Not that it's a better song than many others on the album, but "Picture Book" seems to me to be the obvious *single* from the album as released, and it's mind-boggling that it wasn't chosen and promoted. It's the song on the record that's the closest to the Kinks' older riff hits, though rendered in an acoustic arrangement. As with most of the songs on the record, Ray starts with a wonderfully catchy musical premise (in this case, the circle of fourths verse, and a chorus that jumps to a new key), THEN adds a section that feels almost gratuitously "giving"-- in this case, that falsetto "nah nah nah nah nah nah" section. Am I conveying this? What I mean to say is that I'm consistently impressed by the richness of the song compositions here. It feels like a leap from even "Something Else." Ray's brain was brimming with hooks and surprising musical ideas, and all of them work. Then, as well, the lyrics are quirky, entirely in keeping with the theme presented in the prior two songs, and adding a humorous and much-needed ambivalent counter-argument to the nostalgia of the prior songs' stances. It's an unusual song topic, and yet one everyone can relate to. And it rocks! I love the way the vocals come together in the end --Ray's lead is slightly lower in pitch than the falsetto version of the melody, and it results in a beautiful close-harmony dissonance in the second syllable of "Pic-ture-book." It's THE first Kinks song I ever heard. My father bought all the $2 Warner/Reprise "Loss Leader" promotional albums in the late 60's, and this song was featured on the first one, "The 1969 Warner-Reprise Songbook." He played these albums in the house a lot -- they are great comps!! So I heard this one as a toddler and little kid, quite a bit. Lukpac on the Loss Leaders: The Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders
I am truly shocked and astounded to read about Dave Clark displaying artistic integrity not just once but repeatedly.
Man, Dave always looks so happy in these clips, like he'd like to be nowhere else than playing this song at this moment (whatever the song is). It's infectious. Fun to hear this song with a live vocal --sounds like they are just singing over the track, complete with at least one of the original vocal tracks.
PICTURE BOOK "When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now." - The Beatles, When I'm 64, released 1967. The Kinks were not the only group talking about getting old. And the way to do it was to add a little humour, which we could rely on Ray to do. A nice up-tempo number, but for me it's the lyrics that shine. For example: "A holiday in August, outside a bed and breakfast, in sunny Southend." No more of this Donald Duck nonsense. A typical English day trip. Even the "sunny" Southend suggests to me that it was probably raining half the time. And in the previous song I'm sure that the Walter Ray was thinking of was not Walt Disney. Walter was already a rather quirky old-fashioned name at the time in England. It's amusing that on the same day The Beatles released a song with the immortal line: "And curse Sir Walter Raleigh. He was such a stupid get". Sir Walter brought tobacco to England and so, in a way, was the man behind all those cursed harry rags.
As an aside re: Dave Clark in this Kinks thread... Over the years I've come to theorize the man's puzzling motivation behind the control of his music is not so much artistic integrity as it is a maniacal obsession to ensure no one ever earns a single cent more out of a deal than him, least he assume he is being taken advantage of. Regarding Glad Wrap, I suspect Dave is suspicious that if he agreed to their offer, at some point--somehow--they would eventually benefit to a degree where he wouldn't be getting a cut in the profit. Now, back to the Kinks...
Picture Book The first song on the album that I can take or leave. I agree it's a nice lyric but I don't really like the tune of the chorus, particularly the title phrase. It's a nagging tune in a bad way. If I were to rejig the album using other tracks of the period, this would be one of the first tracks to go. I'm amazed at Steve E's suggestion that it should have been a single. Lest I seem to be spreading the negativity a bit too thickly, I do like the way he sings "shooby dooby doo" and the verses are fine.
QUOTE="Martyj, post: 27310625, member: 127849"]It's like a gift from the Gods of Madison Avenue when a recording artist creates a work that aligns--whether by accident or design--with an actual product[/QUOTE] Serendipity
I seem to remember reading something about this a few years back. My memory is not the greatest but it was something about Ray authorising/selling the use of his catalogue for a number of years to a body who could then authorise the use of songs to be used in commercial campigns. I think Ray got a million dollars for this.
"Picture Book", my favorite song from my favorite album. I was amazed when I first heard this back in 1977 as I'm still am today. As with the other Avids on this thread, there's a personal resonance to this song. Several members of my family are shutterbugs (remember that quaint term) & they have taken photos at every family gathering, especially of the newer members. They still have the photos printed & put them in photo albums. There are plenty of these albums around, capturing the cuteness of our said youngest family members before they turn into sullen teenagers. The song itself is extremely catchy, w/a great chorus. I wondered how it would have done as an A side. As for the HP commercial thingie, 15 yr. old me would have been p'oed, but 59 yr. old me is more understanding, w/a bit of sadness.
