Kevin Ayers demo-pitch

Kevin Ayers, “Unfairground”

From The Unfairground (Gigantic)

vintage violets //Out Now

(demo-pitch, no go, would have been pub. in 2007)

Aye, ‘tis  the almost-title track (“The” dropped to make the protest more emphatic?) from Kevin Ayers' first album since 1992's Still Life With Guitar, a title that would be all too appropriate for

several tracks in this set, despite the all-star accompaniment (Hugh

Hopper, Phil Manzanera, Architecture In Helsinki, Euro Childs, many

more). At first he confines himself to a gruff petulance, and the

backup's deferential, not to mention genteel and drippy (despite my

loving some of the guests' own albums). But "Wide Awake" pulls him into the

music, of his writing and the ensemble, "and when I'm dancing and

singing along, it doesn't matter if it's right, doesn't matter if it's

wrong," which suits both his stoical and hedonistic tendencies (his own press kit mentions---well, never mind 'til edit).The song ends with a jolt. But he's still

awake, and has a "Brainstorm": "So you shout, so you scream, 'Give me

back my dream,' but if it's lost if it's gone, I won't keep hanging

on, so the storm, can blow me away," with cracking loose-wire guitar

after that, waiting for him, although not quite

dangerous-enough-seeming for the context, to my taste, anyway. But

then "Unfairground" finds him lured back into the sporting life, prowling the

galleries, seeking a prize, 'til the carnival music slides him back

into the country daylight, another sucker observing "birds in singing

in a cage. You understand you lost one. You step outside your

rage"(yeah, because we get a jolting, loping beat on this song, a

shrug, an elbow, a number of turns, also with guitar strum and

bouncing bass bow for a while, and he's past the aforementioned

petulance) "But what's left to believe in. The children in the lake? I

didn't see them go under. Let's try, another take." Told you there

were some jolts and turns! Not that he's that far from the tunnel of

love or his beloved (bottle) or  "you", whom he's murmuring all this to,

the old terseness serving him well for the moment(in balance with imagery and

stealthy progress). If we didn't get to use this song, those others

would be okay, and I could still talk about this 'un (oh yeah, and in the

last one, "Run Run Run", he seems to be married again, and handling it

okay, face-to-face-wise; some good terse vitality here too)