The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    "Shangri-La" is epic. I prefer "Australia" but this one has its own strengths. I always enjoy a slow build. Is that a harpsicord that comes in on "just can't get any higher"? That entire jam in the middle, the "And all the houses in the street have got a name" section, just killer. I agree with @donstemple that it's a bit much for a single. The Kinks often picked weird singles. The last couple minutes sound pretty muddy compared to the other brilliant stereo mixes on this album. I'm not sure if it's the bass being very busy, or an intentional distortion, or what.
     
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  2. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    I listened to the Andrew Sandoval episode of Waterloo Underground. He explained that the alt mix of Shangri La done in 2019 was done by Ray and his engineer. The sections missing lyrics were a whim of Ray's, so that we could enjoy the instrumental backing. I guess there is another modern mix of the track by Sandoval elsewhere in the set? The whole interview is worth hearing. Thanks to whoever linked to it.
     
  3. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: I like the way the bridge musically quotes "White Room" in the same way that the bridge of "Victoria" gives a musical nod to "Pictures Of Matchstick Men." The whole song sounds like a wrestling match between the soft and the loud. I love the little fills in the left speaker by the harpsichord in the 1st verse and then the trombones in the 3rd.

    This is indeed a lot like "A Day In The Life," complete with a bridge that sounds like it was originally part of a different song. A great choice for an album's center piece, but not a good choice for a single. "MaCarthur Park" was really a late 60s anomaly, and it wouldn't be until the early 70s when singles with bridges that are a whole other motif from the rest of the tune would start to become commonplace ("Question," "Aqualung," "Behind Blue Eyes," "Roundabout" etc).
     
  4. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    OMG, were already up to Shangria-LA?

    Damn I missed Australia too?

    Two of my favorite songs on Arthur, in fact my TWO faves on Arthur!!!

    And two of my all time fave Kinks Klassics ever...

    Killer side one ender and killer side two opener... back when they programmed for this...


    And the coda to Australia is spot on classic and ALL essential.... especially when a boozy, spooky Ray chimes back in with "No class distinction and no drug addiction" after Dave's long, epic, SPACEY solo.... Priceless///
     
  5. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Yeah there’s a more conventional new Sandoval remix on Disc 1 (?) of the box, along with 2019 AS remixes of Victoria, Yes Sir, Drivin, Brainwashed and Aus: half the album, and I’m presuming the tracks for which miltos could be found.
     
  6. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    Earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to see the new film by pop culture buff /pop music enthusiast Edgar Wright, called Last Night in Soho. It's about a late teen brit girl fantasizing about the swinging sixties and it's graced with a spectacular soundtrack featuring Cilla Black, Barry Ryan, Peter & Gordon, a few Bacharach/David classics and more. At the beginning, we see the lead girl packing in her Cornwall hometown, on her way to a fashion school in « the big black smoke ». She has a suitcase full of vinyl records and Village Green Preservation Society is preeminently featured (and, dare I say, glorified) amongst them. It certainly made me think about the discussions we were having here about its cover, how it supposedly didn't fit and how it's failed to become "iconic". Well, let me tell you the director almost uses it like it's Abbey Road : supremely iconic. And when the girl gets to London and starts to (literally) "live the dream", she first takes it all in while Starstruck blasts the soundtrack. We get the song almost complete and for a whole sequence (a part of it mashed-up with some heavy modern beats at a party).
    So there you go, if you were to believe this film (and some of the audience will), the Village Green cover is super iconic and Starstruck is an unstoppable epochal classic, equal (or superior) to a string of mega hit-singles of the mid and late sixties. So much for our collective wisdom here, right? :doh:
    I thought it was good to share on our «day off» on this beautiful thread!
     
  7. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Shangri-La

    I won't also say to you how great this album centrepiece is but I will mention that I read that Peter Quaife thought this was the best Ray Davies song which is quite telling as he not only wasn't in the band at this time but had recently left the Kinks feeling disillusioned and perhaps also somewhat bitter!

