"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
The songwriting is miles better than something like "Schoolboys in Disgrace" but it's just sounds too anonymous and American for me.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:37 (two years ago) link
Yeah, the flumpfy LA sound is kind of off-putting. I sometimes confuse "Life Goes On" for Fleetwood Mac's "Over My Head" (or vice-versa) hearing them on the radio. But it's in line with pretty much all Kinks productions: "What do records sound like today? OK, we'll do that."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:52 (two years ago) link
Since this is the active Kinks thread ATM
🎶 We are the Village Green Preservation Society 🎶 https://t.co/ppWETk8Z2w— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 3, 2021
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 3 December 2021 01:29 (two years ago) link
Sleepwalker was the first time in 10 years he'd had to come up with songs outside of an overriding concept, on the orders of Clive Davis. In fact the concept was "keep the Kinks viable as a major label act in the late 70s", which also meant dispensing with the sometimes-charming sloppiness of the RCA-era band. I believe that Dave was also calling for a return to "rock" as a condition to stay in the band.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 3 December 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
Misfits.
After going all rawwwwk on the last album this is curiously limp and soft centred. Once again, the opening song is really good but the tail off is even more vertiginous. There's a 'comic' song about having hay fever - no, seriously. Ray appears to sing sensitively and compassionately about misfits on the title track and then gets some cheap laughs out of one on "Out of the Wardrobe". On one song he advises those alienated by the 'extreme left and extreme right" to keep their heads down and just live their lives and a couple of songs later he's exhorting those alienated by the 'extreme left and extreme right" to stand up and fight - though he doesn't say how, maybe by voting for Jeremy Thorpe."Rock and Roll Fantasy" is a good song.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 6 December 2021 09:48 (two years ago) link
... and then there's "Black Messiah", wtf is Ray trying to tell us in that song?
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 6 December 2021 10:58 (two years ago) link
Dunno but your Misfits review is spot-on so far. Although you haven’t touched on “Live Life” yet.
― Goofy the Grifter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 December 2021 11:49 (two years ago) link
That's the one where he advises people to be apolitical in the face of the extremes of left and right? It's utter crap.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 6 December 2021 12:08 (two years ago) link
It's the big ROCK track on the album and, in a similar vein, is followed by a dire hairy chested screechathon from Dave.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 6 December 2021 12:11 (two years ago) link
Tbh I like the rocking on that track, at least the guitar, the lyrics not so much.
― Goofy the Grifter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 December 2021 12:43 (two years ago) link
I have a soft spot for "In a Foreign Land" and "Permanent Waves" from that album. Giddy singalongs that hearkened back to Arthur.
― henry s, Monday, 6 December 2021 13:29 (two years ago) link
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, December 6, 2021 5:58 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
It's a blatantly racist piece of shit. Adding insult to injury, they released it as a single in the UK at a time when the neo-nazi National Front was on the ascendance.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 6 December 2021 14:54 (two years ago) link
Is it a character study of a racist though? Whatever it is it's stupid.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 6 December 2021 15:22 (two years ago) link
In one of the Kinks biographies, one of the bass players on Misfits complains about doing dozens of takes of "Hay Fever" in different keys, different tempos, etc. Ray was probably becoming more neurotic about getting everything "right" for the arena-size audience.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 6 December 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
Well that's something to look forward to when the 50-year reissue drops!
― henry s, Monday, 6 December 2021 16:54 (two years ago) link
So it seems there's a radio dramatization of the Lola vs. Powerman album being broadcast on Radio 4 this Saturday.
Lola vs Powerman, the radio play, will broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this Saturday at 14:45 GMT! The play documents the life of a character in the music business facing the challenging circumstances in which he found himself at the end of the 1960s.Written by Sir Ray and Paul Sirett pic.twitter.com/kl5qa36CcY— The Kinks (@TheKinks) December 7, 2021
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Tuesday, 7 December 2021 20:56 (two years ago) link
Apparently they made a radio play of Arthur earlier?
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 7 December 2021 21:01 (two years ago) link
So I see. I missed that, damn it!
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Tuesday, 7 December 2021 21:11 (two years ago) link
Preservation and Soap Opera don't convince me that Ray has a great ear for spoken dialogue.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 7 December 2021 21:40 (two years ago) link
Let's just hope he's not speaking it too.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Tuesday, 7 December 2021 21:44 (two years ago) link
Wonder who's gonna deliver the "it means you can earn some real money!" line.
― henry s, Wednesday, 8 December 2021 01:53 (two years ago) link
Low Budget.
Can you believe this piece of crap is the highest charting Kinks album of all time in the US? It got to #11, wtf?
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 18:09 (two years ago) link
I don't really like anything from this record, but when I saw Ray in 2006, the title track was the only song he played later than Muswell Hillbillies except for his new songs, and it was actually fun.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 17 December 2021 18:23 (two years ago) link
"Moving Pictures" is kind of fun.
― henry s, Friday, 17 December 2021 18:25 (two years ago) link
The title track is amusing because Ray Davies is famously the biggest tightwad on planet Earth, the song is still shit though. The "Superman" song is admittedly catchy.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 18:35 (two years ago) link
As is "In a Space" and "National Health." A full one third of the album is a toe-tapper.
