Another band who deserve to remain obscure ...The 60’s were kind to some bands, and equally as unkind to others, yet when viewing the larger picture, bands who were able to make the cut were bands who were destined to do nothing else but move relentlessly forward. Sadly, or perhaps not so, McKenna Mendelson Mainline were given all of the opportunities to achieve success, and despite having success nearly thrust upon them, they seemed dead set on achieving nothing. During the visionary summer of ’68, this bump and grind blues outfit made their way to the U.K., Holland, and even Australia, where their live shows were hits, even filling in for the Jimi Hendrix’s Experience who’d just returned to the States, at the prestigious Utecht Pop Festival. And if that weren’t enough, they were playing the same circuits and venues as Rory Gallagher [whose vocals highly impressed them, nearly ripping off Rory’s vocals note for note, just listen to the song “Mainline”], the newly formed Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart and the original Fleetwood Mac … often opening for all of these groups to huge applause and adulation.All of this led to the band being signed by the Liberty Records / United Artists label, and released their second album Stink in 1969, with the single “You Better Watch Out” getting established airplay around the world, yet even with all this hobnobbing and interaction with other first rate musicians, all the band wanted to do was to leave the ‘happening’ center of the known world at the time [London] and return to Canada, where more successful singles were to follow, and with the attention of music critics, things were certainly looking up. Nevertheless, due to musical and visionary differences the band decided to dissolve just as the roller coaster was cresting the first peak … yes, some bands just need to see how fast they can implode themselves.The 60’s were different times, women were seen as sexual objects, and almost all of the songs on this outing reflect that bottom heavy baseline, promoting bump & grind music, with the album’s title itself, Stink, being a sexual reference for the afterglow of intercourse … the smell a woman leaves on a man, and it was no doubt this overt referencing that pledged McKenna Mendelson Mainline, as times were changing, and lyrical references required a more subtle phrasing hand. Even here, the band continued down a self destructive path, playing shows that where raunchier, more risqué, while laying waste to all decency laws that were held so dear by 'the establishment' during those days.Regardless, all members found work with other bands, some were notable such as Downchild, even the Guess Who and Rhinoceros, though nothing that featured any of the members, leaving them as the ‘might have beens’ that they had became.This was a well placed and well played band who were out of step with the changes that were happening around them, intent to keep on doing what they were doing, even if that meant that they’d never be more than has-been’s, merely footnotes in the history of blues rock n’ roll. But that’s not to say that Mainline didn’t have their charms, just consider “One Way Ticket,” an adventurous muscular rockin’ blues manifestation of the first degree, even if it had been directly stolen from “Rollin’ n’ Tumblin’” by Muddy Waters … but then, everyone was stealing from everyone in 1969. Though with that in mind, it was more than prophetic that the album should end with “T.B. Blues,” which is short for Toilet Bowl Blues, a description of their lives, which is followed by “Think I’m Losing My Marbles,” which pretty much must have defined how the band was feeling about themselves after tossing all to the winds.This is not a must have for you collection, it’s rather childish looking back, though reminiscent of a time when boundaries where being expanded, even if those explorations were rather sophomoric in nature … though, that being said, the album certainly fills in a timeline worthy of notation.Review by Jenell Kesler

This utterly ridiculous review does deserve at least one thing -- an award for creative fiction.1. The band went to England in December, 1968, not in the summer, "visionary" or otherwise. Australia didn't happen until 1971.2. We met Rory Gallagher in Toronto in 1973 and hadn't been aware of him prior to that. (After hearing him, we ripped off his vocals then got in our time machine and went back several years into the past to record our version. Oh wait. SMH.)3. We did not open for Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, or Fleetwood Mac, original or otherwise. We did open for Jeff Beck in Detroit when Rod was with him.4. Stink was the first released album. McKenna Mendelson Blues, although recorded before Stink, was a bootleg released subsequent to Stink's July 1969 release.5. The reviewer's statement that the band returned to Canada in spite of “Better Watch Out” (not "You Better Watch Out”) "getting established airplay around the world" (it got nothing of the sort) is fiction. McKenna returned to Toronto in June 1969 to attend to his wife, who was about to give birth. This *preceded* the release of the album.6. The title "Stink" was a reference to our music being a dirt-under-the-fingernails, gritty style. Although some of our output had sexual connotations, the title of the album wasn't one of them More fiction in the mind of the reviewer.7. T.B. Blues began Side 2; it did not "end" the album. (One wonders how a song that ends the album can be followed by another song. Another gem from our brain-dead reviewer.)8. There's a lot more, but why bother? Matthew 7:6 and all that...Vis-à-vis the credibility of the reviewer, I invite the reader to do two things: (1) listen to the album for him- or herself; and (2) google Jenell Kesler for various profiles of a self-absorbed twit who has accomplished nothing on her own.