Here are some bits from Yes Minister... I think we get a good idea of the Civil Service from the first clip lol
"20th Century Man" After many excellent opening tunes from past albums, this may be my favorite one yet. An amazing song to kick off the album. @mark winstanley has already written a wonderful break down of the lyrics and the music. I love these lyrics and Ray is at his swaggering best vocally. I don't hear shouty Ray on this, which someone mentioned. He has a bit of a rock n roll sneer towards the end, but it sounds much more authentic than it does to me in the later years. I agree with @ARL about the similarities to Rod Stewart and his Mercury albums. Especially the "Every Picture Tells A Story" opening song and album which came out around 6 months before this album. I don't know how to classify this tune, but The Kinks and Rod were on the same path. Mick is nailing it down again on the drums. The acoustic guitar riff is fantastic and I love when the electric guitar comes in. The Hammond organ is another nice touch. This is an exceptionally arranged and produced song. They haven't lost anything and this song can easily compete with any other song that came out in 1971. I always thought this song should be far more known and popular. It deserves to be played LOUD!
Regarding this, just noting the entirety of the lyrics to Village Green Preservation Society (the song) are exactly what you have here, him ending lines with actually multiple rhyming multi-syllable words.
I don’t either Yes, and album tracks from Let It Bleed/Sticky Fingers era Stones Yep, right out the gate. But I don’t think I would have picked it as the lead single. I’d have gone with Complicated Life…and then followed up with the abbreviated 4 minute single of 20th Century Man Absolutely
20th Century Man The Doors had Twentieth Century Fox a few years earlier, T. Rex had 20th Century Boy a few years later, and right here in 1971 we have Ray's 20th Century Man. I do love this song, and how the sound just starts from basically nothing... and builds, and builds, and changes, and builds again, and changes again, until it builds until it can't build any more. I love that first change-up around 3 minutes in. We get the "people dressed in gray" foreshadowing... then the acoustic lead-in to the main riff/rhythm starts up again and takes us to the next change up around 4 minutes again. Then the buildup continues with the organ and more layers and finally Ray's anger really comes out. Listening to the first 30 seconds, you can't even begin to imagine that the last minute of this song would be as intense as it is. I've heard "dreary" be used, and I think I'd also describe some of the production as maybe "drabby" too? Sometimes I think Ray's vocals are too low in the mix, but it must be how he wanted it. After all, he is listed as Producer. But it does rock, it's (to me) a new sound that we haven't heard from the band prior. The lyrical content though is, as @mark winstanley and others have so well described, continues with the theme of missing the Village Green and what the world has done to Arthur. Regarding this section... You keep all your smart modern writers Give me William Shakespeare You keep all your smart modern painters I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough ...seems like Ray would prefer Love the way it used to be. And I love Ray's bit of a growly delivery on "Die" in that "I don't wanna *diiie* heeah" Maybe instead of Shouty Ray, I'll go with Growly Ray. And then the song just continues on and on as it fades... the fade would almost make it seem like a good album closer, but no way it'd top the closer they chose for this album.
20th Century Man I've listened to it several times now in the last few days and I still don't understand why this song is good. I don't hear it as a single at all. I still can't remember any of the tune. There aren't the big catchy hooks that we expect from Kinks singles. Maybe it's my expectations that are hindering me. I agree with the character (who isn't supposed to be idenfied with Ray, necessarily? at least that's what I gather) that the 20th century was in many ways an utter disaster. But I can't really tell if that's all he's saying or if there's deeper truths being explored here. Simply whining about modernity, however justified it may be, doesn't seem like the most appealing subject for a five minute plus song. The thing is that I don't think many modern writers or artists would argue with the character's high assessment of Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Titan, Gainsborough or da Vinci. But great writers and artists of that level are rare. Even in the glory days of renaissance Italy Leonardo and Titian were considered exceptional. And one of the reasons modern writers and artists do try modernist techniques is that the shadow of these great figures from the past looms so large that they don't want to be unfavourably compared to them. What ground is left to cover in those styles? Same way the Kinks don't try to compete with Bach. Also, those old masters were definitely smart, learned and very experimental in their time. The groove is good and it's good the way the arrangement builds as it goes. But the tune sorely needs the support.
I believe you may be referring to the 1976 remix done by Ray for the 1976 Greatest Hits compilation Celluloid Heroes. This remix was also most recently collected on the 2013 UK Muswell Hillbillies Deluxe Edition. Strangely, this remix was not included on the CD versions of the Celluloid Heroes comp (they used the regular album mix) nor was it included on the 2014 US Muswell Hillbillies Legacy Edition. I believe the digital versions of this Celluloid Heroes comp may have the correct remixes from 1976. Not to get ahead of the thread here, but I think this is relevant for those that may be unaware and want to check this out as we move along with each song that appeared on the comp in real time with the thread. That 1976 Celluloid Heroes comp on RCA (original LP, NOT CD) is mostly all remixes of tracks from their RCA era only, starting right here with 20th Century Man. Most of these have not been collected on subsequent releases other than this and Muswell Hillbilly (also on the 2013 DE but not the 2014 Legacy). The live tracks that are repeated from Everybody's In Show-Biz are not remixed however. There is even a unique live track from 1975 of Here Comes Yet Another Day that has never turned up on any subsequent releases and it cooks.
