I fear it’s not happening now, not it time for Christmas anyway… by this point in 2018 2019 and 2020 we had much more info on those years boxes… in fact am I tripping, or didn’t someone a while back on this thread mention that Ray said the Muswell box been parked so he could concentrate on his ‘Moneygoround’ project? (Some kind of expansion of the one man play he debuted online at the beginning of this year).
A contender then for this time tomorrow? Oh man i didn't know if i was salivating or near to crying over the list of guitars you gave up, i also have a mere Telecaster Deluxe but for me it was near sorrowful to read about the Gretsch & your father's 30's National you parted with! "Lola Versus Powerman & The Moneygoround" Great write album write up as usual Mark and I find my position very similar to yours in that I also came to the Lola Album around the year 2000. I liked it also but didn't consider if it was thematically bound as a whole or even all of the nuances, topic's and stylistic devices between it's margins. It was immediately clear to me that here was the band's exasperated and incredulous railing against various management & publishing figures they had signed with in the 60's. I did also find it a rootsy and perhaps a simpler album compared to their last few long players which was quite a departure as was having 2 sizeable and very welcome hits onboard! That stylistic change will lead us onto Muswell which I had somehow always baulked at purchasing until ordering it 2 weeks ago, but that Avids is a story for future weeks........
"Lola v Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One" I don't remember much about buying this album - it was another one bought at the same time I bought most of the other Pye albums, and another 80s PRT reissue. I seem to remember originally liking this one a bit less than the previous few due to the heavier and more 70s sound (which did not appeal to me much at the time), but it's grown in stature for me over the years and these days I like it just as much as any of the others. Perhaps more than any other Kinks album, this feels like a genuine collaboration of the Davies brothers. Dave gets to do two of his own songs, and gets to sing the crucial bridge in "Powerman". The signature vocal sound of the album is Ray and Dave's vocal blend, and Dave's guitar dominates the music. All of the band is stellar across the album, but it's the brothers that stand together up front. I see this as an album with another distinct storyline running through it. Side One plots the band's progress from early dreams of doing something more than a mundane job, to being discovered and signed, to scoring their first hit single, and then finding that they are trapped in a con and will never see the money that their success should have earned. Side Two finds the band continuing to survive and play on against the odds, eventually winning their independence and artistic freedom, but at what cost? It's basically The Kinks scripting their own career before much of it had actually happened. Is this the only album with three title tracks?
Now i've seen it all, so if you splash your money-a-round then each night a powerman with kink may lie with Lola!
In a recent article, I believe Ray said that there will not be a Muswell Hillbillies set coming out. If I recall correctly he said there was too much going on this year. Let me know if you want me to dig that up. I did get the Lola set this year and it's well done. Gotta get our turntable set up to really enjoy it though. Lola has become a fave for me this year so looking forward to the discussion.
Had this one since right after it came out. Strangers, This Time Tomorrow, and Ling Way from Home were instant favorites - and still are. Lola, of course, was brilliant on the radio, and on the LP I noticed the great percussion bongs on the outro. My then gf adored Apeman, and nowadays I blast Rats, a cousin, musically, to King King. Frankly, the music biz stuff didn't do much for me. But what an album. And really great work by Dave, and all of the band. Also, heh, I spent hours admiring the calligraphy on the cover. For once, a post YRGM album that was easy to find in the US!
Don't worry about it at all, Headmaster Winstanley, you needed the vacation. Anyway, I think that I did get my first copy of the album sometime in the late 70s, maybe in pre recorded cassette form w/the one piece cassette holder if anyone remembers those. For an album that made the Top 40, had a significant single & several other songs that received airplay/featured in movies, it seems underrated in comparison w/the albums that came before it & the album that followed it, none of which were as popular as this one when it first came out.
The Beatles split and release a semi-live 16 months old soundtrack ; The Who and the Stones skip their studio turn and release live albums. In 1970, the Kinks are undoubtedly the best of the British music's "big four" of the sixties, as far as new music is concerned. At last! This LP was my Kinks initiation and I still cherish it immensely. If you add the outtakes and the four or five outstanding Percy tracks, this period equals the Village Green sessions as the best / most prolific ever for Ray as a songwriter. As an album, Lola is central in many ways in the band's' career. It has it all: the hit(s), the concept/narrative, the ballads, the deep cut absolute classic (This Time Tomorrow), the music-hall nugget (The Moneygoround), the big riff song(s), the country rock influences, what's arguably Dave's best ever composition… No Kinks album before or since managed to reconcile and unify their various facets in such a perfect and accessible way. With all that, it's another testament to the band's genius that Lola is very rarely acknowledged as their very best album, even by me. Not a weak tune on it, a good half dozen klassiks, this is very close to the top (of the pops).
