Kayak - Eyewitness (1981)

Tracklist:
1. Eyewitness
2. Periscope Life
3. Ruthless Queen
4. Want You To Be Mine
5. Lyrics
6. Chance for a Lifetime
7. Who's Fooling Who
8. Irene
9. Only You and I Know
10. Winning Ways
11. Starlight Dancer
12. No Man's Land
13. The Car Enchanter [*]
14. Ivory Dance '94 [*]

Supposed Swan Song of a Great Band – 5/10

Due to Merlin’s lack of commercial success things went drastically wrong with Kayak and before we knew it they were facing their end. The female backing vocalists left the band, reducing the band’s size to five members. They recorded this fake live album just before Max Werner, Peter Scherpeneel and Edward Reekers left. Soon afterwards new members were hired, like ex-member Bert Veldkamp on bass, but they eventually were a different band under the name of Europe. In other words, the original Kayak legend was ended with Eyewitness, a studio live album.

So what does this album feature? There are three songs never heard on a genuine studio album before: “Eyewitness”, “Only You and I Know” and “Who’s Fooling Who”. They could all have been on the Starlight Dancer LP in terms of style. All three songs are worth listening to. The rest of the album is filled with the bigger hits and mostly with songs from their commercial period. It’s sad to see there’s no Merlin material played. Now this is not the only sad thing. A live album can still be saved by the great interaction with the crowd. As I bought the CD with its beautiful front cover, I was expecting to hear the crowd welcoming me. Unfortunately, there’s no crowd. You heard me, there is no crowd! No fans cheering. It seems Eyewitness is recorded ‘live’ in the studio, featuring overdubs and everything. They asked five fans (or perhaps a bit more) to listen to the recordings and clap and cheer as they would do in a real concert. Apparently, Ton Scherpenzeel was ashamed of that decision (and he should be!) and released the CD version without the crowd. So what we have here is a stripped down live performance.

*sigh* Well... yes the performance is tight. Yay, we have three new songs. Even if it were a live album it would be very boring. There is never a ‘Thank You!’ or a ‘This is Ruthless Queen!’ announcer anywhere. Of course, recorded in the studio this is obvious, but hey! If you’re trying to fake a live album than at least give it a good shot! These re-recordings are not at all fun to listen to, even if they might sound good. The only song that is different from the studio version is “Periscope Life”, which now features a heavier guitar riff and some better keyboard arrangements. Apart from that, it’s all the way we know it. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the new songs of course, which are good. But still, I’d like to hear the version with the crowd once. As all CD releases released through Pseudonym records, Eyewitness features two bonus tracks as well. “The Car Enchanter” is just the same as Merlin’s “The King’s Enchanter”, but then with different lyrics to promote a paint-factory. “Ivory Dance ‘94” is a re-record of the b-side “Ivory Dance” and is funny and nice, but not essential. No matter how you see it, this album is far from essential and nowadays it is more of a Best Of than a live album.

All in all, Eyewitness is not a good record. Don’t expect anything breathtaking. The band plays good, the singers sing good, but hey: they always do so in studio. Get the new tracks through iTunes or something like that, and forget about the rest. This album is for collectors only.