The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    Owning both, it’s very strange that they didn’t send AIWLY out and about too.

    Yes, that article always amused me! It’s in the Deluxe Kywet CD too if I remember correctly?
     
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  2. TeddyB

    TeddyB Senior Member

    Location:
    Hollywoodland
    When Lou Reed went to Long Island to regroup after leaving the VU, the only rock record he listened to for months was The Great Lost Kinks Album.

    The Kinks are one of a handful of my favorite artists. This thread is so great I haven’t felt compelled to chime in yet. Let me just agree that “See My Friends” is epochal.
     
  3. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    I love this story (thank you!) though the time frame may be off, given that the Great Lost Kinks Album didn't come out until 1973. He'd released "Transformer" in 1972, his second solo album. But I have heard/seen an interview from around 1973-4 where he says Ray Davies is one of the few artists he likes. I think it's in his bleached hair period.
     
  4. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    It's a great and strange track. A favorite of mine.
     
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  5. TeddyB

    TeddyB Senior Member

    Location:
    Hollywoodland
    True, Steve, and good point. Maybe Lou was conflating time periods.
     
  6. Rockford & Roll

    Rockford & Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midway, KY
    I wonder if these guys started the war on Christmas?
     
  7. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
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  8. BZync

    BZync Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I first heard This Strange Effect on some British Invasion compilation and thought it sounded like someone imitating the Kinks. I guess I wasn't far off. Great track.
     
  9. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    SEE MY FRIENDS

    Another marvellous song. Musically superb and lyrically intriguing.

    This time the girl is gone.

    She went across the river and so was with Ray's friends but now she's no longer with them. Ray can only contemplate his friends, but they seem hopelessly distant, and in any case are playing inappropriate games given Ray's somber mood.

    The tenses of the verb are very interesting. "She went" and "She's gone (She has gone)" imply a return is possible and Ray uses them both, but they may only be there to emphasise the "She IS gone" which he uses both before and after.

    With "She IS gone" no return is possible.

    And so the obsessional "See my friends" returns to endlessly haunt Ray and underline his loss.



    NEVER MET A GIRL LIKE YOU BEFORE

    A bit of welcome light relief. It's as if Ray's skipped across the river and found a new love. Nice jaunty guitar solo to go with this amusing B side.



    WAIT TILL THE SUMMER COMES ALONG

    Brother Dave finally reveals himself as a sensitive singer.

    He starts off being tired of waiting for a new love after problems with his old one. But in a tragi-comic twist he very quickly accepts his fate to "cry until my dying day has come". The stage seems to be set for the death of a clown...


    SUCH A SHAME

    As if inspired by Dave, Ray too says he's lost a girl, bemoans the past good times, and accepts it's probably his fault. But it all seems a bit tongue in cheek. Especially when he says:

    "I'd come back but it wouldn't last for long.
    I would, if I could, but I can't."

    The drums, the guitar riff and the vocals are all musically melodramatic.

    This shame-ridden ditty should obviously have been well-buried on a B side somewhere.
     
  10. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I Go To Sleep / The Applejacks (August 1965)



    :kilroy: What "Blue Turns To Grey" was for Jagger & Richards, "I Go To Sleep" was for Ray Davies. A song that upon it's publication, inexplicably received about a dozen covers in rapid succession, of which The Applejacks' was merely the first. Here is a list of some of the more prominent English language ones (all are clickable YouTube links):

    PEGGY LEE
    CHER
    THE FINGERS
    THE TRUTH
    ADRIAN PRIDE
    MARION


    A tune that emerged from Ray's simple desire to try his hand at composing something with a similar feel to Bacharach's "Anyone Who Had A Heart," it somehow wound up turning into a whole gestalt. What's interesting to me is how every version of it begins with that "Can't By Me Love in Waltz Time" intro, which doesn't sound like it should be mandatory.
     
  11. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    very interesting.
     
