Ray Davies and company had already participated in one failed television
musical when the movie
Percy came along -- it wasn't as original as
Arthur, nor did
Davies have nearly as much to do with its creation, but he still outdid himself given the material at hand. Directed and co-produced by
Ralph Thomas, who had been responsible for some brilliant
thrillers (
The Clouded Yellow,
Above Us the Waves) and very popular
comedies (
Doctor in the House) in past decades,
Percy was the story of the world's first penis transplant (it was probably inspired, or at least justified, by big-budget efforts of the period like
Myra Breckinridge). Although virtually unseen in the United States, it was still popular enough to yield a sequel (
Percy's Progress), but its real impact came from its
soundtrack.
Davies wrote some hauntingly beautiful
ballads and some solid
blues and
country as well --
"God's Children" and
"Animals in the Zoo" have turned up on some career anthologies, but there's a lot more to
Percy than those two tracks.
"Completely" is as fine a slow
blues as the band ever recorded, with a sizzling performance by
Dave Davies, and
"Dreams" is a pretty solid rocker, even up alongside
"Animals in the Zoo." To this day the album has never appeared in the U.S. catalog -- recorded at the tail end of their contract with
Pye Records in England and
Warner/
Reprise in America, and connected with a movie that was never going to see much exposure in the U.S.A.,
Reprise passed on it at the time. ~ Bruce Eder
![Desire [Remastered]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0827969239322_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Desire [Remastered]")