Uncut Review of deluxe version with Ray Davies interview at the end: (from interview) And yet the music really rocks and swings. It’s happy and jaunty, yeah. We had a Dixieland horn section on tour with us. Not many rock bands were doing that in 1971. But it added to the colour of the music we were writing. It felt great to have a phrase played on guitar and repeated by the horns. It was evoking the trad jazz era. It was looking back to previous generations, which is what the songs were doing. The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
And Ultimate Classic Rock 2016 review: This offers quite a bit of information. Why the Kinks Embraced Country on 'Muswell Hillbillies'
I'm glad you think they're classics. they have not hit me that way yet. Not saying the ol' Kinks magic won't take control of my ears. I can see 20th Century Man being a grower. But not sure about Oklahoma USA. Even with making allowances for these to jump up a level or two in my estimation, they just don't have that certain somethin'.
Same for me. It is the Kinks, so it is not bad, in fact the more I listen to it the more I like it. But, not to beat a dead horse, I really miss the Ray and Dave vocal dynamic. In a lot of ways this song (20th Century Man) and the entire album strike me as more of a Ray solo album.
On first hearing 'Muswell Hillbillies', I didn't particularly like about half of the songs, generally the more 'music hall types', but the other half were still up to the 'Pye' albums of the previous albums. I'm trying to think back to the late '80s when I started my Kinks obsession with 'UK Jive', then before 'Did Ya' was released went back and collected all the others, in release order initially for the Pye years via the 'Castle Communications' releases which were then easily available. The RCA albums onwards, came afterwards and were picked up first of all on LP from record shops and record fairs, and generally very cheaply, before getting CD copies (I'm thinking CDs must have been less easily available at that time). My view currently is still that there's half a very good album here, with '20th Century Man', 'Oklahoma USA' and 'Muswell Hillbilly' as the standouts. I hope this deep dive into the album will bring forth a greater appreciation.
Oh yes, a great opener to the album, and surely one of Ray's favourites, popping up regularly in concert right through to his final tours (I'm guessing they're probably final now). The theme/topic of this song must be one of Rays favourites to write about, with lots of variations on the theme from here on in!
You got into the Kinks via UK Jive? Not the usual entry point to put it mildly! Be very interested to read your thoughts on that album when it comes up sometime in 2022!
Yes, I'm in for quite a wait to be able to wax lyrical about starting my Kinks journey with 'Aggravation'. I started buying records in mid 1987 really, and with 'Live - The Road' passing me by, this was my first Kinks release in 'real time', age 17. I do see some similarity between the opening tracks of both 'Muswell Hillbillies' and 'UK Jive'. Ray not happy with the modern world... Shouty Ray is more pronounced though.
The discussion of 20th Century Man and the album as a whole has shown a split I didn't expect between those who love the band's new musical direction (or evolution) and those who don't care for it at all. Over the years my own favourable views of this album have changed in terms of the reasons I think it's a great album. Initially, I was attracted to the songs I had heard on that Pye compilation (The Kinks' Greatest) and those played on the live side of Everybody's in Showbiz - i.e. 20th Century Man, Muswell Hillbillies, Holiday, Alcohol, Skin & Bone and Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues. However, latterly it's the lesser known songs on the album that leave me with the deepest and most positive feelings: Complicated Life, Here Come the People in Grey, Have a Cuppa Tea, Holloway Jail, Oklahoma U.S.A. and Uncle Son. I think that is because these are songs in which Ray identifies with the dreams, losses and expectations of the ordinary man and woman - like he did on Arthur. It's a crappy analogy (the best I can think of right now) but it's a bit like the Stones' Tattoo You: the sugar hits are on side 1 but the slower, deeper cuts that I prefer are on Side 2.
I have to say, the generally lukewarm response to this album, and particularly the first track are really surprising to me.
Instrumentally, my favorite part of 20th Century Man is Mick’s off beat accents in the “Don’t wanna get myself shot down” section. As far as I know he never did this in live performances.
That is in my estimation still the sharpest-written British TV series of all time. Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn impeccably combined deep insight into the world of civil servants and their political "masters" with laugh-out-loud humour. And the actors were perfect for those roles.
I’ll see you with The New Cooker Sketch (real people in grey) and raise you a Jerusalem. Monty Python - New Cooker Sketch - video Dailymotion Mony Python Buying A Bed - video Dailymotion