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  12. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
    Wait Till The Summer Comes Along- I really like this song. To me it's like a blueprint for such folksy numbers Dave would crank out in their peak years. "Mrs. Shoemakers Daughter, "Lincoln County" and the like. I love his style of writing on these little ditties in contrast to his crunching rockers which I also admire. The instrumentation fits the genre and so does the melody. It's catchy and pleasant... Very good.

    Such A Shame-
    A decent composition although it's also a weaker version of song structures that would appear on their classic albums. A bit repetitive but bailed out by the instrumentation.
     
  13. It would not be a surprise if Lou was conflating time periods based on the amount of substances he was prone to ingest.
     
  14. I was completely shocked when I first came across the demo of I Go To Sleep on one of the Kinks reissue CDs. I remember thinking to myself - blimey, he wrote this as well?!??

    Lovely song, hypnotic melody. It's a pity they didn't do a proper version.
     
  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    "A Well Respected Man"

    [​IMG]
    Single by the Kinks
    from the EP Kwyet Kinks
    B-side
    Such A Shame (Ray Davies) (US) Milk Cow Blues (Sleepy John Estes) (Europe)
    Released September 1965 (UK)
    October 1965 (US)
    March 1966 (Europe)[1]
    Recorded Late July/Early August 1965[1]
    Genre Rock, pop[2]
    Length 2:41
    Label Reprise 0420 (US)
    Pye Records 7N 17100 (Europe)[1]
    Songwriter(s) Ray Davies
    Producer(s) Shel Talmy[1]

    mono mix (2:38), recorded probably 6 Aug, 1965 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London

    Some interesting bits of info from "songfacts"

    • Kinks frontman Ray Davies wrote this song after the group's 1965 tour of the United States. The tour did not go well, with infighting, fatigue and a conflict with the musician's union that kept them from performing in the country for another four years.

      Davies recovered from the tour with a vacation at the English resort town of Torquay, Devon. There, a wealthy hotel guest recognized him and asked Ray to play a round of golf. Far from being flattered by the invitation, he took great offense. "I'm not gonna play f--king golf with you," he told him. "I'm not gonna be your caddy so you can say you played with a pop singer."
    • Dense with lyrics describing the pretentious gentleman born to good fortune, Ray Davies says this was the first "word-oriented" song he wrote.
    • According to Jay Ferguson, composer of The Office (US) theme song, this was the placeholder theme for the show before he got the job.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    There are so many interesting things about this song, not least of which is the spark that brought Ray to write it.

    This song wasn't released as a single in the UK, apparently because the record company wanted more raunchy rock and roll from the guys, but it seems to me that seems to be a cover for something else. Perhaps the record company felt that the song was too controversial for the UK market ... remember that it was seen as not very good write anything seen to be political, or sociopolitical in the rock/pop world at the time. It is well documented the Epstein didn't even want the Beatles to comment on things like that, never mind write about them.....
    But aside from that, this was released as a single in the US in October 1965
    [​IMG]

    It was also released in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand as a single.
    It charted at 13 in the US, 11 in Australia and 6 in the Netherlands....

    We are currently, of course, on the Kwyet Kinks release, which I believe is the only release in England at this time, and it appears on the b-side .... Which I find all of that really interesting.
    Perhaps to everyone it was just too different to what the band had become known for. Perhaps there was some minor internal controversy about the theme of the song .... I don't know, it would be interesting to hear any insights any of you all have about this one, because it seems almost like they wanted to hide this in the UK .... but anyway, the song.

    'Cause he gets up in the morning,
    And he goes to work at nine,
    And he comes back home at five-thirty,
    Gets the same train every time.
    'Cause his world is built 'round punctuality,
    It never fails.

    And he's oh, so good,
    And he's oh, so fine,
    And he's oh, so healthy,
    In his body and his mind.
    He's a well respected man about town,
    Doing the best things so conservatively.

    And his mother goes to meetings,
    While his father pulls the maid,
    And she stirs the tea with councilors,
    While discussing foreign trade,
    And she passes looks, as well as bills
    At every suave young man

    'Cause he's oh, so good,
    And he's oh, so fine,
    And he's oh, so healthy,
    In his body and his mind.
    He's a well respected man about town,
    Doing the best things so conservatively.

