MacLean & MacLean were a Canadian musical comedy duo. They performed regularly in Canada between 1972 and 1998 and recorded seven albums. The duo consisted of brothers Gary MacLean (1944–2001) and Blair MacLean (1942–2008). The MacLeans were originally from

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Glace Bay (Scottish Gaelic: ''Glasbaidh'') is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton. Formerly an incorporated ...

, but were later based in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

. MacLean & MacLean were best known for their often

scatological In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (nutrition), diet (and thus habitat (ecology), where ...

humour, which was combined with (usually humorous) renditions of folk and popular songs, with Blair playing guitar and Gary playing banjo and bongo drums. The duo began performing in 1972 and during their career played the

Commodore Ballroom Commodore Ballroom is a music venue, dance floor and nightclub located on 800 block of Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is regarded as Canada's most influential nightclub, and one of North America's best live music venues. Th ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, the 1983 Just for Laughs festival in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, and the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. In 1974 the pair were asked to leave a tour because of the offensive content of their show.

Recordings

An early mention of the group appears in the spoken introduction to "Glace Bay Blues" by

Donnie McDougall The Guess Who was a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. The band found their greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the leadership of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, with ...

The Guess Who The Guess Who was a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. The band found their greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the leadership of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, wit ...

on their 1972 album, ''Live at the Paramount'', in which he explains the song was co-written with "MacLean MacLean" (they had not included the word "and" in the name of their act in their early days). Despite the spoken credit, the original album only credited McDougall as the writer. This was corrected in a recent re-issue which lists the composers as MacLean, MacLean, and McDougall. During their career, they recorded seven albums including a mixture of live and studio recordings. Among their best known (and most infamous) recordings were "I've Seen Pubic Hair" (based upon the well-known "

I've Been Everywhere Ive or IVE may refer to: Music * Ive (group), a South Korean girl group * I've Sound (aka "I've"), a Japanese musical group People * Ive (given name), a Croatian and Slovenian given name * Bert Ive (1875–1939), British-born Australian cinema ...

") and an original song, "

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

's Tits", which made the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

music charts after it was used as the theme music for a British TV show called '' O.T.T.''. Their first album was a live recording titled ''Toilet Rock'', produced by

Skip Prokop Ronald Harry "Skip" Prokop (December 13, 1943 – August 30, 2017) was a Canadian drummer, guitarist and keyboardist. He was also a band leader, was a founding member of the Canadian rock music groups the Paupers and Lighthouse. Early life Pro ...

Lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

Burton Cummings Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is best known for leading the Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career. Cummings has been induc ...

of the Guess Who appears on and produced the studio portions of their second album, ''Bitter Reality'', although his management tried unsuccessfully to have his contribution (singing two short "dirty" songs) removed, fearing it would be harmful to his career. This challenge caused the album's release to be delayed by several months, by which time the controversy had been widely reported by the media, and the track had been "leaked" to a Toronto radio station which played it on a weekly show featuring comedy records, making the attempted removal a futile effort, and the album was released with Cummings' contributions intact. Jack Richardson, the producer of the Guess Who's albums, produced the live portions of this album. Controversial for their use of strong language, at one point they had to appeal for the right to perform at the level of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. The title of their album ''Locked Up for Laughs'' refers to an incident when they were actually put in jail in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

, after a charge of public indecency at a live performance. Their theme song was a rendition of "

Ja-Da "Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!)" is a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton. The title is sometimes rendered simply as "Jada." The song has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard. In his definitive ''American Popular So ...

" retitled "Fuck Ya", and it appeared on all of their albums in one form or another. It was often used as a closing to their live shows, following a "mutual heckling" routine in which the audience and performers jokingly shouted abuse at each other; the song would then be performed as a "sing-along" with the audience. The back cover of ''Toilet Rock'' claims this song (the altered version) was written by Burton Cummings, although later albums credit it to the MacLeans. The cover also claims, "we all wrote 'Lickin' My Dick'", but it's not clear whether "all" is meant to include Cummings and/or Prokop; the song in question is heard as a brief warm-up before the proper start of the performance, with Blair MacLean announcing (perhaps as a direction to the editor), "That's not going to be on the album!"

Later years

In the 1980s the MacLeans created a character called "The Champ". This character was licensed to, and further developed by, radio personality "Brother" Jake Edwards. Edwards performed a daily two-minute Champ monologue for syndication to radio stations in Canada for 20 years, the longest running feature of this type in Canadian history.The Champ website
/ref> A sample of the MacLeans' version of the Champ can be found on ''Cruel Cuts'', but it was Edwards who gave the character his distinctive gruff voice. Edwards also released four CDs of selected Champ monologues, and a fifth Champ CD described as being "a little more risque than the radio program". The duo toured on and off for nearly three decades. In later years, they worked in radio. Gary MacLean became a radio personality in Winnipeg, while Blair took up a new profession as a landscape painter. The duo performed for the last time not long before Gary MacLean died of

throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...

in 2001. Following Gary's death, Blair MacLean privately released a CD entitled ''Live'', a recording of a 1996 performance in

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan Moose Jaw is the List of cities in Saskatchewan, fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina, Saskatchewan, Re ...

, to raise money for a trust fund for his brother's children. Blair MacLean died on 29 October 2008 at age 65 due to a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

The Maclean Brothers

All three of Gary's sons work in the music end of show business under the band name The MacLean Brothers fronted by singer/songwriter Michael Vermeylen out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In early 2010, they played a successful one-month tour of South Korea."Sorry, Granny: Sometimes, comedy is all about the dirty talk"
''Winnipeg Free Press'', Maureen Scurfield / The Insider. 17 September 2010 (subscription required)

Discography

* ''Toilet Rock'' (1974, live at the Chimney, Toronto) * ''Bitter Reality'' (1976, mixture of studio, and live at the Chimney, Toronto) * ''MacLean & MacLean Suck Their Way to the Top / MacLean & MacLean Take the "O" Out of Country'' (1980, split album: side 1 is live at the

El Mocambo El Mocambo is a live music and entertainment venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the venue has played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since 1948. It is bes ...

, Toronto; side 2 is a studio recording simulating a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

radio broadcast) * ''Locked Up for Laughs'' (1981, studio recording) * ''Go to Hell'' (1983, studio recording, title can also be read as ''MacLean & MacLean Go to Hell'') * ''Cruel Cuts'' (1985, studio recording) * ''The Dirty Thirty'' (1989, compilation) * ''2 in 1'' (1992, re-issue of first and second albums on one CD; omits some tracks to make it fit) * ''2 in 1'' (1992, re-issue of third and fourth albums on one CD) * ''Live'' (2003, live at Watts,

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the List of cities in Saskatchewan, fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina, Saskatchewan, Re ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, 1996)

References

External links

Blair MacLean's official MacLean & MacLean website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean And Maclean Musical groups established in 1972 Musical groups disestablished in 1998 Musical groups from Winnipeg Canadian comedy musical groups Canadian comedy duos 1972 establishments in Manitoba 1998 disestablishments in Canada Comedians from Winnipeg