It’s about time the eclectic folk, blues, rock ‘n’ roll of English vocalist extraordinaire Kevin Coyne gets a mention without a faraway footnote notation. Thankfully, my local Volta Records in Milwaukee stocked the newly reissued Live Rough and More and previously unheard Shangri-La: Live in Bremen 1975 and 2001 all these years after his death in 2004.
His music is raw and brilliant, and it orbits in the ethos of old vinyl grooves of such sublime eccentrics as Peter Hammill and Roy Harper. So yeah, this is great stuff, with a roughly sawed (yet oddly hummable!) razor edge that in a weird way soundtracks a journey into Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, or perhaps, a place where very human lovers attempt to negotiate a life across the perils of a “world” that always “is full of fools.”
For the initiate: Kevin Coyne was an idiosyncratic voice that crashed the often inflated progressive ’70s folderol into the memories of his work as a social therapist and psychiatric nurse at Whittingham Hospital. Indeed, mega band Yes recorded an album called Close to the Edge, but Coyne performed on an authentic edge that was always a dance too close to a “Turpentine” precipice for commercial radio comfort.
Now, time and nostalgia have revived interest in Syd Barrett’s two solo albums and Skip Spence’s post-Moby Grape record. Indeed, fans of those guys will find a similar simmering soul in Kevin Coyne’s work. But in serious contrast, his music is always lucid with oddly beautiful madness.
By the way, Coyne recorded two Siren albums and one truly original solo work, 1972’s Case History, for John Peel’s cool Dandelion label. He was also the second artist signed to the (then hippest!) Virgin Records, after, of course, Tubular Bells guy Mike Oldfield. He has countless brilliant and demanding albums released through so many years like Marjory Razorblade, Matching Head and Feet, Dynamite Daze, Heartburn, and later records like Sugar Candy Taxi, The Adventures of Crazy Frank, and Carnival.
Until he died, Coyne’s very British psychological journey that churned in his love for the Mississippi River’s blues current never stopped in his “strange locomotion.”
Live Rough and More is a Bremen, Germany live recording from 1985 with superb sound. His band, Steve Lamb (bass), Peter Kirtley (guitar), and Dave Sheen rip and roar through classic Coyne songs. Both “Dark Dance Hall” (from Bursting Bubbles) and “Pretty Park” (from Millionaires and Teddy Bears) get a sonic rough ‘n’ roll makeover. This is stigmata-etched music. “Saviour” gets a 10-minute plus baptism. Nice.
Then Kevin bares his enduring love for “Lucille.” There are more extensions of great tunes: “Sunday Morning Sunrise” spans seven minutes; “House on the Hill” gets an equally vibrant retread. Oh my, this band stretches into an (almost) jazz-rock universe with improvisation that sizzles with the tingle of Marjory’s razorblade that still “cuts a swatch right through their undignified ways.” This music is naked and nearly drowned emotion that, somehow, surfaces with a gasp and a taut grasp for very melodic air. It’s a brilliant Kevin Coyne record.
The other release, the two-disc Shangri-La: Live in Bremen 1975 and 2001, bleeds more profound rock ‘n’ roll with even more very human heart-pulsed passion. The 1975 band is the same as the 1977 live album In Living Black and White, with Andy Summers (later guitarist with the Police), Zoot Money (electric piano), Steve Thompson (bass) and Peter Woolf (drums). The track listing is similar with several ageless Coyne cuts: “Eastbourne Ladies” (which gets a wild ride!), “House on the Hill,” “Sunday Morning Sunrise,” “Saviour,” “One Fine Day,” (the always razor vein-cutting) “Turpentine,” and the theatrical “Mummy” (which makes a much deeper dent in the shrink’s couch than Jim Morrison’s attempt at Oedipus-influenced lyric writing) is paired with the appropriate coda, “My Mother’s Eyes.”
The before-referenced “Strange Locomotion” is resurrected from those good old Siren days. “Poor Swine,” “Shangri-La,” and a wonderfully odd “Ad-Lib” (about being “normal”) are added in this show.
The concert also includes three covers, as “Going Down Slow” begins the album; the Blind Willie Johnson and Led Zeppelin tune “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” cuts a nice slide guitar ride; and “Reelin’ and Rockin’” ends the recording. It’s a reminder that Kevin Coyne, even when embedded in the depths of “rough and sweet” song-writing intensity, understands the old rebel heart as it throbs with a sainted dry gulch gulped and deep-roasted “Rock ‘n’ Roll Hymn” that is forever and a day covering Dylan’s thought about “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Great rock music does just that, every once in a while.
The hat trick is completed on the second disc, recorded at a 2001 concert again in Bremen. This is a trio performance, with Coyne’s vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica framed by Keili Keilhofer’s electric guitar and Werner Steinhauser’s percussion. A blues vibe (with a psych touch) is the flavor of the night, and the tunes are a nice dip into the Kevin Coyne songbook. Sure, “Saviour” is still a standard, but the band performs “Cheat Me,” “Karate King,” “Fat Girl,” and the brilliant “Araby” from Case History. There are a few more recent songs in the mix: (the ever-popular) “Happy Little Fat Man” and “My Wife’s Best Friend” from Sugar Candy Taxi, “Schoolboy” from Knocking on Your Brain, and “Gina’s Song” from Legless in Manila. And “Must Be Love” is (I believe) new to Shangri-La: Live in Bremen 1975 and 2001. This one is a really cool blast from a really cool past.
So, there they are: Three brilliant live albums with great sound from the one-of-a-kind, idiosyncratic, blues-folk (and everything else) guy Kevin Coyne, an artist who defied the ’70s ethos of prog fantasy, hard-rock machoism, and folky sentimentalism. Rather, he sang, with photographic tintype exposure, into real lives — lives filled with madness, sadness, intense passion, rock ‘n’ roll vinyl stylus touch, a bit of Babble, the odd “Old Fashioned Love Song,” a few “Porcupine People,” a dance called the “Chicken Wing,” Dear “Mona” and a question about missing “trousers,” and thankfully, “Wendy’s” wonderful “dream of Ireland.”
As said, sometimes great rock music, besides “relaxing with Bonnie Lou,” gets to do just that – every once in a while.
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