Any Kevin Ayers fans out there?

[carpetbagger]

I think I finally got the bug for his solo stuff. It took me a while to cut through the "Is this guy trying to be Zappa?" stage, but here I am among you.

And so I say....

You know, I feel like a new man
Yes I do, I don't know why
I'd just like to say
Thank you very much

[RecoveringAsshole]

1. No. Can't stand him.

Who?

[carpetbagger]

2. A musician from the 60's prog-rock scene in Canterbury.

He was in a band called The Soft Machine. They were a lot bigger then than they are now (funny how 20 minute tracks never make it to the so-called classic rock stations).

[XNASA]

3. I suppose that I'm a fan.

Or perhaps I should say that I was once a fan.

I remember sitting around in the mid-late 70's listening to "Joy of a Toy" and "Bananamour". We'd listen to those, then some "Gong", etc...

I do recall an album that KA did with Cale, Eno and Nico. A live album I think?? I'd really like to hear that again.

A friend of mine got up and sang, (and I know I'm getting this title wrong) "Whatevershebringsshesings" and a party recently. I always liked that one.

So though I'm not currently a fan, he's one artist whose work I'd like to revisit in the near future.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. That'd Sum It Up For Me, Too

I always liked "Gong" quite a lot. I never heard that album with Nico, Eno, and J.J., though. That might be interesting.
The Professor

[Squeech]

4. I'm a huge Canterbury fan

But Kevin Ayers is probably my least favorite Canterbury musician.

The parallel to Ayers isn't Zappa-- certainly not in the sense of a control freak organizer of words, music, images and innuendo. Ayers at his best is an innocent, a kind of holy fool, documenting his passage through life like a chela looking for a guru with a pipeful. (And at his worst he's a tedious self-indulgent pretender to an enlightenment he's never actually achieved, and a drunkard.) He was quite fortunate to have been associated with many truly great musicians: Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen (Gong), Mike Oldfield (who was a mere 15 years old when Kevin hired him to play guitar for him), Jimi Hendrix (who brought Soft Machine on tour as his opening act), and of course that amazing Rainbow Theatre gig with Eno, John Cale and Nico. And to his credit, he really tried to write songs worthy of playing in that scene, and occasionally came up with real gems. I like his early stuff best, when he was still reverberating with the ideas and personalities of the Soft Machine.

Here's a cheap shot that should annoy everybody equally: Kevin Ayers is Dave Matthews with way better sidemen, and more interesting drugs.

On edit: the title XNASA is trying to remember is Whatevershebringswesing. It's one of the good ones, as is Joy of a Toy. And the live album is called June 1, 1974, and it's the document of the Ayers/Cale/Nico/Eno concert mentioned above. (For extra humor, check out the acronym!)

[mr blur]

5. "I walked into a bar in Syracuse...

..they said we don't serve strangers in blue suede shoes."

Kevin Ayers is great!