The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I have always heard "Funny Face Is Alright".... I just post the lyrics that the kindakinks.net website throws up..... It seems to be the closest thing to an official Kinks website with song info I can find
     
  2. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    End Of The Season.

    mono mix (3:00), recorded 13-15 Apr, 1966, possible rerecorded early 1967 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London

    Winter time is coming
    All the sky is grey
    Summer birds aren't singing
    Since you went away

    Since you've been gone, end of the season
    Winter is here, close of play
    I get no kicks walking down Savile Row
    There's no more chicks left where the green grass grows and I know that
    Winter is here, end of the season
    My reason's gone, close of play
    I just can't mix in all the clubs I know
    Now Labour's in, I have no place to go

    You're on a yacht near an island in Greece
    Though you are hot, forget me not
    I will keep waiting until your return
    Now you are gone, end of the season
    Winter will come any day
    Back in the scrum on a wet afternoon
    Down in the mud, dreaming of flowers in June
    End of the season
    End of the season

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Noma Music, Inc./Hi-Count Music, Inc. BMI

    Lyrics for "End Of The Season" kindakinks.net

    It seems this song may have been recorded for Face To Face, but for some reason didn't make the cut. There is also a chance it was re-recorded in 67 for Something Else.... of course as we are learning, this information is a little vague, and although likely pretty close to correct, the tapes were never cataloged properly.

    We open up here with a chorus of birds singing. The context is set up in the first batch of lyrics. The way we come in is over a bass holding a single note that the piano runs through a sequence of chords. Ray sings the opening verse really well, and very straight.

    The key of course is "the summer birds aren't singing since you went away". So we have either the end of a summer affair/romance, or a personal early winter due to lost love ... I think I lean towards the first scenario. This is a pretty common theme among songs in popular music with obviously Grease's Summer Lovin', Aussie Band Sherbet with Summer Love, Don Henley's Boys Of Summer .... I'm not sure it is something I have ever experienced, but I guess it must happen lol.

    Anyway, we open with this somewhat dramatic build up in the opening verse, and then we move into this cool .... kind of lounge or cabaret arrangement, and Ray puts on this very convincing kind of cabaret singer vocal and delivery.

    Musically we have this beautiful melodic movement, that is tempered somewhat by the slightly camp delivery.... When one listens closely, it isn't quite as tongue in cheek as one first imagines. When I was listening to this as background music, it seemed like this was a somewhat comical, camp track, that wasn't particularly serious.... just the guys having a bit of fun in a sort of lounge singer who drinks too much kind of way..... but the thing is, when I listen to this closely, it is musically very good, and the thing that leaves a cursory listen thinking this is a bit of a jokey song is actually Ray's cabaret vocal.... but a close listen, and this is a really good .... pastiche? I guess. Ray's vocal is much better than I had originally given it credit for.
    Sure it is affected, but it fits the music and the feel beautifully.

    So on a closer listen this song leaves me feeling this was just the guys trying another musical style, and actually succeeding with is very well. I guess the initial thoughts of it being a bit jokey, come from the perspective that there wasn't really anybody doing this kind of Dean Martin kind of thing in the "serious bands", or certainly not in a serious way.
    The vocal from Ray is more of a posh voice than anything else, and it actually fits in with same kind of character from Most Exclusive Residence For Sale category .... the rich, upper class guy, who has had something not go their way.....

    Like Lazy Old Sun, this could well have been an album closer, but I think the way this album is laid out is perfect, and I'll hit that tomorrow.

    So this ends up being a really good song, and a lot more serious, than I had initially thought. An unexpected track, that ends up being another unique track on this quite stunning melting pot of music called Something Else.





     
  4. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
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  5. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    "End Of The Season"

    We are back up to the very top tier now. The change of seasons as a metaphor for life, except here it's the change of sporting seasons.

    Some explanation may be necessary here, as this may possibly be the most English-centric song that Ray has written to this point. Cricket is played in summer and rugby is played in autumn/winter (although due to television these days Rugby League is now played in summer, but they don't have scrums, and this character would be strictly a Rugby Union man). "Close of play" is a cricket term - a game of cricket lasts several days, each one running from about 11am until close of play at around 6pm. You might hear something like "England were 265-4 at close of play on Day 1 of the First Test" on a news report. It's also been co-opted as business speak ("can I have those reports by close of play today?").

    So here we have a toff - probably an Old Etonian - who is bemoaning that the sunny afternoons sipping afternoon tea and Pimms by the pavilion while waiting for your turn to bat are over, and it's back to playing rugger with the chaps on a rain-soaked muddy pitch while his lady friend is off sunning herself in Greece. Not only that, but the government has changed and now Mr Wilson is putting the squeeze on the rich.

