On the lyrics of Big Black Smoke does anyone know what are the ‘Purple Hearts’ the girl buys as well as cigarettes? Was it a pill?
Dead End Street This has been in my top-10 Kinks songs for as long as I can remember. I should probably just cut paste "This is just a perfect combination of lyrics, melody, and production that paint such a clear picture in the listener's mind" every time to describe all these great tracks that we are covering. The trombone intro sets the mood and almost sounds like a bugle call to announce a battle in the Civil War... only, a bit sadder. Then the imagery crystallizes immediately with "There's a crack up in in the ceiling, and the kitchen sink is leaking". At first it seems like Ray's just telling a story, describing the situation, but then he places the listener right into the story with "what are we living for?" and "the rent collector's knocking, trying to get in." Just an incredible tune, and so jazzy. Notice how the verse's 8th notes are written as swung 8th notes. It's a jazz song. I think the trombone outro just takes it to another jazzy level. I can imagine that kind of solo on a Glenn Miller tune. Just a great decision by Ray to include that instrument, which must have sounded very unconventional on a pop record at the time. Big Black Smoke This track is stronger than more than half the tracks on Face to Face, and there is not a track that I don't like on Face to Face. And it's a B-side! A great, country-tinged rocker with a great bounce to it. The sound effects that remain on it make me wonder why it wasn't placed on the album. Does anybody know why they chose the church bells? And can someone explain the "oyez" or "oh yes" vocals in the outro? What does that mean? I am ok with the church bells, but that added vocal seems a bit too much going on for me. Overall, I do think this is their best single combination they have put out so far. Seems like I keep saying that...
Not sure on the Purple hearts. Obviously a military award for being injured in battle.... a double meaning, being injured battling for her life? Idk
Thank you for the "oyez" context and explanation! So is it meant to be like a town crier's bell, even though it sounds like church bells?
From wikipedia: The song makes reference to the recreational use of the drug Drinamyl with the lyric "And every penny she had was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes."
"Dead End Street" Didn't discover this song until a few years ago but it rapidly became a favorite. Ray points a beautifully grim picture of how the other half lives. The tune stands out too. Great song. Somewhere in my Kinks' Top 20. "Big Black Smoke" Another killer one. Discovered this when I got the deluxe edition of Face To Face. Great veddy English pastoral song. I like it a lot
An extended-end pristine stereo mix of "Big Black Smoke" showed up on the Pye Anthology. It's an underdub; it's missing Ray's double-tracked vocal and the sound effects chaos at the end. I suspect, as seemingly typical on Kinks' mono mixes of the time, that some of these elements were added live into the mix. In fact, i think the sound fx intro was carefully grafted on for the Anthology. The mix feels a bit "wrong." Not compressed or murky or mysterious enough, as I'm so used to the final mono. Still, I'm quite grateful for it. This sounds to me like a 4-track recording; if it isn't, it's still the first time we are hearing the band spread out over TWO tracks. There is a clear drum overdub in the right channel at the end, playing a sort of battlefield bolero pattern. So either the whole right channel is an unusually thick overdub, or they mixed two performances into that track. That's why I suspect 4-tracks here. (Bouncing could achieve this, too, though.) All current accounts seem to estimate these songs as having been recorded a good 4 months after Face to Face, which would explain their non-appearance on that album. But they are such a close match to the sound of it, that I agree, they would have fit beautifully. YouTube has a track that claims to be the stereo mix on the Deluxe edition. It's the standard mono. Who got that wrong? YouTube or the Deluxe Edition? One thing I meant to mention earlier... 14 songs makes "Face to Face" feel like a very full meal, especially with all its wordiness. Something intensely different about a 12-song vs 14-song album. You really need that side break with 14 songs. How would a Face to Face with this single and "End of the Season" work? What would one cut? Would it be too much of a good thing? Does one need those two 1965 throwaways to keep one from exhaustion? I have to think "End of the Season" was cut because it just didn't flow. I can imagine it clashing with "Sunny Afternoon." Thankfully they held onto it.
