KEVIN COYNE
''CASE HISTORY''
2013
1971
75:46
1 God Bless The Bride (Kevin Coyne, Nick Cudworth) 03:51
2 White Horse 04:10
3 Uggy's Song 02:55
4 Need Somebody 04:12
5 Evil Island Home 04:58
6 Araby 03:35
7 My Message To The People 05:20
8 Mad Boy 04:42
9 Sand All Yellow (Clague, Kevin Coyne, Nick Cudworth) 05:41
10 Cheat Me (Bonus Track) 03:11
11 Flowering Cherry (B-Side) (Bonus Track) 02:40
12 Flowering Cherry (Bonus Track) 02:41
13 Evil Island Home (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track) 03:37
14 My Message To The People (Previously Unreleased Alternative Version) (Bonus Track) 06:33
15 Mad Boy (Alternative Version) (Bonus Track) 04:12
16 Doctor Love (Bonus Track) 03:16
17 Cheat Me (Radio Version) (Bonus Track) 03:51
18 Flowering Cherry (Alternative Mix) (Bonus Track) 02:30
19 God Bless The Bride (Alternative Mix) (Kevin Coyne, Nick Cudworth) (Bonus Track) 03:42
Tracks By Coyne, Except As Indicated
Ron Brown/Trombone
John Chichester/Guitar
Dave Clague/Bass, Guitar
Kevin Coyne/Guitar, Vocals
Nick Cudworth/Guitar, Piano
Tat Meager/Drums
Mick Sweeney/Guitar
REVIEW
by John Dougan / AMG
Coyne's first solo recording is a triumphant, if occasionally bleak, look at life's outsiders. Using his time as social worker in a government-run mental hospital as a basis for his narratives, Coyne deals with issues of intense alienation, indifference, substance abuse (to which he was no stranger), and mental instability in a world that would rather forget these people existed, and a labyrinthine governmental bureaucracy that often denied their humanity. This is not a happy record, and is only infrequently hopeful, but it's never cynical, and neither does Coyne indulge in glib condescension. He acts as a subjective documentarian, an advocate for a group of people who desperately need one. Reissued on CD with extra tracks by the import label Dandelion/See For Miles in 1994.
BIOGRAPHY
by John Dougan / AMG
Many singer/songwriters have been more heralded, but few produced more good work or did so for longer than Kevin Coyne. While virtually unknown in America, Coyne released dozens of records, most of them very good, that dealt primarily with outsiders: men, women, and children arbitrarily shunted to the fringes of society, or worse, locked away and left alone. His songs could be extraordinarily compassionate and, in the blink of an eye, angry, anguished, and accusatory. Perhaps the most durable and telling image of Kevin Coyne is the cover photo of his album In Living Black & White. On the front, Coyne is smiling and politely bowing to an unseen audience; the back of the album jacket is the same photo taken from the rear, with Coyne clutching an open straight razor.
Born in Derby, England, in 1944, Coyne, like many rock & roll performers who came of age in early postwar Britain, was an art school student who fell in love with American R&B. Living a bohemian life in late-'60s London, Coyne was employed for a while as a socio-therapist for alcoholics and the emotionally disturbed, jobs that would profoundly affect his approach to music. In 1969 his first band, Siren, signed to influential BBC DJ John Peel's specialty label, Dandelion. Two years and two excellent records later, Peel dissolved his label and Coyne embarked on a solo career. Married with two children, Coyne supported both his family and musical career by returning to social work. In many ways, his solo debut, Case History, set the tone for his career. Based on his social work experiences, it was a riveting examination of the desperate search for love by those forcibly exiled to the fringes of society. With his bluesy voice wailing almost inconsolably, Case History is a naked examination of people (Coyne included) whose lives are in constant turmoil: betrayed, institutionalized, unwanted, and mostly unloved. The characters in these songs cry out for attention, and Coyne, never one to buy into England's bureaucratic social work system, howls right along with them.
Case History was very nearly Coyne's swan song, but after a self-imposed exile from music, an opportunity to continue recording as a solo act with almost complete artistic freedom proved too powerful an incentive. In 1973, Coyne began a relationship with the then-fledgling Virgin Records label, which seemed willing to embrace the decidedly noncommercial, difficult performer. For the next eight years, he recorded some of his best music and, somewhat surprisingly, attained a modicum of commercial success, albeit in Europe only. These were mostly edgy folk-rock records tinged with an avant-garde feel for performance art (Coyne was a published poet, too), clearly not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination; neither were these records overly pretentious nor unapproachable.
By the early '80s, Coyne was recording for independent labels, making frustrating, semi-successful records that were erratically released and difficult to find. Exacerbating this bad situation were his worsening mental and physical states: chronic depression culminating in a nervous breakdown and alcoholism that, along with ending his marriage, nearly ended his life. In 1985, he moved to Nuremberg, Germany and began to pick up the pieces, improving his health and forming the Paradise Band. The move also re-sparked his passion for painting and writing, resulting in a handful of published books along with well-received exhibitions of his visual work in the cities of Berlin, Amsterdam, and Zurich. By the time the '90s rolled around, Coyne had reestablished himself as a true underground force, releasing a continuous stream of albums of dizzying variety (and availability). In 2002 he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. He died at his home on December 2, 2004.
