The Human Menagerie is the debut studio album by Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1973. It was produced by Neil Harrison.
Background
After training as a journalist for three years, Steve Harley embarked on a musical career, which began with "floor spots" in London folk clubs in 1971. He also had a brief spell as rhythm guitarist and co-singer in the folk band Odin, where he met future Cockney Rebel violinist Jean-Paul Crocker. It was during this time that Harley began writing his own songs, including those which were recorded for The Human Menagerie. Most were penned while Harley was on the dole after leaving his career in journalism. He began busking with his songs in London in 1972, including at Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Leicester Square and Covent Garden. The busking allowed Harley to test his songs on an audience and to supplement his income from benefits.
Harley's time in Odin made him realise he was not suited to the folk scene and, as a vehicle for his own songs, he decided to form his own band, Cockney Rebel, in 1972. With Crocker on violin, the pair advertised for and auditioned drummer Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys, and guitarist Nick Jones. One of the band's first gigs was at The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London, on 23 July 1972 supporting The Jeff Beck Group. Jones was soon replaced by Pete Newnham, but Harley subsequently felt the band did not need an electric guitar, particularly after the addition of keyboardist Milton Reame-James. Therefore, the band settled on the combination of Crocker's electric violin and the Fender Rhodes piano of Reame-James.
During 1972, representatives of the band began sending demo tapes to various labels. Mickie Most discovered the band at London nightclub The Speakeasy Club and offered them their first contract with his RAK Publishing. In turn, this drew the attention of the A&R personnel at EMI Records, who then offered the band a three album contract in late 1972. They signed to EMI after having only played five gigs together.
Recording
Cockney Rebel recorded their debut album in June and July 1973 at Air Studios in London, which at the time was located in Oxford Street above a department store. EMI hired their staff producer and A&R man Neil Harrison as the album's producer and Geoff Emerick as the engineer. In 2012, Harley recalled of his experience recording the album, "The news that our engineer would be the nigh-immortal Geoff Emerick brought wide-eyed excitement to those of us who knew details of Beatles' albums' sleeve notes. Neil Harrison was himself fearless as he allowed my imagination to run loose."
It was at Harrison's suggestion that two tracks, "Sebastian" and "Death Trip", should feature a large symphony orchestra and choir. Harley agreed, and Harrison was then successful in obtaining a bigger budget from EMI to accommodate the use of a 50-piece orchestra. Andrew Powell was hired to compose and take charge of the orchestral arrangements. In 2004, Harley recalled,
Harley added in 2012, "Such a budget for a new signing is pretty close to unthinkable today. I'm still not sure how Neil persuaded the money-men to sign such crazy big cheques, but his nous and his charm helped turn those big tracks into epics and I'll forever be in his debt for that."
Speaking to Music Scene in June 1974, Elliott felt the band were "too inexperienced" when they recorded the album. Crocker was critical of the album's production and stated, "I didn't like the first album at all. A couple of tracks on it were okay, but on the rest of it the production lets us down badly. The band was struggling to get along with the producer all the time and we just didn't seem to get anywhere. So in the end we turned out an album that everybody liked, but which the band didn't. There was nothing wrong with it musically, it's just that the ideas that were there weren't coming out properly. It was very light and sterile, and a bit frigid." Crocker expressed the view that the band wanted the album to be "heavier than it was" and added that instead they "sounded like a bleedin' folk group most of the time". He also complained about the orchestra used on some of the tracks, "The orchestra we used mucked it up as well. I've only played violin for about three years, but I was quite a bit better than a lot of those blokes, and they've been playing donkeys years. They had the technical ability, but they had no feel."