Though other singer-songwriters garnered wider praise, Kevin Coyne generated a greater quantity of strong material across a longer span. Scarcely recognized in the United States, he issued dozens of albums, most of them strong, that centered on societal outsiders: men, women, and children arbitrarily pushed aside or locked away in isolation. His compositions moved swiftly between deep empathy and sudden fury, torment, and indictment. One of the most lasting portrayals of Coyne appears on the artwork for In Living Black & White, with the front showing him smiling and bowing politely toward an invisible audience while the reverse displays the same image from behind, now with an open straight razor in his hand.
Coyne entered the world in Derby, England, in 1944 and, like many rock performers shaped by early postwar Britain, attended art school before developing a passion for American R&B. During a bohemian existence in late-’60s London he worked for a period as a socio-therapist helping alcoholics and the emotionally disturbed, positions that later colored his musical outlook. In 1969 his first group, Siren, joined John Peel’s Dandelion label. After two strong albums in two years the imprint closed, and Coyne began a solo career. Married with two children, he sustained both his family and his music by resuming social-work duties. His initial solo release, Case History, defined much of what followed. Rooted in his therapeutic experiences, the record offered an intense look at the desperate search for affection among those forcibly exiled to society’s edges. Coyne’s bluesy vocals wail almost without consolation across this unfiltered portrait of turbulent lives—betrayed, institutionalized, unwanted, and largely unloved. The figures in these songs plead for notice, and Coyne, rejecting England’s bureaucratic welfare system, wails alongside them.
Case History nearly marked the end of his recording life, yet after a deliberate withdrawal from music the prospect of resuming solo work with near-total creative control proved irresistible. Beginning in 1973, Coyne formed an association with the newly established Virgin Records, which proved willing to accommodate his decidedly noncommercial, challenging approach. Over the next eight years he created some of his strongest music and, unexpectedly, gained modest commercial traction, though only in Europe. These releases were largely sharp folk-rock efforts colored by an avant-garde performance sensibility—Coyne was also a published poet—without becoming either easy listening or overly obscure.
By the early ’80s Coyne was working with independent labels on erratic, modestly received albums that appeared irregularly and proved hard to obtain. His deteriorating mental and physical condition worsened the difficulties: ongoing depression that led to a nervous breakdown, together with alcoholism that ended his marriage and nearly claimed his life. In 1985 he relocated to Nuremberg, Germany, began restoring his health, and formed the Paradise Band. The move also renewed his interest in painting and writing, producing several published books and exhibitions in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Once the ’90s arrived, Coyne had reasserted himself as a genuine underground presence through a steady flow of albums notable for their variety and inconsistent availability. Pulmonary fibrosis was diagnosed in 2002. He died at his home on December 2, 2004.
