Joy of a Toy

Joy of a Toy is the debut solo album of Kevin Ayers, a founding member of Soft Machine. Its whimsical and singular vision provides hints of how Soft Machine might have progressed had Ayers remained in the band. He is accompanied on the LP by pianist and arranger David Bedford as well as his erstwhile Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge, and his eventual replacement Hugh Hopper, who had previously worked with him in the semi-pro band Wilde Flowers. Among the session musicians are cellist and arranger Paul Buckmaster, jazz bassist Jeff Clyne, oboist Paul Minns (of Third Ear Band) and drummer Rob Tait (formerly of Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments before going on to join Vinegar Joe).

Joy of a Toy
Studio album by Kevin Ayers
Released	November 1969
Recorded	17 June–11 September 1969
Studio	Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre	Psychedelic pop, experimental rock, Canterbury scene, psychedelic rock
Length	41:38 (original issue) 1:07:06 (2003 reissue)
Label	Harvest
Producer	Kevin Ayers & Peter Jenner
Kevin Ayers chronology
Joy of a Toy (1969) Shooting at the Moon (1970)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]
The Times	[3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]

Background

After a Soft Machine tour of the US with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ayers had decided to retire from the music business. Hendrix, however, presented Ayers with an acoustic Gibson J-200 guitar on the condition that he continue his songwriting. Ayers repaired to a small London flat where he composed and arranged a whole LP which was then presented to Malcolm Jones' fledgling Harvest label where it was produced by Peter Jenner for the then exorbitant sum of £4000 (equivalent to £66,300 in 2019[5]).

Joy features many of Ayers' most enduring songs from "The Lady Rachel" to "Girl on a Swing", the latter still regularly covered by artists to this day like Candie Payne and The Ladybug Transistor. It was on Joy that Ayers developed his sonorous vocal delivery, an avant-garde song construction and an affection for unusual instrumentation that would have a deep influence far into the 1970s and up to the end of his career. He was assisted in this latter undertaking by David Bedford, who provided the musical arrangements for the album as well as playing piano and other keyboards.

For the recording of Syd Barrett's first solo album—The Madcap Laughs—Soft Machine were brought in to do overdubs for a few of Barrett's tracks.[6] It was during this time that Barrett recorded a guitar part for the track "Religious Experience",[7] (later titled "Singing a Song in the Morning"); this version wasn't released until the 2003 reissue of Joy.[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kevin Ayers.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Joy of a Toy Continued"	2:53
2.	"Town Feeling"	4:51
3.	"The Clarietta Rag"	3:20
4.	"Girl on a Swing"	2:49
5.	"Song for Insane Times"	4:01
6.	"Stop This Train (Again Doing it)"	6:06
7.	"Eleanor's Cake (Which Ate Her)"	2:53
8.	"The Lady Rachel"	5:17
9.	"Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong"	5:35
10.	"All This Crazy Gift of Time"	3:53
Total length:		41:38

Bonus tracks (2003 reissue)

No.	Title	Length
11.	"Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)" (take 9, featuring Syd Barrett, previously unreleased)	4:46
12.	"The Lady Rachel" (extended first mix, previously unreleased)	6:42
13.	"Soon Soon Soon"	3:23
14.	"Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)" (take 103, previously unreleased)	2:51
15.	"The Lady Rachel" (single version)	4:51
16.	"Singing a Song in the Morning" (single version)	2:55
Total length:		1:07:06

Personnel

Musicians

• Kevin Ayers – guitars, bass, melodica, harmonica, vocals
• Robert Wyatt – drums
• David Bedford – piano, mellotron, arranger
• Mike Ratledge – organ
• Hugh Hopper – bass (1 and 5)
• Paul Buckmaster – cello
• Jeff Clyne - double bass (2 and 7)
• Rob Tait – drums (tracks 6 and 9)
• Paul Minns – oboe

Additional musicians on track 11

• Syd Barrett – guitar [7]
• Richard Sinclair – bass
• Richard Coughlan – drums
• David Sinclair – organ
• The Ladybirds – backing vocals

Shortly after Barrett's death, Ayers told Mojo magazine that when Barrett arrived at the studio: "....he was out-of-it....wasn't able to tune his guitar or find the chords". A third guitar is present on this track [take 103], most noticeably at 0:54-1:03, 1:37-1:42 and 2:34-2:51.

Technical

• Kevin Ayers – producer
• Peter Jenner – producer
• Peter Mew – engineer
• Laurie Asprey – photography

References

1. AllMusic review
2. Rolling Stone review
3. The Times review
4. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
5. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
6. Manning, Toby (2006). "The Underground". The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 27. ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
7. Bush, John (23 April 2012). "The Harvest Years 1969-1974 - Kevin Ayers : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 July 2012.

• Kevin Ayers by Richard Williams (Melody Maker 25 Apr 1970)
• Joy of a Toy liner notes by Mark Powell (EMI 2003)
• Joy of a Toy liner notes by Martin Wakeling (Harvest Sept 2006)

External links

• Joy of a Toy - Best Albums of All Time by Peter Paphides