(((O))) Review: Kevin Ayers – All This Crazy Gift of Time: The Recordings 1969-1973

I first became aware of Kevin Ayers’ music back in the summer of 2003 when I was entering my Senior year in High School after hearing one of his tracks ‘Clarence in Wonderland’ from the UNCUT compilation, Acid Daze. It startled me. It startled me at first because of the humour, Caribbean / psychedelic waltz, bass doing this bossa-nova groove, and Ayers’ laid-back vocals with Mike Oldfield sharing background vocals before hitting the big time with Tubular Bells.

Then in 2008, after hearing his run with The Soft Machine’s first sole self-titled debut album released in 1968, he unleashed his first solo album in 1969 on the Harvest label, Joy of a Toy. I reviewed on my blog site, Music from the Other Side of the Room in February of that same year. I gave it an ecstatic review to show how much he wanted carte blanche and having more fun during that time frame.

Not only he had the Soft Machine band members on there, but fellow Floyd founder Syd Barrett who appeared on the album playing guitar on ‘Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)’. Even though Syd was going through some rough times during the time he was doing his first solo album The Madcap Laughs, he adds in that electric punch to give Kevin that mighty push with a joyful celebration.

That and this 9-CD / 1 Blu-Ray box set from Esoteric is a tribute to Ayers’ legacy from his run with the Harvest label from 1969 to 1973 (Joy of a Toy, Shooting at the Moon, Whatevershebringswesing, and Bananamour), followed by recorded BBC Sessions, performances at Hyde Park in 1970, and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall recorded the same year, and in 1973 when he was promoting his fourth studio album.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 13 years since Kevin passed away at the age of 68. But his legacy and his music will live on to inspire the next generation to discover why this artist was so far ahead of his time. He adds in that flavour of classical music, free jazz, psychedelic, post-punk, Canterbury, art, dadaism, avant-garde, Ayers threw the rule book into the fire and lets his music do the talking.

The box set contains a booklet, written by Shindig Magazine writer Michael Björn, covering the history of Ayers. From his childhood living in Malaya, The Wilde Flowers, Soft Machine, touring with Hendrix in the States, archive interviews with Kevin, and then embarking on a solo career.

It also includes images, concert posters, live pictures, promo singles from around the world, a rare letter from Ayers to (I believe its) John Peel (who was a champion of Kevin’s work), and the rough draft design of the band members of The Whole World of where he wanted them to be on for his second album, Shooting at the Moon.

Listening to his follow-up to Joy of a Toy, Ayers’ backing band The Whole World which consisted of Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, and Lol Coxhill who he met when they were busking. Descend into complete insanity of what Ayers wanted to do by pushing the envelope into that maddening yet exhilarating technique that’ll make you say, “What the hell was that?”

You can tell that Ayers throws no punches to this bad boy. From the maddening ‘60s organ, Coxhill’s spooky sax, bass going haywire, ‘Pisser Dans un Violon’ gives us an insight of the early beginnings of the krautrock genre in which CAN were eager to take a leap forward during the time they were doing Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi with the late, great Damo Suzuki.

But it’s the mellowing duet between Bridget St. John with a sing-along children’s folk tale, ‘The Oyster and the Flying Fish’ that makes you want to dance in the hot, Brazilian islands before the sun starts to set with another bossa-nova bass groove Oldfield does and Coxhill’s jazzier texture on ‘Red Green and You Blue’ shows Kevin’s romantic side with a double-tracking texture.

However, the opening track ‘May I’ does resemble elements of Love’s Forever Changes in which Ayers goes back to writing his letter to the love of his life with Bedford’s Accordion and electric keyboard setting up the scenery of his childhood years in Malaya as Kevin does some spoken dialog in French for a brief moment. But its Robert Wyatt’s appearance on ‘Colores Para Dolores’, gives Kevin a chance to return to his Soft Machine years with a late ‘60s psych attack.

The Hyde Park performance in 1970 which was originally released in 2007 on the defunct Canadian label Reel Recordings, has been remixed by Stephen W. Tayler and given Kevin’s vocals up to an audible level. Despite the rough quality of this recording because it was picked up from the P.A. and stage monitors, Wyatt’s intensive drum patterns steal the show between a crazed-out version of ‘Clarence in Wonderland’, the dooming funeral march of ‘The Lady Rachel’, followed-by the humoristic vaudevillian show dancer ‘The Hat Song’, followed by the climatic attack end segment of ‘We Did It Again’ and ending on a high note to ‘Why Are We Sleeping?’

You can’t get enough of that. Also, there’s a premiere of David Bedford’s ‘The Garden of Love’ which had been originally issued back in 1997 on the Voiceprint label, is based on William Blake’s poetry, Songs of Experience. Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on September 26, 1970, The Whole World tackles Bedford’s compositions with members of the London Sinfonietta.

You can hear some of the techniques Bedford was doing between his two albums Nurses Song with Elephants and Star’s End. The piece clocks in at 20-minutes. It’s chaotic, balls to the wall, musique concrete, Ligeti-sque, Coltrane, shrieking fanfares, nods to Zappa’s 200 Motels, no wonder few of the audience walked out of the hall because of their distaste of rock music.

But it took courage for Bedford and Ayers to go for challenges that shows how much you can take it up a notch and go into as described “marvelous cacophony”. And you can hear some of Bedford’s arrangements on the opening track ‘There is Loving / Among Us / There is Loving’ from Ayers’ third album Whatevershebringswesing.

It is beautifully created from the string and horn sections, nods to Egg, and harmonising female vocalisations in the background. Wyatt share’s harmony vocals on the title-track as he and Ayers reflect back in their time with amazing memories to go through an old scrapbook to the counter culture in its heyday.

