I dunno: I think 'End Of The Season' could have worked as a brilliant closing track to Face To Face: the final bittersweet farewell song for the character from 'House' 'Most Exclusive' and 'Sunny Afternoon'. (Not my original idea btw: I first spotted the idea of this track possibly being the original planned closing track to FtF being posited by some other posters on this forum years ago: maybe Matthew B.?).
"Dandy" feels in retrospect like an oven ready Kinks song. That's not to knock it, but its another jaunty, character based, semi-humorous little confection.. I can see why it might not appeal to everyone. As ever there's an edge to proceedings -"where you gonna go now"? - even as it starts, it's clear our man is in a rut of sorts, as are many of Ray's characters. But overall it's fun, lighthearted pop, if deceptively simple (and here's another fan of the "...four you're dead" lines.) "Too Much on my Mind" has been praised a lot already.. perhaps I'm easily pleased, but it seems to me a perfect song, one of a frankly scarily high number Ray produced at his peak. It does exactly, precisely what it needs to do, a simple emotion, a simple statement, and almost effortlessly beautiful, moving, and relatable. Genuine emotion will tell I think, and with Ray's various troubles over the years you do get the feeling he usually means what he says. A song that, if it probably pops into my head too often, is a welcome companion for trying times. "Session Man" a nice bit of rock reportage, with presumably a few in-jokes. Interesting that by now Ray was calling the shots arrangement wise, the whole band having to fit his musical vision - possibly rather frustrating for them. A decent track. "Rainy Day in June" is a knockout. On my Kinks Kompilation it sat conspicuously amongst a few beat numbers, giving the lie to the idea The Kinks started rocky then went all fey and English. It was an evolution on many fronts, as Mark pointed out the present album has at least three distinct, unique "Kinks" styles on it already. Another tremendous scene setter, the visuals here rather more fantastic than we're used to - although I picture a suburban garden, there's no social-realist commentary this time. It makes a rainy day sound like the end of the world, which is splendidly absurd. And I'm a big fan of the thunderclaps - a sound effect literally used like an instrument.
That is really interesting, and may well explain some if the double messages the lyrics are sending me.
Maybe it’s just me, but I always read Rainy Day in June to be about the atomic bombing of Japan. I know it didn’t happen in June, and I doubt a British citizen would have been sympathetic to Japan so soon after the war, but something about the eagle snatching the butterfly. It definitely feels apocalyptic.
Always enjoyed Session Man. I think he's pointing the finger at session musicians who play without heart or soul. But anyway I like the sheer snarky-ness. I always thought this was about Jimmy Page rather than Nicky Hopkins. Rainy Day In June. Ok, this is a bit of a lurch and it seems that Ray has invented prog-rock by accident! When the lines come in about demons and elves I'm always reminded of Stonehenge by Spinal Tap! Sorry. Having said that, the song has good moments and having played Face To Face many times I've become accustomed to it. An interesting addition to the catalog and fair play for pushing the boundaries of his writing.
Just thinking on, I've always thought the dramatic lyrics to Rainy Day In June seemed at odds with the mundane subject matter. Overly foreboding if Ray is simply describing a bit of a rain shower in an English summer. So maybe he was talking about something else here, the comment above makes me think of Dylan's Hard Rain, the rain in that song is considered a metaphor for nuclear war (though Dylan has always been coy about that). If Ray was following that idea along, and we know he listened to Dylan, then this interpretation makes more sense and would explain the lyrics more satisfactorily.
Rainy Day In June Yes Mark I always thought the thunder volume during the song was a bit corny and recently I read Ray basically agreeing that it was too loud and that it was not his doing but likely Shel, Dave or perhaps another band member. Excellent descriptive posts already up thread on this song so not sure what I can add? Ray and the musicians conjure a captivating and foreboding mood right from the outset with the sparse measured keys sounding like they have a wavering, shimmering tremelo effect. To me the lyrics paint vivid pictures of nature and survival and Ray's slow measured phrasing is like a skilled narrator reading (with appropriate fatalism) a classic horror literature. The chorus (& loud thunder) changes the mood and though I am not crazy about this part it remains a classic & Unique Kinks song!
Session Man: a terrific song, though, as everyone has already noted, with barbed lyrics. As Fortuleo mentioned, “pro-gresh-ee-un” and then “mue-zi-she-un” are drawn out in a quite clever way. When I first heard this I was a bit appalled by the lyrics, thinking...”Hopkins is playing on this!” The lyric about dots and lines seems especially brutal. As does the jab at not being paid to think. But...as I’m not a session man myself, I’ve managed to shrug off the meanness and like the song a lot.
Session Man A bit of a plodded. Kind' banal, which of course is perfectly in line with the subject matter. Not quite a skip, but still not one I look forward to hearing every time I spin the diasc.
In a nuclear interpretation, which would explain several metaphors, the rain would be the acid rain that we were always taught follows the explosion. The long build up starting with the explosion/thunder could also explain the slow blotting out of the sun, under the mushroom cloud etc. It's a really interesting lyric, and whatever the actual interpretation, it has apocalyptic written all over it.
Rainy Day in June Incredibly evocative song. Emotive. Expressive. Really, just amazing through and through.
Session Man Some astute and clever lyrics (if a little mean), excellent vocal delivery and musical arrangement. I have always wondered what Nicky Hopkins thought when he first heard Ray's lyrics, of course they may well not have been about him but no surprise if it quietly rankled. A very good but not great song.