    But of course it's a wider metaphor for life, you're no longer a spring chicken, the glory days of summer are over, you're in the autumn of your years etc. But you're hopeful that there will once more be flowers in June. And there's no need to analyze the lyrics or look for the wider meaning beyond them, because it's laid out quite clearly in front of you, but it is neither obvious or banal - it's just brilliant writing.

    Also, at no point does Ray mention cricket or rugby by name - they are just implied by a passing phrase. It's such a visual song as well. And perhaps, this time we feel some empathy for the toff as we mourn our lost summers as well.

    I've not even mentioned the music yet. It starts with a prologue that's not repeated anywhere else. That modulation halfway through the chorus (or is it is the verse?) is incredible and gets you every time. Those three piano notes after "close of play". It's the gentlest of swings tinged with a sense of poignant nostalgia. The vocal delivery is impeccable and takes us inside the heart of the character.

    It's astonishing that this may have been written the year before, for Face To Face, rather than for Something Else, because it fits perfectly into the mood of this album.

    I've never thought that "Waterloo Sunset" really belonged on this album, mainly because it's so much more well-known as a single than the rest of the album, so in a sense we could really see "End Of The Season" as the logical closer, with the hit single tacked on at the end to get a few extra sales. It's worthy of being the closer of this great album.
     
  6. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I love End of the Season so much. I love prewar pop music, and this stylistic throwback sounds as good to me as any Novello or Coward original. The fact that I despise the character only adds to my enjoyment of the song- it's too easy to write a beautiful ballad where the singer only expresses pure, selfless and beautiful thoughts. I love the uncompromising Englishness.

    Like ARL I think of this as being an honorary final track - partly because it sounds like one, partly because the album has given us so much already it's hard to believe there is still more to come (let alone one of the greatest songs ever).

    EDIT: I also think of it as a pair with "Lazy Old Sun": very different but both very languid songs about the weather.
     
  7. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Another brilliant track on this brilliant album. It reminds me of some of the pre-war style music that Queen sometimes included on their albums in the 70s, like Seaside Rendezvous. Although with Ray, the lyrics are more involved.
     
  8. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    ‘End Of the Season’ is such a richly, powerfully evocative song to me. Truly one of the most enigmatically magical songs the Kinks ever created, all the more so for barely being discussed, esp in comparison to the track that follows it on this album of which EOTS is in my opinion very much the equal of.

    I never heard it being about a holiday destination out of season, although I guess it could work that way too now it’s been mentioned, but, to me, this track is Ray getting right inside the head, the very romantic essence of the kind of to the manor born privileged toffs that he more typically observes with contempt from afar. Here, (imo anyhow) what is happening is that against our (and perhaps his) better judgement he gets us to empathise with the romantic nostalgia of a maybe a young city gent or similar already possessed by a yearning for simpler softer times of the recent and yet oh so distant past.

    ‘back in the scrum on a wet afternoon, down in the mud dreaming of flowers in June’.. I mean that has to be one of the most cinematically potent couplets Ray, (and therefore anyone) ever came up with in pop music. I can just see and feel the visceral slo mo splash and smack of the unforgiving elements and even less forgiving players into the face of the protagonist on the rugby pitch . There’s a definite If.. style vibe of ice cold shower survival-of-the caddiest male public school barbarity being contrasted with the wistful sensuousness of a romance recollected.

    Mentioned him before, but the (literally) old school British/English weight of tradition and history that pervades this track, that it carries through implication, really reminds me of the cartoons of Ronald Searle, with their dark lines and foggy inky splashes portraying gothic academic quadrangles and rainy pitches inhabited by grotesque and yet oh so vividly real English class stereotypes of the post war era.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
  9. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    1966 cover by the unprepossessingly named Uglys. You'll note that as this is a 1966 song, it attracted a few covers pre it's release as a Kinks track, whereas otherwise Ray Davies giveaways really seem to fall off a cliff (with a few exceptions) after 1966. The amount of contemporarily covered songs goes from loads on Face To Face to very few by the time of Something Else:

     
  10. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    another 1966 cover, this time by Beatles cartoon voice actor Lance Percival (second song in this video). He really sends it up (and changes quite a few of the lyrics) so it becomes the 'silly toff' lets do a crooner track for a laff novelty track that Mark notes The Kinks version skillfully manages to avoid being:

