The Greatest Love Of All (15/03/13)

Just to prove how far ahead of the curve I am - the album I'm talking about here was finally rereleased this year and received the glowing reappraisals that it deserved all along. 

Sometimes it takes the world a while to catch up with me.

Right.

I'm going to defend something that the vast majority of the world seems to find indefensible.

Kevin Rowland's 1999 album "My Beauty."

When I say the vast majority of the world I'm exaggerating a little. A hell of a lot to be honest (and honesty is very important here), very few people heard it. Very few people bought it. The album is legendary for how little it sold. The claim has always been that only 500 copies were sold. The reality is that it was nearer 20,000 worldwide. Still not staggering for a man who had global success with 'Come on Eileen.'

It was already 14 years since the last Dexys album, the magnificent and equally underselling 'Don't Stand Me Down' and there had been one Kevin Rowland solo album in the intervening years, 1988's forgotten 'The Wanderer', when Alan McGee, owner of Creation records and a man not overly averse to dealing with mavericks, took a chance on pulling Rowland from his wilderness years.

The idea was that Creation would have a brand new Dexys album but first Kevin had something that he needed to get out of his system.

The popular legend is that Kevin's decade long 'lost weekend' was an era of crippling self doubt, self loathing and substantial cocaine abuse. He doesn't say a great deal about this period but his account lies in this album.

"My Beauty" rather than being the anticipated set of original Dexys material, some having already been premiered the best part of ten years earlier on Jonathan Ross' late night Channel 4 show, was a set of covers. Fairly obvious, partially cheesy, easy listening-esque covers coated with sugary strings.

Unit 4+2's 'Concrete and Clay', Squeeze's 'Labelled With Love', 'Daydream Believer', (oddly) 'Youll Never Walk Alone' and strikingly 'The Greatest Love of All' - best known at that point through Whitney Houston's globe straddling hit vision.

The twist is that Kevin can't take this stuff straight, can't/won't simply cover the song to get a hit, to find an easy audience. That's not the point of this album. The people who love these songs werent going to buy this, it wasn't for them. These covers are different; respectful and filled with love for the source material but skewed, different. They've been rewritten, lyrics changed to reflect Rowland's life post fame. The songs are filled with asides, mumbled comments on the songs and how they inform and support Kevin.

'Labelled With Love' is now about cocaine use, 'The Greatest Love....' is an address to himself, he's instructing himself to start loving himself. Initially it's an unsure address, he's not convinced that he knows how to. The song starts with a conversation between two Kevins, trying to convince each other that 'its over, it's okay' but pleading for his mum. He's dragging himself out of something. The delivery of the song could be interpreted as corny but it's honest, he genuinely means every word and by the time he hits the chorus the song has become an anthem of defiance.

But even if the public could be convinced of the meaning behind the work Kevin had another way of shooting his 'comeback' in the foot; the cover.

Image had always been essential for Dexys; the Mean Streets look for Geno, the gypsies for '....Eileen', the Ivy League for 'Don't Stand Me Down' but this went further. A dress. Kevin's choice of look to represent his intentions this time round was a simple black dress. Designed possibly to expose his vulnerability and emphasise his sensitivity. Pulled to the waist to expose his chest. Hitched up at
the waist to expose women's underwear. The full make up, lipstick and pearl necklace didnt help.

The album was completely unmarketable. An appearance at the Reading festival in a white version of this ensemble didnt help matters. Kevin's career was over. Again.

Legend has it that this album was the last nail in the coffin for Creation but lets be honest - if you're going to go out of business it's a damn sight better to do so by putting your money behind those that will attempt something different, something honest. This is both.

It would be another 13 years before we received the promised Dexys album. Creation is long gone, "My Beauty" long unavailable. But for those that loved last year's frankly excellent 'One Day I'm Going To Soar' this stands as a companion piece. Stands as the ultimate self help album, the most honest testament of a troubled man.

It's time to discover it.

Don't let the cover put you off this time.