Thanks Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll be here all night But seriously folks.... Powerman is a very good song. The stuttering riff is refreshing - it's not the Bo Diddley riff but reminds me of it - and the playing has an element of tension (with build up and release) that suits the lyrics very well. I don't know why I'd held this album under a pedestal until this thread, but I have seriously revised it upwards over the past two weeks.
I'm glad you posted this concert review Mark because it's reminded me to post another recollection of Ray's fall at the Philharmonic Hall: "...Ray begins Apeman, sloshing about the stage like a sailor gone amok on leave, forgetting words but unconcerned, he knows all he has to do is smile and the audience will forgive him, throw open his arms and embrace them - at a distance - and he will be understood. He spirals backward in a drunken loon, or so we are led to believe, backward and to the right where Dave stands playing, aware and waiting, and, as Ray comes within an inch of using his brother to break his fall, Dave sidesteps neatly and moves up to the microphone. Behind him Ray has crashed into a massive amp, sending both sprawling and roadies springing. Dave is singing, his eyes nervous, his mouth defiant. Wanting to look back but damned if he will. Trying to make everyone believe he cares about the amp." That was written by Anne Marie Micklo, Rock, 1971 and reprinted in a long essay about the Kinks called Everybody's in Showbiz by Bob Bennett in a short-lived Australian music magazine called RBG (possibly standing for Record Buyers Guide)
Nice writeup, and an interesting thought about the choice of direction in the 70s for British rock bands (though the Rolling Stones didn't stray too far off their path from 1968 to this very day). And you're right, Ray's theatrical concepts seemingly would have been well-suited to prog rock, but I guess country/roots rock was better suited to loose, boozy performances. We'll never know what a prog rock Kinks would have sounded like, but I'm pretty sure I would have preferred it over the country/roots rock path they chose!
I don't think they really chose a country/roots rock path. It's really only one album and then they move into music that is slightly closer to prog. The theatrical records are more of a 50s rock n roll pastiche mixed with Broadway style show tunes and I'd say a light touch of Prog. I don't hear a lot of country in anything after Muswell Hilbillies, and even that is mixed with a Kinks flavor and some New Orleans style jazzy bits.
Another song that fits the album theme and stands on its own. Ray gets political with the lyrics. A bit too repetitive to be a classic, but still pretty good overall.
After keyboardist drops his unusual necklace in the path of an oncoming snow plough: "oh no, that's Hendrix's tooth"
The prog possibility is interesting.... Look I love the Kinks, and I also love prog, but I think the bands last three albums are about as prog as they were going to get.... The Kinks are a great great band, but I think they decided, or Ray decided to intentionally simplify somewhat.... and as I hinted at earlier, I think that has a lot to do with the seventies becoming the concert era, and the band wanting to entertain, not just play.... But we aren't there yet, they have a little way to go before they fully invest in that direction.
There are a couple of reasons why I think the Kinks were ill-suited to prog (disclaimer: I love seventies- era Genesis and Yes): 1) Ray has a low tolerance for instrumental interludes - in Kinks’ songs the guitar solos are generally brief and there are hardly any keyboard “solos” 2) Ray’s lyrics are humanist - probably the most consistently socially conscious among the British sixties bands. I don’t want to derail the thread here but prog lyrics tend to the abstract. Ray was never going to compete with something like this (from a song I love): Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are, Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are, Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far, Lost in musing circumstances, that's just where you are Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human, silly human race, On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place, If the summer change to winter, yours is no, Yours is no disgrace
That was actually in the liner notes of The Kink Kronikles, as well as a further except where Ray described how he attempted to stab Dave at dinner afterwards. The two reviews that Our Headmaster posted were funny in their own ways. The first one was a Very Seventies review of a Very Seventies event, starting with the knee slapper about ageing Rock and Roll fans remembering the Kinks & continuing on w/the use of such phrases such as "bum trip" & "minds blown". Then there's the quaint scene of the fans going on the stage to give their love to the band. If that happened today, a pharynx of black shirted security goons would descend upon them & throw them out. As for the second review, it reads like a Saturday Night Live sketch on Weekend Update where Dan Ackroyd impersonates Jack Webb going to a rock concert & gives his review. Thank goodness the NYT guy didn't call either Ray or Dave as "Mr. Davies" unlike a later review which referred the star of Bat Out of Hell as "Mr. Loaf".
I imagine the Kinks would have gravitated more to Pink Floydish type "prog". More lyrically thoughtful, and less musically virtuosic.... 25 minute semi-classical or baroque stylings would have never suited the Kinks. Instead Ray ends up going to Broadway with rock, folk, country and other more traditional working class music.... and in itself, isn't that progressive?
I always thought the Preservation albums and stage show were the closest The Kinks came to flying near close to anything that could be described as ‘prog’, more for the uncompromising audacity and expansiveness of the concept and storyline than the music (although at least one track does sound properly Floydian to my ears). Also, @Steve62 mentions that Ray was never lyrically abstract like prog tended to be, and it’s true, but on a related note I think it’s significant the Pres stuff is slightly more abstract than most of The Kinks works conceptually, in that it’s set in an allegorical fantasy land with a cast of archetypal, almost Jungian lead characters. I actually think it’s these un-Kinks like elements that put so many off properly digesting these records and so end up dismissing them as awful rather than the quality of the music which imo remains high throughout. That degree of thematic abstraction just does not become Ray for many.
Perhaps to some the writing quality went down and he may have seemed to them like a second hand song spiv?
I've only listened to the Preservation albums twice each so far, and I'm by no means the world's greatest expert on prog, but I think much of Act II is as close as The Kinks got to prog.
I hear all of this as well. Never thought of the Big Sky connection, but it's definitely there. As far as The Pretty Things are concerned, Powerman could easily be on the second side of that band's Parachute, one of the few 1970 albums that could give Lola a run for its money (-go-round) as best LP of the year. As for Ty Segall, well, just one listen to this… … and the case is closed ! Hey, @mark winstanley, can you give us the heads up about next week's program ? I'll be traveling so I need to keep things organized. The likes of Anytime, God's Children and The Way Love Used to Be are just around the corner, and I certainly wouldn't want to miss out on any of them beauties !
Monday - Got To Be Free and album summary Tuesday - Anytime Wednesday - The Good Life Thursday - Moments As per the popular vote, we will have the introduction of Dave Davies Decade, and the first track from 1971. Friday - Dave Davies - Decade - If You Are Leaving Saturday - Percy album intro This gives us the weekend to get a good overview of people's thoughts about the album, and movie, for those who have seen it. Also for those that haven't seen it, I guess the weekend gives an opportunity to check it out just as we start the album. I hope that works for everyone. If I have missed any songs from Lola, please let me know. If I take a while to get back, don't you fret, I am currently painting the ceilings and walls, and I'm a little tied up
Apologies again for the pedantry, but unless I’m missing something re: the significance of having ‘Moments’ isolated before the Percy album, I’d suggest moving discussion of the track until it’s place in the Percy LP sequence. As far as I know it first appeared on the LP and wasn’t issued separately earlier.
I was also thinking the same. I believe it was a B side to "God's Children", but it's best discussed with the album since it's a MAJOR highlight of Percy.
Missed that. Kind of rushing. Kind of Busy... Monday - Got to Be Free Tuesday - Anytime Wednesday - The Good Life Thursday - Dave Decade - If You Are Leaving Friday - Percy (The Movie) Saturday - Percy (The Soundtrack) Monday God's Children etc
