The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    "Days"/"She's Got Everything" was released late June 1968. Released in July 1968 but recorded in April, was the Nazz debut single.

    The "doo doo doo" melody in "She's Got Everything" is pretty darn similar to the ascending melodic hook in "Open My Eyes." And it has to be a coincidence.

     
  2. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
    She's Got Everything-What a song. Always felt his one has been a little underrated in the Kinks canon. Obviously it's not a grand lyrical statement, but man does it rock. A classic example of that trademark early Kinks' sound. Driven by a power chord riff, a start-stop rhythm, and featuring a rocking guitar solo from Dave Davies which recalls the garage rock sound of its last vestige of that famous guitar sound from ’64.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. HadgeTunes

    HadgeTunes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    We're smack dab in the middle of my favorite run of Kinks tunes...ever?

    As a teen, "Dead End Street" KNOCKED ME ON MY A**! What was THIS? We've got an endlessly hooky Dickens novel that's somehow the most fun I've ever had listening to a song. By comparison, "Waterloo Sunset" took me a few listens (which is REALLY strange to look back on now). "DES" began my lifelong Kinks journey in earnest. I had to hear the rest after this one.

    "Big Black Smoke" might be just as good. Then we've got "She's Got Everything," "This is Where I Belong," and soon...the aforementioned "Waterloo Sunset." These five songs all make my top 10 Kinks tunes easily and a couple of them likely make the top 3!

    What a string of a few months for this band!
     
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  4. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Love the piano and a neat Kinksian ascention to end.
     
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  5. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    She's Got Everything

    My experience on the track sounds not dissimilar to several posters here.
    Heard first on my Days 7" and pleasantly surprised they had gone back 3 years in style as a reminder of some earlier roots that I assumed they could always knock out live.
    Yep no idea it was recorded in early 1966 as it sounded a contemporary enough recording and I didn't think they pulled an old rabbit out of the hat.
    At first the lyric fooled me into thinking it was slight but as has been pointed out there is a lot going on there with chords, backing vocals, guitar parts/solos & Ray's on the money pop sensibility & delivery.
    Ray versatile?
    He's got everything!
     
  6. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Yes it has to be a coincidence. This rather good song was just the B-side to the Nazz’s first single - Hello It’s Me - according to the liner notes of my Nuggets box set. I doubt it was even released in the UK.
     
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  7. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    She’s Got Everything

    Call me delusional, but the drumming sounds more like Clem Cattini than Mick in that I can here some thinking behind the patterns rather than Mick’s instinctive flow.
     
  8. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Not sure but hasn't someone said it was Clem?
     
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  9. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    Yup, it's Clem! As noted, it's the same session as Dedicated Follower of Fashion, which we know features Clem.
     
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  10. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Thanks I'll Clam up!
     
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  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    You're Looking Fine (alternate stereo mix).

    Here we have one of those vocals panned right affairs, which is ok on speakers, but terrible for headphones.
    We also get a little bit of lead on the right.
    In so many ways it's a shame the limitations that bands had back in the sixties, particularly when they were in the less equipped studios, but to some degree the limitations often led the bands to try new things.

    Probably not a great deal to draw from this version, but I like these kind of things being available.

     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2021
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Fancy (alternate stereo mix, with extended fade out).

    When we looked at this song originally, I think most of us said the only thing wrong with this song was that it finished too quickly.
    Here we get an extra 30 seconds.
    Again we somewhat have the limitations of the studio coming into play though.
    Ray is panned hard right. Again, for me, through the speakers it isn't too much of a big deal, but it would be a rather hard listen in the headphones.
    One thing I will say though, when you focus on the right speaker you do get a pretty raw direct Ray vocal and that is good for hearing all the subtleties in the vocal.
    The horn type effect is a hard pan right also.
    The extra thirty seconds ends up being an extended fade on the theme we already had. It isn't essential, but I think it just gives the atmosphere a chance to reach its full potential.


     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2021
  13. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    An extra half-minute of arguably the best song on the album? I'm happy to have it!
     
