Kevin Coyne - The Virgin Years Ranked
At one time, Virgin Records was the topper most of the popper most of hip labels. Mike Oldfield was their first signing. And Kevin Coyne was the second. Everyone knows about Tubular Bells, but Kevin's brilliant double album Marjory Razorblade is just too weirdly wonderful and unconventional to receive mass applause. And he may well have possessed the best British blues voice of his generation. The early albums were full rock band records with future Policeman Andy Summers on guitar. Later records were a bit more stripped down; although Sanity Stomp fused Kevin's eclectic blues/folk/rock with The Ruts (of Babylon's Burning fame). British broadcaster Andy Kershaw called Kevin "a national treasure who keeps getting better." Kevin himself just sang, "The world is full of fools, but that doesn't make them bad people." He managed to stretch Pete Townshend's "the kids are alright" mantra to include all of humanity. And that's a pretty great rock 'n' roll thing to do. This ranking is purely subjective (and a bit silly) because all of the records are great. Click an album below to read a review
