I first came across Kevin Ayers through John Peel's show and my trip down the Canterbury Sound musical rabbit hole.
I bought Yes We Have No Mananas in my teens, but until much later my only exposure to his earlier work was via the Odd Ditties compilation.
I've no idea when I bought this 2003 reissue CD, but there's a good deal of familiar stuff here. Opening with the charming May I? accompanied by some lovely sax from Lol Coxhill, the Ayers sound continues with Rheinhart & Geraldine, a bit of a rambling piece, with plenty of sonic mayhem in the middle. Lunatics Lament is pretty throwaway, a listenable album track, but no more.
Pisser Dans Un Violon starts 'experimentally' going nowhere for eight minutes but sets up a welcome acoustic duet with Bridget St John, The Oyster and the Flying Fish. Underwater picks up where Pisser left off, an abstract soundscape which doesn't excite these ears while Red Green and You Blue flows past similarly, before the final track on the original album, Shooting At The Moon, a bold finale which doesn't quite hit the mark.
This CD reissue contains five other contemporary songs, either singles or unissued, all of which enhance the experience. Gemini Child is a lovely song, Puis Je? (May I? sung in French) is a little more light hearted than the original, with a Gallic accordion accompaniment and Ayers' mumblings (Vive la banane!). Butterfly Dance opens with a verse which would later appear on There Is Loving on the Whatevershebringswesing album, before rocking off in a different direction. Jolie Madame is a second Ayers/St John duet, with another glorious Coxhill sax accompaniment, while the final song, Hat, is a wonderful piece of Ayers whimsy, still in rehearsal form.
Not everything on this album comes off, which is not unusual, but a Kevin Ayers album is never dull.
3* - this needs the bonus tracks to remind the listener why Kevin Ayers is so missed, because so much of the original album isn't his best.
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