Kevin Coyne - Classic or Dud, Search & Destroy, etc. etc.

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I've got Case History Plus and Marjory Razorblade and a comp. called Sign Of The Times and based on those I reckon CLASSIC - but.... what next?

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:33 (twenty years ago) link

Is any of his post-Virgin 80's and 90's stuff any good?

And where oh wehere oh wher can I find a copy of Babble (the album he did with Dagmar Krause)?

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:33 (twenty years ago) link

".... wehere oh wher...."

Look - can you can see how upset I'm getting about this now?

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:35 (twenty years ago) link

"Case History" and "Marjory Razorblade" are his best work but "Blame It On the Night" is good too. Actually most of his albums are listenable but a tendency to go for the Joe Cocker market also mars most of them. "Babble" and "Bursting Bubbles" are both excellent. Don't know much about the post-Virgin material.

Now do you believe I'm not Kevin Coyne?

Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:39 (twenty years ago) link

I'll only believe it when you agree to stop persisting in the ridiculous notion that I'm Stewart Osborne.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:41 (twenty years ago) link

I also recommend the Peel Sessions LP (unusually enough for a Peel Sessions LP) and direct you in particular to "The Miner's Song" and "The Dance of the Bourgeoisie")

Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:44 (twenty years ago) link

Lured in by the "just like a British Captain Beefheart"-line that someone fed me once (hey, I was young and naive!), I've tried a couple of his records (Marjory Razorblade, Millionaires and Teddy-Bears) but didn't really get along with 'em at all. Cheerless and dreary old pub rock to my ears, I'm afraid. :o(

(Stewart, I still have a copy of Millionaires & Teddy-Bears (uggh, that title!) stuffed behind my wardrobe. Email me and I'll post it to you for nothing if you like. Actually, I never got back to you about a Starsailor trade so, err, y'know, maybe, ahem...)

NickB (NickB), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:54 (twenty years ago) link

I also recommend the Peel Sessions LP

Yeah, that's pretty good, been a while since I listened to it...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:10 (twenty years ago) link

The english Lou Reed, as far as what I've heared.

Except all I heard was "Stranger in BSS", "Butterfly Dance" and "Carribean Moon".

And obv. not counting the last track listed there...

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:14 (twenty years ago) link

"The english Lou Reed, as far as what I've heared."

The English Lou Reed is Knox of The Vibrators.

"Except all I heard was "Stranger in BSS", "Butterfly Dance" and "Carribean Moon"."

Ummm.... I think you'll find that's Kevin Ayers!

Nick B - you got yourself a deal mate!

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

Oh yeah, babble. Ooops.

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:35 (twenty years ago) link

I would say avoid Michael Mantler's godawful Pinter adaptation Silence on which Coyne appears as a last-minute substitute for Alex Harvey, but I note that on CD it's twinned with the Beckett adaptation No Answer (w/C Bley, Jack Bruce, Don Cherry) which is urgent and key. Why couldn't they have twinned it with The Hapless Child instead? Now there's a record for you...

Marcello Carlin, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:37 (twenty years ago) link

my first exposure to him was 99's 'Sugar Candy Taxi' and i think it's a good, nice album. i also own "Marjory Razorblade" and the live "In Living Black & White". i'm not the biggest fan of the latter mainly because i just don't like live albums and haven't given it the time it deserves, but it got good ratings on amg

JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:59 (twenty years ago) link

Erin McKeown, who is all over BBC2 TV and BBC Radio 2 now, has Slung-Lo (and also something obnoxious about starting or learning or beginning to "hum") which keeps reminding me of Coyne's Love On Your Heart which was on the Cherry Red Pillows & Prayers comp. LP. c. 1980.

Micky Kay, Monday, 10 November 2003 19:37 (twenty years ago) link

kevin coyne, to me, represents the failure of rock and roll. i saw him play about two or three years ago to an audience of about 30 with one of his sons backing him up (and some other nameless guys). there was something so completely real about his rendition of "having a party" that almost put tears in my eyes.

