Lunatic's Lament opens with an uptempo 4/4 drum pattern along with a weird Beavis voice grunting and saying rock and roll. An electric guitar splits the air at 0:06, kicking Beavis out the door. Kevin Ayers sings double vocals with slight megaphone effect: I'm here lying on my bed, just trying to hold on to my head. This perhaps sounds like the words of a crazy man, but the music is not going down that road feeling bad. Unlike The Moody Blues' Late Lament: 'Breathe deep the gathering gloom', the guys playing here are ready to party. Nonetheless, I do hear a brief connection to 96 Tears in the organ chords.
At 0:54, the music enters a middle passage where Ayers sings Times are full of pumpkin people, they appear and they fade away. It is similar to Television's Marquee Moon, when Tom Verlaine sings 'Life in the hive puckered up my night.'
Mike Oldfield, Mr. Tubular Bells, was only 17 when he played the whacked out guitar solo that starts at 1:49. I think he's the lunatic, no? How crazy is that solo?! Again, I am reminded of Marquee Moon and Richard Lloyd's solo on that one, as well as Richard Thompson's solo on Fairport Convention's A Sailor's Life.
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