Today, Kevin Coyne, an English singer/songwriter, would have turned 82. Reason enough to remember his music once again. Born in Derby in the heart of England in 1944, he developed a passion for painting as well as music in his youth. In the mid-1960's, he first worked as an art therapist in a psychiatric clinic, then as a social worker with drug addicts. They also had a lasting influence on his lyrics, which often deal with outsiders.
Musically, he was rooted in the blues, but in principle it was blunt, technically immature boogie, standardized British blues. What is fascinating about his songs is his falsetto voice, the singing, that howling familiar from Shakespeare's witch scenes, from the wind over the ravaged landscapes of northern England, those cries at night in the madhouse, that bad-tempered creaking that sticks in your head.
As in his music, Coyne also lived excessively in his personal life and paid the price early at the age of sixty.
Kevin Coyne - Marlene
Kevin Coyne - House On The Hill
Kevin Coyne - Eastbourne Ladies
Kevin Coyne - Lunatic