Agree the Preservation albums are underrated, though I can see how coming so soon after the Kontroversy through Muswell run, they could sound like further confirmation post-Everybody's in Showbiz that the Kinks were in decline. The biggest problems are the vocals and, as alluded to above, the production. Davies singing is even more affected than usual throughout the albums, as he really indulges his penchant for campy overacting. The production is a mess, though that's one thing I rather like about the albums. The sloppy, shambolic quality keeps the music from achieving the larger than life grandeur maybe it could have had, but it also keeps the albums from being overcome by bombast- there's something fundamentally tossed off and funny about the Preservation songs that really appeals to me (and fits in well with the themes of the piece). That said, I'm currently working on a Kinks collection for the comp project, and I ultimately decided on using just a single track from the Preservation project, though it was painful to drop "Salvation Road" and "Money Talks." Another song I really like: "Mirror of Love," especially the alternate take available on the Preservation 2 CD.
― MumblestheRevelator, Sunday, 5 September 2010 16:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't help but think there was some unspoken agenda against what these albums represented.
... them representing Ray disappearing up his own arse you mean? There are definitely some great songs on these albums, esp. "Preservation 1" and "A Soap Opera". Listening to all of "Preservation 2" is a chore however and "Schoolboys in Disgrace" is a total dog.
― Tom A. (Tom B.) (Tom C.) (Tom D.), Monday, 6 September 2010 10:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I know, "LOL rockstar trying to make serious statements" but, politically, "Preservation" is naive bordering on simple-minded
― Tom A. (Tom B.) (Tom C.) (Tom D.), Monday, 6 September 2010 12:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Schoolboys in Disgrace to be a film musical directed by Bobcat Goldthwait!
http://www.spinner.com/2010/06/30/bobcat-goldthwait-kinks-schoolboys-in-disgrace-movie/
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 September 2010 16:27 (thirteen years ago) link
"Celluloid Heroes" has such a lovely tune, but I'm very ambivalent about the lyrics - sort of irksome how all the male movie stars are portrayed as cool and solid while all the women are oh so tragic and vulnerable. Great song nonetheless.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, November 9, 2007 9:05 AM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
anachronistic rock criticism at its finest
― Wimmels, Wednesday, 7 December 2016 11:42 (seven years ago) link
Search: 'Ducks on the Wall'
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Friday, 9 December 2016 23:59 (seven years ago) link
never listened to Sleepwalker before, I'm digging it
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 19 April 2018 15:17 (six years ago) link
I'm kind of agnostic about their post-Muswell work but I put "Here Comes Yet Another Day" on a playlist a long time ago and I'm really digging it now
― frogbs, Thursday, 19 April 2018 15:25 (six years ago) link
I love Schoolboys In Disgrace, especially No More Looking Back. Is that Bobcat Goldthwait movie still happening? I think I'd like a Schoolboys In Disgrace movie directed by Wes Anderson, it seems like it would be a good fit for him - institutional setting, focused on the pain/pleasure of wallowing in the past, people cloistering themselves away from the world
― soref, Thursday, 19 April 2018 16:16 (six years ago) link
Juke Box Music on Sleepwalker is one of their very best. Same goes for Rock and Roll Fantasy on Misfits.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 19 April 2018 17:04 (six years ago) link
you keep all your smart modern writers
― budo jeru, Saturday, 21 March 2020 02:44 (four years ago) link
OTM. As is
― Robbie Shakespeare’s Sister Lovers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 March 2020 05:03 (four years ago) link
"Lola vs. Powerman" - Ray's Jewish accent on "Top of the Pops" is a bit :-O but a good album with some reservations.
I find "Muswell Hillbillies" to be an irritatingly sequenced album, all the boring crap like "Complicated Life", "Here Come the People in Grey", "Acute Schizophrenia etc" seems to be crammed into the first half of the album, making it a chore to sit through, then the last four songs are great. Also I don't like "Holiday" or "Alcohol" much, two songs which people seem to consider highlights of the album. And what does, "Skin and Bones" have to do with the concept (so-called) of the album?
I'm not bored enough yet to listen to "Everybody's in Showbiz".
― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 4 May 2020 12:24 (three years ago) link
Ha. The latter was one of the only ones I could find back in the late 70s and early 80s I can confirm that it’s pretty bad.
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 13:17 (three years ago) link
I've got it I just don't want to listen to it.
― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 4 May 2020 13:31 (three years ago) link
"This Time Tomorrow" (mentioned a couple of times earlier in this thread) is one of their greatest. Somehow I missed it in The Darjeeling Limited (not to mention missing it on the album I played two or three times 35 years ago and then shelved), but I've since come across it on The Regular Lovers, a French film from 2005, and the new Mrs. America on F/X.
― clemenza, Monday, 4 May 2020 14:02 (three years ago) link
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:05 (three years ago) link
Just put on The Great Lost Kinks Album, which I could never find a copy of back in the day, heard the backing vocals on "Lavender Hill," was reminded of the magic that Rasa seemed to add and then this grand theory: https://andrewhickey.info/2018/01/28/did-a-teenage-girl-make-the-kinks-great/
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:15 (three years ago) link
I really disliked The Darjeeling Limited but it did make me realize what a fuckin' great song that is
― frogbs, Monday, 4 May 2020 14:19 (three years ago) link
Yup
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:28 (three years ago) link
Better than the hotel movie, I thought, but nothing special. The Kinks song couldn't have been very prominent--I don't think I would have missed it if it had been (or else I immediately forgot it in the wake of the movie's averageness).
