Nigel Lived is Murray's first solo record and reflects his self confessed obsession with recording natural sounds. Indeed he describes this album as a film in sound veering towards an autobiography.

He decided on the concept of a songwriter who finds a diary and writes songs around various lines and phrases he chooses from it. In actual fact this lavishly packaged album does contain extracts from a diary.

A number of things impress me about this album. First is the wonderful singing of Murray who sounds at times like John Martyn (Less grizzly though!), at others like Chris De Burgh (Miss Illusion), at others like Donavon ('Religion') and also like Nick Drake (On Junk)

He even manages to sound like a choir boy accompanied by Peter Robinson's church organ on 'Pity the Poor Consumer', a clever track that metamorphoses into a rocky protest song of sorts with biting lyrics about 'Money madness, is that all that's left?'

Maybe all these comparisons are a bit unfair to Murray Head who is, when all is said and done, a gifted singer and songwriter in his own right- remember 'Chess'? Listen also to Ruthie on this album with the twin acoustic guitars of Murray and Mark Warner and a string section led by Jack Rothstein.

The second thing that impresses me is the formidable list of musicians who contribute to 'Nigel Lived'. How's this for a roll call- Cozy Powell, Graham Preskett, Mike and Peter Giles, Ray Cooper, Jimmy Hastings? And that's just for starters!

The third thing is the variety of instrumentation used- sax, trombone, accordion, marimba, mandolin etc.

The fourth thing is the range of musical styles producing a mini rock opera of sorts. In keeping with such a format this work never takes itself too seriously. In fact it gets positively silly at times in the rock 'n' roll of 'City Scurry' and the sleazy jazz blues of 'Dole'.

Among the best moments are 'Bed and Breakfast' which reminded me of the approach Nick Drake took on 'Man in a Shed' off Five Leaves Left' (released 3 years before this) with Spike Heatley on double bass, some great acoustic and slide guitar by Mark Warner and a 5 man horn section with contra-bass and recorder thrown in for good measure.

Also for different reasons 'When You Wake Up in the Morning' is a great little ballad with an inspired clarinet/oboe line played by Tony Coe and Jim Chester.

Standing out also is 'Religion' featuring a choir. This gets extra marks for managing to rhyme 'esoterics' with 'generics'!

Finally in terms of favourites you have the Beatle-ish 'Nigel Nigel' with the cellos prominent in the string section.

Over its 49 minute length (in 2 parts- 'Success' then 'Failure') this is a marvellous period piece that demonstrates the song writing and singing ability of Murray Head aided and abetted by an inspired choice of studio musicians.

'Nigel Lived' comes highly recommended.

Phil Jackson, http://www.zeitgeist-scot.co.uk Murray Head - Nigel Lived 1972

Recorded in the summer of 1972 and released the following year, {^Nigel Lived} is {$Murray Head}¹s first solo LP. A rarity for this singer, it takes the form of a concept album. A songwriter found the diary of a stranger and wrote songs out of some fragments. The booklet reproduces pages of the fake diary, along with the lyrics, weaving a believable fiction that helps distancing or objectifying the autobiographical nature of the songs. They are split between the ³success² and ³failure² sides of the LP and tell the story of an artist (actor? singer? -- both would apply to Head) who leaves his small home town, comes to the ³big city² to make it and, after an initial encouraging period, watches his life fall apart. {$Head} is surrounded by an impressive cast of session musicians from folk, rock, and jazz realms, including {$Caravan} flutist {$Jimmy Hastings}, jazz clarinetist {$Tony Coe}, and original {$King Crimson} drummer {$Michael Giles}. The whole album seems to foretell {$Chris DeBurgh}¹s {^Spanish Train and Other Stories}, especially because of the daring arrangements (a Gregorian choir and a steel drums ensemble in {