Barry Ryan – The Albums 1969-1979

Barry Ryan – The Albums 1969-1979

7ts

5CD/DL

Out now

Boxset charting the solo career of Barry Ryan that includes his five studio albums, single tracks and rarities. He remains best know for his big UK hit Eloise, later successfully covered by The Damned. Ian Canty…

Paul and Barry Ryan were fishes out of water even in the world of the weird late 1960s Pop Music that flourished after Psychedelia. A pair of working class twins from a broken home, their showbiz star mother Marion worked on the UK variety scene and sent them to a boarding school near the family’s Leeds home. On leaving that establishment, the Ryans moved to London and Paul and Barry opted to develop their own singing careers, spurred on by Marion and helped by the fact her partner Harold Davison was “in the business”.

The twins scored an octet of British hit 45s as a duo, but Paul wasn’t happy as a performer. He wanted the role of a songwriter behind the scenes more, so Barry struck out on his own in late 1968 with Paul providing most of the tunes. Debut single Goodbye struggled, but was followed up by Paul and Barry’s tour de force Eloise. A work of ample depth, mystery and drama, the single hit the number two spot on the UK charts.

Barry’s solo career was up and running and as a result an album was prepared in early 1969, the self-explanatorily-titled Barry Ryan Sings Paul Ryan. This 11 track offering starts off Barry Ryan – The Albums 1969-1979 on disc one, opening with the eerie soundscape of Theme To Eutopia. Why Do You Cry My Love is the first hint of the kind of big production Pop Baz specialised in, coming with a big serving of theatrics, a sense of the unusual and a taste for odd shifts of tempo. It is a surprise, as the Bob Stanley liner note comments, that The Colour Of Love was only released as a single on the continent. It simply oozes hit potential and the tense string arrangement and sweeping momentum of the Toytown Pop-toned Crazy Days similarly delights.

The latter segues into Eloise, recorded with session musician bigwigs in tow, which still tantalises and twists attractively all these years on. I Will Bring You Love is powered by harmonies that have a fair bit in common with The Beach Boys, something which no doubt played into any Brian Wilson pretentions Paul Ryan may have had and Love Is On The Way is another beautifully judged piece. There’s MOR, but oddball MOR on You Don’t Know What You’re Doing and an utterly alluring and enticing collection reaches its climax with the superior Dream Pop of Kristan Astra Bella.

Although the LP didn’t make too much of an impact outside of being very popular in Germany, the healthy sales of Barry’s 45s meant another collection was quickly put together during the same year. This self-titled effort arrived in September 1969 and ensues with epic UK Top 40 single The Hunt. The ambitious of the production here is met by Barry’s full-on emotion, producing a brew which may well have been his very best. Sunday Theme comes in like a very welcome cool breeze on a stifling day, with Sunrise In The Morning being perfectly judged and stylishly accomplished.

Man Alive revels in a driving path of mysterious romance and then Makin’ Eyes slips in an unexpected Vera Lynn quote among its Paisley Pop majesty. The lyric of No Living Without Her Love is a gift for Barry’s winning way with a melodrama, with strings leading the way on Sea Of Tranquillity. Feeling Unwell shows Paul Ryan’s knack of zeroing on a non-Pop Music subject matter, in this case mental health and from there shaping it into an off-kilter Pop gem and a zippy Where Have You Been ends the Barry Ryan album. The combination of Paul Ryan Sings Barry Ryan and Barry Ryan albums on disc one possesses a unique breadth of imagination married to true talent and this makes for an unmatchable one-two.

By 1970 Barry Ryan still retained a foothold in the UK single listings and Belgium and Germany in particular retained an affection for his work right through into the early 70s. As a result, another long player was produced. This rapid turnover of releases understandably put a lot of pressure on Paul’s songbook, so when Barry Ryan 3 appeared other writers’ work made up the numbers. A case in point is the LP opener, a version of the Cat Stevens tune It’s A Wild World. This is a song that is familiar nowadays through a number of covers over the years, but even so Barry applies his dynamic approach to bring a suitable level of drama out of the piece. In The Shelter Of My Heart is ambitious, widescreen Pop done just right, with an elegant Llania finding Paul writing alongside the mysterious W McKellar.

Follow Me’s choral intro soon cedes to a pleasingly driving rhythm and the bright bounce of We Did It Together is imbued with panache and deserved more success when issued as a single too. An out and out beaut in Who Puts The Lights Out was versioned by Dana with much success a few years later, then a jaunty Song Of Love is imbued with real charm. But the pulsing, sinister excellence of Kitsch is the finest item on show, a bracing conclusion to the album. That this song only scrapped into the UK Top 40 when issued on 45 isn’t far short of a crime. Despite having a good deal to recommend about it, Barry Ryan 3 is the weakest of the first three LPs.

A year passed before Red Man, the fourth Barry Ryan collection, arrived in the shops. But only those in Deutschland, unfortunately. This record is bookended by two singles taken from it, with the edgy beats of the title track beginning things. It was fair-sized hit as a single in Belgium, but It Is Written, which curtailed Red Man the album, only pleased the remaining BR diehards in Germany enough for it to just about make the 45 listings there.

