The Jukebox Rebel

Ivor’s second of three mid 70’s LP’s for Virgin Records, featuring 12 songs, 11 poems and 8 stories. Once again, the set features several contributions from Phyllis King, including one of the album’s major highlights, a bizarre, disconcerting 6 minute tale entitled “The Stranger”. If anyone knows why he came do, please, let me know. Cutler is also joined on the record by Henry Cow’s Fred Frith who plays viola on several tracks. These diversions are welcome and complimentary, but ultimately unnecessary. All we really need is Ivor’s burr, his fantastical prose, and his quaint harmonium. With these in place, we’ve got the world. Following the series that had begun on last years “Dandruff”, “Velvet Donkey” contains another two episodes from the nostalgically evocative semi-autobiographical works “Life in a Scotch Sitting Room”, a series of monologues based on Cutler’s Depression-era childhood that he would finally complete in 1978. Here we get the playfully bizarre “Episode 2”, with it’s amazing tale of how much fun could be had with 3 grains of sand, and the frankly disturbing “Episode 7”, where Ivor’s draconian Grandpa and Father sound like a right couple of unreasonable old weirdoids. But without whom etc etc…

The Jukebox Rebel
03–May–2007

A1	[00:09] Ivor Cutler - If Your Breasts (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
A2	[00:34] Ivor Cutler accompanied by Fred Frith - I Got No Common Sense (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A3	[00:27] Phyllis King - Useful Cat (Phyllis King) Poetry
A4	[01:30] Ivor Cutler - Oho My Eyes (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A5	[03:34] Ivor Cutler - The Dirty Dinner (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
A6	[01:37] Ivor Cutler accompanied by Fred Frith - Yellow Fly (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A7	[00:25] Phyllis King - Mother’s Love (Phyllis King) Poetry
A8	[01:11] Ivor Cutler - The Meadows Go (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A9	[00:47] Ivor Cutler - Phonic Poem (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
A10	[03:40] Ivor Cutler - Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2, Ep. 2 (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
A11	[00:49] Ivor Cutler - Birdswing (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
A12	[01:54] Ivor Cutler accompanied by Fred Frith - Nobody Knows (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A13	[00:31] Phyllis King - Uneventful Day (Phyllis King) Poetry
A14	[01:53] Ivor Cutler - Little Black Buzzer (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
A15	[00:42] Ivor Cutler - Bread And Butter (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
B1	[00:35] Ivor Cutler - A Nuance (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
B2	[02:09] Ivor Cutler - Go And Sit Upon The Grass (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B3	[00:37] Ivor Cutler - The Even Keel (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
B4	[01:54] Ivor Cutler - Pearly Gleam (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B5	[00:22] Phyllis King - The Best Thing (Phyllis King) Poetry
B6	[03:34] Ivor Cutler - Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2, Ep. 7 (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
B7	[00:49] Ivor Cutler - Once Upon A Time (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
B8	[02:01] Ivor Cutler - There’s Got To Be Something (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B9	[01:10] Ivor Cutler - The Purposeful Culinary Implements (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
B10	[01:34] Ivor Cutler accompanied by Fred Frith - Gee, Amn’t I Lucky (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B11	[02:07] Ivor Cutler - The Curse (Ivor Cutler) Storytelling
B12	[00:54] Ivor Cutler - I Think Very Deeply (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B13	[00:23] Phyllis King - I, Slowly (Phyllis King) Poetry
B14	[02:33] Ivor Cutler accompanied by Fred Frith - Sleepy Old Snake (Ivor Cutler) Avant-Garde
B15	[00:32] Ivor Cutler - Titchy Digits (Ivor Cutler) Poetry
B16	[06:00] Phyllis King - The Stranger (Phyllis King) Storytelling

ratings by TJR