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Alan Clayson — Ancient and Modern: Highlights of Half​-​a​-​Century
(Bandcamp Think Like a Key TLAK1164, 2023, CD / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2024-09-09

Ancient and Modern: Highlights of Half​-​a​-​Century Cover art

British singer-songwriter and author Alan Robert Gordon Clayson was born in Dover on May 3, 1951. He came to prominence in the late 70s, with Melody Maker stating that Clayson occupied a premier position in rock’s Lunatic Fringe. Over his erratic career he also authored over thirty books including bestsellers Backbeat and Beat Merchants. He also wrote an authorized biography of The Yardbirds. Attending Zappa’s Mothers of Invention debut concert in 1967 provided a pivotal point in Clayson’s artistic direction. Over the years he performed with his band Clayson and the Argonauts, solo, and with bands such as Screaming Lord Sutch, The Portsmith Sinfonia, pairing with Dick Taylor of The Pretty Things, Twinkle, Denny Laine, and Mungo Jerry. This retrospective album, Ancient and Modern, presents eighteen of Clayson’s songs from 1973 to 2017. Breaking with how other bands and artists present retrospectives (chronological order), Clayson elected to make this set more interesting and entertaining by scrambling the order and aiming for an affinity among the songs. Therefore, the album begins with his more quirkier songs, evoking a bit of comparison to Viv Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Band. Then as he moves through the tracks, his off-kilter compositions and performances begin to sound like Michael Moorcock. After presenting his British pop-psych songs we reach the first straightforward song, the excellent “Heedless Child.” Now Clayson presents his British folk-rock persona on “The Rake’s Progress” and “The Moonlight Skater.” Then he hits you with “Teenage Runaway,” an edgy song different from the rest of the tracks that grows on you over its five and a half minutes, morphing into British music hall psych and closing with the sound of seagulls. Pretty soon you encounter “The Last Show on Earth,” with the iconic four note Dragnet theme to open and close Clayson’s homage to Screaming Lord Sutch. One of the best songs on this set is “Superman ’42 / Rue Morgue” with its edgy psych-rock jamming and saxophone that transitions with a siren to Clayson singing to piano accompaniment, and then it goes all strange. Never having heard or heard of Alan Clayson before, I had no idea what I was in store for with this retrospective collection. I was pleasantly surprised by the songs and the consistency of his oddball approach to music for over fifty years.

Filed under: Archives, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Alan Clayson

More info
http://alanclayson.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-and-modern-highlights-of-half-a-century-2

 

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