I'm glad "Picture Book" ran in that ad. I don't think it cheapened the song to any significant degree. If anything: If it exposed it to a whole new audience and helped boost sales of this album, I am all in favor of it. I felt the same way about whichever car commercial used the Sonics' take on Richard Berry's "Have Love Will Travel." A friend of mine, a struggling but talented signer/songwriter, found himself with a song in a Hewlett Packard ad that ran in South America a few years ago. It gave him a new audience and the possibility of a sustainable career for the first time. So, I take such ads on a case by case basis.
Picture Book "na na na na na" How can you not want to sing along? Excellent intro by @mark winstanley! I love the bass line and the drums on this song. I do feel in the last decade or so it suffered from a little bit too much exposure. It's a Kinks song that all of a sudden was popular because of the commercial and then the Green Day rip off. The best place for this song is the third track on this album with all of the other Village Green tunes. Maybe this commercial and the Green Day song made some people explore the rest of The Village Green? That would be a positive if it was a stepping stone for some into the world of The Kinks. I have no problem with an artist like Ray making a little money for a commercial song, but I can't help but think it cheapens the tune. It's so good and perfect for a commercial that I'm sure some people thought it was specifically written for that purpose. A great little song, but I appreciated it more before it got sold out. Ha. I just read this comment after writing my post. We may slightly disagree, but we both still like the song!
Fortunately I rarely see advertisements for anything ... even if they come on somewhere, I couldn't tell you what they were ten seconds after they finished.... I think I have an internal spam mechanism
These days I would agree with you. I don’t even watch television anymore aside from movie channels. You can also skip ads or easily mute them now. I do remember seeing this ad a lot back when it was released. It appears that it first aired in 2004 and probably played for years.
This song, perhaps even more so than the title track, encapsulates what the entire album is about: nostalgia, a yearning youth and innocence, simple pleasures with old friends. Maybe it should have been a hit in 1968, but it took 35 years to get any serious airplay.
I swear I've never ever heard this song outside of listening to the album, and Green Day being one of my all-time least favourite bands I will have done all I can to avoid hearing anything by them. Makes sense I wouldn't be keen on it if they liked it.
Picture Book The first half of VGPS is a melodic masterpiece. The whole thing is a masterpiece of course, but the stretch from VGPS to Johnny Thunder in particular is just hook after hook after hook. Others have already noted how other artists have borrowed from the song's melodies. The cynic in me agrees that this is plagiarism (conscious or not), but a less cynical interpretaiton is that Ray just got to the melody first. Not to say that the melodies are "obvious," because that would imply that they took little skill to write (Ray is my favorite songwriter, after all) but the beauty of songs like this is that the melodies sound familiar and natural. And in my opinion, it's a lot more impressive to do that than throw in a bunch of jazzy extended chords and write something so complex no one else would ever come up with it. A highlight of the album that certainly deserves all of the attention that it gets.
I am sure this is correct. There are solid examples of TV commercials generating renewed interest in once-obscure artists or songs. The best one I can think of is VW’s use of Pink Moon, which propelled Nick Drake into the charts - for the first time I think. It also prompted his record company to roll out album reissues. Rolling Stone summarised it’s impact in the linked story. Better late than never. (Edit: RS called him ‘the late folk-rocker’. Sigh!) Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon' Is Rising
Picture Book Crazy great song. Feel like I've always known this song...and maybe I have. The 3rd song of the album continues with examining nostalgia and the good ol' days. So rock n roll. LOL I do think cell phones have cheapened photos. there was something about having only 24 exposures to capture a moment in time. and maybe your fat finger was in front of the lens for half of them. You didn't know what you were getting and there was something fun about that. It's interesting that Ray has also indicated he doesn't necessarily like photos, but he's likely conflicted by them. A little later on in the album there's a lyric where there's a suggestion that the writer doesn't like photos("don't show me no more, please") And I'm reading Ray's autobiography, X Ray, right now where he claims to not like photos. I don't believe him. For myself, I adore photos. Always have. I used to force my poor grandmother to go into the attic to fetch her old photos of people I didn't even know. I liked the stories that accompanied them. I liked that these people are frozen in that moment forever. So the lyrics of this song are right in my wheelhouse. Love the falsetto vocals in the background as Ray sings about "fat old Uncle Charlie" and the rest of the gang. is that Ray or Dave (both?)doing those vocals? Love the "scooby dooby do" - makes me laugh every time. And love the very end of the song where the instruments stop suddenly but there's this deep echo. How could one not love this song?
What a fantastic story! Even without Picture Book being played in the show, it would have been a great tale!
I always felt that was a reaction to being down about his current situation, and the pictures were showing him how fabulous everything used to be, and it's making him depressed.... But we'll get there.
Do You Remember Walter A good song about something most of us can probably relate to. I love the line, "People often change/But memories of people can remain" I like the song musically too. (4.5/5) Picture Book I've always considered this one of the lesser songs on this album and am surprised to see it called "the obvious single from the album". It has a good bass, but that's about it. (3/5)