    And he likes his own backyard,
    And he likes his fags the best,
    'Cause he's better than the rest,
    And his own sweat smells the best,
    And he hopes to grab his father's loot,
    When Pater passes on.

    'Cause he's oh, so good,
    And he's oh, so fine,
    And he's oh, so healthy,
    In his body and his mind.
    He's a well respected man about town,
    Doing the best things so conservatively.

    And he plays at stocks and shares,
    And he goes to the Regatta,
    And he adores the girl next door,
    'Cause he's dying to get at her,
    But his mother knows the best about
    The matrimonial stakes.

    'Cause he's oh, so good,
    And he's oh, so fine,
    And he's oh, so healthy,
    In his body and his mind.
    He's a well respected man about town,
    Doing the best things so conservatively.

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Kassner Music Co. Ltd

    Unapologetically directed at the British upper, or perhaps, upper/middle class, and it works as an observational piece really.
    For some context in England a fag is a cigarette, and although there has been talk of a double meaning in there, contextually it does seem as though that is a pretty direct reference to cigarettes.
    Ray starts by running through the daily routine. Moves on to the facade of them being a better class of people with the references to infidelities and such. Interestingly, he sets the family up as a Matriarchy it would seem, with Mother going to the meetings and being involved with foreign trade and councilors etc...
    We run through the fact that this guy lives in an insular world and feels like he has the best of everything, and looks forward to his inheritance, because it is the foundation of wealth that makes the man ... and all that kind of stuff.
    Another interesting twist that can be read several ways is his love for the girl next door .. this could be seen in so many different ways... particularly when we look at the last section of the verse .... it implicates he isn't really free to make his own decisions because Mother is going to make sure he marries the "right" girl.. but the preceding lines "cause he's dying to get at her" has an insidious tone to it that could insinuate all sorts of things that I'm not going to go into here.

    Essentially lyrically, this is a really sharp observational piece of writing, and by far the best lyric that Ray has laid down so far. There is so much going on in these lyrics, that is is really a good thing this fell on a Saturday, so folks can really dissect these if they feel drawn to.

    Musically we have a walk down from the major to the relative minor, and it works beautifully, because although to some degree the verses are someone repetitive, they speak to the relentless monotony in the life of the protagonist in the song. Personally I think they work perfectly in context with the song.
    The chorus starts off the same, but we get a change that carries a somewhat ominous tone when we move to the punchline "He's a well respected man about town doing the best things so conservatively"... and it musically brings us back around.

    Not really sure what else to say about this track, and I am sure many folks will have a fair bit to say about this one, so it isn't much of a matter :)

    Anyway, this is really a bit of a masterpiece in my mind, and surely anyone who heard it, knew that the Kinks had a lot more going for them than a few good rock songs. The development in the band and the writing is really racing along and Ray surely would have been seen as among the top line of writers of the day.... or at the very least potentially so.

    A great song.

     
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Don't You Fret

    mono mix (2:41), recorded probably 6 Aug, 1965 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London

    Don't you fret, now, I'll be there
    I'll be there to hold your hand.
    I'll be there to see the sunrise,
    As it lightens up the sky.

    Don't you fret, now, I'll be there,
    I'll be there to put you right.
    I'll be there to hold you tightly,
    When the Sun goes down at night.

    I can't wait until the day,
    I'll come home to you again.
    For my love won't ever fade,
    I will always feel the same.

    Don't you fret, don't you fret,
    I'll come home to you again.
    Don't you fret, don't you fret,
    I'll come home to you again.

    Make a brand new pot of tea,
    Make my favorite kind of dish.
    Do the things that I remember,
    That'll make my dearest wish.

    I can't wait until the day,
    I'll come home to you again.
    for my love won't ever fade,
    I will always feel the same.

    So don't you fret love,
    Don't you fret love, no more.
    Don't you fret love, no more.

