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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Those enamoured of the Canterbury scene will eventually come across Kevin Ayers. Nearly 30 years after seeing the ads in the music press for Banamour, I decided to try it out. It's not what I expected, seemingly far removed from Soft Machine and only the most passing and distant simiarity with Caravan. It's hardly progressive but, after 2-3 plays, it does become compulsive. A mixed, mellow compilation that gets under the skin - interesting vocal and guitar effects all in some type of challenging singer-songwriter frame. Never mainstream but masquerading as something accessible - which it is but also challenging on another level. I don't think they make stuff like this anymore. It's why the 70's was so distinctive and unique - music of character and a little eccentricity? Makes me want to explore the Ayers colection a bit further
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have loved this album since it was first released and it just gets better and better as the years have passed. The first album is charming and lovely, the second a bit too patchy, the third is very good, but Bananamour is the one. It has everything I associate with Kevin Ayers. It is fun, stoned, happy, warm, silly, soulful, melodic, laid back, engaging, tasteful, drunken, intelligent, unpretentious, joyful music, well played (take a bow Steve Hillage) and well produced. The remastered cd sounds great and the booklet includes the inserts which came with the original album, plus an informative essay (although I would still like to know who played the synth on "Decadence"). The extra tracks enhance the original. Oh, and just like the other three remasters, the cd itself is a facsimile of that wonderful two tone green Harvest label! Don't think, just buy it.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Kevin Ayers and the band 747 toured the Bananamour album in 1973 as Banana Follies and I was fortunate to see them at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on May 26th. The sleeve notes to this release mention that the preceding night's QEH gig on the 25th was recorded for a possible live LP "but Ayers' performance proved lacklustre and the overall result proved too disappointing to release". Perhaps they recorded the wrong night as I remember no such shortcomings and it seemed as if Kevin Ayers was on the verge of major stardom.
Although both the band and the material lacked the eccentricity and inspiration of his former outfit, the Whole World, it seemed that these concessions had made him and the band into more of a commercial proposition.
This is also true of this album. The whole affair is very restrained in a rather deliberate and British fashion, and this works to good advantage on some of the numbers, such as the excellent Shouting In A Bucket Blues, which features Steve Hillage on guitar, though at times there are lyrical weaknesses, and whimsical tributes to Syd Barrett and Nico both fail to show real insight into their subjects. Overall, though, this is still a strong and idiosyncratic album. Archie Leggett is allowed a lead vocal on the soully mock-sinister When Your Parents Go To Sleep, with a horn section featuring Howie Casey, and Soft Machine buddy organist Mike Ratledge solos on Interview.
Stardom failed to follow and Kevin's next release was on the Island label.
Of the bonus tracks, the highlight is a reggae reworking of old favourite Clarence In Wonderland, recorded with the band Greyhound, under the title Connie On A Rubber Band.
Although both the band and the material lacked the eccentricity and inspiration of his former outfit, the Whole World, it seemed that these concessions had made him and the band into more of a commercial proposition.
This is also true of this album. The whole affair is very restrained in a rather deliberate and British fashion, and this works to good advantage on some of the numbers, such as the excellent Shouting In A Bucket Blues, which features Steve Hillage on guitar, though at times there are lyrical weaknesses, and whimsical tributes to Syd Barrett and Nico both fail to show real insight into their subjects. Overall, though, this is still a strong and idiosyncratic album. Archie Leggett is allowed a lead vocal on the soully mock-sinister When Your Parents Go To Sleep, with a horn section featuring Howie Casey, and Soft Machine buddy organist Mike Ratledge solos on Interview.
Stardom failed to follow and Kevin's next release was on the Island label.
Of the bonus tracks, the highlight is a reggae reworking of old favourite Clarence In Wonderland, recorded with the band Greyhound, under the title Connie On A Rubber Band.
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