Kevin Ayers

Did it quick and split"

- 'Guts', John Cale

Ayers has a very English persona, but he has usually found inspiration from beautiful foreign locations. The songs on "Joy of a Toy" were written on acoustic guitar when he was living in Ibiza. At that time the island was a true hippy paradise because it had no electricity supply.

Perhaps Ayers' reputation suffered in the punk era because he had a reputation as a dandy who was forever travelling around exotic locales. In contrast, Robert Wyatt became an austere Marxist and so managed to fit in during the egalitarian post-punk era.

Kevin left the softs originally because they were becoming too experimental and un-song orientated... Strangely his second album "Shouting At The Moon" has some of the most experimental cutup music i've ever heard... More Nurse With Wound than Nurse With Wound.

His output dropped in quality towards the late seventies, but everything up to "Dr Dream" is worth a listen... Especially recommended is the vinyl only comp "Odd-Ditties"....

Part of the problem with his music is that stylistically, it is wildly inconsistent. The next song on a classic period (1969-74) Ayers album is equally likely to be:

- a gently strummed pastoral acoustic thing - chugging soft-rock with a catchy tune - a whimsical comedy song with an old fashioned, almost music hall influence - heavy duty, scary, menacing avant garde rock which sounds like nothing else on the planet - subversive MOR, again with a faintly menacing undertow - a big orchestral production number, scored by David Bedford - an unashamedly romantic classic love song - none of the above

At any point during any of the above, Ayers might intone the word “banana”, for no apparent reason.

It is this very inconsistency – commercial suicide undoubtedly – which formed a major part of his appeal. The sense that Ayers always did whatever he damn well pleased, and that whatever genre he tried next, he would do it superbly well. He always gave the impression that living the life of a bon viveur was far more important to him than shifting units, and as a lazy layabout myself, I liked that a lot.

It’s difficult to recommed a single Ayers album. I’d narrow it down to three: Joy Of A Toy, Whatevershebringswesing, Bananamour. Plus, as has been said earlier, the vinyl-only Odd Ditties.

He nearly had a hit with “Caribbean Moon” in 1973 – it was played to death on Radio One that summer – and he also picked up airplay with the less impressive “Money Money Money” in 1980. There was also a major push to make him a star in 1976 – he was being managed by John Reid (Elton John’s manager), and the accompanying album “Yes We Have No Mananas – So Get Your Mananas Today” was his most commercial effort. Unfortunately, that also made it less interesting than its predecessors. His albums from then on are only of interest to the diehards looking for the last remaining nuggets of his squandered talent.

His influence is not great, but you can definitely hear a lot of Ayers in the work of Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. He has also been quoted as an influence by Ultramarine, who sample him on their classic debut “Every Man And Woman Is A Star”. Ultramarine also released a cover version of “Hymn” (from Bananamour) as a single in 1996, with no less a figure than David McAlmont on vocals. It deserved to be massive, but it bombed.

If you’re looking to acquire Ayers tracks through “other means”, than this would be my personal top 10 for newcomers:

Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes Town Feeling Shouting In A Bucket Blues Hymn May I? Song From The Bottom Of A Well Everybody’s Sometime And Some People’s All The Time Blues Decadence Song For Insane Times Whatevershebringswesing

Just got a pay rise so I reckon I'll get both!

Based on early Soft Machine stuff, I just can't figure out the appeal of this guy. On to the solo albums, I guess.

love love love Shooting at the Moon

Whatevershebringswesing is a great place to start... A bit of everything on there..

OTM w Whatevershebringswesing. Definitely his best solo stuff. Has spooky glam tints to it, sort of reminds of a British Lou Reed at points, esp ""Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes". The opening track is really amazing and strange.

Also aside from having one of the coolest album covers ever, The Confessions of Dr Dream is up there as well:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/ConfessionsOfDoctorDream.jpg

Ramped up the glam/blue-eyed soul on tracks like "Day By Day". Really definitive trippy long version of "Why Are We Sleeping" as well.

the unfairground, his latest album (besides what more can i say), is so slept on. everybody's on it -- wyatt, hugh hopper, guys from teenage fanclub and gorky's. . . .

the unfairground, his latest album (besides what more can i say), is so slept on. everybody's on it -- wyatt, hugh hopper, guys from teenage fanclub and gorky's

Just picked this up - this turned out to be my gateway into Kevin's work after a friend played it for me. Also got the "Songs For Insane Times" box and feel like I'm pretty much set. Fantastic stuff that feels like my own little secret, even amongst my music-literate friends for some reason.

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY ARE WE SLEEPING

And everyone sung a chorus of I am the walrus
Yes disneyland has come to town
Everyone's dressed and standing around
Alice is wearing her sexiest gown
But she doesn't want you to look at her

'Song For Insane Times' is my favorite KA song. Any new unreleased old material on the box set?

No - the box's purpose is to cull the wheat from the chaff, and as far as I can tell it does so excellently. I don't mind losing the jazz odyssey noodly jams and focusing on the prog-pop goodness as well as rescuing the best cuts from the weaker albums. It's consistently great and the live set is terrific as well.

There is zero chaff on Joy Of A Toy btw so you might want that to with the box set!

Pretty nice track list on that box though! Is the booklet substantial?

The booklet is alright - it gives source info for each track and a nice essay about Kevin's long strange trip through the 70s but I would've liked something more.

baNAna

Haha just experienced that song this morning

Finishing side two of Joy of a Toy right now. It really is outstanding, seems like its been a really long time since I've listened to it.

I listened to Shooting At The Moon and Odd Ditties just the other day!

I need Shooting At The Moon on vinyl, very badly. Love that album.

There's a pretty great live album out there somewhere, with Nico singing "The Oyster and the Flying Fish" with him.