     
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  11. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    I'm guessing the birds sound effects betray its Face to Face origin.
    Stylistically, I agree, the retro vibe announces the end of the record. We can almost see the credits scrolling down during the song, even though there's still a grand finale, a great “encore” to come. I also think its placing as the penultimate track underlines its proximity to some Sunny Afternoon themes. The tune is sung in a goofy posh parody voice by Ray, a voice he’ll come back to (kind of) on the fifties pastiche “First Time We Fell in Love”, some years later. But the harmonic structure of the song and the very sophisticated melody are all but parodic, and match the bittersweetness of the lyrics. Once again, it’s all about atmosphere and images. We may not share this guy's concerns, embarrassed by the frightening change of government and because he can’t live his favored summer way of life (cricket, clubs and womanizing) in the winter. Especially since he's not rich enough to follow his girl on her trip to Greece… But as in Sunny Afternoon, I agree with @ajsmith we still empathize with him, even if we don’t identify with his political point of view or social perspective. As pointed and specific as it may be, the song’s ultimately about something very universal : the longing for something lost, something we know won't ever be the same again, even next year when the “new season” will begin. Behind all its cabaret / Noël Coward 1920’s stylings, this may be the song where Ray most clearly unveils the key sentiment of so many of his songs : the overwhelming sense of things being ephemeral. Some people know how to live every moment to the fullest. Ray Davies is not one of those people. He seems to live every moment with the knowledge that it’s disappearing just as he’s experiencing it. He’s always aware of things dying, of everything about life being a shooting star or an existential sunset. Things end, you just can’t fixate them for eternity. I think that’s the message and sentiment of End of the Season… only to be contradicted by the beauty and eternity of the very next song.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
  12. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    Interesting that the song was obviously shopped around before The Kinks decided to release it. Never expected this track, of all songs, to fall into that category!

    Here's some breezy thoughts and queries:

    - That "Now Labour's in, I have no place to go" line is just a perfect send-up of the toff persona that Ray creates, in the most British was possible.

    - Have my ears always been correct in telling me the exact same sound effects tape was used on Across The Universe the next year?

    - This has never sounded like a closer to me. It has a very 'penultimate track' progression to these ears, and while Waterloo may have been tacked on, I think it's the natural and perfect closer.
     
  13. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    End of the Season
    Others have already said it better than I can, but this is a lovely lovely song. Totally different to any other song on the album - and perhaps to any other pop song of the era. So many things to admire in this song - from the clever key change to the enigmatic lyrics. And, remarkably, I think Ray wrote this when he was barely 23. Brilliant.
    As an aside, I read a quote from Ray saying he didn’t actually like cricket but he likes to know it’s there. Much like the village green, which we will come to shortly.
     
  14. Orino

    Orino Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Two very intriguing tracks, lyrics I've never read properly.

    "Funny Face" really is an enigma. Part of me thinks the lyric is just as loosely bolted together as the music, three distinct parts with almost nothing to connect them.. apart maybe from the 'hospital' line. Was "Funny Face" his lover? Has she been committed? Is she dying? In all honesty the words are too abtruse to make real sense of, unless we tie ourselves in knots inventing and supposing. Perhaps they meant something specific to Dave but we will never know. I prefer to think of it as a patchwork of fractured images, moments and emotions, one of the songs that really give "Something Else" its peculiar feel. "Peering through frosted windows" indeed, could be an apt tag line for the album in toto.

    "End of the Season", god knows why but something of that Noel Coward, fruity, upper class crooner style appeals to me. It's often pastiched in a loosely mocking way in the 60s, I think of a lot of Viv Stanshall/ Bonzos stuff. There's both a pee-take and a fondness for the form in this song. Ray could easily have sung it 'straight' but the references to Cricket and Rugger (shades of David Watts) indicate it's meant as another character piece, the well-to-do toff again. And lamenting loss or absence.. again.

    Its the end of a romance, a change in the weather, and the loss of some kind of social status, rolled into one. Really quite a beautiful piece, Ray very smartly weaving his themes carefully, as ever, so there's no single obvious 'take'. I doubt he had much patience with old Etonions bemoaning long haired youths with guitars, but there's a certain wistfulness, perhaps, a shared feeling of (here we go again) English melancholy, that transcends class.

    Perhaps. Without going too deep into politics, there's a case that there's a deeply conservative edge to Ray that might be (in some eyes) problematic. Also that this kind of deference to our 'betters' - culturally, and in other respects - was and is still damaging. Lennon for one despised Macca's 'Honey Pie' type work, thinking it dishonest and trite, perhaps detecting an edge of cap-doffing. Or even a guilty sense that, well, wouldn't it be lovely to live that life, London to Brighton in a vintage car, tea on the lawn, lunch at the club, and a little misty eyed moment as we reminisce on Empire, WG Grace and good old British pluck?

