The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    Ok. I always considered part of the Marble Arch series. Apart from having the H in the serial number everything else is consistent with the MA series.
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  2. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    A Greatest Hits of the MA series :D
     
    mark winstanley and ajsmith like this.
  3. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    That’s very fair. I guess because it’s in Fake stereo unlike the MA LPs I always avoided it. You could throw in the 12-track reissue of Kinks into that too then, which I do have for a great sounding stereo copy of that album (minus, you know, the two best tracks on the album...)
     
    mark winstanley and ajsmith like this.
  4. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Sunny Afternoon

    I've scanned the subsequent comments but couldn't see these points mentioned, so, as I'm into lyrics I thought I'd give my take!
    I feel Ray is taking the piss a bit with the accent, while carrying on a classic London working class music hall tradition. This is drawing comic comparisson between the working class 'layabout' and the upper class 'toff'.
    The government and upper classes would complain about layabouts on the dole, while they themselves were swanning around doing nothing. So the working classes would take the piss out of the toffs by pretending to be them, just having fallen on some bad luck.

    A classic music hall example is Burlington Bertie From Bow (sung here by Julie Andrews!), which portrays a down and out from Bow (a very poor area of London) making believe that he is a toff, simply strolling around high class areasof London. The Burlington Arcade was (and still is!) a fancy and expensive shopping destination. The song is itselfa pisstake of an earlier song just called Burlington Bertie: Burlington Bertie From Bow

    Its that whole 'my other car is a Bentley ' sticker on the back of a Ford Fiesta thing - no one believes it for a second, but its an in-joke for the other aspiring social climbers who know that in reality they have no chance of ever getting there. They can dream. This guy has nothing, but its not so bad as both he and some toff are just the same - they both have the same sunny afternoon!

    This is a pisstake of a 'posh' English accent - the upper classes were perceived to say Ma and Pa like this :D

    In his imagination...! He really means his council flat, as in the more straight forward Dead End Street. I've always inagined this to be the same guy, actually.

    Metaphorically sail away, I think. He never really had a yacht, its all part of the working class self-delusion ;)

    Ditto the car. He never could afford a car, so is saying his girlfriend ran off with it. His friends in the same position would just play along :agree:

    Yes I've always thought this too. (Herb Alpert's instrumental came out in 1965...?)

    This is all oddly hard to explain, as its always been something I've intrinsically understood, so I hope that makes some sense...! Please feel free to correct me on anything or clarify!
    This probably doesn't help non-UK folks, but it can also be described as the Del Boy syndrome - having delusions of grandeur :agree:

    Anyway, I love the song!
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2021
  5. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    I never had any of the MA records and assumed they were all like the Hallmark Lola - electronically recreated for stereo. Never in a million years thought they were mono. The only one I ever saw in a shop was Well Respected Kinks. To be honest, there wasn't much Kinks records in the shops when I started buying in early 1970's. None of the original PYE albums were available apart from Arthur and Lola Part One. My VGPS was a Reprise import. All the other Kinks were compilation records. I didn't see the first four PYE records in the shops until sometime in 79 or 80. All in mono with the black PYE label instead of the usual blue. Do you know when PYE changed from pink to blue?
     
  6. That Nicky Hopkins could just about manage, once you showed him what to do.
     
  7. The YouTube clip that was posted here omits Ray's spoken introduction to the tune, (paraphrasing) "This song kind of sums up the Kinks, because people expect wonderful things from us, and we usually screw it up", or something like that.
     
  8. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    I’d say they transition was in 1968. Wonderboy is the first Kinks 45 on a blue label in the UK.
     
  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I like that whole post, and it is very feasible.
    I'm not sure the English class system and its functionality, or in fact much British humour translates very well in the US, for the most part.

    I too think sail away has little to do with yachts... I think it is word play based on the yacht being mentioned... but whether we look at the song as an actual toff fallen on hard times, or a wannabe, I think sail away has more to do with the beer, than the yacht.....

    It is also interesting that a toff would be drinking a beer, and not something a little more upper class.... maybe that's the defining note, or perhaps beer is now all he can afford. In England beer seems generally to be associated with the working class, and pub culture though.
     
