Kevin Ayers Joy of a Toy (1969)

From progarchives.com

Review by febus

Joy of a Toy is the first solo album of Kevin Ayers after he left the band Soft Machine he founded following the release of their first album. Kevin Ayers is an oddity in the music scene, be it prog or rock! He is a musician who just followed his own rules (or maybe sometimes the lack of them) while having an interesting artistic career albeit never really successful. Kevin was never a real prog artist, neither could he be mainstream. He tried at some period of his career to hit big time, but to no success. Words like lazy, underachieving, whimsical, eccentric, wine and cheese, have been used with just reason to describe Kevin Ayers world.

None of his albums deserves a 5 star rating; there are no K. Ayers masterpiece as wonderful gems are always mixed with silly songs that could have used more serious treatment or other ”tropical” songs. However, all of his albums have a unique character, a charm that can be addictive. Even the biggest prog fan can always find something of his liking on a Ayers recording, as long it doesn’t take life too seriously.

Kevin Ayers left Soft Machine, not because of conflicts within the band, but because at age 25, he couldn’t take the constant touring and business obligations anymore. He retired for a while on the gorgeous island of Ibiza in Spain, an island frequented at the time by hippies and other free spirits. Daevid Allen also enjoyed this place quite a lot then; it gives you an idea, i hope.

I read some comparisons made between Syd Barret and Ayers and in a way, they are right; they made one album with their respective bands, Ayers being influential albeit not as much as Barrett in the creation of the sound of Soft Machine. We were at the height of the psychedelic era with a lot of smoke in the air and a lot of pills , not necessarily vitamins, being swallowed. But when the lights turned off, our 2 guys got something like a hang over, Barrett would never even recover from. They both released solo albums like this one for Ayers and the Madcap Laughs for Barrett, but they were hardly prog. Barrett and Ayers would never released anything experimental, they sometimes would border on prog, but they were mainly songwriters, creating simple tunes, yes some weird and strange ones as well, but basically nothing that can be called adventurous.

Kevin Ayers will always be linked to the Canterbury scene as he was one of its founder, but don’t try to find in his recordings anything close to Soft Machine ‘Third’ period, Hatfield and the North or other Gong; but he will share the same deprecative sense of humour than his former band mate Daevid Allen; not taking life seriously, having fun, enjoy a good bottle of wine and of course for these 2 souls…the cult of the banana!

Even if Kevin Ayers left Soft Machine….for personal reasons, one can guess somehow, problems would have occurred later on had he stayed on. Robert Wyatt and especially Mike Ratledge wanted to abandon the pop/psychedelic sound to go for a very serious jazzy direction. I don’t think it would have matched the musical sensibilities of Kevin and he would have left the band somehow, knowing that roadie-wanting to be bassist- Hugh Hopper was just behind his neck. Frankly, can you imagine Kevin Ayers jamming with Elton Dean? 2 different worlds!

I would describe Kevin Ayers as a minstrel, kind of a medieval troubadour, coming to your home with his acoustic guitar singing precious delicate songs or…..silly caribbean ditties, but always with fun and good humour; just have a glass of good wine and a tray of cheese handy waiting for him and you are sure to enjoy a warm evening. Kevin Ayers is a unique artist with a strong personal artistic approach, also has a lot of shortcomings, but that’s what makes him unique. Mention Kevin Ayers name to anyone knowing his music in the prog world and you will always get a friendly grin in return.

Joy Of A Toy is a perfect example of a typical imbalanced album from Kevin. It opens with a kind of silly march, circus atmosphere Joy Of A Toy Continued (a link to the same song from the first album of Soft Machine) ”sung” by Kevin and 3 other people together. It has absolutely no artistical value, but it is just plain fun (as long as it doesn’t last too long) . But next, you are entering the beautiful world of Kevin with such gems like Town Feeling or Girl On The Swing, very sweet intimate songs that warm you with their great arrangements usually done by David Bedford. They are the songs , I mentioned earlier, that border on prog. Those ones are very well thought, well arranged with sounds of oboe, cello, flute or trombone. This is Ayers at his best when he tries hard.

His voice is also one of its kind, very deep but clear, very warm more suited for the lounge athmosphere than the arena madness! Cozy would be the right word to describe and his music and his voice. Listening to Kevin Ayers is like a personal encounter, almost like an old friend singing only for you!

Other great songs can be found here like Song Of Insane Times, another beautiful melody played with the help of the whole Soft Machine members including Hopper. That’s a way to imagine how Soft Machine could have sounded if Kevin had stayed with them. Mike Ratledge plays great with his trademark organ sounding: a real early SF treat! The best of the best is of course the magnificent The Lady Rachel which showcases the greatness of Ayers when he wants to. This is one of his most enduring song he is still playing nowadays every night he is on a stage . Beautiful melody, beautiful singing, luxurious refined arrangements, a song for the ages.

On the other side, you have tracks that are not very mesmerizing like the one line bass played at nauseam Stop This Train with a very ,very simple melody which last too long or the Malaysian influenced Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong mixing tropical flavour with avant guard Jazz piano a la Aladdin Sane from Bowie. Quite a mixture! (Kevin Ayers spent a lot of his childhood in Malaysia as his family was based there for a while)

Joy Of A Toy is an album that goes in very different musical directions but in a way sound homogeneous due to the particular voice of our artist and its intimate atmosphere. You don’t feel good one day? just play some Kevin Ayers and life will look better. You’ll see!! Now about a rating! No, it’s not essential! Now, is it good or an excellent addition? I think it’s a worthy album to own ; at least that’s something different and rather unique. There is only one Kevin Ayers.

