WHO THE FUCK WAS PEARLY SPENCER?

Remember this?

THE DAYS OF PEARLY SPENCER

David McWilliams recorded this in 1967. It was quirky and the low tech. gave it a bit of mystery.

I didn't hear McWilliams' version until much later having heard The Avengers cover version in 1968. I remember community dances at Brooklyn when I was in the fifth form and The Avengers was one of the bands that played there. See: DANCING

THE AVENGERS - THE DAYS OF PEARLY SPENCER

I thought that this was an original song of theirs - how naive we all were in the pre-Google days.

The Avengers

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So, who the fuck was Pearly Spencer?

Wikipedia has some information on McWilliams and the song: HERE


Here's an except if you can't be arsed reading the Wikipedia link:

"The song had, according to Stuart Bailie of Radio Ulster, a "flickering, almost documentary style" in which it took listeners to the more run-down parts of Ballymena where people walked through rubble bare-foot looking old beyond their years. Due to the title of the song, many listeners believed that the song pertained to an individual harrowed by a poor lifestyle and poor-quality alcohol; McWilliams said he had written the song about a homeless man encountered in Ballymena. Some of those close to McWilliams, however, claimed he was writing about two ladies from his hometown."