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Melody
Maker
September 16, 1972
Written by Mark Plummer
Courtesy of Linda Crafar
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ALUN
DAVIS: “Daydo” (CBS)
 Alun
Davis is Cat Stevens’ second guitarist,
the man with the Epiphone putting in the
little fills. Long before he started working
with Cat he was working as a folk singer
right back to the days of beatniks roaming
over Europe when he and Jon Mark traipsed
through France hitchhiking, busking for
their supper and occasionally dropping into
St. Tropez to work on the yachts in the
harbour. He even made an album with Jon
for Decca in Denmark Street one afternoon
when it was quite something for a folk group
to get their music on black plastic. So
although on first count it looks like he
got the gig because of his work with Cat,
and that must have been the decisive factor
when he signed with Clive Davis. Alun has
already partly established himself. The
music here has a stamp of Cat Stevens on
it, but that had to happen with Cat helping
out on the production side with Paul Samwell-Smith,
especially on a song like “Abram Brown
Continued.” The beginning acapella
vocal pattern to “Abram Brown Continued”
is typical Cat Stevens. The harmonies bouncing
and working for and against each other is
a perfect Steven’s Russian mood. So
are the backing tracks with their drum patterns
and double bass patterns, over that though
Alun has a character of his own that is
fully explored on “Daydo” both
in his writing and as a performer. There
are plenty of good, interesting songs, and
from working with Cat he has a full understanding
and appreciation for writing good, strong
melodies, so when in places his lyrics tend
to fall down a little there is still a tune
to keep interest going. The puzzling is
what audience he is looking for, but there
must be one somewhere. Incidentally when
is the fine “Sweet Thursday”
album he cut with Jon Mark and Nicky Hopkins
ever going to be re-released?
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