Rainy Day In June: eerie and a bit unsettling. It draws the listener in and in. I like the song a lot and will have to think about the nuclear rain idea (as that didn’t pop into my mind, initially). That now seems plausible.
Session Man - I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. It's like a tamed-down version of Mr. Reporter, but the lyrics still jab rather hard. I'd be ok if this track was left off the album. It doesn't really fit with the theme of the rest of the album (but it does fit in sonically with the harpsichord). I'm not really sure it'd belong on any other album we've discussed so far. Perhaps with different instrumentation/production, it'd fit into the theme of Lola vs Powerman? Rainy Day in June - This has grown to win the bronze for me on this album (Gold: Sunny Afternoon, Silver: Too Much on my Mind). The dirge and foreboding delivery of the yes, poetic (h/t Mark) lyrics really set the mood and put you in that place. I find the tense shift from "this was no hope, no reasoning" to "this is no hope, no reasoning" interesting. The "cherished things are perishing" is such a wonderfully poetic rhyme. I'm a sucker for unusual or combining words to make a rhyme like that. We've also spoken about when Ray's voice cracks a bit, and it certainly does on the last "everybody felt the rain" outro. I also see this as being a prequel to "Big Sky". The rain is always just there. The demon, the butterfly, the elves and gnomes... everybody felt the rain. In looking for interesting covers, I found a couple that re-interpret the song as a bluesy guitar tune. So maybe we can say it's a bluesy dirge. Certainly a unique-sounding entry in the Kinks katalog.
I would think "Session Man" would have fit on the aborted Occupations EP. I quite like this one. I always felt it was more sympathetic to the session man rather than taking a jab. I wasn't there but I think Nicky Hopkins probably was fairly free to do what he wanted on Kinks recordings. I can't see any of those guys going up to him with sheet music. I'm curious if Ray was one of the first pop stars to point out there were players behind the scene that weren't in 'the band' (something Michael Nesmith would say publicly a year later with the Monkees). "Rainy Day In June" would have fit on Village Green perfectly IMO. I do get the feeling of a small village that I've only been to in my mind. There's a lot of pending doom in it. I'm not sure why but I never thought about it being atomic related. I'm glad someone pointed that out.
Rainy Day in June This late into the morning in discussing this one, I’m surprised no one has yet picked up on its context within Face to Face as the thematic flip side of Sunny Afternoon. Both address uncontrollable acts of nature—sunshine and rain—and how Ray offers an almost Janus-headed coin take on each. In Sunny Afternoon the protagonist choses to make the best of a bad situation. In “Rainy Day in June,” the narrator suggest there is nothing one can do about it. Musically, one is uplifting vaudeville, the other is ethereal, atmospheric. One is accessible to the ear, the other is almost psychedelic without having any psychedelic touches. These two songs more than any other two reinforce the thematic suggestion of opposites facing each other, i.e. “Face to Face.” Optimism versus pessimism. It’s a companion piece, really, to the mental anguish of Too Much on My Mind. It might have packed more punch had it been sequenced immediately afterwards, but I also get the alternating approach of the tracking of whimsical and serious songs on side one being, perhaps, Ray’s intent with Face to Face.
Hmm..I guess the lyrics could be more along the line of discussing the ups and downs of the musicians lot. That one day you may be playing the Albert Hall and then, just because the pop music business is mostly fleeting, go on to be paid as a professional musician. “He never will forget at all The day he played at the albert hall. A million sessions ago it seems.” But that not-being-paid-to-think line seems a put-down. To me.
Thinking some more about the “not paid to think” line. Actually, it’s possible that a session man said those words to Ray! Imaginary conversation: Ray to Session Man: what do you think, Nicky? Nicky: you tell me how you want it played. I’m not paid to think.
I'm not convinced Ray's intention here is a big compliment to Hopkins. The line about no overtime or favours done seems to be a bit of a dig but I bet you a million dollars if the roles had been reversed then Davies would have insisted on being paid for any overtime! The intro is really something else though. Makes me wonder how all these songs would have sounded without Nicky Hopkins. Here's a quote from Ray where he says the pair only socialized over breaks. " Nicky and I were hardly bosom buddies. We socialized only on coffee breaks and in between takes. In many ways, I was still in awe of the man who in 1963 had played with the Cyril Davies All Stars on the classic British R & B record, "Country Line Special." I was surprised to learn that Nicky came from Wembley, just outside of London. With his style, he should have been from New Orleans, or Memphis. He had always been ill, even as a child. It was this illness that virtually put an end to his touring in 1963. His best work in his short spell with the Kinks was on the album "Face to Face." I had written a song called "Session Man," inspired partly by Nicky. Shel Talmy asked Nicky to throw in "something classy" at the beginning of the track. Nicky responded by playing a classical- style harpsichord part. When we recorded "Sunny Afternoon," Shel insisted that Nicky copy my plodding piano style. Other musicians would have been insulted but Nicky seemed to get inside my style, and he played exactly as I would have. No ego. Perhaps that was his secret". By the way, thanks for pointing out about the session man called Albert Hall. I had read that somewhere years ago but wasn't convinced.
I don't think it's a put-down. Session men & woman usually didn't have any say. They did the job and left. Song seems accurate.
I find Session Man to be (intentionally?) somewhat ironic. Nicky Hopkins always sounded like an integrated member of the band. Also, this is the first album where the drumming was done by Mick, not a series of session men. I actually feel that part of the progress of this album is the fact that arrangements were worked out with a real, stable rhythm section, rather than bashed out in hasty recording sessions with "professional" musicians.
