Please, don't apologise! I thank you heartily for telling your story, which I found fascinating. Ray would have material for a couple of albums there! Again, thanks for sharing!
Fantastic post on the Kinks ban and 1969 return to the US Mark - one tiny correction that tbh you don’t really need but I can’t stop myself from appending: VGPS didn’t chart in the UK in 1968 either: the #47 chart placing was reached by the box set version in 2018.
Thanks for the correction. I missed that.... It's really cool that a box set with a pretty big price tag got up in the charts at all. It seems the album is finally getting some due respect, outside of magazines and in the homes of music lovers
Turtle Soup is worth checking out. Kinks fans would like it. Although, to me, it sounds more like The Move than The Kinks, despite Ray’s involvement as producer.
Yeah, I always thought it was fascinating that it was Mick Avory, John Dalton, and a couple of locals on the cover. Worth mentioning that Mick Avory and John Dalton were very much working class. Not that Ray and Dave weren’t, but I think Dalton was a bricklayer or some sort of construction worker. I’m not sure if that was the reason why this particular image was chosen though or if that was an unintentional or coincidental decision. Interesting cover choice though.
Wow, this is great information, and thank you so much for compiling it here. Of particular note, at least to me, is the reference to your age as a teen in the 80's, which I share except that I did in fact watch MTV during those years. I knew about the Kinks mainly via Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" and I probably heard some of their other hits on classic rock radio ("Tired of Waiting" for example has long been familiar), but my formal introduction was mostly that "Come Dancing" video, which I liked a lot more than Bowie's similarly titled "Let's Dance" from around the same time, though my first actual purchases were compilations, including the Spotlight on the Kinks set discussed earlier in this thread. I still own that, but have now supplemented it just this year with most of their proper British LPs, basically ignoring all the weird U.S. configurations (though I have seen rather beat up copies of those Reprise titles "in the wild" over the years), and am very glad I did so. That trajectory of downward chart action throughout the 60's is likewise fascinating, if not more than a bit depressing given the absolute gold material the band was consistently offering. I'll reiterate again that the Kinks' label (Pye in your face?! ) does seem to be the weak(est) link in their story, but Reprise truly wasn't a whole lot better, and basically presented a different set of problems; that said, the only actual Reprise title I currently own is indeed Arthur on the two-tone label, which to my ears sounds very good even though an original Pye might be an improvement, complete with its glorious Queen Victoria lyric insert. On the subject of that song, I agree with above posts that it makes both for an excellent album opener and a fine single in its own right, plus it is another Kinks tune I could easily hear Paul McCartney singing but this time in his "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" voice. I see that other latecomers to this fine discussion are posting their comments on the earlier songs and albums, so I may (threaten to) do the same.
"Victoria" So much reading material so far on this album! What's really interesting about Arthur and the opening song "Victoria" is whenever I listen to the majority of these songs it is while listening to the entire album. There are maybe only two or three songs that I might play as stand alone songs. If I listen to "Victoria" it never stops there. I keep going and listen to at least the rest of the first side. Every song works better with the songs that surround it. You become entwined with the concept and want to hear what happens next. I love this live clip. It's quite a bit faster and Ray isn't as over the top with the vocal. I am so glad we have this live footage. What a concert! I would love to see live footage of the next tune we will discuss.
what an excellent story. to appreciate getting / being in the company of great R&R people is one thing, but all you did, and the rewards, are truly impressive. the woman who allowed you to stay, after taking a recorder away !, is a hero in the story too
Real excited for Arthur! Gonna cover the single first, I'm sure I've missed more than just it in the week or so since I've last written though... Plastic Man Sounds like a step backward for sure, but I like the '66-67 sound a lot so I'm not complaining! King Kong Should have been the A side. Really forshadows glam rock with that proto-Bolan vocal vibrato on 'kong' and the general rockin' feel of it. Like the flanger too... only Kinks song with a flanger? Victoria What an opening! The Kinks really knew how to open their albums (and fill them up too) but his had to have been so exciting to hear for the first time. Such energy. And the rest of the album keeps it up too. One of my favorite horn arrangments. I love that part at the end where the horns are the last thing you hear... creates a small feeling of melancholy after such an upbeat song. And I love the guitar tone; so jangly. My favorite part of the song has got to be the screams during the rave up at the end - that had to have been such a fun reocrding session!
