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The Scene
Scenes (from Another World) / You're In A Bad Way - 7"
B.T. Puppy - 1967
Michael Panontin
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'Scenes (from Another World)' is a criminally overlooked record, especially since it is one of the few Canadian productions of songwriter/producer/arranger Neil Sheppard.
Born Neil Ship, the precocious Montrealer started playing at Lou Black's Living Room just as he had entered his teens. He changed his name to Sheppard, mostly to get out from under the shadow of his father, a notorious club owner and "local legend" around town, and then made his way to New York City. By the age of fourteen, Sheppard had found work as a staff writer with Gil-Pincus Music at 1650 Broadway. And in 1963 he sang on his first record, putting one of his songs, the perky 'Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt', on the b-side.
Sheppard was a prolific writer, and the long list of artists who recorded his songs includes the Everly Brothers, Gene Pitney, Tony Orlando, the Cowsills, Tim Hardin and Long John Baldry, to name a few. He even gave one to his brother, Michael Ship, who was playing keyboards in a little-known group back home called the Scene. The group, which also included guitarist Barry Albert, bassist Danny Zimmerman and drummer Marty Simon, had yet to release a single, so Sheppard had them record a song of his called 'Scenes (from Another World)'.
'Scenes (from Another World)' is a delightfully dreamy slab of popsike, co-written, arranged and produced by Sheppard. It was issued on the Tokens' B.T. Puppy label in three countries: Canada, the US and Australia. Billboard first made mention of the record in its Oct. 21st, 1967 edition, even going so far as to call the Scene "a top Montreal group". By Dec. 2nd, it had inched its way up to #14 on RPM's Canadian Hits chart.
But Sheppard had other plans.
He was under contract with Polydor and had returned to Montreal with the intention of putting together a band to record his songs. With the same four, he rechristened the group Life (though Albert was later replaced on guitar by Jean-Pierre Lauzon). Sheppard supplied them with a song he had written after hours one night at the Winston Churchill pub called 'Hands on the Clock', and the five watched it shoot to an impressive #9 slot on Montreal's CFOX chart in the early summer of 1969. Life issued an entire album the following year (with Albert bailing halfway through the recording) and even did some touring. But when Lauzon and Simon were asked to join gospel rocker Mylon Lefevre for his Felix Pappalardi-produced Holy Smoke LP, it was an offer too good to refuse and Life broke up soon after.
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London
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