‘Party Line’ - the first time my Dad heard this he remarked how Beatlesque it sounded to him, and I’ve always agreed. I thought @Fortuleo ’s post was great with regards to this songs Beatlesness. Thing is, it kind of sounds like one unplaceble mid period Beatles song, but if you actually go through their catalogue, it’s hard to figure out exactly which one. I once started a thread on here to see if we could find out with Beatle track it most resembled… I think ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’ and ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ were the three closest suggestions. I’ve always really enjoyed the slight domestic campiness of the line ‘and I’ll bake a cake if you tell me’ in ‘Rosie’: it’s the fact it’s such an (on paper) banal line suggesting an effeminate gender role swap, but it lands on this moment of high drama in the song melodically. It shouldn’t work but it does. It’s pure Ray Davies magic. Kind of proto Smiths in mixing the sublime with the ridiculous and coming out with the best of both worlds.
Interesting. I hadn't considered that, but it would make sense with the voting line in there.... and the distractions could well be an obtuse reference to media and propaganda
Rosie Won't You Please Come Home Ray's new Kinkdom starts here as after a heavily Dave influenced/written rocker we truly enter Daviesland! First up we receive great texture and contrast with a highly personal vocal of emotive desperation (and near resigned humour) and some welcome dynamics via tempo & volume. The most stunning example of said texture and dynamic comes via the harpsicord of the great Nicky Hopkins which for me just ices Ray's (family) cake!
"Rosy Won't You Please Come Home" Some have mentioned this to be a blues track, but I've never seen that. Perhaps more like baroque & roll with that harpsichord? Anyway, a fine tune, a touching lyric that was clearly very personal to Ray, and another quality production. For me a very good opening one-two.
This thread is a MONSTER so I'll be brief Face to Face is brilliant, in fact I preferred it to Something Else for a while. Bit more 60s grit, especially - Party Line, what a raver to start things off. Another great Dave delivery (I have a feeling that Kinks fans all want to be Dave - the rocking, rollicking, free spirited chap about town, but are more likely to be Ray, the whimsical, thoughful, slightly melancholic rocker). Rosie is a truly terrific track, as usual I've not read the words until today (a mere 15 ish years in), previously assuming it had a "Cathy Come Home" edge to it. It's sort of sadder in a way that the emotion is in missing the person, not so much the reason for their absence. And with the line, "Your room's clean and no one's in it", Ray paints one of his astoundingly vivid mental pictures. BTW I only have the 1998 CDs and have today learned that (a) I have apparently been listening to gravel going through a woodchipper for 20 years, and (b) they should all be destroyed with fire. While I've always thought the Kinks sounded like ****, I assumed that was just part of the deal, like listening to shellac or 78s or something. Good songs will out, I suppose.
If you’ve ever watched reruns of the 60s television show ‘Green Acres’ you can see a party line in action. Pick up the phone and someone may already be talking so you have to wait or, perhaps if it’s an emergency, ask them to hang up. Etc.
"Party Line" What a great jumping off point for this great album. Especially since I remember my grandma having a party line when I was much younger. All teen/young angst and it really comes through with Ray's wordplay and wit. From the first telephone ring to the opening music this was the song where I knew they were one of the greats and quickly becoming one of my all time favs. "Rosie, Won't You Please Come in" A delightful ballad that just shows the leaps and bounds Ray's songwriting was taking in this period. Nostalgia to the point of melancholy, I wonderful song about complex emotions and how to deal with and accept loss. Magnificent one-two punch to open the album. Somehow, these two completely different songs sound like no one but The Kinks could've made them.
Party Line: I’m another one that hears this as very Beatle-ish and a continuation of that early 60s sound. It’s a good opening track. Note: I have no idea what’s going on with the songwriting credits, whether one or the other is being strong armed or ?, but the songwriting royalties for this song is going straight into Ray’s pocket.
Rosie Won’t You Please Come Home: yeah, as I mentioned yesterday, now we’re right in my wheelhouse. “Oh my Rosie, how I miss you...” the bridge is absolutely brilliant.
Great "Green Acres" reference! A buddy of mine bought his first house moons ago and we had to climb the pole to hook up his phone before they got the inside service set. We still call it the "Green Acre-ized" phone.
Room for...Rosie. Yes I was considering mentioning the already mentioned blues influence. I also feel that Ray adds so much that's far removed from that genre that we just have a great original melodic song. Someone up thread also mentioned the writing here standing out as somewhat being cut from the same cloth as the exalted Sunny Afternoon so i am a little bemused by the poster suggesting they don't fancy this because they don't particularly like blues.
You guys have reminded me of (I had totally forgotten that happened) the 70's when sometimes I would pick up the phone and have to hang up as there was already some stranger on the line!