    If Arthur is a little on autopilot he doesn't seem overly discontent to me though I feel some of the frustration on display is more so from the young songwriter or if you like his actual son.

    Well before I got a mortgage, got on top of it, could afford home restorations, regular grand (ish) holidays and had a record collection I could be really proud of i had a holiday in London.
    Being 24 i was a bit cynical of the rows of drab identical housing i saw in certain areas and wondered how people put up living there and didn't spend near every waking hour planning to get out!

    Now 53 i have long considered that if Arthur feels he's content and can't get any higher without additional and perhaps unwanted and stress inducing ambition then good for him!
    He knows where he is, he's getting by and at any time he chooses to he can polish his car happy that he no longer wishes for it like the neighbour next door who is too often popping over to tell him what he thinks he ought to know!

    Iam happy to say that throughout my life the fenceline's in Australia have had sufficient distance to make consistent eavesdropping near impossible so I have never lived in fear, concern or annoyance of my life or activities being of public discussion or derision from those with nothing better to do.

    In all seriousness hearing Ray and Dave beautifully harmonize here could temporarily make anyone forget such concerns alongside Ray so sympathetically and poignantly making us feel rightfully pround of our Shangri-La so as we sit back in our old rocking chair we need not care!
     
  8. Paul Mazz

    Paul Mazz Senior Member

    @Fortuleo You didn’t mention whether you thought the movie was any good. Is it worth seeing? Baby Driver, while maybe not great cinema, was a lot of fun, with a really enjoyable soundtrack.
     
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  9. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    I too missed the boat on Australia and Shangri-La, two of my favorite songs of all time. Great writeups, Mark.

    The former is right up there with Waterloo Sunset as Ray's greatest work ever, as for Australia, when I was in college we would all make mix tapes of our favorite songs and compete to play them in the fraternity basement with large speakers. The track was fairly obscure for Pennsylvania in the early 80's, but I can't tell you how many people commented over their beers "This is great stuff, and funny. Who is it? The Kinks? Seriously?" Mark of a great tune.

    Fun fact: my vinyl version of Arthur had a repeating skip at the fade of this track, and would perpetually go "No class distinction/No drug addiction, -diction, -diction, -diction" until I turned it off. My version of a song that seemed to go on forever actually did.
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That would have actually been a cool way to end the song.... fading out of course :)
     
  11. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Shangri-La

    I'm a bit intimidated by this song, both by its epic quality and its place in Kinks lore. I confess I've never loved it as much as their simpler pop songs, but I am in awe of it, particularly after listening to it carefully in the context of the album for this thread. Very brave choice of single. Maybe after "Drivin'" flopped they thought, "Screw it, if they aren't going to buy the simple unchallenging pop songs, we might as well show them what we're really capable of".

    I thought I'd try writing about it another way, writing in real time as if I were hearing it for the first time.

    0:13 Hmm, gentle folky buesy song, not my favourite genre. The horn seem a bit excessive for such a simple little tune.
    0:50 Oh, this bit is nice and yearning. Pretty. The lyrics seem to be getting increasing double-edged though. "You can't go anywhere..."
    1:25 ("Shangri-Laaaa") Oh no, this is very tense and ominous. What's going to happen?
    1:43 It's the pretty bit again, with added harmonies and horn embellishment. Are not going to return to the bluesy bit then?
    2:16 ("Shangri-Laaaa" ...) That really ominous sounding chorus again. Is the house going to collapse on his head, now, or what?
    2:49 new rocking beat. Where are we going now? This is "Bohemian Rhapsody" stuff. No, wait, that doesn't exist yet. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" stuff, I meant.
    3:00 Ray doing his deeper "Victoria" voice again, he really likes doing that on this album, doesn't he? We're really rocking now with a list of discontents and woes. Maybe that's all the bad stuff that's going to happen. Phew!
    3:38 ("Oh shangri la, shangri la la la la la..."). Wow, this is a sweet release! Love this bit. Let's stomp around and let off some steam.
    3:58 Oh, back to the B section again? I thought we were going for the through-composed thing. Oh well, it helps tie it all together.
    4:40 Well this was... really something. Any more bits to come?
    5:15, no, I guess we're done.

