Softs, Separately Dept.

IoF©, yestiddy - rock n' sex god Hugh Hopper awarded prestigious Best Avant-Garde Record By An Ex-Soft Machine Bass Player Award from Bikini Testers Local 101!

 

Hugh Hopper's 1984 [1973, left - Ed.] oughta bin called 2001, because it was at least as far ahead of its time as that. That doesn't mean you'll want to listen to it, though, but its minimal, glitchy, scratchy, ruminative, and occasionally terrifying tone will at odd times be just the ticket, by George! Heavy Friends sittin' in on the dada-esque swing sessions include John Marshall (sacked from the Soft Machine by Mike Ratledge), useless nuisance Lol Coxhill [lol - Ed.], Pye Hastings, Gary Windo, Malcolm Griffiths, and Nick Evans.

The deliverable is the hen's teeth Japanese edition, with slewage of xtry trx. Huzzay!

 

Robert Wyatt's first solo album [1970, left - Ed.] remains as challengingly daft as when a handful of Softs fans bought it just before it disappeared entirely. It plows much the same gritty, avant-gardey furrow as 1984, but with the frosting of occasional vocal whimsy. You have to admit his strenous efforts to avoid anything approaching a tune were remarkably successful.

A bonus is the inclusion of no extra tracks. Look, I like it, okay? Sometimes.

Kevin Ayers' first solo album [1969, right, no, just me having a little fun, left - Ed.] has tunes, charm, restrained whimsy, and never takes itself seriously. It's lovely album, and laid the foundation for the second most successful solo career of any member of Soft Machine! Which is setting the bar a bit low, but anyway. David Bedford knits sumptuous orchestral upholstery, and Mike Ratledge (possibly my Second Favorite Keyboard Player Of All Time) contributes anteater nose-blowing.

If Hopper's solo was ahead of its time, then Ayers was behind them. By 1969 the sixties were yesterday's mashed potatoes, and Joy Of A Toy sounded, and looked, like a relic from a past age. Five swingin' bonus tracks! It's like the seventies never happened.

As an inadequate thank you to all youse freeloadin' bums what has stuck wit' th' IoF© thru th' years (over 30,000 page views since the last post, by George!), these three warmed-over biscuits are added to the deliverables AT NO EXTRA COST to you. Mr. and Mrs. Music Consumer!

 

Yes, these three long-playing LP album records will be included in your sumptuous Softie package whether you want them or not! Play them in the Camry as you deliver the kids back to their mom! Oboy! Some swell fun right there!

Here's Mr. Ratledge, practicing his fingering at Saint Trop, summer of '67:

 

Ratledge kind of wandered away from the music business after leaving the Softs, the last original member to bail. I think he made a soundtrack to a TV documentary about moustaches, and various other bits and pieces, sacrificing his unique carpet-gargling tone for the anonimity of the synthesizer, but that's about it for the solo career. Good for him, I say. Other Fun Facts: he garnered a Philostophy Prize at Oxford (which is like Nerd Academy), married Marsha Hunt [phwoar - Ed.] and died this year, age 82, "after a short illness", the last of the original line-up to leave the planet. Good for him. A life lived.

 

This post funded in part by Adult Chew Toys™, Buttmonkey, NV.