After a week or two of looking at the CDs which don't live in the main shelves, I'm numbed by the mediocrity, so I'm looking at a few old favourites next.
This album is one I own twice - once in its own right and also as part of a boxed set offered me for a price too good to turn down.
Possibly my favourite Kevin Ayers' album, undoubtedly containing my favourite Ayers song (the title track) this opens with a David Bedford orchestral arrangement, There Is Loving, which is punctuated by a verse which also appeared in Ayers' Butterfly Dance, and it's a majestic opening. The song which follows, Margaret, is pleasant, gentle but not a classic, but it's followed by Oh My, a prime example of Ayers' ability to dash off a three minute ditty, and use an arrangement (in this case a Dixieland trumpet sound) underneath to make it special. Song From The Bottom Of A Well is dark and haunting with screaming guitar sounds, but doesn't seem to really develop. Whatevershebringswesing, however is a masterpiece, from Mike Oldfield's opening liquid bass line, his guitar solo in the middle, Ayers' wonderful lyrics and vocals, with Robert Wyatt's backing. It's eight minutes long, and leaves you wanting more.
We have things a little lighter to follow, the glorious Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes, a hilarious tale of a barman being set free by one of Kevin's herbal cigarettes. Champagne Cowboy Blues, is, by comparison, a fairly limp little piece of filler, but the trademark Oldfield guitar drives it along into a reprise (and out) of the Joy Of A Toy theme from Ayers' first album, before the final track on the album, Lullaby, a short instrumental wind down. And it's been a fantastic ride through the original album, but this CD reissue has five bonus tracks - the grand Stars, which was the b-side of Stranger; Don't Sing No More Sad Songs, a music hall style 'posh bloke speaking' number; Fake Mexican Tourist Blues, a Tijuana romp of dubious political correctness and an early mix of Stranger - all of these had appeared on the Odd Ditties compilation.
It's a fantastic album, like many with its highs and lows, but as I've already said, a Kevin Ayers album is rarely dull (except for Sweet Deceiver!)
4* - still sounding fresh after half a century
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