"marjory razorblade" is the only one i ever listen to; i've been wanting a copy of "case history" but i've never seen it around on vinyl.

j fail (cenotaph), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link

"Marjory Razorblade" is a really fine record, a favourite of mine; the other I have is "Dynamite Daze", which is slightly a case of diminishing returns, but it has much that is good material. "Juliet and Mark" (IIRC that title) is my particularly favoured song there.
"Room Full of Fools" I've heard part of via the ability to listen to clips of all tracks from records in my local Borders; it sounded good, but inconsistent. The slower, more melancholic ones seemed better than the blues-rock. A more sparse sound might have suited it all a bit better. But of course, my judgement is finite, as I've not heard it in full.

Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link

I would say avoid Michael Mantler's godawful Pinter adaptation Silence on which Coyne appears as a last-minute substitute for Alex Harvey, but I note that on CD it's twinned with the Beckett adaptation No Answer (w/C Bley, Jack Bruce, Don Cherry) which is urgent and key. Why couldn't they have twinned it with The Hapless Child instead? Now there's a record for you...

What, Alex Harvey was supposed to be on that record? Wow. Can you imagine if Kevin Coyne AND Alex Harvey had been on it - and Carla Bley hadn't sung at all? Of course it still wouldn't have been very good. I was talking about "Babble" just before this thread was posted - I mean, can you imagine a vocal duet more likely to clear a room than Kevin Coyne with Dagmar Krause? (OK maybe Kevin Coyne with Carla Bley). The interesting thing about "Babble" is that it's pretty poppy then you remember what, or rather who, it's about - then it becomes slightly creepy.

Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 13:01 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...
glad to read about good old Kevin
if you want to read more, try:

Kevin's site:
http://www.kevincoyne.de/

Pascal's Kevin Coyne Page:
http://www.kevincoynepage.tk/

the Kevin Coyne Group:
http://www.kevincoyne.tk/

All the best

Pascal

Pascal, Sunday, 18 April 2004 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

I'm a fan. Saw him live some years ago, and he looked like the great old British wrestler Les Kellett, weirdly.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:42 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

Does anyone have any opinions about The Dandelion Years 3CD set which has apparently just been reissued - and in particular whether it's worth me springing 15 quid for the Siren stuff on the first 2 discs, when I've already got most of the contents of the 3rd one on Case History Plus?

Similarly, what's the verdict on One Night In Chicago, the album he was working on with Jon Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts when he sadly and unexpectedly died in December '94? Was it really the return-to-form that some critics seem to have hailed it as, or was that just wistful thinking?

It seems like most of his back-catalogue has been re-issued since his death, but still no sign of the one I really want: Babble.

Stewart Osborne, Thursday, 27 September 2007 08:57 (sixteen years ago) link

I have "The Marjorie Razorblade Experience" which was on a Virgin records sampler "V".

You may know/have that one already, as it had two live Beefheart tracks that remained unissued until the recent virgin "live" CD.

And you'll be glad to know, I don't think he's Kevin Ayers anymore.

Mark G, Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:01 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't like the Siren stuff all that much. "Case History" is where it all starts in earnest.

Tom D., Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:04 (sixteen years ago) link

when he sadly and unexpectedly died in December '94?

Then made a miraculous recovery and died again in December 2004.

Tom D., Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:06 (sixteen years ago) link

".... it had two live Beefheart tracks that remained unissued until the recent virgin "live" CD"

Although prior to it's official release last year, that same Live In London / Drury Lane 1974 recording must surely have been in the running for some sort of award for the bootleg that was most frequently and conspicuously available from normally respectable High-Street and on-line retailers.

Which wouldn't have been so bad if the recording hadn't been made by Virgin to start with and had been of one of the many respectable incarnations of The Magic Band and not of the miserable miserable "Tragic Band".

Fwiw I believe there's supposed to be proper fim footage of that concert, probably unedited and probably rotting away forgotten in some EMI vault.

"And you'll be glad to know, I don't think he's Kevin Ayers anymore."

Just as well, otherwise you'd be reading the reviews of The Unfairground an interpreting the expression "return to form" a bit too literally!

Stewart Osborne, Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:21 (sixteen years ago) link

"Then made a miraculous recovery and died again in December 2004."

He only did that to confuse Mark.

Stewart Osborne, Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:23 (sixteen years ago) link

They kept swapping band members in the mid 70s did Ayers & Coyne. I know Common Kev was a fan of Posh Kev too.