Between this pair a delicate All Thoughts Of Time has just the right balance of gorgeousness and oddity that the Ryans did so well and Nobody Was Saved is replete with smooth quasi-orchestral moves. A joyful Today was translated into German as Zelt Macht Nur Vor Dem Tuefel Halt (the German version is included here on disc four of the set) and duly registered a number 8 hit in that country.

Show Me The Way is flowing but tense and the endearing R&B-powered Dance To The Rhythm Of The Band shows up well. A grooving mover I’ve Been Around prefaces Ode To A Roadie, the subject matter of on the road hijinks accompanying a high kicking Pop number.

A final Barry Ryan album, Sanctus, Sanctus Hallelujah from 1972, also only got a German release. The title track was another in Paul’s religious writings, something signposted by It Is Written. This number was a minor hit on being translated into German again. For the first time Barry himself gets some songwriting credits here. They’re pretty good songs too, a Folk-tinged Life’s So Easy and the stinging Acid/Progressive Rock of Storm Is Brewing certainly adding a new wrinkle, courtesy of Baz’s backing new band The Verge. This outfit bring a new energy to this record, with When I Was A Child even putting forth a Power Pop sound.

Can’t Let You Go was Barry Ryan’s last UK hit single and the Russ Ballard offering, a Country Pop/Rock thing, is a long way away from Eloise. L.A. Woman (no, not that one) is cast in a Boogie Rock mode, but a light and sparing path that is taken initially on I Think You Know My Name helps build it into a weird beauty that feels like a good fusing of the new and Barry’s previous form. After Alimony Honey Blues, which owes a little to The Byrds’ more down-home efforts, Slow Down ends Sanctus, Sanctus Hallelujah with some no-nonsense Rock & Roll hammer. This disc is completed by non-album single From My Head To My Toe. It’s another Russ Ballard song that while ok, doesn’t feel a perfect fit for Mr B Ryan esquire.

For the last two discs in this set we have single sides and rarities collected, starting off with the swinging debut 45 Goodbye. An epic sounding Love I Almost Found You impresses and Eloise then features in an Italian language take. This is followed up by its follow up Love Is Love, a hit across Europe and the kind of manic Pop concoction that could have only emerged during the late 60s. B side I’ll Be On My Way Dear even verges on Freakbeat.

In Germany the Barry Ryan album lost Swallow Fly Away and No Living Without Her Love, which were replaced by Look To The Right, Look To The Left and Oh For The Love Of Me, the latter pair turning up on this disc. Who got the better deal? Well Look To The Right… comes with a Motown-like beat and though good, doesn’t quite feel like it would have fit as well on the LP. Alternatively, Oh For The Love Of Me seems made for it.

Magical Spiel was a non-album 45 that was a minor hit in early 1970, a driving piano-led number that lyrically again dipped into religion as a theme. Kitsch’s flipside Give Me A Sign is structurally more orthodox than the average Paul Ryan composition, but pleasing enough and Annabelle, which came on the reverse of It Is Written, is very pretty. Test pressing Bye And Bye starts as a slight neat Barque Popper before shifting up a gear or two and reworks itself from there and I’m Sorry Susan, a 1972 German 45, is tuneful if not outstanding. Rare US outing, a tender Come Home, ends disc four.

Lastly we have a disc compiling Barry Ryan’s singles from 1975-79 plus nine tracks from an unreleased LP, recorded at an unspecified time in the late 1970s. Do That from 75 comes with a pinch of Post Glam crunch and is a bit of a lost pearl, but flipside The Summers Over could have been cut by Barry at any time since 1968. Issued in the next year Judy is rendered in standard Pop ballad fashion and the same year brought the Disco moves of Where Were You. If Barry could easily handle this kind of thing vocally, it still seemed a bit of a comedown from the wild inspiration and invention of his past.

Making Do, on the B side, isn’t any great shakes either. At the height of Punk in February 1977 the final Barry Ryan single of the 1970s emerged, Brother/Life’s So Easy. At least he went out with a good one, as the top side is simple but equipped with real soul and the reverse sweet and gentle. Then we come to the unreleased album that completes this boxset. Give It All, a run of the mill piano ballad, offers a fair start due to the performance, but the more upbeat, gleaming sound of There’s No Way comes with a bundle of freshness and energy.

Echoing Where Were You, Will You Worry is built around a Dance rhythm as is Do It Now. More interesting to me though is I Taught You All You Know, which more or less successfully transfers the “big” feel of Barry’s 60s work to mid-1970s Pop/Rock. Don’t Tell Me Tonight Is Here is similar, but not quite as strong a song. To his credit Barry wrote all the material on this disc apart from the Do That single. The limping Electro of Love Gone Bad stands out as something a little different and a spacey The Force Is With You brings down the curtain with aplomb. There is some definite potential here, even if the world had stopped listening.

Despite generic 7ts box design, what is contained inside The Albums 1969-1979 is a real treasure trove of delights. The first two Barry Ryan albums are essential for anyone with an ear for 60s and 70s strange and ambitious Pop Music. Red Man isn’t far behind either and the other two collections feature some strong moments. The singles sides are on the whole worthwhile and it is nice to have that final unissued LP available. Sadly both of the twins are no longer with us. I know it is a cliché, but we will never see their like again and listening to this, that’s a damn shame.

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