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Shooting At The Moon
 
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Shooting At The Moon [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered]

~ Kevin Ayers
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £4.98 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Shooting At The Moon + Joy Of A Toy + Whatevershebringswesing
Price For All Three: £14.94

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  • This item: Shooting At The Moon ~ Kevin Ayers & the Whole World

    In stock.
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  • Joy Of A Toy ~ Kevin Ayers

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  • Whatevershebringswesing ~ Kevin Ayers

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Product details

  • Audio CD (2 Jun 2003)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
  • Label: EMI Records
  • ASIN: B00008Y2IV
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 26,889 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. May I
2. Rheinhardt And Geraldine
3. Colores Para Delores
4. Lunatic Lament
5. Pisser Dans Un Violon
6. Oyster And The Flying Fish
7. Underwater
8. Clarence In Wonderland
9. Red Green And You Blue
10. Shooting At The Moon
11. Gemini Child
12. Puis Je
13. Butterfly Dance
14. Jolie Madame
15. Hat

Product Description

Description
SHOOTING AT THE MOON, originally released in 1970, was Kevin Ayers's second solo album after leaving the Soft Machine, and his first recorded with his touring band of the moment, Kevin Ayers & the Whole World. Retrospectively, of course, this band became somewhat legendary, as Ayers's primary collaborators were reedsman Lol Coxhill and an 18-year-old whiz-kid guitarist named Mike Oldfield, both of whom later went onto much bigger things. But even on its own merits, SHOOTINGAT THE MOON is one of Ayers' finest albums. Lacking the faux-naif persona of his solo debut, JOY OF A TOY, and recording with a full band for the first time since the Soft Machine's first album, Ayers creates challenging, compelling music that doesn't stint on his trademark whimsy.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent annoyances, 16 Jul 2003
By gigidunnit (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
Kevin Ayers is infuriating. No doubt about it. There isn't a single wholly successful album, and after "The Confessions Of Doctor Dream" there's nothing you'd own up to owning. But all the early albums are vital: "Joy Of A Toy" for its clutch of quirky pop songs, "Whatevershebringswesing" for its shrill orchestrated "There Is Loving", "Bananamour" for its glorious affirmation of the word "stoned", "Doctor Dream" for that extraordinary side-length bad trip of a title track. But head and shoulders above the others, in both terms of being musically adventurous and impossibly bloody-minded, there's 1970's "Shooting At The Moon". You'll love it, even the bits you hate.

This is the classic and short lived Whole World line-up: Ayers on laid-back baritone vocals and guitar, Mike Oldfield on bass (! -- there are no grandstanded guitar solos, so don't expect a "Rock Bottom" style release in tension!), David Bedford on keyboards, Mick Fincher on drums and Lol Coxhill making farting noises on the saxophone. There are a couple of recognisable songs -- "May I?" is a faintly dodgy Parisian cafe chat-up line ("May I sit and stare at you for a while?/I'd love the company of your smile" -- pleeeze), "Clarence In Wonderland" a jaunty snippet from the old Soft Machine days later worked up during Ayers' tenure with Gong, "Red Green And You Blue" a jazzy ballad -- but there are also lengthy freeform sections, particularly "Pisser Dans Un Violin" which is a lengthy AMM-style sequence of drones, random noise, piano wire scratching and distant Mike Oldfield guitar slightly reminiscent of the "Moonchild" improvisation on the first King Crimson album, or anything by The Taj Mahal Travellers.

Annoyances remain in force throughout. "The Oyster And The Flying Fish" is a child's song duetted with Bridget St John, which will only appeal to those who can deal with St John's dull and undistinguished vocals. (Pity he couldn't get Nico on board -- she's the creepy female voice on "Doctor Dream".) The brilliant "Rheinhardt And Geraldine" breaks off suddenly for a section of tape montage in which hundreds of fraction-of-a-second snippets of music are spliced together to form a bridge into the equally brilliant "Colores Para Dolores". This may be the album's most enthralling sequence, but the montage, which must have taken hours of painstaking work, sounds almost exactly like the sound of a CD being played on fast forward, so has much less impact these days.

The album's centrepiece is the title track, again an old Soft Machine song but utterly transformed into a giddy psychedelic swirl in a mind-hurting 3/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/4 rhythm. This is one of Ayers's true classics, and along with the "Rheinhardt"/"Colores" sequence an essential piece of the jigsaw. Though at his worst Ayers can be lightweight and unsufferably sunny, these two pieces have real teeth and indicate the looming shadow of "Doctor Dream" just beginning to appear on the Ibiza horizon. This album is highly recommended but don't expect to enjoy more than a quarter of it on first listen. It will grow on you until it becomes indispensible.

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8 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric genius, 27 Jun 2003
By Fletch-a-sketch "Fletch" (Wiltshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
This album contains much of what is good about Kevin Ayres as a songwriter many of the songs stroll along with an unrivalled melody. However what lets this album down today is the two experimental tracks which could be compared to `Revolution number 9' by the Beatles, Pisser dans un violon & Underwater. However when the music is right it is very right from `Clarence in wonderland' and `May I' (as a bonus you also get the French language version of this `Puis Ju'). Watch out for the young Mike Oldfield and his blistering guitar solo in `Lunatics Lament', surely putting him in the same bracket as Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck. Looses a star for 'Pisser' and 'Underwater'
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Shooting At The Moon
66% buy the item featured on this page:
Shooting At The Moon 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
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