I'm with you, I get the feeling that that is exactly what they were doing. That's what's so frustrating: you can hear that this comes from great talent, but there are very few songs in this period that I listen to for pleasure.
"Set Me Free" Single by the Kinks from the album Kinda Kinks (US) B-side "I Need You" Released 21 May 1965 (UK) 26 May 1965 (US) Recorded 13–14 April 1965 at Pye Studios (No. 1), London Genre Rock, beat Length 2:12 Label Pye 7N 15854 (UK) Reprise 0379 (US) Songwriter(s) Ray Davies Producer(s) Shel Talmy "Set Me Free" is a song by Ray Davies, released first by the Kinks in 1965. Along with "Tired of Waiting for You", it is one of band's first attempts at a softer, more introspective sound. The song's B-side, "I Need You", makes prominent use of powerchords in the style of the Kinks' early, "raunchy" sound. "Set Me Free" was heard in the Ken Loach-directed Up the Junction, a BBC Wednesday Play which aired in November 1965; this marked the first appearance of a Kinks song on a film or TV soundtrack. Chart (1965) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[2] 54 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[3] 2 Canada (CHUM)[4] 30 France (IFOP)[5] 29 Germany (Official German Charts)[6] 32 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[7] 12 UK Singles (OCC)[8] 9 US Billboard Hot 100[9] 23 US Cash Box Top 100[10] 24 ------------------------------------------------------------ mono mix (2:10), recorded 14 Apr, 1965 at Pye Studios (No. 1), London Set me free, little girl. All you gotta do is set me free, little girl. You know you can do it if you try, All you gotta do is set me free, free, Free. Set me free, little girl. All you gotta do is set me free, little girl. You know you can do it if you try, All you gotta do is set me free, free, Free, free. I don't want no one, If I can't have you to myself. I don't need nobody else. So if I can't have you to myself, Set me free. Set me free. Oh set me free, little girl. All you gotta do is set me free, little girl. You know you can do it if you try, All you gotta do is set me free, free, Free, free. I don't want no one, If I can't have you to myself. I don't need nobody else. So if I can't have you to myself, Set me free. Set me free. Oh set me free, little girl. All you gotta do is set me free, little girl. You know you can do it if you try, All you gotta do is set me free, free, Free. Set me free, Oh, set me free. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Kassner Music Co. Ltd So the Kinks get back in the UK top ten with their very next single. To me it just comes down to this just being a much better song. Where as Ev'rybody had a kind of relentless unchanging pulse of excitement, but nothing to embellish that, here we have Ray mixing up the changes and dynamics really well, giving this track much more interest factor. Even with the song being a more gentle track, with a sort of relaxed melancholy, and a much less dance oriented target, it manages to hold the interest much more and deliver the goods that were ever so slightly lacking in the previous single. We open with a sliding chord idea, that may well have been an extension on the idea used in Tired Of Waiting For You, but it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't a rewrite. The melancholic minor sound, sliding into the augmented really gives us a nice melodic movement. The change into a major emphasis when we get to "You can do it if you try" gives that line a sort of feeling of positive hope ... it is a really interesting little piece of work.... perhaps it was just a happy accident, but the movement from the melancholic prison of "set me free", to the almost joyful "you can do it if you try" just seems like a perfect piece of lyric/music combo writing. .... and then rolling back around to the minor for the return to "set me free". So we get the double chorus opening, and then move into the verse("I don't want no one") (that's the way I hear it anyhow. Some say double verse followed by a bridge) The verse is essentially a very smooth change of key, and again rolls between the minor and the augmented, and then rolls back into the original key via a really nice smooth rolling transition. This really seems to show Ray starting to get a really good handle on structuring his songs for maximum melodic impact. In some ways the song is structurally simple with just the two rotating sections, and again lyrically we have a fairly repetitive set up, but for me the Ev'rybody probably was musical repetition, not so much lyrical that effected it. Here the melodic and structural arrangement somewhat nullifies any lyrical repetition .... anyway, that's how I feel about it. Ray delivers the vocal really well, even though the falsetto is a little fragile ... but in context with the lyric, fragility doesn't seem out of place. For me this is a really solid track that rights the ship really well.... To some degree the very minor set back of Ev'rybody, is just that, very minor.... I certainly don't see it as being disastrous, or showing terrible inconsistency.... It just isn't quite on par with what we now expect from Ray when it comes to singles .... This is certainly on par with what we expect from Ray for singles..... and again Ray has only been writing for an extremely short period of time, so to expect best song ever every time is pretty out there.... He is, from my perspective, showing a very diligent attention to his craft, and trying to learn and grow, whilst also produce songs at a fairly unrealistic pace to satisfy the market, contracts and commercial expectations. So Set Me Free is a winner in my book.
