The British rock journalist, Nick Kent, summarized the importance of Kevin Ayers by writing: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them." And both were big influences on me, but currently I'm concentrating on those whose name begins with "A".
Kevin Ayers grew up in Malaysia and the relaxed, unpressured tropical lifestyle led him toward an approach to life that eschewed the competitive and angst-ridden nature of so much rock culture. He was, in other words, a hedonistic slacker intellectual -- of a sort. I remember meeting him for the first time in the restroom at Mudd Club in 1980. We ended up talking about Ibiza, where he had been living. In fact, it was because of some large financial loses involving poker that led Ayers to the States to play some cash-infusion gigs. For Ayers, sunny climes, good wine and food, and beautiful women always seemed to take precedence over pursuing musical career success.
That said, he still managed to create a career of great importance and creativity, working at times with such collaborators as Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico, and Ollie Halsall. In his early college years, he became active in the progressive Canterbury scene when he was invited to join The Wilde Flowers, a band featuring Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper. That band evolved into Caravan when Ayers and Wyatt left to form Soft Machine with Mike Ratledge and Daevid Allen. Their integration of rock and jazz was a unique form of psychedelia and they would often share stages with early Pink Floyd. Their debut single, "Love Makes Sweet Music/Feellin' Reelin' Squeelin'" was released in 1967 making it one of the first British psychedelic records. (You can hear Ayers' baritone on the B-Side and Wyatt's tenor on the A-Side) In 1968, the debut album, The Soft Machine, is considered a classic of the genre.
Soft Machine toured the States, opening for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Ayers became disillusioned with the frenetic craziness of rock touring so as soon as the tour ended he retreated to the beaches of Ibiza after selling his Fender Jazz Bass to Noel Redding. While in Ibiza, Ayers went into a song-writing binge resulting in his fist solo LP, Joy Of A Toy, an album that, along with Pink Floyd's Ummagumma were the first releases from the then newly formed Harvest Records label. Ayer's expansive creativity is evident as the LP includes circus marching music, pastoral folk tunes, some avant-garde noise, and a cut, "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong" based upon a Malay folk song.
Shooting At The Moon (1970) soon followed and his band, called The Whole World, introduced a teenaged Mike Oldfield on bass and guitar, and featured avant-garde composer David Bedford on keyboards and Lol Coxhill on sax. It too fascinatingly integrates pure pop pleasure (with "May I", the opener capturing the whole Ayers sunny, slacker vibe) with avant tonalities and structures. Whatevershebringswesing, his next release is regarded by many of his fans as among his very best, though for me, it's his fourth (and final LP for Harvest at this time), Bananamour that I tend to prefer, featuring a blistering sax solo in the randy "When Your Parents Go To Sleep". This one also includes Ayer's portrait of Nico, "Decadence."
Now on Island Records, Ayers released The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, marking Ayers' move to a more commercial sound. A short country hoedown "See You Later" asks koan-like (and reflecting his on-going Pataphysical interests) "How can you see me later when don't see me now?" flows right into the rocking "Didn't Feel Lonely Till I Thought Of You". It is with this album that he began his 20-year collaborative partnership with guitar wizard, Ollie Halsall. Then, on June 1, 1974, Ayers headlined a concert in London where he invited several of his friends -- John Cale, Nico, Brian Eno, and Mike Oldfield to participate. A wonderful album came of it with Eno performing the consummate version of "Baby's On Fire" and John Cale reinvented the Elvis Presley hit, "Heartbreak Hotel" highlighting the darkness of the lyric. That said, it apparently was a tension filled affair as the night before the concert, John Cale caught Ayers in bed with his wife, which became the genesis of Cale's bitter "Guts" that opens his Slow Dazzle LP released the following year.
In 1976, Ayers returned to Harvest for Yes We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today) on which Halsall turns in a truly transcendent solo in the album's closer, "Blue" (This linked version features Andy Summers, the original is unavailable on YouTube). I can remember blasting it while standing in front of my stereo speakers, preparing for a night out. Rainbow Takeaway followed in 1978 and That's What You Get Babe in 1980 which features three of my favorite pop tunes from him: "Given And Taken" (a song that celebrates the anti-romantic idealism of those who are 'warriors in love') "I'm So Tired", and the closing "Where Do The Stars End" which may be the most honest love song ever written with this great verse opening: "Floating on moonbeans, with my head on your knee/But once again babe, I'm thinking about me./And though we're feeling close, and touching too/You have to admit babe, you're thinking 'bout you." It was at this time that I met him in NYC.
In 1983, Diamond Jack and The Queen of Pain proved to be a low point with Ayers admitting he had no recollection of making the record! 1984 found him releasing Dejà... Vu and two years later, As Close As You Think. Neither received much attention. Finally, in 1988, Falling Up received the first positive reviews in years. This was followed by an acoustic album, Still Life With Guitar, recorded with folk band, Fairground Attraction.
In the late 90s, Ayers had fallen into reclusion and writing songs described by others who got to hear them as "poignant, insightful, and honest." Through the mechanizations of friends, some recording sessions were organized here in Tucson, Arizona at Wavelab Studios. A whole new generation of musicians influenced by Ayers came together (including members of Teenage Fanclub and Trash Can Sinatras), along with old friends Robert Wyatt, Phil Manzanera, Hugh Hopper, and Bridget St John to recored what became The Unfairground, released to critical acclaim in 2007. This proved that in a just world, and one in which Ayers just tried a bit harder, would have made him a much more popularly known musician songwriter.
The Unfairground would be his last album. Kevin Ayers died February 18, 2013, at the age of 68.
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