OFFICIAL SITE
2 White Horse 04:10
3 Uggy's Song 02:55
4 Need Somebody 04:12
5 Evil Island Home 04:58
6 Araby 03:35
7 My Message To The People 05:20
8 Mad Boy 04:42
9 Sand All Yellow (Clague, Kevin Coyne, Nick Cudworth) 05:41
10 Cheat Me (Bonus Track) 03:11
11 Flowering Cherry (B-Side) (Bonus Track) 02:40
12 Flowering Cherry (Bonus Track) 02:41
13 Evil Island Home (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track) 03:37
14 My Message To The People (Previously Unreleased Alternative Version) (Bonus Track) 06:33
15 Mad Boy (Alternative Version) (Bonus Track) 04:12
16 Doctor Love (Bonus Track) 03:16
17 Cheat Me (Radio Version) (Bonus Track) 03:51
18 Flowering Cherry (Alternative Mix) (Bonus Track) 02:30
19 God Bless The Bride (Alternative Mix) (Kevin Coyne, Nick Cudworth) (Bonus Track) 03:42
Tracks By Coyne, Except As Indicated
Ron Brown/Trombone
John Chichester/Guitar
Dave Clague/Bass, Guitar
Kevin Coyne/Guitar, Vocals
Nick Cudworth/Guitar, Piano
Tat Meager/Drums
Mick Sweeney/Guitar
REVIEW
by John Dougan / AMG
Coyne's first solo recording is a triumphant, if occasionally bleak, look at life's outsiders. Using his time as social worker in a government-run mental hospital as a basis for his narratives, Coyne deals with issues of intense alienation, indifference, substance abuse (to which he was no stranger), and mental instability in a world that would rather forget these people existed, and a labyrinthine governmental bureaucracy that often denied their humanity. This is not a happy record, and is only infrequently hopeful, but it's never cynical, and neither does Coyne indulge in glib condescension. He acts as a subjective documentarian, an advocate for a group of people who desperately need one. Reissued on CD with extra tracks by the import label Dandelion/See For Miles in 1994.
BIOGRAPHY
by John Dougan / AMG
Many singer/songwriters have been more heralded, but few produced more good work or did so for longer than Kevin Coyne. While virtually unknown in America, Coyne released dozens of records, most of them very good, that dealt primarily with outsiders: men, women, and children arbitrarily shunted to the fringes of society, or worse, locked away and left alone. His songs could be extraordinarily compassionate and, in the blink of an eye, angry, anguished, and accusatory. Perhaps the most durable and telling image of Kevin Coyne is the cover photo of his album In Living Black & White. On the front, Coyne is smiling and politely bowing to an unseen audience; the back of the album jacket is the same photo taken from the rear, with Coyne clutching an open straight razor.
Born in Derby, England, in 1944, Coyne, like many rock & roll performers who came of age in early postwar Britain, was an art school student who fell in love with American R&B. Living a bohemian life in late-'60s London, Coyne was employed for a while as a socio-therapist for alcoholics and the emotionally disturbed, jobs that would profoundly affect his approach to music. In 1969 his first band, Siren, signed to influential BBC DJ John Peel's specialty label, Dandelion. Two years and two excellent records later, Peel dissolved his label and Coyne embarked on a solo career. Married with two children, Coyne supported both his family and musical career by returning to social work. In many ways, his solo debut, Case History, set the tone for his career. Based on his social work experiences, it was a riveting examination of the desperate search for love by those forcibly exiled to the fringes of society. With his bluesy voice wailing almost inconsolably, Case History is a naked examination of people (Coyne included) whose lives are in constant turmoil: betrayed, institutionalized, unwanted, and mostly unloved. The characters in these songs cry out for attention, and Coyne, never one to buy into England's bureaucratic social work system, howls right along with them.
Case History was very nearly Coyne's swan song, but after a self-imposed exile from music, an opportunity to continue recording as a solo act with almost complete artistic freedom proved too powerful an incentive. In 1973, Coyne began a relationship with the then-fledgling Virgin Records label, which seemed willing to embrace the decidedly noncommercial, difficult performer. For the next eight years, he recorded some of his best music and, somewhat surprisingly, attained a modicum of commercial success, albeit in Europe only. These were mostly edgy folk-rock records tinged with an avant-garde feel for performance art (Coyne was a published poet, too), clearly not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination; neither were these records overly pretentious nor unapproachable.
By the early '80s, Coyne was recording for independent labels, making frustrating, semi-successful records that were erratically released and difficult to find. Exacerbating this bad situation were his worsening mental and physical states: chronic depression culminating in a nervous breakdown and alcoholism that, along with ending his marriage, nearly ended his life. In 1985, he moved to Nuremberg, Germany and began to pick up the pieces, improving his health and forming the Paradise Band. The move also re-sparked his passion for painting and writing, resulting in a handful of published books along with well-received exhibitions of his visual work in the cities of Berlin, Amsterdam, and Zurich. By the time the '90s rolled around, Coyne had reestablished himself as a true underground force, releasing a continuous stream of albums of dizzying variety (and availability). In 2002 he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. He died at his home on December 2, 2004.
OFFICIAL SITE
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