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Kassner Music Co. Ltd

    This song is quite interesting, in that it starts out as pretty much a straight copy of the hymn Rock Of Ages.
    Lyrically we are looking at, seemingly a message of love, with the idea of returning home ... whether after a long day at work, or some kind of journey ... it isn't completely clear and could be read either way.
    It is also interesting that we get a sort of double edged sword kind of lyric ... I'll be there for you, to set you right etc, but also make me a cup of tea, and some dinner.... It's not exactly clear to me, if there is anything ominous about those lines, certainly they could just be a reflection of the times ... but the music in itself, once we move passed the Rock Of Ages sections, which of itself could have been an intentional steal in order to put forward the idea that "I will be your rock", really takes us on a journey...

    When the change comes we get a nice melodic theme come through and it leads into a rawkus crescendo, that is about one click away from being out of control.

    We roll through this arrangement again, and the final rawkus crescendo is a pounding and smashing contradiction to the whole Kwyet Kinks title the EP has.

    Anyway, this track took a few listens, and at first I was a little nonplused about it, but it has worked its way around for me. I don't love it, but I do like it.


     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    So to me the Kwyet Kinks EP is a winner.
    For me the opening tracks on each side are pretty top class, and are both something completely different to what we have heard from the guys prior.
    Such a Shame is pretty decent, and Don't You Fret is really quite interesting and a good listen.
    On the whole it seems like this is a pretty important Ep for the band and for me it works really well
     
  18. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    @mark winstanley : I noticed you always start your day by your Bob Seger thread. We feel neglected, here :cop: !

    Anyway, since the beginning of this (wonderful) thread, we’ve spotted the signs that lead to the advent of the Kinks as we know them. And on A Well Respected Man, there they are. Fully formed ! As they always existed. And we realize there weren’t that many signs of this new style prior to this track, neither in their own recorded output nor anywhere else in 1965 pop. This bouncy rhythm, the childlike repetitive melody, Ray’s observational/satirical lyrics, the way he delivers them amused, detached and cruel at the same time, the way music & lyrics merge to become one voice, one extremely eloquent voice… I really don’t know where it came from, not blues, not country, not rock’n’roll, not even folk (or maybe from eastern Europe?), something entirely their own. As soon as this song begins, there’s no question anymore, no “pivotal moment", no “finding their footings”, no “on the path that leads to”, no “foreshadowing things to come”. No, it’s all there, ladies & gentlemen: the Kinks.
     
  19. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    A Well Respected Man is a great track and a rather biting satire. I'm also rather fond of Petula Clark's French language version released in 1965:

     
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  20. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    ‘A Well Respected Man’ is a song that always really resonated with me even before I was properly cognisant of the lyrics: even without taking in the full text of the song, there’s just something about the resigned slump of that chorus resolution that resonates hugely with me on a subconscious level.

    I’ve always been fascinated with how this song caught on more in the US than in the UK, getting as high as #13 which is pretty incredible really for what seems like such an uncompromisingly lyric focussed English class system based song... yet is it so exclusively English? In the 1996 Kinks biography ‘Well Respected Men’ (a book I wouldn’t usually recommend as it seems to have been written by 2 guys who didn’t actually like The Kinks that much) the authors make the good point that the song may have appealed to the collegiate Ivy League set in the US.. and indeed the songs portrait of a privileged young man destined from birth for monotonously pre ordained ‘great things’ easily translates to evoking preppy WASPishness (with appropriate waspishness!).. this song definitely has proto Simon and Garfunkel angry young intellectual social comment appeal.

    With its clipped delivery and spare accompaniment briskly marching us through the vignettes of this chap and his family it’s like a John Updike book in its cold objectivity and subtlety. The commentary is more implied than outright stated (as it would be in some later songs like say ‘Mr Pleasant’) in just stating the facts in the lyrics but conveying the banality and privileged presumptions through the delivery and melody. That ‘resigned slump’ at the end of the chorus.., its like this guys like is just so perfect as it should be, all tied up with a neat little button on top. How very nice for him. The listener is left to make up their own mind what they think of that.