I Need You mono mix (2:24), recorded 14 Apr, 1965 at Pye Studios (No. 1), London I need you, I need you more than birds need the sky. I need you, it's true little girl, That you can lift the tears from my eyes. But if you ever tell me good-bye, I'll break down and you'll hear me cry. I need you, More than anybody else has needed anyone before. I need you, There's no one else to stand in your place. I need you, you know little girl, That you can keep the smile on my face. But if you ever tell me good-bye, I'll break down and you'll hear me cry. I need you, More than anybody else has needed anyone before. I need you, There's no one else to stand in your place. I need you, you know little girl, That you can keep the smile on my face. But if you ever tell me good-bye, I'll break down and you'll hear me cry. I need you, More than anybody else has needed anyone before. More than anybody else has needed anyone before. I need you, I need you, I need you. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Kassner Music Co. Ltd Certainly we can look at this as a recalibration of the features of You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of the Night, but for me it still works really well as its own song. In light of the fact that it follows some formula ideas of two big hit singles, I really have to tip my hat to the band for putting it on the b-side, rather than wimping out and putting it on the a-side .... though perhaps that was a management or record company decision.... either way, it was the right decision. We get that nice chunky guitar sound, a solid rhythm section. Again some effective backing vocals that add some nice texture. We get a nice little breakdown, and it is followed by another blistering lead from Dave ... I mean surely we have put the Page ghost to rest by now .... This is an excellent b-side, because it is a solid song, it contrasts the a-side, and in line with most thinking by record company types, its formula is based in tracks that were hits. Works for me.
Another great single, and this time around they got it right with the A-side. I still like I Need You a lot, but it's too similar to their first two big hits, whereas Set Me Free is something new (again!).
Not sure if The Kinks ever played ' I Need You' live, but it was a fixture of both brothers solo live sets. Compare: (spoiler: Dave wins this round, imo)
Someone must’ve come to Ray and told him « don’t **** with the formula, man »… I mean you're the Kinks, you just got to number 17 with a disappointing single after three smash riff driven songs, what’re you going to do ? You bang out not one but two riff driven songs for the meanest single anyone could think of! A-side is firmly in the Tired of Waiting for You mid-tempo style, while the flip side definitely sits in the all-hell-breaks-loose You Really Got Me All Day and All of the Night vein. Structurally Set Me Free is a weird little beast which I don’t analize exactly like Mark: it seems to start with the chorus like Tired of Waiting for You, but then they get to the proper one (“Seeeeet Me Freee bambambambambambambam / Seeeeet Me Free-ee”) and you realize the beginning was really the verse. Clever, efficient, and damn catchy, if not as biblically great as its parent song. Same could be said about I Need You compared to its predecessors except its B-side status has made it a killer cult song for some of us, the likes of which are so important in our immature passion for rock music (think Rain or Hound Dog). Well, its B-side status AND its guitar sound, even heavier, crunchier and tastier than the two hits it emulates so powerfully. What a cool track, what a furious solo, what a treat!
"Set Me Free" I thought this was always seen as an inferior rewrite of "Tired Of Waiting", and in some ways it is recycling the same formula - even down to the use of the toms during the final chorus/verse (whatever it is!) - but it's still an enjoyable track for me. The strange chords and melody during the "I don't want no-one..." bit set it apart, and the staccato guitar after "seeeeeet me free" is effective as well. A good recovery from a disappointing single. "I Need You" Of course it's recycling the riff from two big hit singles, but here the riff is even filthier, laden with more feedback and distortion than ever. It's as infectious as the singles it tries to emulate, and it's the kind of thing that legendary b-sides are made of.
