"I felt out of place. That group didn't have much musical merit and I thought it was crap": The oddball career of Kevin Ayers, quintessential English songwriter
The Soft Machine, not long after recording their first album and touring America, began breaking up -- just the first in a long series of personnel changes and subsequent new directions that formed one of art rock's winding sagas of the '70s. Kevin Ayers was the first to leave, mostly because of that American tour, and he soon became one of the first acts to release music on Harvest, a new progressive label from EMI that promised to offer the best and brightest in the new vanguard of British rock.
Ayers recorded and released five albums over the next five years, all of which appear on separate discs of The Harvest Years 1969-1974, and each of which comes with bonus tracks (most of them entertaining BBC sessions). Ayers was quite the chameleon during this time, beginning with a set of psychedelic-pop whimsy akin to Syd Barrett (Joy of a Toy) but soon detouring into free-form epic prog (Shooting at the Moon, with young hotshot guitarist Mike Oldfield), and later arriving at a surprisingly straight-ahead vision of bluesy pop (Bananamour).
The set offers the albums in the best sound they've ever been heard, and the bonus tracks are excellent as well. The unavoidable caveat comes, though. Why not include all the bonus tracks from previous editions, especially when they include a track actually recorded with Syd Barrett? (That would be "Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)," available on the 2003 Joy of a Toy reissue.) Quibbles aside, this is a hugely entertaining set from one of art rock's most beguiling figures.
Kevin Ayers and The Whole World "Clarence In Wonderland" Live -
1972 BBC RADIO 1 IN CONCERT
Well Guess I’m’s track wouldn’t play so here’s a live version and at twice the length!
THIS is my track of the Day! Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - Clarence in Wonderland(1970)
"I played this the other day and our budgie went nuts when she heard the bird noises at the beginning. That said, this is a very appealing bit of eccentricity.”
for
Guess I’m Dumb
well heck what d’ya want for nuffin’? A RUBBER BISCUIT!?
HERE! HAVE TWO!
Clarence In Wonderland from Kevin Ayers & The Whole World in the summer of 1970
and to make sense of Guess I’m’s comment about the birds driving his budgie nuts
Originally recorded in 1974 as the b-side of After the Show, this wonderful version was rerecorded in 1992 for Still Life With Guitar. While the original was very spare, this adds some tasteful and minimal instrumentation.
And the taste of your kiss I remember and miss But at least now I know What it’s like to have kissed you
A favourite song (and album) and with always a sneaky regard for Kevin for all that troubled time so long ago it seems now and the naughty boy of intellectual pop with the richest baritone is always worth a reminder ( ask John Cale for whom the opening line at least is pertinent of his legendary ‘Guts’ about whom it is written!)
And finally today Jeremiah (the Bullfrog!) over at HQ with The Voodoo Wagon has revisited some excellent and fascinating Kevin Ayers and The Whole World and a boot that has done the rounds for an age known as 'Colours of The Day' elsewhere but is well worth checking out again if you don't have it.
. So if you are in whimsical psychedelic mood ( who isn't?) then this is for you!
Live at Gemeendecentrum, Drijbergen, The Netherlands; July 30, 1970. Broadcast on VPRO Piknik radio and TV. Ex stereo broadcast.
As oddly disconcerting as any live Ayers experience ought to be, this live broadcast from 1970 catches the Whole Wide World at their most maddening, a collection of songs that veers deliberately between the whimsical and the obtuse, with little middle ground in between.
So a fractured “We Did It Again” rubs shoulders with a mystifyingly brief “Lady Rachel” (oddly dominated by a piping Stylophone), “The Hat Song” rattles manically alongside a disheveled “Clarence In Wonderland,” and “Why Are We Sleeping” spreads out over close to twelve minutes of sheer madness, including a lengthy snatch of Ayers doing his best impersonation of a kitschy nightclub balladeer.
The Dutch broadcasters themselves add to the chaos with barking dogs and snatches of speech, while the general air of lunacy is only heightened by some positively leviathan improvisations. “Clarence In Wonderland” is extended out over more than 13 minutes, via solos that all but become sound effects; “We Did It Again” touches the quarter of an hour mark, as it rides a grinding garage riff that makes Mick Farren’s “Mona” sound restrained; and “Colores Para Dolores” is essentially a Lol Coxhill showcase that really wants to burst into the theme from the Benny Hill Show.
So, all is as one would expect to find from a period Whole Wide World show.
- Dave Thompson
"Go on play The Oyster and The Flying Fish and have some fun!" me!
A great look at the work of Kevin Ayers (yes again!) and Urbanaspirines have revisited the reissue of his first two 'solo' albums Joy of A Toy from 1969 and 'Shooting At The Moon' (with The Whole World) Once again his notes are really worth a read and help the context of Kevin in the panoply of music makers with Eno, Cale, Nico to Soft Machine, Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill etc. The Whole World featured Mike Oldfield on bass (no less!) and the ubiquitous Lol Coxhill who played a lot around the free festivals I used to go to and we had him play MOMA under the auspices of Marco Livingstone (art expert curator, gallerists and actually a very fine musicologist who started out interviewing rock and pop people - not a lot of people know that - and they should - he introduced me to Nick Cave but I digress . . .) Coxhill played that time with perhaps one of the finest piano players I have ever witnessed ( I use the term accordingly) Veryan Weston (of Stinky Winkles - still my favourite name for a band! sic) Enjoy!
Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) was an English singer-songwriter who was active in
the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall,among others. . . . . . . . . .
By the late 90s Ayers had become something of a recluse He died in his sleep on 18 February 2013 in Montolieu, France, aged 68
A fascinating article review over at Aquarium Drunkard with links to the new book about Kevin Ayers and his songs lovingly researched and meticulously archived and documented by his daughter
Galen Ayers said: ‘It has taken me the best part of 5 years to get Kevin’s musical legacy in order, and this book is set to be the crown jewel of the estate… Editing and curating this book I revisited, remembered and clarified many ‘unsolved mysteries’ that were missing in my understanding of my father’s life-narrative, and this has proven both transformative and necessary.’
“He never felt the need to explain himself, so I guess he couldn’t be misunderstood. He had no real interest in what ‘others’ thought of him.”
Galen Ayers
Saturday, March 02, 2019
KEVIN AYERS
Over at the simply scintillating Voodoo Wagon there is really a treat from Thursday last and an update on the work of Kevin Ayers with three (3 count 'em!) sets, one classic from 1976 and as an added bonus two sets from the nineties including the Gong 25th Birthday party! Now these may need a programme like Audacity to split them as they are all (each) in single files. I am currently just getting through the 1976 set and it is very good quality as a broadcast you would expect that I guess but it is a real treat.
The other two from the nineties have no artwork and notes are spare but hey what do you want for nothin'? A Rubber Biscuit?
Found these notes at 101
Kevin Ayers (Gong's 25th Birthday Party)
The Forum Kentish Town, London 8th October 1994
Kevin Ayers, Marvin Siau + Hugh Hopper, Pip Pyle, Didier Malherbe, Daevid Allen
Interview When Your Parents Go To Sleep There Goes Johnny Everybody's Sometime And Some People's All The Time Blues Super Salesman May I Lady Rachel Teddy Bears Picnic Didn't Feel Lonely Till I Thought of You Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes
and lastly
Kevin Ayers
April 9, 1992
Rennes
France
Alternate cover
101.Feeling This Way
102.Shouting In A Bucket Blues / Animals
103.May I?
104.There Goes Johnny
105.Everybody's Sometime and Some People's All The Time Blues
Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - Clarence in Wonderland (1970)