    This is of course a pivotal song for Ray Davies the writer as it’s his first full blown social observation song, a style that would be a major tent pole of his writing style, but I think it’s interesting that in some ways he never did anything else quite like this, that was so restrained and subtle and fridge temperature in it’s coolness of commentary.
     
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  21. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    The only contemporary video performance of ‘Well Respected Man’ from the late 1965 German ‘Beat Beat Beat’ concert. (The second of two complete filmed live shows that exist from the 60s). This was originally a live performance but someone has dubbed the studio version over this upload. The main thing I think is interesting about it is how much more relaxed Ray looks when he’s singing an English styled lyric! Maybe it’s just a co incidence, but I don’t recall him looking so playful in earlier videos:

     
  22. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Reference guide

    A bit about the band

    Oct 1963 I'm A Hog For You Baby (first recording)

    Dec 1963 Oobadiaboo unreleased?

    Feb 1964 Long Tall Sally - live footage

    Apr 1964 You Still Want Me - b-side You Do Something To Me

    Aug 1964 You Really Got Me - Shindig tv - live footage - beat room - BBC - SNL - live
    b-side It's All Right/It's Alright - shindig tv

    Oct 1964 The Kinks
    Beautiful Delilah - shindig
    So Mystifying
    Just Can't Go To Sleep
    Long Tall Shorty - live 65 - shindig - live 72
    I Took My Baby Home
    I'm A Lover, Not A Fighter - shindig
    You Really Got Me
    Cadillac - live
    Bald Headed Woman
    Revenge
    Too Much Monkey Business -Alt fast take
    I've Been Driving On Bald Mountain
    Stop Your Sobbing
    Got Love If You Want It - Live BBC

    I Believed You
    I Don't Need You Anymore
    Everybody's Gonna Be Happy demo
    Don't Ever Let Me Go

    1964 All Day And All Of The Night - shindig - US tv
    I Gotta Move - shindig - live 92?

    1964 All Day And All Of The Night EP

    Nov 1964 Kinksize Sessions
    Louie Louie - live
    I Gotta Go Now
    I've Got That Feeling - live
    Things Are getting Better

    The Kinks at the BBC 1964
    Meets the Kinks
    You Really Got Me
    interview excerpt
    Cadillac
    All Day And All Of The Night
    Little Queenie
    I'm A Lover Not A Fighter
    Ray on YRGM and USA
    I've Got That Feeling

    Paris 1965
    Hullabaloo 1965
    The Kinks educate the US
    Dave - Annette and Frankie

    Jan 1965 Got Love If You Want It EP

    Jan 1965 Kinksize Hits EP

    Jan 1965 Tired Of Waiting For You - French tv - Shindig - NME - US echo
    / Come on Now - live - live 82

    5 Mar 1965 Kinda Kinks
    Look For Me Baby
    Got My Feet On The Ground
    Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'bout That Girl - live?
    Naggin' Woman
    I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight - Sweden
    Tired Of Waiting For You
    Dancing In the Street
    Don't Ever Change
    Come On Now
    So Long
    You Shouldn't be Sad
    Something Better Beginning

    17 March 1965 Kink Size (US lp)

    19 Mar 1965 Ev'rybodys' Gonna Be Happy - tv/
    Who'll Be the Next In Line - shindig - tv

    21 May Set Me Free - tv - US tv - shindig/
    I Need You - Dave - Ray

    Mick Avory interview

    July 1965 See My Friends - discothec - tv - shindig - live 94/
    Never Met A Girl Like You Before

    Dave interview

    Sept 1965 Kwyet Kinks
    Wait Till The Summer Comes Along
    Such A Shame
    A Well Respected Man - German tv
    Don't You Fret

    Clay Cole meets the Kinks
     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    LOL well, it's even worse than that mate... I actually start with Inxs, then Bob, and then the Kinks :)

    I actually just do them in the order that I started them :)
    but if anyone really was concerned, perhaps I am saving best till last, or perhaps I am fully awake by the time I get to the Kinks ... or perhaps not :)
     
  25. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    One of my favourite Ray rhymes:
    " He goes to the regatta\ and he adores the girl next door\ cause he's dying to get at her"
     

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