― clemenza, Monday, 4 May 2020 14:33 (three years ago) link
I love Sleepwalker (the album) even though it's about half stinkers. The songs I like I like a lot. Also God's Children has everything I love about the Kinks and is, imo, a great song, even though maybe some of the lyrics are uncomfortably related to the plot of Percy (which I haven't seen)
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:42 (three years ago) link
Jukebox Music is super condescending to little ladies who like records and it *still* hits the spot. The title track of Sleepwalker and Mr. Big Man are also perennial faves for me.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:44 (three years ago) link
LL otm. Misfits was kind of a further fall-off in quality but I still have kind of a soft spot for it.Wondering if the Kinks have been mentioned on that other thread I haven’t really looked at, Great Bands with Crap Albums or whatever it’s called.
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:45 (three years ago) link
that article about Rasa is pretty interesting. obviously there are a lot of musicians who captured greatness for a few years and then fell off but even still, Ray Davies just seemed like a totally different songwriter after Lola. its not even that so much of that is crap but rather just how much blatant plagiarism there is on those later records. he just has no new song ideas
― frogbs, Monday, 4 May 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link
Yeah, he didn't really seem to have a knack for churning out somewhat better-than-average material, it was a bimodal distribution of great stuff surrounded by lots of dreck. Maybe he should be compared with somebody like, say, Burt Bacharach.
"God's Children" was on one of those Mojo samplers, one that was soundtrack-based and it always sounded so awesome on that. Don't know what I did with it, the whole thing flowed really well, it had the theme from "The Taking of Pelham 123" on it, for one thing.
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:54 (three years ago) link
This: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63KbGAD9A8hZKxDqvj9kMs
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:55 (three years ago) link
Here is some further discussion: http://5mudg3blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/thanks-mojo-best-cover-mounted-cds-ever.html
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:57 (three years ago) link
I have seen "Percy" but I don't remember anything about it apart from a bit where they're wondering around a zoo - hence "Animals in the Zoo". I might even have seen "Percy's Progress" too.
― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:57 (three years ago) link
This playlist seems to have the whole thing, nothing grayed out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2E7rDi38F9ZCPFoT8EdYUt?si=2_5JsnN4RsCD0Ya5dh68Aw
― My Chess Hustler (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:58 (three years ago) link
Oh wait! Life on the Road is good too!! "Mama always told me city ladies were bawdy & bold, so I searched night and day to catch the kiss of a lady but all that I caught was a cold" -- that's funny!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 4 May 2020 15:01 (three years ago) link
Cheap looking Kinks documentary on London Live (Channel 8, Freeview) at the moment. No sign of Ray.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:07 (three years ago) link
... Dave, interviewed in 1981, voice only.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:09 (three years ago) link
Mick Avory, like some old geezer in a pub who can't be bothered speaking to anyone, just wants to be left alone to sup his pint.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:11 (three years ago) link
John Dalton, second billed guest star on "Minder" ca. 1983.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:13 (three years ago) link
John Gosling off to a bad start, claiming that before joined the Kinks he was considering an offer to replace Jools Holland in Squeeze - Jools Holland would have been 12 years old at the time.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:17 (three years ago) link
So bad it's good!
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
So bad I turned it off.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:47 (three years ago) link
And started listening to Everybody's in Show-Biz instead?
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to "Orca" actually.
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:51 (three years ago) link
Cool!
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:52 (three years ago) link
Forgot he did that one
Of course I could probably say that about thousands of soundtracks and it would mean "I never knew he composed that one too!"
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 July 2020 19:53 (three years ago) link
Percy On Blu-Ray!
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray_review_142/percy_blu-ray.htm
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 23:06 (two years ago) link
I don't understand the ambivalence towards "Destroyer;" in fact, the only mention of it is it being 'Destroyed' by an ILXer and I don't think that was being cheeky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WJ6FbcWYRU
I get it that oldsters won't see it as holding a candle to the British Invasion staples, but as someone who was 12 and gravitating towards loud guitars (they did shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes," you know) this was an early earworm for me, one that I still appreciated when it occurred to me the band was being influenced by the same punk/new wave bands that they, themselves, had helped spawn to a degree. There's something cool about that, but especially when it's done this well.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 02:46 (two years ago) link
never listened to Sleepwalker before, I'm not digging it
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 December 2021 19:38 (two years ago) link
Probably if the first track ("Life on the Road") hadn't been so good I wouldn't have been so disappointed with the rest of the album but... I'm struggling to find any trace of the Kinks on some of these songs.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 December 2021 19:43 (two years ago) link
It’s like half good. The songs I love i love wholeheartedly but some of them are just bitter and boring.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:21 (two years ago) link
Agree with LL.
― Goofy the Grifter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:25 (two years ago) link
"Full Moon" is up there with their mid-'60s peak for me. With the possible exceptions of maybe "Scattered" or "Come Dancing," it's their last truly great track (even if it self-plagiarizes "Johnny Thunder," but that's nothing new for them).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:26 (two years ago) link