Kevin Ayers
Singing a Song in the Morning

THE REVIEW

Kevin Ayers was the king of the realm of laziness. A huge musical talent used to distort the pop song until it became pure experimentation. Like his great friend Mike Oldfield, he was never a great example of musical commitment, paraphrasing a famous phrase "with great talent comes great responsibility", and he avoided throughout his career the responsibilities imposed by the show business. Afflicted by tropical lassitude, he grew up in Southeast Asia, carefully rationed his talent over a series of albums now rightfully considered fundamental classics of rock. Frequently cited by today's more avant-garde indie scene, Kevin Ayers is the forgotten yet often remembered par excellence. In 1970, he released his first 45 rpm following the excellent album "Joy of a Toy", an album that synthesized all the quirky, romantic, and hedonistic vein of Ayers' poetry. Someone might remember him by saying that, in the end, he essentially wrote songs about three topics: drinking, screwing, and drinking after screwing.

"Singing a Song in the Morning" is a masterful anthem to morning idling, a song to sing at the top of your lungs while in the shower. Recorded together with much of Caravan, in the original tape it features another great friend of Kevin, Syd Barrett, here in one of his last record appearances before the magical oblivion that would make him enter directly into the rock Olympus. Barrett plays the guitar and perhaps sings, the data is not abundant, in the choruses. Today, both versions, with and without Syd, are available in the beautiful 2003 reissue of "Joy of a Toy", a reissue with an excellent booklet full of information and details.