Kevin Ayers Whatevershebringswesing (1971)

Review by ghost_of_morphy

The capsule review for this one is that it contains great music, but a very uneven style. Some artists use solo albums to explore different types of music. (Peter Gabriel I or Jon Anderson’s Animation would be good examples.) Anyhow, put on your hiking boots, because Mr. Ayers is about to take you on a whimsical journey across musical boundaries.

There is Loving/Amongst Us/There is Loving is easily the most adventurous track on the album. Combining symphonic music, a take on modern classical music and rock, this song charts new and exciting ground. It’s not catchy, it’s not pop and it certainly does require a degree of patience from the listener. But it is rewarding.

Margaret is a lush and beautiful ballad. There’s not much here that takes it beyond the realm of ballads except for some unexpected chord changes, but it’s still a beautiful song, even though it’s simplistic. Lord knows, if I can play it and sing to it, it has to be simple. Yet it’s a very attractive song. So much so that I tend to start listening to the album here instead of on the first track.

Oh My brings down the level of interest, if not the quality. This singalong song (with what at least sounds to my ears as a New Orleans jazz influence) is excellently executed, but ultimately doesn’t really catch my interest.

Song From The Bottom Of A Well is probably the strangest and most interesting song on this album. It’s an attempt at some of that really disturbing music from the psychedelic tradition, complete with drastic changes in the left/right balance, dissonance, and weird lyrics. Yet it’s better produced and somehow more positive than most similar songs in that tradition.

Whatevershebringswesing is another song that I can’t recommend. It’s a mellow ballad with country influences, and that kills it for me, despite a very nice featured guitar solo.

Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes, on the other hand, is a great song despite being grounded in old fashioned rock and roll. What can I say, this song is cool! It features great lyrics that tell a good story in a memorable way, complimented by some brilliant performances (especially on the piano) and vocal sound effects that should sound cheezy but instead fit the song well.

Champagne Cowboy Blues is another Western influenced track. It has some nice effects in the percussion and ultimately is well produced, but I can’t recommend it. It doesn’t even have the redeeming feature of a great guitar solo, unlike Whatevershebringswesing, although it defnitely does have some weirdness in it.

Lullabye is another song that is punched up by great production values. It’s basically a flute solo over some piano work, and it’s really likeable. What do I mean when I say really likeable? Well, I just took a list at my last.fm page and Lullabye is tied for eighth as my most listened track. (If you are interested, it is tied with UK — In the Dead of Night, Camel — Supertwister, Bill Bruford — Hell’s Bells and Steve Hackett — Spectral Mornings.) Anyhow, I recommend this song unreservedly.

I’m only reviewing the original album, but I do have the remaster, and I would be remiss in not mentioning that Fake Mexican Tourist Blues is a novelty song that would have been a welcome replacement for several songs on this album. The other bonus tracks are generally strong as well.

So now on to my quandry. What do I rate this? I definitely want you to hear this, so I’m really tempted to give it four stars and claim that it’s an excellent addiont to any prog music collection. On the other hand, the inclusion of a few songs that are clearly worlds away from prog makes me think that three stars for an album that is good but non-essential might be more appropriate.

Screw it. The highs on this album outweigh the lows. Four stars.

Review by Easy Livin

Following the release of “Shooting at the moon”, which was actually credited to Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, that band toured in support of the album. Ayers however found that touring was not really his bag and subsequently disbanded the group. He then set about recording “Whatevershebringswesing” as a solo album. This was not however to be a one man effort by any means, and pretty much The Whole World(!) plus members of Gong step in to help out.

Released in January 1972, the LP consists of two sides of four tracks each. Each side starts with a feature track running to 7 or 8 minutes, supported by three shorter tracks. The first track is an amalgam of an Ayers song and a David Bedford composition. This track (alone) was actually recorded prior to the break up of The Whole World, hence Bedford’s compositional credit for the full orchestra “Among us” section. After this rather avant-garde indulgence, the rest of the album seems more conventional and melodic.

“Margaret” is a delightful love song with understated orchestration, while “Oh my” is an old tyme brass band style happy song with a deep south jazz feel. The song is not unlike the similarly named “Ah me, ah my” by The Strawbs from around the same time. “Song from the bottom of a well” returns us to Ayers at his most indulgent, the spooky vocals (along the lines of the start of “Thriller”!) being supported by off beat sound loops and backwards recordings.

Although the title track is the longest on the album, it is not overburdened by complexity by any means. Here we have one of Ayers fine mid-paced soft songs, of the type which I feel he does best. Robert Wyatt adds harmony vocals and Mike Oldfield provides an extended lead guitar solo to this, the highlight of the album. “Stranger in blue suede shoes” provides some light relief musically and lyrically, the song also being released as a single.

“Champagne cowboy blues” is a sort of melancholy drinking song, with breaking bottles providing the rhythm. It is lightweight, but inoffensively pleasant. The album closes with the brief, appropriately titled “Lullaby”, essentially a flute and piano duet. The piece is unusual for an Ayers album, but then by now we should expect the unusual.

Overall, a typically eclectic Kevin Ayers album. There is much to enjoy here along with the odd frustration along the way. The good far exceeds the not so good though.

The remastered CD has 4 additional tracks. One of these is just an early mix of “Champagne cowboy blues”, but the other three are non-album tracks. “Stars” was the B side of the single, the song being upbeat and commercial. The other two bonus tracks are not actually from the same period as the album recordings, but were put together later in 1972. It seems the songs may have been intended as two sides of a single, but they remained unreleased until they appeared on an Ayers compilation album in 1976. Both songs are from Ayers whimsical, retro side, appealing but unchallenging.