Much like the Alan Parsons Project, I only ever bought Kevin Ayers’s first solo album, Joy of a Toy, back in the days when I was exploring a lot of new prog. As an addendum to the essay in my I Robot review (which will likely be published after this one) about having gaps in my knowledge around certain artists, I had forgotten how significant money was as a factor in my purchases.
These days, I use Spotify just like everyone else, but when I was younger, I was a huge CD hoarder, always looking for good deals on albums I wanted to hear. I would occasionally try the album on YouTube first (there were usually channels that shared full albums, before YouTube Music officially dropped) and if I wasn’t sure that it would rock my boat, I simply wouldn’t buy it, as I didn’t want to waste money on music I wouldn’t listen to.
I had bought Joy of a Toy as I enjoyed Ayers’s contributions to Soft Machine’s debut album and wanted to see his take on the genre. What I found left me underwhelmed: a bunch of whimsical, nonsensical tunes that certainly had their moments but were hard to take seriously individually or as a collection. It wasn’t bad music, by any means, but it didn’t do anything for me.
So, the remainder of Ayers’s extensive catalogue went unheard for a decade and a half. Once I close the door on an artist, it’s quite hard to re-open it, even when all the tracks are readily available on the streaming service I pay for. I’ll confess, last year, I did put my hand up to review a reissue of Ayers’s 1988 album Falling Up, but it was so far from anything I’d remotely deem ‘progressive’ that I simply refused to spend my precious time writing about it.
This year, Esoteric handed me another opportunity to give Ayers’s discography another go with a vinyl reissue of his second solo album, Shooting at the Moon, cut at Abbey Road Studios, which I used to pass every day on the way to work. As time goes on, I always find it worth revisiting things I thought I didn’t like but can’t really remember why, as I’ll sometimes find that my tastes have completely shifted.
It should be noted that the ‘solo album’ status of Shooting at the Moon is contested, as it is credited to Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, a veritable supergroup formed of David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mick Fincher (who doesn’t seem to appear anywhere else in music history except for the Whole World) and last but certainly not least, a pre-stardom Mike Oldfield on bass and guitar. When I realised that I’d heard three of these musicians make wildly experimental records of their own, it suddenly made a lot of sense that Shooting at the Moon was so eclectic and difficult to pin down.
It’s a chaotic record indeed. On the back of the vinyl sleeve, only four ‘tracks’ are listed, but three of them are split into multiple parts. The parts don’t resemble each other at all, and none of the ‘tracks’ feel like a suite at all, so there may as well just be ten songs on the album. These songs range from mellow pop – May I?, The Oyster and the Flying Fish and Clarence in Wonderland – to hard prog – Rheinhardt and Geraldine, Lunatics Lament and the title track Shooting at the Moon – to straight-up free time experimental music – Pisser dans un violon and Underwater.
We’ll begin with the pop. May I? is a decent number to start the album with Ayers’s stylistic lyrics, but the vinyl format robs the album of the French version Puis je?, which is often featured as a bonus track on the CD version; I happen to enjoy Ayers’s French vocals more. The Oyster and the Flying Fish seems a bit too childish for me, and Clarence in Wonderland is too short.
Everyone defines ‘prog’ differently, but there’s not a lot of my sort of ‘prog’ on this album. Rheinhardt and Geraldine, which segues into Colores Para Dolores, is easily my favourite track though, and does satisfy. Beginning with a killer theme and Oldfield holding down the bass, the track suddenly features a piece of musique concrète, seemingly formed by switching quickly between the sound of the band and the sound of an orchestra. This discombobulating (but not awful) interjection only lasts a minute before the piece reaches a powerful conclusion, with the Whole World joined by Robert Wyatt as a choir member. Excellent stuff. I wish the rest of the record was like this.
The title track, on the other hand, is about as lazy as it gets, with the band simply playing the same repeated odd time signature riff over and over for around four minutes during the instrumental. I found myself more moved by the dark experimental piece Pisser dans un violon, which begins with some light interplay between Coxhill on electric sax and Bedford on a synthesiser. Soon, Oldfield joins in with some of the darkest-sounding bass timbres you’ve ever heard. I was enjoying this improvisational exploration so much that I was a bit sad when it came to an abrupt halt after eight minutes.
This album appropriately represents all the players on it (except for perhaps Mick Fincher, who might frustratingly remain a mystery to me forever) in that it never sticks to one genre; none of the musicians ever did either, whether solo or together. Some listeners may enjoy an assorted jumble of various turn-of-the-decade genres, all loosely held together by Ayers’s charm and inventiveness, but it’s not an experience I find particularly satisfying.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
01. May I? (4:01)
02. Rheinhardt & Geraldine/Colores Para Dolores (5:41)
03. Lunatics Lament (4:53)
04. Pisser Dans un Violon (8:02)
Side Two
01. The Oyster and the Flying Fish (2:37)
02. Underwater (3:54)
03. Clarence in Wonderland (2:06)
04. Red Green and You Blue (3:52)
04. Shooting at the Moon (5:53)
Total Time – 40:59
MUSICIANS
Kevin Ayers – Guitar, Bass, Vocals
– The Whole World
David Bedford – Organ, Piano, Accordion, Marimbaphone, Guitar
Lol Coxhill – Saxophone, Zoblophone
Mike Oldfield – Bass, Guitar, Vocal
Mick Fincher – Drums, Percussion, Bottles & Ashtrays
The Whole World Chorus – Backing Vocals
~ With:
Bridget St. John – Vocals (Side 2 track 1)
Robert Wyatt – Vocals (Side 1 track 2)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Esoteric Recordings | Cherry Red Records
Catalogue#: QECLECLP2909
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 30th May 2025
Originally Released: October 1970
LINKS
Kevin Ayers – Cherry Red Records Info
