Mysterious songs from the Kingdom Of Fife: Revisiting Jackie Leven's Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West

Until a couple of years ago, I didn't know that Jackie Leven had an entire first career as a new wave rocker with Doll By Doll. And I sure didn't know this when I picked up Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West. What I did know was: This wasn't the album I thought it would be. Starting with the album's cover art and the track list, I expected a batch of slightly mystical modern Scottish folk with pop tendencies. There are pop tendencies on this album, even entire pop songs, but the original Forbidden Songs From The Dying West has a bit of everything. Some pop songs, some folk songs, some folk-rock. Synth swashes. Poetry recitals. Spoken word interludes. A bunch of things that, on first (and second) listen don't really go all that well together. Leven put a bunch of stuff that he liked on here, aural or lyrical coherence be damned. As an album this was - at least for me - drifting way too much. And even though no one made me captain, I decided to right the boat and guide it into the direction I had hoped for and that the cover seemingly promised. I wanted something that was closer in spirit to Van Morrison's mysticism, and something that held together as one long mood piece. I think I suceeded. Feel free to disagree in the comments. 

The first order of the day: Unclutter the damn thing. Even though it doesn't run unconsciously long due to some songs and bits being rather short, there is just way too much going on here. Sixteen tracks have been whittled down to nine that make a coherent whole. Not surprisingly, the album went from a CD-era album length, an hour, to a vinyl-era album length of 38 minutes. It's probably fair to say that it's easier to hold a mood and an atmosphere for around 40 minutes than for an hour or more. I also got rid of what I felt was excessive. In the original version of "Come Back Early Or Never Come" we get a recital of the poem, and then Leven puts the entire thing into song. One of these was too much, and it wasn't the song. 

The first Jackie Leven song that I fell in love with was "The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ", a great song title to an even greater song. It has the folk song sensibilities, and the pop sound, and the keyboard embellishments that Leven seemingly liked a lot. So my version of Forbidden Songs From The Dying West was, I admit it, an attempt at an album that sounds a lot like that song. Jackie Leven was a man who invented his own private mythology, proudly declaring on the back cover of Forbidden Songs From The Dying West to hail from the kingdom of Fife as if his place of birth was a place of myth and mystery. And in many ways it was, just like the man. Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West - now more than ever in this concentrated version - transports these sentiments. So join Mr. Leven into his voyage through that kingdom and other mythical landscapes...