    So, a great achievement, a towering piece of narrative songwriting, but I can't personally call it Ray's greatest, because none of the individual sections is as catchy as his catchiest tunes. As as amazing as his lyrics are, I really think his tunes are his strongest asset as a songwriter.
     
  12. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    A fair assessment given a “just a song” perspective. On the other hand, one wouldn’t rate the themes and motifs in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in relationship to I’ve Got Rhythm.
     
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  13. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    I just remembered he also used The Village Green Preservation Society song in Hot Fuzz, so it seems he's on a Kinks mission for a new generation !

    Now, to be honest, I always like his intentions better than the actual result (except the World's End, which I found really entertaining). But he aims high, tries hard and has a lot to say about fetishizing pop artefacts and how idealizing the past can turn into a nightmare. Worth seeing if only for the terrific soundtrack and enjoying big parts by Terrence Stamp and Diana Rigg (her last role, and a heartbreaking farewell to the screen).
     
  14. joejo

    joejo Well-Known Member

    Location:
    toronto
    When you recognize perfect music/tunes, you may lose sight that the lyrics match.
     
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  15. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    I think there is sum think to say about Shangri_la in historical perspective.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Granted I was only 4 in 1969, so I don't speak from Exp. but back then a Shangri_la was much more of a mystical idea, loosely based on the Movie and the book of sum lost paradise of simplicity, harmonic bliss away from the busy hectic cares which modern like then (1960s) was quickly introducing with the commute the mortgage the things, TVs Radios...
    [​IMG]
    Zen and Now...
    [​IMG]
    Now A Daze, I feel like the vision of what once was an idealize, mythical Shangri LA has changed radically, in the past 50+ years...

    Sin 2021, Shangri~La has--for too many--basically become White Lotus.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2021
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  16. joejo

    joejo Well-Known Member

    Location:
    toronto
    No, that is Shangri-La-La
     
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  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Just a heads up guys.
    Tomorrow is a day off, so I'll almost certainly be posting a fair bit later.
    I know it makes me a bad person, but I don't wanna get up at 3:30am on my day off :)
     
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  18. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    That's OK, Mark, it's not like you get paid for doing this :agree: Have a Happy Labor/Labour Day
     
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  19. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Enjoy your sleep-in!
     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Well, I just know the regular frequency will probably have a few folks waiting around... that's all.
    Don't want folks waiting on a late train :)
     
  21. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    Did Mr. Churchill say to take a day off? :)

    Or do you have Nothing To Say?

    Tomorrow you deserve to “Sit back in your old rocking chair, you need not worry, you need not care.”

    You are doing a tremendous job on this thread!
     
  22. Brian Kelly

    Brian Kelly 1964-73 rock's best decade

    Shagri-La
    Now here's a song that is long, but actually deserves to be. It has that beautiful beginning: so peaceful and content. So well sung and with feeling. Then comes the whole uptempo rocking part where Ray tells us how he really feels.
    A marvelous song!
     
  23. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    Tomorrow is a day off for me too, and I am soooooo excited.

    Me and mate of mine (same one I saw Ray Davies with in 1996) are driving up to The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur to see:

    Patti Smith!!!

    I'm very excited!

    Enjoy your late riser Mark!
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2021
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  24. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    The
    You look like a real human being
    But don’t have any lines of your own:)
     
  25. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    For the love of all things holy Mark, take the whole day. I know it's not a worldwide holiday but we are the last thing you should be worried about. Enjoy your day and spend some quality time with the missus...
     

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