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Music Albums Keith Moon: Two Sides of the Moon (Castle) 
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| Keith Moon: Two Sides of the Moon (Castle) |
| By Matthew Hirtes | |
Monday, 10 July 2006 As the ‘70s reached their mid-way point, notorious rock and roll wildman Who drummer Keith Moon’s life appeared to be spiralling out of control. The fact the group were on sabbatical only served to feed Moon’s demons. Yet there was a solution at hand: a solo album to divert the sticksman’s energies away from sauce to studio. As former Who factotum Peter ‘Dougal’ Butler revealed in a recent interview with The Guardian: “The idea was, advance him some money and hopefully you'll get some of it back. But we've got to keep him busy."So, the Who’s record company duly doled out a non-refundable $200,000 advance to the then-LA-based Moon. The result is a collection of covers of some of Keith’s favourite ‘50s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll numbers. Whilst no Pin-Ups, it does offer an window into Moon’s love of music, an affair that started aged three, as his mother Kit has described with her son sitting “home for hours beside an old gramophone player..play(ing) 78 records of stars like Nat King Cole and Scots leader Johnny Shand.” Or as Butler puts it: “It's the most expensive karaoke album ever made but it's a good insight into what he was going through. It's a laugh." The results are mixed. ‘Solid Gold’ sounds like one of those musically-suspect songs the makers of Spitting Image used to produce, yet ‘One Night Stand’ reveals a hitherto unrealised influence on The Sleepy Jackson’s Luke Steele. Moon’s rendition of ‘Move Over Ms. L’, a John Lennon original, would appear to be more suited to accompany a Kenny Everett skit, yet ‘Teenage Idol’ emulates the highs of Jonathan Richman. The main problem with the album is Moon’s singing. This was a musician Who band leader Pete Townshend used to ban from the studio when the group were recording vocals. Instead of playing to his strengths, Keith highlights his weaknesses. Arguably one of the world’s greatest drummers at the time, he similarly perversely delegates most of the percussion duties to the guesting Ringo Starr and session musician Jim Keltner. Two Sides of the Moon failed to keep Keith away from the booze with marathon studio sessions enlivened by liberal amounts of alcohol. First released in March 1975, three and a half years later Moon would be dead following an accidental overdose of Chlormethiazole, medication he was taken to combat his addiction to alcohol. Yet the album doesn’t touch on this dark side of Moon, more the fun, frivolous aspect of his personality. The side that earned him a nickname he detested: Moon the Loon. And whilst the critics might have savaged Two Sides at the time, 31 years on it’s aged well and deserves to be rated more than slated. (3½/5) |
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