‘Songs from the Bottom of a Well’ sounds like a menacing version of ‘Feelin’ Reelin’ Squeelin’ with Ayers going into this slithering tone, adding this early beginning of a proto-post-punk march while channeling Lou Reed’s lyrical textures as he sings in the style of ‘Vicious’ on ‘Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes’.

As the folky-harmonica approach for ‘All This Crazy Gift of Time’ makes it a perfect campfire song, the 1972 version of the song which Tayler did the remix on, beats out the 1969 version out of the ball park with the Ladybirds, who were recruits of the Benny Hill show, adds in that orchestral vibration of the song and the tragic detailed take of an extended version of ‘The Lady Rachel’.

Also included on Disc five is the rumbling chaotic piano work turned spoken poetry of Bedford’s ‘Sad and Lonely Faces’ with the Sebastian Bell Ensemble from his Nurses Song album. It feels closer to a Stockhausen atmosphere of the piece before it goes into a mournful end, knowing that the friends who are in the afterlife, are waiting to give the best party they’ll never forget.

Three years later, Ayers returns to the Elizabeth Hall on May 25th, 1973 which was released back in 2008 for the 4-CD set, Songs for Insane Times: An Anthology 1969-1980. Around that time, he unleashed his fourth studio album Bananamour released in May of that year, the last of his Harvest years before signing with Chris Blackwell’s Island label.

You could feel Ayers is having a ball at the venue, with Archie Legget, Cal Batchelor, Gerry Fitzgerald, Henry Crallan, and Freddie Smith. Between the Bowie-sque approach of ‘Interview’, the quacking humoristic effect of a tribute to Kevin’s friend Syd Barrett on ‘Oh! Wot a Dream’, the joyful sing-along of ‘Caribbean Moon’, and the road home ‘After The Show’.

Going through the Bananamour album, not only he brings along Wyatt, but Steve Hillage and Mike Ratledge to lend a helping hand to give him that mighty push. Followed by backing vocalist Doris Troy, Liza Strike, and Barry St. John who would later doing the backing vocals on ‘Time’ from Pink Floyd magnum opus Dark Side of the Moon the same year this album was released.

Hillage adds in his textures in the romantic sails on ‘Shouting in a Bucket Blues’ as Ayers strums his acoustic guitar to watch the sun go down in an Ayers-like fashion. To the country orientated gospel of ‘Hymn’, the revved-up shuffle for ‘Interview’ that speaks of a slowed-down version Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’ from Aladdin Sane, and Legget taking over lead vocals with a soulful approach on ‘When Your Parents Go to Sleep’.

The BBC Sessions, that are featured on discs four, six, and seven which were recorded from 1970 to 1973 despite most of it in its rough quality, are worth exploring. You have this incredible session Ayers does with Bridget for John Peel between three songs on January 31st in 1971, blends in the chemistry from ‘Jolie Madame’, ‘The Spider and the Fly’, and ‘The Oyster and the Flying Fish’.

Meanwhile the sing-along yet waltzy turned humoristic fun on ‘Derby Day’ gets each of The Whole World members to join with Ayers in this German-like stance before going in for the kill with a brutal guitar solo on ‘Love Is’. Kevin returns to the Wonderland with Clarence once more, this time with fellow Canterbury mates Gong in which they were doing a session on November 9th at the time they were promoting Camembert Electrique.

The seventh disc contains the Banana Follies concert for Radio 1 on September 20th, 1972. The idea for the Follies concept was a musical variety show originally, but it switched around where it included the band dressed up in Evening suits, surrounded by palm trees and bananas, playing not just the songs, and having a lot of fun during that time frame.

This recording was originally released back in 1998 on the Hux label. For them, they’re not just having a blast doing the songs, but nods to the Goon Show which is evidential on ‘Murder in the Air’ that sees Bedford and Ayers channeling Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. You can tell audiences are having a ball, adding the sense of humor to put into the performance.

But touches of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band with ‘Orrible Orange’ that comes to mind where Ayers sings off-key, playing the ukulele, adds in the humoristic approach to the evening show. As they go through the four interludes and radio show-like nods, they head back into the songs once more.

The train-chugging rocker ‘Take Me to Tahiti’, ‘Marlene’ which was an early beginning of ‘Decadence’, followed by the bossa-nova groove of ‘Fake Mexican Tourist Blues’, returning to the fast-paced vaudevillian music hall tradition on ‘You Say You Like My Hat’. According to the liner notes from the Banana Follies release by Martin Wakeling, Kevin was so pleased on how the Banana Follies performance was well-received, they promised would do again.

Unfortunately, it never did. But when you listen to the Banana Follies show, it remains ahead of its time to show how Kevin can take those songs to a different level. Now, the Blu-Ray’s which was unavailable at the time when this review was in the works, showcases Ayers appearance between the Old Grey Whistle Test, Rockenstock ORTF France, and with The Whole World at a small club called La Taverne De L’Olympia in Paris, France for Pop Deux.

It’s the same venue where The Moody Blues performed there at the time they were promoting A Question of Balance in 1970 and Magma who recorded the Live album in 1975 as well.

This is a box set that’ll be a perfect Christmas gift whose either an admirer of Ayers’ work or an introduction who wants to discover his music for the first time. As I’ve mentioned before, he pushed the boundaries by going even further that wasn’t just flower-power material, it was right in your face, and he broke the rules by doing the things that he wanted to do.

He was as David Fricke puts it, in his tribute to him in Rolling Stone on February 22nd of 2013 “made pop music soaked in acid, Beaujolais and Ibiza sunshine, charged with an explorer’s restlessness that ensured he never made the same album twice”.