  10. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    I'm Not Like Everybody Else has to be in the top three of B sides by the Kinks. And, for a group well known for their high quality B sides, that puts it right up there. Better than some of their A sides, that's for sure. First heard it on Great Lost Kinks Album cassette way back. You buy the single Sunny Afternoon, take it home, play it a few times, then flip it over. You might be expecting ssomething in the same vein when SMACK! it really grabs your attention. Dave was perfect for this record.

    There was another Kinks record that slaps you around the face but I can't think now exactly what it was. Oh yes, I Need You had the same effect on me.

    Just had a look at Rogan's book and he says the Sunny Afternoon album reached no 10 in the UK album charts. I'm not sure how Face to Face did.
     
  11. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    I'm Not Like Everybody Else
    I agree with @Vagabone about the lyrical angle (I like the idea of a song from the opposite angle, will have a listen to the Sparks song, thanks!) and I'm afraid I don't find it particularly interestingly musically (not that I can separate the two aspects in my head!) :sigh:
     
    ajsmith, mark winstanley and Vagabone like this.
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Oddly enough, the Sunny Afternoon album is still a year away, but we'll get there.
    We'll have as many details I know and can find on Face to Face tomorrow.
     
    FJFP and ajsmith like this.
  13. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    Thankfully, it's already almost 4PM CET, so tomorrow will come fast enough for me.
    Rest assured I'll be waiting for you to wake up and for that iconic telephone ring to start things off !
     
  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Lol
    We're getting there ....

    We're savoring the flavour here :)
     
    Fortuleo likes this.
  15. I'm gonna have to read it.
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  16. I've always been horrified that The Kinks back catalogue has been subject to so many dodgy looking compilations - but I didn't know it all started as early as 1966. Cor blimey! (As a character in a Ray Davies song might say.) They were really poorly served by their record company weren't they? I think these multiple compilations somehow cheapen the value of the original material. Compare it to The Beatles or Dylan. One or two greatest hits compilations in their entire recording career. The Kinks songs were being raped, pillaged and repackaged from an early age.
     
  17. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    Right from the very beginning, on page 1, we are told the time and place of the interview had been agreed - a restaurant somewhere near the BBC. We hear of Ray's publicist contacting the author's publicist to confirm that it would be ok for the author to foot the bill because they don't want to risk any awkward situations with Ray!

    Rogan later teased Ray about this and pointed out he was a multi-millionaire and all he got was a grimace as if the suggestion was an affront.
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  18. Aftermath

    Aftermath Senior Member

    Have always loved this fun compilation because it was the first Kinks album I found from this era and it's such a great collection of songs. An original mono pressing is definitely the way to go if you want the tracks in pure, dry from without reverb. I confess though that I have a stereo copy, because I actually prefer the reverb on songs like "All Day And All of the Night" (just seems to add to the chaos) and because it's the version I grew up with!
     
    pablo fanques, Smiler, Jon H. and 2 others like this.
  19. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    I'm with you that sailing away may well be to do with the beer... ;):cheers: (hadn't occured to me)
    The beer is a part of what convinces me this is a working class bloke singing; he's making believe he's a toff fallen on hard times, but at the same time the beer and the sunny afternoon are the only things that are real.
     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Which kind of links it slightly to Low Budget :)
     
    pablo fanques and Aftermath like this.
  21. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    What's a toff?! LOLLLLL
    (I'm an anglophile, but don't know that one but can figure it out in context).
     
  22. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Sorry..! :sigh:
    A derogatory term for an upper class person. Short for 'toffee-nosed ****'! (insert insult here) :D
    Edit: just realised you said you'd figured it out! Well, I'll leave this for others!;)
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  23. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    very psychedelic and of the day
    [​IMG]
    another cover(?) with the car
    [​IMG]
     
  24. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Well, I figured out the basic idea, but not the derivation of it, so that's very helpful. thanks!
    but what's toffee and upper class have to do with each other (genuine question)?
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  25. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: Since we are about to enter the "Face To Face" era, I suppose it's as good a time as any to first take a look at what the group's British contemporaries were offering up as competition (for comparison purposes):

    [​IMG]
    Note that for Christmas of 1966, the Beatles offered up a Greatest Hits package that, like "Face To Face," had a cover that looked like a Carnaby Street tote bag.
    [​IMG]
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine