These days we offer platitudes to a lot of musicians who come out of the woodwork to make a new stand on wobbly legs, or have genuinely brilliant work heard and recognized by more arduous music fans who missed it the first time around in passing, or younger folks who never had the chance in the first place. And rightfully so. It seems odd to place
Kevin Ayers in this category, but he is perhaps the most enigmatic of all.
Ayers, who along with
Robert Wyatt and
Mike Ratledge founded
Soft Machine, left after its second album to pursue a career as a solo artist, releasing seminal psychedelic classics like
Joy of a Toy,
Shooting at the Moon, and
Bananamour, to name just three. He's recorded and performed with everybody from
Syd Barrett (who appeared as a sideman on
Ayers' first platter) to
Phil Manzanera,
Eno,
John Cale,
Nico, and
Elton John. He influenced
David Bowie, and was the musical companion of stalwart jazzmen like
Lol Coxhill and prog rockers like
Mike Oldfield,
Steve Hillage (speaking of enigmas) and the late guitarist
Ollie Halsall (a dear friend of
Ayers, who was truly shaken at his untimely death). Odd, but fitting. Throughout the '80s due to rather bacchanalian circumstances,
Ayers' final record for Virgin was not promoted; he began to retreat from the life and music he'd created: from England, then from touring, then from recording, too. He surfaced briefly with an acoustic album recorded in France with
Fairground Attraction, did a bit of collaboration with
Ultramarine, and the Wizard of Twiddly, and then poof...gone.