Party Line I loooooooove this song. But I have a rather unique connection. When I was 14, my family moved to a rather remote area, a sort of land that time forgot. One of the living anachronisms we faced was in the telecommunications area.... we were on a 4 party line! Kind of a shock to the system in 1978. Having lived it just makes those lyrics even more clever And I'm not voting in the next election, If they don't do something about finding out the person who is on my party line. First time I heard that line, I laughed out loud. Yeah, that'll show 'em! Is she big, is she small? Is she a she at all? Always that ambiguity, isn't there? Maybe "her" name is Lola. Rosie Won't You Please Come Home Yeah, there's a lot to unpack in this one. Thanks @mark winstanley for the context; very helpful! This was generally a skip for me back in the day, but I gained appreciation through the years. Even more so now thanks to this thread.
Party Line A uptempo rocker with a nice backbeat to open the album. Can't help but wonder if the Davies household was served by a party line when Ray and Dave were growing up! Rosie Quite a departure from the opening track. Hearing this makes me think about the importance of Ray's family to him. If "See My Friends" is indeed partly about losing his older sister Rene (Irene), and this is about losing his other sister Rosie, albeit in a different way, then it seems he isn't afraid to express their importance (in a perhaps cathartic way) through music.
I'd forgotten all about that show though I still remember the theme song. Wasn't that the one with Zsa Zsa and the man who looked old enough to be her dad?
My closest Green Acres phone story is when I bought a small farm. Only cell phone reception was if you found the right spot in the driveway or, rarely, a corner of the kitchen counter (and had to bend down to phone so as not to move it even a millimeter). So put in landline. Eventually, phone isn’t working so I call phone company. Guy comes out but refuses to get out of his van. “If I walk in your house I’ll have to charge you $x.” Tells me to buy a $10 corded phone at drugstore and try plugging in directly to box. So I do and the neighbors, a family of nine, drive by and see me in the flower bed with the phone connected to the exterior box. Kids all waving and me trying to act like it’s perfectly normal to place a call from that location amongst the flowers. Okay, Mark, apologies for the sidetrack. As penance, I won’t participate tomorrow.
Point taken, yeah it isn't a straight blues track but it does have some bluesy phrases, like many a track that I do like. I guess I just like "Sunny Afternoon" so much more but it's hard to put my finger on why.
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 - Beat Club You Really Got Me - Beat Club 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 - alt vocal So Long You Shouldn't be Sad Something Better Beginning I Go To Sleep Tell Me So I'll Know A Little Bit Of Sunlight There's A new World Just Opening up For Me This I Know 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/ - alt 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 - Beat Club Don't You Fret - live in 69 Clay Cole meets the Kinks BBC - You Shouldn't Be Sad Tired Of Waiting For You Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy This Strange Effect Hide And Seek - live Swedish Newsreel Sept 65 Nov 1965 Kinkdom 19th Nov 1965 Till The End Of The Day - live 65 - live 93 - live 80 Where Have All The Good Times Gone 26th Nov 1965 Kink Kontroversy Milk Cow Blues - shindig - live - Beat Club Ring The Bells Gotta Get The First Plane Home When I See that Girl Of Mine I Am Free - Dave live Till the End Of The Day - Beat Club The World Keeps Going Round I'm On An Island Where Have All The Good Times Gone It's Too Late What's In Store For Me You Can't Win Mr Reporter Time Will Tell And I Will Love You All Night Stand All I want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth - Ready steady go She's My Girl/Listen To Me Mar 1966 Dedicated Follower Of Fashion - Alt. - studio sessions - video - live 73 Sitting On My Sofa Ray Interview Live in 65 Live In Germany 65/66 part 1 - part 2 BBC - live at the Playhouse tracks 1965 June 66 Sunny Afternoon - video - TOTP - full video - live 70 I'm Not Like Everybody Else - live 90's - Soprano's Jul 1966 Dedicated Kinks EP Aug 1966 Greatest Hits Sept 1966 Well Respected Kinks Oct 1966 Face To Face Party Line - Dave live 90's Rosie Won't You Please Come Home
I sincerely appreciate everyone's participation here. The input has been top class, and with so many folks participating, it really gives us a lot of angles to view the catalog... and what I may miss or forget, someone else is picking up the slack. So thanks a heap.
Germany. I once had a very beat-up copy. Actually, the only '98 CDs that I don't like the sound of are the first album (doesn't sound right) and Kontroversy (very shrill). Something Else doesn't sound that great either (shrill) but it was neat to finally hear the mono mix. The Deluxe CDs do sound better with the possible exception of Lola and and Percy but the Deluxes of those aren't bad.