  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Dandy alternate stereo mix

    We get a count in here, a reminder that this isn't a modern layered recording. The majority of this would have been laid down live.
    Again we get the hard right pan of the vocal.
    It is such an odd anomaly, from a modern perspective, that so many sixties recordings had these hard pan vocals in order to just have a stereo mix.
    I enjoy looking back at things like this, and although I am a stereo lover (unless there is 5.1 available) tracks like this end up sounding more whole, generally in a mono mix. The disembodied vocals are just a little too odd, for me to fully enjoy.

     
  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    So not a super exciting day today for songs, but we build right back up tomorrow.
    Hopefully some folks can catch up in the meantime as we move into the next phase
     
  16. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    It's worth noting these are all modern remixes by Andrew Sandoval, done like this mainly because they were mixed so narrowly in the 60s. These mixes are weird, but very normal for 60s recordings, and I don't know why they didn't do it in '66. I'm glad they were done, and wish the whole album could have been remixed.
     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Face To Face era.

    This is a time of huge growth and consolidation for the band.
    Ray is really starting to shine with his writing, and his singing has become so full of personality that at times it is easy to miss how strong his lyrics have become.
    Another thing that strikes me, is that the band is starting to get more complex arrangements, and over the next few albums they take this to places that would not haver been foreseeable from Kinda Kinks, and perhaps even Kontroversy.
    Somewhat oddly, and I guess typically, the band keeps making better and better albums, but from this point on the sales and chart positions start to slide away ....
    It is one of those strange musical anomalies that I have always struggled to understand
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Cheers mate, I hadn't actually realised that
     
  19. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Apologies for going back in time but it’s notable that here in Australia, I just saw Tired of Waiting used as the soundtrack to a prime-time TV commercial before the biggest sporting event here - State of Origin I. But I think the company might be a payday loan type of operation, which takes off some of the gloss.
     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    1967.

    This was a big year in music. The subtle changes that came into play in the mid sixties were really starting to explode into a whole new world of music.
    To some degree the shackles were off, and bands were really starting to explore what they could do/get away with in the context of writing rock music.

    In January The Doors release their debut album, which contains the epic eleven and a half minute The End, and as we discussed earlier this seems to have been possibly inspired by the Kinks to some degree.
    Elvis Presley turns 32, and starts to fight against the movie situation he has found himself in, as he slowly claws his way back to the music.
    The psychedelic era really starts to get a head of steam and we get folks like Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg attaining a certain amount of notoriety for their slant on the sixties.
    The Stones appear on Ed Sullivan, and are required to censor Lets Spend The Night Together. Keith and Mick get charged with drug possession after a top off from News Of The World about a party at Keith's home.
    The Monkees fight to have their first album with full artistic control.
    McCartney reveals that all the Beatles have tried acid.
    Capitol Records pulls the plug on the Beach Boys Smile album, as Brian has taken more than a year to compose and produce it, but can't bring himsalf to finish it.
    Pink Floyd stage the first concert in Quadrophonic sound at Queen Elizabeth Hall.
    Van Morrison goes solo.
    All You Need Is Love gets the first worldwide television broadcast.
    The Beatles lose their manager Brian Epstein to an overdose of Carbitral, a barbiturate (sleeping pill).
    Jim Morrison becomes the first singer to be arrested on stage......

    Things were changing in the music world.... and things were changing in the world at large ...

    Some of the albums to come out over the course of 1967
    Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
    The Velvet Underground and Nico
    Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
    The Doors - The Doors
    Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons
    Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen
    The Who - Sell Out
    Captain Beefheart - Safe As Milk
    The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    Bee Gees - First
    Procul Harum - Procul Harum
    Traffic - Mr Fantasy
    Zappa and the Mothers - Absolutely Free
    Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed

    This is a big year in the history of music, and from here the album era was definitely underway.
     
  21. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Great scene-setter but I’m disappointed that you overlooked the best album of 1967 in my opinion - Forever Changes by Love.
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It's all good, you just mentioned it :)
     
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  23. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Does it? Hinman has it down as Mick. Has more info come to light since then?
     
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  24. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    This is the info I have from the FtF deluxe, and the Anthology booklet, the latter of which supersedes the previous on some info.
     
  25. Orino

    Orino Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    That's one hell of a butcher's apostrophe on an official release. Did Pye not employ a copywriter, or what??

    (/pedant..)
     

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