with other backing musicians resulted in enough songs for an album, Is This What You Want?, which came out in 1969.

Both “Sour Milk Sea” and “The Eagle Laughs at You” appeared on Billboard‘s Bubbling Under singles chart without breaking into the Hot 100. “Sour Milk Sea” is OK, notable mostly for being the first recording of Harrison and Clapton together, done months before “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” (The Beatles did a version of it during the White Album sessions, but it was never officially released.) “The Eagle Laughs at You,” however, is insanely great. The guitars burn, a horn section cooks, and it’s a shame that it lasts only 2:27.

Later in 1968, McCartney produced a couple of unsuccessful singles for Lomax. He left Apple before ’69 was out, recorded on-and-off throughout the ’70s, and eventually landed in obscurity. He lives in California now, and he’s still playing.

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