Yea, @ajsmith was saying that too. Very disappointing for me, as it is often my favourite Kinks album.... but I'll survive.... Hopefully they put something out, prefereably with a surround mix soon. As much as I like having the singles in the set, I'm very unlikely to play them
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One - not much to say about this album, except that I think it's great.
LOLA... A good album, not quite as strong overall as the 4 that proceeded it, but those were tough acts to follow. Lots of good/great songs here to come!
Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One I think this was the 2nd Kinks album I purchased, the first being Village Green. It was probably around 2002, as I remember adding “Rats” to my party music playlist and talking it up to all my college buddies back then. “Yeah, this is the Kinks, man!” The CD I bought had track 1 listed as “Introduction”, followed by “The Contenders” as track 2. I do love how “Got to Be Free” bookends the album. I instantly fell in love with this album. I loved the straight rockers on it, the ballads, all of it. I also very quickly grasped the theme that runs through it. I wouldn’t call it a “concept album” but more of a “theme album”, if that makes sense. There’s no real characters, but it seems rather autobiographical. Struggling to make it, getting taken advantage of, finally getting that one big hit, and then being taken advantage of even more, before being free and being able to be more in control of what you want to do. The other thing that grabs me about this album was just how much Dave is all over this album. I think he has 2 out of the top 3 or 4 songs on the album, and his two songs were quickly among my 3 favorites on the album. His vocals are all over it, blending in that unique way with Ray’s vocals. Really right from the very start. To me, this is the best *sounding* Kinks album I have ever heard. It’s well recorded, layered wonderfully with those different guitars and guitar tones, and Mick’s drumming takes center stage again on several tracks. John’s bass lines are fantastic. This album really shows off the band’s musicianship again. I really love John Gosling’s piano lines throughout the album. It almost sounds like Nicky Hopkins’ work with the Stones in the early 1970s (“Angie”). I think Wes Anderson’s film “the Darjeeling Limited” helped bring this album back into the public spotlight, as it featured not one, not two, but THREE songs from this album alone. Looking forward to the song by song (finally!)
Re: The Muswell box, Andrew Sandoval just posted on Instagram that he was ‘maybe’ working on something for The Kinks in the next few days during downtime between Monkees dates so maybe there is a sliver of hope…
Long Island ice tea and now chocolates. I can see we’re going to be peppered with hold-over holiday images.
I just took a quick look at my playlist and see that I have initially included 9 tracks (out of original 13). That’s a highly respectable 70% ratio. Then, the cherry cola single, too. How will it end after our discussion? We shall see.
This is probably my favorite Kinks album. It combines basically everything great about the band: hard rock, country-folk, music hall influenced with biting, sarcastic lyrics that cut to the core, along with a couple of lovely, thought provoking ballads. The country tinged stuff, like “Got to Be Free,” give a glimpse of what’s to come. Amazing performances from the band here, including newcomer John Gosling (gorgeous piano playing on “This Time Tomorrow” and “A Long Way From Home”). And John Dalton’s basslines are great (he sounds like Entwistle on “A Long Way From Home”). What’s crazy is that the band recorded this album concurrently with Percy. It’s wild to think they were working on two albums simultaneously. I always thought that Percy had a distinct sound, but I could see “God’s Children” and “Animals in the Zoo” having fit on this album. It must have been quite the span from autumn 1969 when Arthur came out and June 1970 when the “Lola” single came out. Must have felt like an eternity. As for Part 2, apparently Ray sketched out how it was going to be about how you become what you hate. He said he got distracted working on Percy, Muswell Hillbillies, the RCA contract, and touring, and that’s why Part 2 never came to fruition. I thought that was a bit weird of an excuse—he didn’t need to work on Muswell Hillbillies, did he? Or he could’ve revisited Part 2 after Muswell Hillbillies.
Thanks for the information re: the combo of the Martin and National guitars making that unique sound on "Lola." Can't say I consciously contemplated it but it was always notable to me, along with the muddy, swampy feel of the song compared to prior Kinks singles.
Lola: A great "comeback" of sorts for the Kinks, and for me easily one of their 5-star classic sets, which I think most folks recognize as being that run of albums from Face To Face through Muswell Hillbillies, though I am very much inclined to include The Kink Kontroversy along with those masterpieces. I don't have too much to add to the superb posts above, except that this is the only "deluxe edition" of their catalog I own, specifically the 2014 release pairing the main album with its concurrently recorded Percy, which I think rescues that comparatively inferior soundtrack from semi-obscurity, and adds some very cool bonuses (my favorite is the alternate version of "Ape Man" featuring more rocking Chuck Berry guitar licks): Kinks* - Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround Part One And Percy As for the title track, I don't particularly have a favorite between these "tastes just like"(s):
