| Track: | Rating: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Driving Me Backwards | | | | |
| 2. Baby's On Fire | | | | |
| 3. Heartbreak Hotel | | | | |
| 4. The End | | | | |
| 5. May I? | | | | |
| 6. Shouting In A Bucket Blues | | | | |
| 7. Stranger In Blue Seude Shoes | | | | |
| 8. Everybody's Sometime And Some People All The Time Blues | | | | |
| 9. Two Goes Into Four | | | | |
This must have seemed like a promising idea on paper. Kevin Ayers, preparing to tour with his new band, decided to invite several friends and old colleagues to participate in a one-off concert. He invites Mike Oldfield (formerly with Ayers in The Whole World) and Robert Wyatt (formerly with Ayers in Soft Machine) to participate; moreover, he gets Eno, Nico and Cale to contribute their own selections for the show. By all signs, this should have been a monumental moment in prog-art-fusion history.
Instead, the album that results is actually fairly pedestrian, as such projects go. Perhaps the concert experience itself was more exciting than the product which was eventually released. Perhaps the song selection chosen for the release (I presume that this was not the entire show) doesn't quite do justice to the nature the event. Or perhaps Ayers simply wanted the names of the other musicians to help promote his endeavours. One way or the other, June 1, 1974 is an easy album to like, but not an album containing much in the way of depth of performance.
Perhaps the problem has something to do with the fact that these musicians weren't necessarily overly familiar with one another (Cale/Nico obviously excepted). Some tracks (particularly the Eno numbers) seem a bit disorganized, as if the musicians weren't yet familiar enough with the music at their fingertips. Alternately, song selection may be the problem -- the Ayers tracks generally aren't all that interesting (in these performances, at least). A third possibility is that there was simply too much talent to be utilized in the proper manner in the show (Wyatt isn't really much of a factor, Oldfield's appearance is limited to a mere two songs, and some might wonder if having two bass players on the Eno tracks was really needed). In any event, the album is only a limited success.
The Eno tracks commence the album on a somewhat uneven note. "Driving Me Backwards" actually gets a fairly decent treatment, with BE's vocalizing as the primary obstacle. The track is stated in a dirgelike manner, with a harmonica-effect strangely providing the melody in the middle of the song. The track eventually drifts into a vaguely tracelike development, and is notable for some good bass playing towards the end. Perhaps a step down from the album version, but still not bad.
This version of "Baby's On Fire", however, is a mishandling. The most primary error is that the guitar solo in the middle section of the track is eliminated entirely; while it might not have been possible for the musicians on the stage to reproduce it accurately, they could have at least put something in it's place, one would think... but they didn't. Eno's live singing is once again problematic (could this have been why he gave up on live shows shortly thereafter?), and the soft-sell conclusion doesn't win too many points either. As against that, though, it should be noted that (i) the (different) guitar solo at the end of the track is fairly good as regards sonic diversity, (ii) the performances on the introductory section were decent, and (iii) even in its debased form, the song is still fairly good... it just could have been much better.
"Heartbreak Hotel", strangely enough, is perhaps the highlight of the album. In John Cale's hands, this early rock and roll throwaway is transformed into a twisted, demented Gothic recitation. The vocals for this track are unbelieveably intense (particularly in contrast to the quasi-bansheeish nature of the backing vocalists), and, despite some minor flaws, the work comes through extremely well. Perhaps it's too bad that Cale wasn't granted another song on the album.
Nico's version of "The End" is not entirely satisfactory. The keyboard background (courtesy Eno) is handled quite well, and Nico does manage to attain a few moments of decent vocal quality. As against this... Jim Morrison's lyrics for this track are somewhat foolish when divorced from his personal delivery -- and Nico's vocal inflections certainly don't improve matters. The good still outweighs the bad, ultimately, but this too is far from the success it wishes to be.
Whatever the legacy of Kevin Ayers may be in a general sense, these particular tracks don't speak terribly well of his songwriting abilities. "May I?", first performed by The Whole World, isn't really much of a song; the guitar and keyboard lines are fairly simple, and they don't really develop as the song progressed. Ayers's voice is not overly impressive in this context. The song essentially gets by on cleverness -- for example, Ayers translating the lyrics into French for one verse. The musicians add a few decent flourishes as well, and the chorus is at least fairly catchy, thus propelling the song into slightly higher realms... but that's about it.
The rest of the Ayers songs are decent enough as pop numbers, but generally don't add up to much more. "Shouting In A Bucket Blues" relies perhaps a bit too heavily on standard blues-rock lines, though it should be noted that the first guitar solo is fairly good. The anthemic chorus is perfectly listenable as well, but ultimately isn't that substantial.
"Stranger In Blue Seude Shoes" is the nadir of the album. Picture, if you will, Ayers outlining a rather silly tale involving an Elvis impersonator (or could it be the real thing?) sharing a joint with him. Now picture the musical accompaniment not adding up to much (some decent drumming and a single ascension near the intro aside), and you basically have the song.
"Everybody's Sometime And Some People All The Time Blues" isn't much of a song either (a country-blues track of sorts), but it's notable for a decent Oldfield solo which prevents it from receiving an even lower rating. And this leads us to "Two Goes Into Four", which is certainly the most proggy of the Ayers tracks, but which is a bit unfocused, not very long, and not really anything overly special. It probably would have made for a decent encore number in terms of "capturing the moment", but 23 years later, it doesn't seem quite as purposeful.
This album is not strongly recommended to casual fans (although completists are sure to collect it in any event).