John Wyker
| Motorcycle Mama | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Studio album by Sailcat | |
| Released | May 1972 |
| Recorded | Between October 1971 and February 1972 Widget Recordings Muscle Shoals, Alabama |
| Genre |
Southern rock Country blues |
| Producer | Pete Carr |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Billboard | favorable |
Sailcat was an American rock band that was signed with Elektra Records in the early 1970s and best known for the hit song "Motorcycle Mama".
The band, an early Southern Pop/Rock setup, was the innovation of John Wyker and Court Pickett, who formed the group in 1971 near Decatur, Alabama. Wyker was a veteran of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama rock music scene who had been in The Rubber Band with John Townsend (later of the Sanford-Townsend Band). Pickett was the vocalist and bass player from Tuscaloosa, Alabama who had just moved from Macon, Georgia, where he had been playing and singing for Sundown, a band that also had Chuck Leavell (formerly of the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers), Charlie Hayward (of the Charlie Daniels Band), and Lou Mullenix (from the Alex Taylor Band and Dr. John). Court was also the brother of Ed Pickett, of the The Rubber Band.
An early demo tape of an album, cut by the duo (and included the song "Motorcycle Mama"), was initially discarded by the band but after it was presented to Elektra Records led to a record contract and 1972 album release also titled Motorcycle Mama. The resulting album, produced by Pete Carr, was a concept album with a biker theme, about a motorcycle riding drifter in the Easy Rider vein who tires of life on the road and falls in love with a young woman. The cover art and drawings inside the gatefold cover were drawn by Jack Davis, featuring motorcycles, predominately the Harley-Davidson with a series of drawings for each song on the album. The concept album's songs loosely tell the story of a motorcycle vagrant who apparently bums for a living, meeting a woman and settling down to start a family. However, he apparently keeps some of his selfish lazy behavior as the last drawing shows him reclining on his porch while his wife hangs the laundry and his child hoes the garden. In 1972 the single "Motorcycle Mama" hit #12 on the Billboard singles chart, and the album went to #38 and led them to appearances on American Bandstand and at Carnegie Hall. John D. Wyker and Sailcat performed both "Motorcycle Mama" and "Walking Together Backwards" on their first televised appearance on August 26, 1972. Sailcat toured to promote the album and released one more non-LP single "Baby Ruth". However, soon after releasing the album, the band broke up. (The album was officially re-released on CD in 2004.)
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