Just catching up. I like the original Arthur packaging especially the inside gatefold with Queen Victoria emerging like a joey from the kangaroo's pouch when you pull on the tab. A nice visual representation of some of the album's themes and quite Terry Gilliamesque like the cover of the album. AFAIK, this has not been duplicated on any reissues which is a shame because it obscures the humour. Victoria is a perfect opening track, setting the scene with brilliant lyrics and rocking like crazy. I don't know if it's their best album, only because some of the others are so great, but at times I think it is.
Howard Kaylan goes into a bit of detail about this particular period in his autobiography. By this time, he, Mark Volman and guitarist Al Nichol were the only three original band members left. The Turtles were on their 2nd bass player (Jim Pons) and 3rd drummer (John Seiter). "Turtle Soup" was the product of a lot of heavy drug usage. By far, the four best songs on the album are the ones with Kaylan singing lead, three of which were released as singles. The rest of the LP is kind of iffy.
Arthur (the album): As I have noted, I did not know many of the albums from this period from before commencing my citizenship on this thread. In this case though, unlike Village Green, which I was literally listening to as we were reviewing it, I have been listening to Arthur and Lola consistently now for several weeks. No point discussing Lola yet, we’re not there, but I will say that I can understand many of the comments in which people indicated that Arthur was a hard album to embrace. It’s definitely not immediate, other than maybe Victoria (and to a lesser extent IMO, Drivin) and it is a somewhat morose and depressing listen overall. That said, as also mentioned by many here, it bears fruit with repeated listening. In the beginning, what I was hearing was a couple of really stellar tracks followed by a large number of complex, well written and performed, meaningful songs that moved like molasses and left me feeling depressed. Prior to this, Kinks songs have been concise, catchy as FA, witty and charming. …and at two minutes long, give or take, they went by so fast there was not enough time to NOT enjoy them. Arthur initially felt like an 180 degree turn, and not really a direction I liked at first. Ultimately though, I am an album rock guy. I like short fast punches to the solarplex for sure, but I love me some long multi part epics as well. So the more that I played the album, the more the songs sunk in and became my good friends. it really took time though. At first I was listening to Arthur and only Arthur. I did this for a few weeks, but still a fair number of the songs just didn’t motivate me. As boredom set in a bit, I threw on Lola vs… for the first time. Wow, that one spun my head right round on the first spin! After a few more turns around the dance floor with Lola, I went back to Arthur and began playing that one again here and there. One by one, most of the songs I had not yet been too jazzed about began to take root. At this point all but one or two songs will be making my playlist. I am not yet ready to pass final judgment on Arthur, but I still feel it feels a little like a weak link between TKATVGPS and Lola vs…. Still high quality, but a little something lacking. I am going to wait though and see what happens now as we go song by song and then I will provide my overall thoughts.
Victoria It has a great opening and is a catchy song. It tends to go on a little long (how many times do we need to hear the title sung?) but I like it and it should have been a US hit single.
They could sing Victoria another 10 times and I'd still love it. But if you think Victoria goes on just wait until we go Drivin'..... (with six silly bulls every time Ray sings the word )
And lets not forget the sometimes seemingly endless Australia (but for the long instrumental ending rather than a repeated word)...
I don't know if Rasa had passport issues due to her background but I believe he was onto Larry about it and possibly as a result at one show just flat refused to go onstage!
3 Konfessions / Komments...... *I have never heard of Betty Kaye *Is that a '69 US tour program pictured & either way couldn't they have managed to use a picture of the new line up? *I once owned a sealed promo copy of the LP Then Now And Inbetween only to have eventually traded it! I know i know, more Kooky then Kinky!!! N.b. Be warned, there will be another shocking admission from me when we get to Shangrila!