― henry s, Friday, 17 December 2021 18:38 (two years ago) link
I beg to differ.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 18:39 (two years ago) link
One of the kinks' ogwt sessions was shown on bbc4 recently, and now I can't shake off "Have a cuppa tea" for months on end. All it takes is to see the words "Muswell Hillbillies" and here we go again.
― Mark G, Friday, 17 December 2021 18:41 (two years ago) link
I should have said hallelujah there
― Mark G, Friday, 17 December 2021 18:42 (two years ago) link
More neurotic? Is that even possible? Yes, right now I am reading that same biography.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 18:54 (two years ago) link
Can you believe this piece of crap is the highest charting Kinks album of all time in the US? It got to #11, wtf?Actually, their 1966 Greatest Hits! is the highest (#9 in the US). But it makes sense that Low Budget charted as high as it did: they’d been on a slow and steady climb back into larger halls and getting more radio play, and Low Budget was the perfect summit (not artistically speaking, that is). But it’s interesting that their biggest US chart success after 1966 was the decidedly un-arena-rock “Come Dancing.”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 17 December 2021 19:36 (two years ago) link
"Come Dancing" was more Pop than they'd been since "Lola" the song, and the video was huge.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 17 December 2021 20:33 (two years ago) link
True, though I wonder why that didn't translate into a higher chart peak for State of Confusion?
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 17 December 2021 21:08 (two years ago) link
Dunno, probably just new fans buying the single and perhaps concert tickets instead of the LP.
Low Budget peaking so high is possibly explained by it coming out at peak FM radio, when an album could sell as an album on name recognition and AOR radio play without necessarily having crossover appeal.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 17 December 2021 21:14 (two years ago) link
"State of Confusion" was the second most successful non-compliation Kinks album in the US in their history, so it did pretty well.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 21:16 (two years ago) link
The career of the Kinks is a head-scratcher almost from beginning to end though.
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 17 December 2021 21:20 (two years ago) link
Clive Davis was somewhat famously against "Come Dancing" being released as a single, pushing instead for the other song about dancing on the album, the ballad "Don't Forget To Dance". I wonder if that contributed to why the vid for the latter was a literal Pt.2 to the one for the former.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRUE0aAI5o8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmk5ZasgEp0
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 17 December 2021 21:22 (two years ago) link
I’d never seen the “Don’t Forget” video before! Strange how Word Of Mouth stiffed only a year later. It’s no classic, but it’s got some solid tunes. “Do It Again” is an all-time Kinks fave of mine, and I remembered being shocked that the musicians playing so furiously on “Sold Me Out” were (gasp) in their early 40s! They did an arena tour that year, appeared on SNL, “Do It Again” was on the radio…and few were buying.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 17 December 2021 23:16 (two years ago) link
Last week I found and watched a free streaming copy of the SNL In The '80s doc, and the "Do It Again" performance clip figured in heavily.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
"Do It Again" was the first new Kinks song I heard when it came out, I'd have to ponder if they or Ray have done anything as good since.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:03 (two years ago) link
The first proper Ray solo album, Other People's Lives, is pretty solid, and the CD booklet has terrific liners from Ray talking about each track.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:11 (two years ago) link
Always wondered why Dave was not in the "Do It Again" video. Guess he was on a Kinks rumspringa at that point.
― henry s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:21 (two years ago) link
I’ll rep for “Look Through Any Doorway” (from the 1991 Did Ya EP) (the 1991 what what?) and especially for “Scattered” from Phobia. Hell, I’ll go so far as to rep for most of UK Jive — “War Is Over” and “How Do I Get Close” are comparable with “Do It Again.”xxp
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:22 (two years ago) link
Always wondered why Dave was not in the "Do It Again" video. Guess he was on a Kinks rumspringa at that point.He’s in it! He’s there at 3:50 offering his guitar to the crowd. More weirdly, Mick Avory is in the video, but didn’t play on the song — Dave told Ray that he couldn’t work with Mick anymore, so Bob Henrit plays on most of Word Of Mouth.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:26 (two years ago) link
Guess I missed him in that clown get up.
― henry s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 00:30 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBZh5mB66Tk
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 18 December 2021 18:28 (two years ago) link
What was that song he wrote about waking up in New Orleans' Charity Hospital, observing the people around him? Was it "Morphine Song"? (He'd chased down the guy who snatched his girl friend's purse, I think.) That was really good, unlike most of the other tracks on whatever album, which sported airhead snottiness and auto-bombastic guitars, of an already dated kind at that. I may be forgetting some other keepers, but there do seem to be just 2-3 at most on much if not all of his post-1970 offerings.
― dow, Saturday, 18 December 2021 19:08 (two years ago) link
"How Are You" is a good song. Funny that although I think he started playing it even before he picked up a guitar, I don't think I've ever seen Ray playing (or miming) piano before that video.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 18 December 2021 19:27 (two years ago) link
I agree that "Morphine song" was a highlight of Working Man's Cafe. The second Americana album had some good songs too, but the first was a big disappointment. The sound, playing and production were all perfect, which meant that the dismay arose solely from the mediocre quality of Ray's songs.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 18 December 2021 19:34 (two years ago) link