    Hmm. That's enough. I think this is an utterly adorable piece of work btw, I'm just using it to look at a broader trend. And maybe a song is just a song. And it's over 50 years old. But that world lives on. Whatever our narrator is concerned about, whatever he is dreaming of losing, it still seems in rude health..
     
  15. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    End Of The Season

    I have never knowingly heard Noel Coward but Ray's masterfully affected vocal makes me think he stands tall with the periods key music hall stylists despite (or because of) it sounding so effortless.

    The unrepeated intro sounds slightly foreboding before the languid verses of an unwished for and unwanted solemn acceptance take command of centre stage as the curtains are fully drawn back.

    Again I love the Englishness of sport and season that is typical Ray writing and iam reminded of the time i played cricket on a little village green in old Blighty once many years past.

    This is highly thematic and visual and absolutely works as a closer and final nightcap to this rich and intriguing long player.
     
  16. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    If it was ‘stained glass windows’ I could see your idea of a church but it’s “frosted windows,” suggesting an institution (hospital, etc) of some kind.
     
  17. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Great post especially the insightful last paragraph about Ray Davies himself.
     
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  18. renderj

    renderj Forum Resident

    End of the Season: This track felt like filler the first time I heard it. I now respect it for its quality. Not sure why this track didn’t get placed on FtF in ‘66, but it works here just fine. The lyrics are great. The band plays it straight with the music.

    I notice a similarity in song structure to certain Tin Pan Alley standards. I’m no expert , but I think the opening “bridge” section was common in musical theater. The Beatles would also use this device occasionally (think “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “Here There and Everywhere”).

    Let’s ponder that this is same songwriter and band responsible for You Really Got Me 2 years before recording this! Oh yeah, and then there’s the closing “encore” coming up next! Wow!
     
  19. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Sorry yes frosted but I imagined that could have been/meant stained glass!
     
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  20. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Extremely enjoyable writing offering perpetual visuals of yesteryear!
     
  21. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    ...except it isn't the closer! Waterloo Sunset is the last track on the LP.

    Unless you meant it's potential as a closer instead.
     
  22. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    End Of The Season

    Another terrific song. Sounds more suited to Face to Face but if it had to be on Something Else then I agree with others who say it should have been the closer.

    I used to think it was about the end of the shooting season - "there's no more chicks left where the green grass grows". Obviously a toff but now the season is over and he is so sad about it that he can't be bothered mixing in those gentlemen's clubs in Piccadilly. Even Saville Row, where the rich have their suits made, holds no attraction. I think he is more depressed about the close of the season than about his girl who has scarpered off to the Greek sunshine.

    However, Davies has confirmed it is about the end of the cricket season. "It's about a cricket player. The cricket season's over, his girlfriend's gone to Greece and he's going to take up rugby..... I really must have been crazy!"

    A classic. No doubt about it.
     
  23. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    The first thought I had when I heard this song was that I wondered what the other guys in the band thought. Did anyone raise a quizzical eyebrow? Or were they so tuned into Ray that they any shift in style was all in a day’s work?

    I like End Of The Season but I don’t know what I would have thought if I’d heard it in real-time instead of January or February of this year. The closest personal experience might be hearing Leon Redbone’s ‘Diamonds Don’t Mean A Thing’ in 1985...and loving it. So maybe I would have embraced the song back in ‘67, too. But that’s idle speculation.

    I agree that it does sound like a closer, wrapping things up (though the next track flows just fine). And I appreciate the great writing by all of you thread participants.
     
  24. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    The comp that got me into The Kinks was my parents tape of the 1989 Castle release ‘The Ultimate Collection’. It follows the usual ‘all the Pye hits in order’ sequence that (naturally) a lot of other comps do, then throws in an extra LP sides worth of famed ‘hits’ that technically weren’t Kinks hits at the end.. the 2 Dave hits of course, ‘David Watts’ (made famous by The Jam), ‘Well Respected Man’ (No.1 EP track, US smash) ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’ and ‘I’m Like Everybody Else’ (oft-covered A side worthy Bs that have gone down as classics) and then we have….. ‘End Of The Season’???!!!!!! I still don’t understand the reason why this track made it onto this hits comp, (other than the fact it’s a brilliant song of course!). A bit of an oddity.

    The Kinks – The Ultimate Collection (1990, CD)
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
  25. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    No! She’s Not There is the Zombies.
     
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