Kevin Ayers (1944 – 2013) was a gifted songwriter and vocalist. His career began as part of the Canterbury scene, a loose collection of musicians associated with that city who cultivated distinctively English varieties of progressive and psychedelic rock during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Ayers was a founder member of the seminal psychedelic band Soft Machine but left and went solo before they morphed into a jazz-fusion outfit.
His song writing was characterised by a sort of keenly observed existential whimsy; the humour often masking uncomfortable truths about the human condition and our relations with one another. His talent, good looks and rich baritone might’ve made him a huge star, but his early career (which saw his best work) was a story of critical success but commercial near-misses. It didn’t help that he had a habit of disappearing for lengthy sojourns in the Mediterranean where (for as long as the money lasted) the living was easy and the wine flowed freely. While not exactly a career move, this suited his likeable rakish approach to life.
The Confessions Of Dr Dream And Other Stories (1974) was the last in a run of five very strong Kevin Ayers solo albums stretching back to 1969’s Joy Of A Toy. The first four had been for EMI’s Harvest label but by 1974 he had moved temporarily to Island Records.
The album successfully incorporates a number of different styles into a coherent whole, carried by Rupert Hine’s confident production and the quality of the musicianship. Over all it was Ayers’ most commercial sounding record up to that point. The opener Day By Day was released as a single in advance of the album and is pure pop, with its call-and response vocals and cooing chorus of female backing singers. Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought Of You is an out-and-out rocker, which is followed by the gentle, contemplative Everybody’s Sometime And Some People’s All The Time Blues - on which former backing band member Mike Oldfield returns to contribute a guitar solo. The humorous minor songs See You Later and Ballbearing Blues are used to great effect as devices to break-up the running order.
It Begins With A Blessing / Once I Awakened / But It Ends With A Curse is an 8 minute-long radical re-working of Ayers’ Soft Machine song Why Are We Sleeping? The verses (which at one point give way briefly to a completely different tune and lyric) are slow and full of tension as Ayers recites rather than sings most of the words, hamming the whole thing up for all he’s worth. The choruses on the other hand are raucously rock ‘n’ roll with the backing singers handling the vocals.
Most of side two is taken up by the four-part, 19 minute-long The Confessions Of Dr Dream; an unsettling piece of prog psychodrama that includes guest vocals by Nico on the opening section (Irreversible Neural Damage) performed with her usual froideur. Ending the album on a less intense note, there follows a plaintive number called Two Goes Into Four, featuring only Ayers’ vocal and layered acoustic guitars.
Besides the aforementioned “star” guests, Mike Oldfield and Nico, the album features over twenty other musicians. These include former King Crimson drummer Mike Giles, saxophonist Lol Coxhill (who had been part of Ayers early ‘70s backing band The Whole World), Soft Machine organist Mike Ratledge and guitarist Ollie Halsall who would become Ayers’ closest musical collaborator (the later albums might have left something wanting but he could still be a good live act) until Halsall’s early death in 1992. Halsall plays the blistering solo on Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought Of You.
The NME reported in August 1974 that The Confessions Of Dr Dream And Other Stories had cost £32,000 to make. Apparently that was a lot of money to spend in the studio at that time. Island were trying hard to turn their new signing into the major star he had so far avoided becoming. That they were prepared to go the extra mile with this record is further evidenced by the expense lavished on the jacket that housed the original pressing. UK Island LPs of that period quite often came in fully laminated sleeves, but the embossed front cover is unusual and indicates an intention to offer record buyers something a little special.
The album was released in May 1974 to strongly positive reviews in the British music press. Writing for NME, Nick Kent judged that it was, “…Ayers’ most formidable recorded work to date.”
A concert at the Rainbow Theatre, showcasing Kevin Ayers alongside fellow Island artists John Cale, Nico and Brian Eno, was recorded and quickly released as the live album June 1, 1974, further raising Ayers’ profile.
In retrospect, 1974 did not turn out to be a breakthrough year but rather marked the end of Ayers’ golden period. His creativity waned after The Confessions Of Dr Dream And Other Stories and this was the last time he tried anything as conceptually or musically ambitious. While perhaps realising that the music scene was changing and that the more “out there” elements of his sound were becoming increasingly dated as the decade progressed, he simply failed to find a compelling new direction. His records from the second half of the ‘70’s are lacklustre compared to what had gone before. Matters got far worse for him during the 1980’s as he struggled with heroin addiction and other problems, before a modest late career revival with 1992’s Still Life With Guitar and a final flourish with 2007’s The Unfairground.
The 2009 CD remaster of this album isn't actually all that bad (and like all the current EMI Ayers reissues comes with a whole stack of bonus tracks) but here's a chance to hear it in its original form, mastered for vinyl by the legendary George "Porky" Peckham.
Thank you for the great uploads. Much appreciated.
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