Tom D., Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:26 (sixteen years ago) link

I got "Unconditionally" not so long ago, hey I like it better than "Mirrorman".. it's not so far from "Clear Spot"

Is "Bluejeans" just as bad/OK/good/whatever?

Mark G, Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:30 (sixteen years ago) link

"Bluejeans" is kinda worse but has better songs, if that makes any sense - "Observatory Crest", title track. "Further Than We've Gone" = a thing of beauty and wonder.

Tom D., Thursday, 27 September 2007 09:35 (sixteen years ago) link

I prefer Unconditionally Guaranteed - at least it's a proper Magic Band.

The songs Tom names are all OK, as is "Party Of Special Things To Do"; but I wouldn't have said any of them were markedy better than "Sugar Bowl", "New Electric Ride", "I Got Love On My Mind" or "This Is The Day" - and to my mind there's nothing on Bluejeans & Moonbeams that's as good as "Upon The My O My" or "Full Moon Hot Sun", nor is there anything on Unconditionally Guaranteed that's as wretched as "Pompadour Swamp" or as pointless as "Captain's Holiday".

who will defend unconditionally guaranteed or blue jeans and moonbeams?

Stewart Osborne, Thursday, 27 September 2007 10:12 (sixteen years ago) link

"Pompadour Swamp" isn't that bad!

Tom D., Thursday, 27 September 2007 10:14 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

just got case history and it's one of those i wish i'd been listening to for years. "a leopard never changes its spots" is dope. if this album's representative at all, this guy's stuff is way too hard to locate for how good it is

kamerad, Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:31 (fourteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

And where oh wehere oh wher can I find a copy of Babble (the album he did with Dagmar Krause)?

Listening to a copy of this now -- it's quite remarkable, a truly theatrical performance.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 May 2010 02:24 (thirteen years ago) link

Love "Saviour" from Matching Head and Feet. Did he ever do anything else like it?

Bashful Johnny C. (staggerlee), Thursday, 13 May 2010 03:46 (thirteen years ago) link

Lots about Coyne from me and George (who are both somehow just now discovering him), starting here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

xhuxk, Thursday, 13 May 2010 04:07 (thirteen years ago) link

Funny to read American dudes talking about Kevin Coyne, a lot of his stuff must be well nigh incomprehensible to them, but Mark E. Smith seems to get away with it. Still don't know how many of the Americans have heard "Ey Up, Me Duck" or "The Miner's Song", which don't make much sense outside Derbyshire let alone the UK!

"The Nail on the Bannister" by R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 13 May 2010 09:18 (thirteen years ago) link

three years pass...

Thread about annoying and ridiculous singing voices being best made me think of Kevin & Dagmar, of course...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIKUVhZU5AM

Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Friday, 5 July 2013 17:25 (ten years ago) link

... unfortunately the songs seemed to have been edited out!

Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Friday, 5 July 2013 17:29 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGoAPGSdxhM

Demeraray & Essequebo (Tom D.), Friday, 12 February 2016 20:39 (eight years ago) link

three weeks pass...

A marvellous man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uUef7viRnI

Thomas of Britain (Tom D.), Sunday, 6 March 2016 15:41 (eight years ago) link

wish there was more footage of that babble performance available.

no lime tangier, Sunday, 6 March 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link

(xp) Just realized that Magma is being used as incidental music in this clip.

Thomas of Britain (Tom D.), Monday, 7 March 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh2kxtlLeX8

Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 June 2017 22:11 (six years ago) link

Dude needs a good box set.

Mark G, Monday, 26 June 2017 14:49 (six years ago) link

In fact, that gig that has the full suite of "Marjory Razorblade" needs re/issuing in full!

Mark G, Monday, 26 June 2017 14:50 (six years ago) link

Well, Mark, you probably want to look out for "Kevin Coyne ‎– I Want My Crown" the 4CD anthology, which has two versions of the "suite" (but no "Looking for the River" for some reason - Keep that "V" sampler, oh you have!)

That set is going for silly money, but there's an MP3 d/l version on Amazon, so you know, etc.

Mark G, Monday, 26 June 2017 14:59 (six years ago) link

eight months pass...

At my daughter’s honor band concert and one of the principals of the participating high schools is named Kevin Coyne.

Leslie “POLLS” Hartley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 24 March 2018 17:26 (six years ago) link


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