It's the "Colours of the Day" bootleg. May not really be Nico but a Nico soundalike.

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2008/04/kevin-ayers-and-whole-world-colours-of.html

One of the really old John Peel shows on the PeelWiki (1971 or 1970) is really good quality, and has a Kevin Ayers session and is very recommended.

Hmm, this could be the Feb 10th 1970 session, that's also on Spotify: Clarence In Wonderland / Stop This Train / Why Are We Sleeping / Hat Song.

There's also an Alan Black R1 session from May 20th 1970, and another Top Gear session on June 9 1970: Derby Day / Interview / We Did It Again / Murder In The Air.

Actually, Spotify had loads of BBC session / in concert stuff from Ayers. I pulled it all into a playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/miketd/playlist/0lXOjJ0Cz6UUFbZTgSy98Q

The 1973 live set that surfaced on the Songs For Insane Times anthology is particularly fine.

I think it's the same one that has a session from Son House.

See, it didn't all start with New Rose!

Heh, my Peel listening actually started with a special show devoted to Rick Wakeman's No Earthly Connection!

Mine started with a featured play of Elaine Renault's album "Renault"

It took the invention of the internet and ebay for me to finally track a copy down, mainly because it/he's actually called "Alain Renaud"

(The featured track was a side-long piece called "Back and In", thankfully I remembered that otherwise I'd have never found it)

I picked up this nifty 2CD set of (all?) his BBC sessions: http://www.amazon.com/BBC-Sessions-1970-1976-Kevin-Ayers/dp/B000BDF0DS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1350521075&sr=1-1&keywords=kevin+ayers+sessions

Some really classic versions on there! "You Say You Like My Hat" is particularly loopy.

yeah I was gonna mention that, a pretty cool overview although there is a lot of track repetition. some CRAZY versions of "We Did It Again".

Particularly feeling 'Lunatic's Lament' this fine bone-tired Thursday.

UH! ROCKNROLL! URNK! NASTY!

xxpost re: Nico; probably Bridget St. John

http://eggcityradio.com/2010/kevin-ayers-3/

I think Kevin Ayers died, heard it on FB, and I am despondent

Kevin Ayers C/D - RIP Feb. 20th, 2013

listening to title track of That's What You Get Babe on youtube and i dig it and realize i have never listened to his 80s albums at all. sorry, kevin!

Even as a die hard fan, I can’t recommend Diamond Jack, Deia Vu or As Close As You Think; they are bad, bad records. Falling Up is a lot better though, and about to get a proper reissue.

"Blaming It All On Love" from his 1978 album Rainbow Takeaway has the pathos of a cozy BBC afternoon theme song. It's a sad song whose anodyne arrangement makes it even sadder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4eAv7ivU14

cozy BBC afternoon theme song

lol otm

Great minds...

Two songs I like a lot but they are totally like music from a crap sitcom, even the titles sound like sitcoms:

Kevin Ayers - Blaming It All On Love
Think Wendy Craig, Richard Briers, Geoffrey Palmer, Esmonde & Larbey etc. Think quietistic, late 70s, middle class suburbia, twitching curtains, everyone calling each other "darling" etc.

The Raspberries - Starting Over
... a Mary Tyler Moore production

― Ol' Dirty Dadaismus (Dada),Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:09 (fifteen years ago) link

If anyone fancies putting together a playlist of the best post-Dr-Dream stuff, I would be very grateful!

You can pull it off of disc 3 from the "Songs For Insane Times" comp, it covers the next 5 LPs after "Dr. Dream" and flows pretty well together.

1970s Brit romcom pop is a genre I can get behind. Would cover most of Peter Skellern, Gilbert O Sullivan, Lyndsay de Paul and some Victoria Wood. If only someone had written lyrics to the Shelley theme tune.

(xp) Doesn't have the title track from "Sweet Deceiver" I notice.

OK, this would be my chronological playlist. Bear in mind that Diamond Jack, Falling Up and Still Life With Guitar aren't on UK Spotify.

1. Observations
2. Diminished But Not Finished
3. Circular Letter
4. Farewell Again (Another Dawn)
5. Star
6. Ballad Of Mr Snake
7. Yes I Do
8. Blue
9. Blaming It All On Love
10. Ballad Of A Salesman Who Sold Himself
11. A View From The Mountain
12. Where Do The Stars End
13. Champagne And Valium (Deia Vu version)
14. That's What We Did (Today)
15. Am I Really Marcel?
16. Thank You Very Much (Still Life With Guitar version)
17. I Don't Depend On You
...plus the whole of The Unfairground.

Oh, and also the re-recording of "Hymn" that he did with Ultramarine in 1996.

Kevin Ayers - Blaming It All On Love
Think Wendy Craig, Richard Briers, Geoffrey Palmer, Esmonde & Larbey etc. Think quietistic, late 70s, middle class suburbia, twitching curtains, everyone calling each other "darling" etc.

this is absolutely spot on, to the letter.

The Raspberries - Starting Over
... a Mary Tyler Moore production

i don't hear it :)

"Starting Over" is totally a sitcom theme, even the way it ends is perfect!

I could def hear it as a sitcom theme, not hearing the MTM Production part tbc

Ignore the MTM bit, I only really know "Rhoda" tbh.

Heh, I wanna say it's more of a David Angell vibe but that's not quite right either & prob just be down to its passing resemblance to the Cheers theme.

This guy's Youtube channel has some really interesting stuff which apparently filmed for the Inner London Education Authority(!) - Soft Machine, Roy Harper, Third Ear Band, Matching Mole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLiEw56Tk8Y

Oho, thanks for that. More here over the years: Kevin Ayers C/D - RIP Feb. 20th, 2013

One of the (many) high points of _Bananamour_.