Set Me Free: A song that whisks me away to the 60s with another tug-at-your-heart song. I can’t place what the main melody line reminds me of...or what the bridge reminds me of...but it’s on the tip of my tongue! I will take a stab at commenting on the musicianship by suggesting that the drumming is rather pedestrian on this track (and then, naturally, when I go back and listen for what I’m spouting on about...I can’t hear it. Oh well). This is another possible keeper for me (though I’m still thinking about the “free, free, free” part. It jars.)
I Need You: I’m not even remotely interested in this and I gather I’m going against thread opinion when I say I think it was a bad idea. If I bought this single (after having purchased You Really Got Me), I’d have felt like I’d been duped.
Set Me Free and I Need You I’ve got, like, two minutes to spare this morning, so I’ll say.. 1) I love both songs, and .. 2) Ray’s autobiography dismisses this single as an example of the kind of “hack songwriting” that he wanted to move away from but felt trapped by the demands of success. He does, however, praise the opening guitar reverb on “I Need You.” As for me, I consider that sound the most hair-raising 3 second intro in rock n’ roll history that, outside of Kink-fandom, nobody knows about.
Set Me Free/I Need You. I like both tracks a lot and if you consider the a and b sides together, it's their best single yet. John Mendelsohn, in the liner notes to the U.S. Arthur, I think, made a point of expressing his love for "I Need You". Edit: I always found the Eurythmics' "Would I Lie To You" sounding like "I Need You".
This single, in many ways, works as a capsule summation of the Kinks' career up to this point. The band's softer and harder sides both take a great, final bow before we move on to the next period. Set Me Free -- kind of an update of "Tired of Waiting for You", musically and lyrically, except he's even more fed up with his girl's wavering and infidelity and he's moved beyond the passive-aggressiveness of the first song and now just lays it on the line. Him or me -- who's it gonna be? Dave's curling chords and harmonies are the musical highlights -- Ray's melody is fine but treads upon familiar ground at this point. I Need You -- Talk about laying it on the line. This is the culmination of the band's first two incendiary hit singles, this one is a complete barnburner. One of the most direct, visceral tracks in rock and roll history, and one of my ten favorite Kinks songs, ever. The song just relentlessly pounds and pounds, and the band never lets up through the entire track's duration. A smoking classic that has served as a prototype for several other songs -- the Godfathers' "If I Only Had Time" is a direct descendant. The Kinks made a few questionable business decisions throughout their career, and picking "Set Me Free" over "I Need You" as the A-side of this single is one of them to me. The latter song was just too good to be buried.
That's why this superb single leaves me with a paradoxical feeling that I’m sure was shared by many back in the day (and surely Ray himself) : we all want our favorite bands to evolve and change and grow. And boy, did the Kinks do it. But had they done this riffing formula at this level over and over (and over) again for their whole career, they’d still be one stupendous band. That they managed to almost contradict this style consistently for the bulk of their best work will never cease to amaze me. Think we’re only six weeks, ONE SONG (and one thread day) away from See My Friends, the first major creative leap on that evolution path ! I mean can I Need You really be the last song they did before See My Friends ??? Isn't it crazy ?
Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy Kinda groovy, but really nothing there for me to sink my teeth into. Who'll Be the Next In Line On some of these song by song posts, I'll listen to a song I hadn't heard in a long time and suddenly gain a new appreciation for a song that hadn't done much for me in the past. This was the opposite... I seemed to recall liking this one back in the day, but can't find a reason to want to spin it again now. Although I do find myself getting into some of the chord changes. Set Me Free Okay, now we're firing on all cylinders! Great song, great delivery! I love the way the vocal line weaves in and out of the main riff. There is some recycling indicated here though.... "If I can't have you to yourself" sounds just like "please don't keep a me waiting." I Need You As previously noted, the recycling is heavy here. But it is recycling the fun stuff, so really no complaints there. But then again, those are some cringe worthy metaphors. Cool riffs but a lyrical flop.