It's interesting (and slightly disconcerting) that there's so many little phrases etc in Kinks songs that don't mean a damn thing to younger/non UK people - purple hearts, town criers, the Smoke.. plus all the rhyming slang - I'm a big fan of arcane colloquialisms/ traditions and so on, but it's easy to take them for granted.
Many here will be familiar with the use of “Here ye, here ye, the court is now in session”. In the Supreme Court of the U.S. the marshall uses the French oyez, oyez, oyez at the beginning of each session. While English is now the international lingua franca of diplomacy and business, French held that position in the 18th and 19th centuries and became the aristocratic language in Britain starting with the Norman invasion (not the Soap Opera Norman) in 1066. Given that and the importance of the French in War of Independence it is not surprising that the oyez tradition was codified for the Supreme Court.
Actually, Drinamyl pills (Purple Hearts) were triangular (sort of heart shaped) blue pills. I guess purple went better with heart than did blue. Either that or a lot of Mods had red-green color blindness and couldn’t distinguish between blue and purple. These brilliantly conceived pills combined amphetamines with barbiturates and were the mother’s little helpers prescribed for “tired housewives” Nevertheless, the Stones’ song referred to “yellow pills” and were thought to refer to Valium or the equivalent, not Drinamyl.
Very interesting, it sounds to me like there is even more music hall elements than the official release.
Extraordinary it might have been but too "distasteful" for our friends at the BBC who promptly banned it.
Sorry about my mistaken post yesterday that was meant for a different thread. Dead End Street is genius and Big Black Smoke is pretty good too. The Kinks have really found their metier and hit their stride, the stage is set for their LP masterpiece.
Okay, I absolutely love these two tracks, so let's take a look... Dead End Street is an all around fantastic song. I was initially a little dismissive in my youth for it sounding very similar as a follow up to Sunny Afternoon, but it really isn't similar at all. The horns have a ominous sense over the world portrayed in the track, which is one bathed in doom and gloom. A Sunday Joint of Bread and Honey being the greatest travesty of them all. Pete's bass is thick and deep in the track, forming a lovely basis for the song to be built around as the song evolves, as noted, through many distinct yet equally fantastic musical sections. Which is my favourite? How could one ever choose! For years I did think the backing chants were "Hey Hey!", not "Dead End!". The earlier version (I assume the Talmy version?) makes these much easier to understand. This was also a favourite of my Aussie father in law, who thought the lyrics were downright fantastic. I would agree. As for Big Black Smoke, this has always been a huge favourite ever since I first heard it on the Sunny Afternoon Marble Arch comp. The bells in the sound effects opening, the guitars blending in the intro with the little squeak (which I used to think was a tape of a mouse squeaking), and the energy and drive throughout the track. Best of all is the character portrait, in all it's bleak and gloom, with Ray's snarling delivery carrying this off as if he's reading a horror story at a child's party. But maybe leave out the drugs and cigarettes for that context. The outro, with Dave's cries (which I have always understood origin wise) rounds it out perfectly. Everything is absolutely perfect here. The use of the sound effects, the arrangement, the performance, the recording (which sounds dark and claustrophobic just like the city itself), the vocals, and above all, the lyrics. A top 10 Kinks track for me, and even better than the A-Side, which is some feat. The side of the the French EP which runs this intro House In The Country, is such a joy for me. I agree that the stereo mixes of these tunes, while fascinating and a huge leap in clarity, are really missing something, and I don't just mean the overdubs lacking in each. There's something to be said for these being mixed in the context in which they were recorded, but this is not the fault of Sandoval, rather just changing equipment and methods. Very happy to have both, though let's get the DES one on CD please?
Never seen this and yes they did a good job but i never knew where they were coming from by so slavishly copying their 60's heroes?
