This is a good song and necessary for the album. The lead character is excited again, but between the lines of his exuberance, we see how predatory and superficial the music industry, and the fame that goes along with it, is. I love how heavy this song is. Dave is in fine form here. Great guitar tone too. Who does the voices during the bridge? Are they all Ray? I’m not the biggest fan of the ripping off of “Land of 1000 Dances” though. It’s a little lazy, isn’t it? I never would have guessed the voice at the end was meant to be Jewish. I always thought it was meant to be Scottish.
Top of the Pops I love this song. I mean, how many songs are written from the view point of having been hot, and then not...and then back on top? It's a great insight to fame and success. I'm not as well versed, but want to say the power chords there at different points remind me of Spinal Tap tunes (Big Bottom??). Just over the top. So I think any excess in this song is totally on purpose and I love it. Anything the Kinks (and particularly Ray) do is very well thought out. It's not by accident.
Right? There were several songs that I knew and had no idea they were on this album. and some instrumentals. I was most impressed and surprised overall.
I didn't think of them as bitter either, more wry and jaundiced. But they probably did come from a bitter place! Either way, they are pretty on target, I think. That's what I thought too, but I'm not from the UK, so what do I know?! I was going to save these comments for "Rats" but I'm going out of town so I'll do it now. After my 2nd listen through the album, I thought "OK, so this is their hard rock album" (though upon further listening I realized only 4 songs fall in that category), "but it sounds so of its time and ordinary." But after a few more listens, I realized I am a sucker for Dave's power riffs (even the dumb ones, apparently ). My favorite Kinks period may be circa 1967-1968, because of the wide stylistic variety and vocal harmonies, but it was hearing their 80s live arena rock recordings several years ago that got me excited about the Kinks again. And I'm not a metalhead at all! I will say that so far, each album after Face to Face has come up substantially in my estimation, and now I am loving this one. But the next half dozen look to be a much heavier lift for me (not to get ahead of the story)...
That's what we like to hear! It really is remarkable how long they were amazing. I can somewhat understand someone jumping ship after Schoolboys In Disgrace, since they do become a slightly different band during the Arista years, but the RCA years have a lot of the same qualities as the Pye/Reprise years. I think this thread will persuade some ship jumpers to get back on board.
I agree that the cut off is as likely to be Arista as RCA - I enjoy most of the RCA albums, plus Sleepwalker, but I'm struggling with Misfits. I'm not sure how to exactly define AOR but if, as mentioned in the Allmusic review, Misfits is them getting better at the genre than they were on Sleepwalker, then I don't really like AOR!
Yeah. I don't want to get too far ahead, but I definitely prefer the RCA years. I do like Sleepwalker and Misfits, but they become a different type of band. I have a hard time separating those two albums. They sound like they could be a double album. I don't hear much difference in either record. I totally understand a Kinks fan not getting into these albums as much. I also know that these two albums have plenty of admirers. It's going to be a rocky road as we go along. I'm looking forward to it! It does surprise me when someone loves The Kinks, but they drop off after Lola or Muswell Hillbillies.
Top Of The Pops I like how Ray digs out a "You Really Got Me" inspired riff to open this song. Some clever bits in the lyrics help this song both fit with the album and have merit on its own.
I believe that would be a downlobe. I like Sleepwalker quite a bit better than Misfits and look forward to this thread getting to 1977 sometime in 2023. Sleepwalker doubled with Misfits would not be a bad double LP. I have a hard time remembering which is which with Give the People What They Want and State of Confusion until I check the track listing due to the extremely similar album art. Can't wait to see what people have to say about the Arista years. On the whole I enjoy that "era."
Not at all. It’s clever. It’s the radio playing a song that’s on Top of the Pops. (Again, I scoured review after review looking for the song title...and couldn’t find a review that even mentioned the inclusion of Land of 1000 Dances. Did this just fly over the reviewers heads?!)
The Land Of 1000 Dances riff in this song has certainly been noted and mentioned for years on various Kinks threads here and other sites over the years, so this is not new. It’s pretty obvious of course. I think it’s intentional on Ray’s part. It fits with the theme of the album. An artist’s next single should mimic if not downright copy whatever has proved successful recently. It’s another shot at the industry from Ray here.
For what it’s worth, I have known Top of the Pops for nearly 20 years, I have played Land of 1000 Dances with the marching band every Friday night for 4 years during high school, remember “Here Comes the Hotstepper” from the 90s very well, and I never made the connection between that guitar riff here and that song. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
