Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It makes you wonder how many artists are forced to downplay their true vision just have their creation even in the public domain, how many writers allow a significant event to be pulled, how many painters are told to lose a certain temperament, what percentage of musicians are told if they wish to have their belief heard then they have to allow it to be altered by the studio, the P.R. machine, or the one who pricks their thumbs for the contract to be signed in blood.
To be able to stand up decades later and have your voice retort to the public, “No this is not what I intended, let me reintroduce you to the truth of the matter”, that is a liberating act, one of sound fury that signifies everything.
For Kevin Rowland, Too-Rye-Ay has it seems always been an album of that significance, a piece of art much beloved, but not released how he would have liked, and artists must listen to the voice in their head, the gut reaction, for they are the only ones who heard the music long before even a note was born and written down.
Four decades on, forty years, meaningful anniversaries of the album have been and gone for the band that came together as the Midlands, and Birmingham in particular was struggling to find its place in a time of Punk and the simmering disillusion that would explode around the time that the album was released; and yet it is probably only now that the music is given its true and lasting voice…so much so that the tag line for the re-release is arguably its most insightful, and for Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners: Too-Rye-Ay – As It Should Have Sounded, is a phenomenon.
The release is one of artistic integrity meets extra offerings, a live show from October 1982 sits alongside a veritable feast of bonus tracks, and the main event itself, an album given its creator the birth and life it richly deserved, and as tracks such as the opener of The Celtic Soul Brothers, Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile), the gorgeous Until I Believe In My Soul, and the energetic crowd pleaser and huge number one hit, Come On Eileen storm through the listener’s mind, a new sense of appreciation for the album is apparent.
It is an understanding that studios and management must have their say, after all they are the ones with money, and yet those purse strings are an inhibitor to the way an artist’s dream is paved, and time is the jail keeper turned parole officer who sees the artist was right to keep digging at the foundations until they struck the elusive truth; as it should have sounded, as it should have been decreed, the world is given a reason to enjoy Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners in their absolute pomp once more.
Ian D. Hall