The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    I'm intending to be here all the way to the end! Really enjoying Bug at the moment - that one is worth a deep dive.
     
  2. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I am Canadian but staying in Jamaica for a few months.
    The weather? Sunny , 30 degrees. About 28 with the wind chill!
     
  3. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    I really like that off-beat fill that Mick comes in on.
     
  4. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    LUCKY you! How'd you get lucky enough to do something like that?
    Have you ever been to Montego Bay?
     
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  5. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Recently retired. We have a small house down here.
    Been to MoBay many times.
    We got married long long ago in Ocho Rios.
    Enjoy your vacation.
     
  6. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Yes!
    Bug is a great album.
     
  7. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    See, now to a typical American, that sounds like Canada or Montana this time of year.
     
  8. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Thank you! Sounds like you've laid down some nice roots on the island. Well done.
     
  9. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    right? I had to once again do the conversion as I'm STILL not well versed in Celsius. I remember them trying to teach us the metric system back in the 70s and us Americans rejected it pretty much. We have 2 liters of soda though. SO I know that measurement. LOL.
     
  10. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Yes, the People in Grey, that's "them"
     
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  11. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    :laughup: They'll never take us alive.!!
     
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  12. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    We'll never give an inch! :laugh:
     
  13. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Nor a pound of flesh!
     
  14. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I have had Complicated Life in my head all evening. That song has certainly stuck in my brain.
     
  15. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    It's just that it feels a bit "off-off-beat" to me, but maybe I'm being picky
     
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  16. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    I’ll be in for the long haul. Really enjoying this. Mark, you run a great thread. Loved your INXS thread as well.
     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Cheers mate
     
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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Have A Cuppa Tea.

    stereo mix (3:32), recorded Aug-Sep 1971 at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London

    Granny's always ravin' and rantin',
    And she's always puffin' and pantin',
    And she's always screaming and shouting,
    And she's always brewing up tea.

    Grandpappy's never late for his dinner,
    Cos he loves his leg of beef
    And he washes it down with a brandy,
    And a fresh made pot of tea.

    Chorus:
    Have a cuppa tea, have a cuppa tea,
    have a cuppa tea, have a cuppa tea,
    Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Rosie Lea
    Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Rosie Lea.

    If you feel a bit under the weather,
    If you feel a little bit peeved,
    Take granny's stand-by potion
    For any old cough or wheeze.
    It's a cure for hepatitis, it's a cure for chronic insomnia,
    It's a cure for tonsillitis and for water on the knee.

    Chorus

    Tea in the morning, tea in the evening, tea at supper time,
    You get tea when it's raining, tea when it's snowing,
    Tea when the weather's fine.
    You get tea as a mid-day stimulant
    You get tea with your afternoon tea
    For any old ailment or disease
    For Christ sake have a cuppa tea.

    Chorus

    Whatever the situation, whatever the race or creed,
    Tea knows no segregation, no class nor pedigree
    It knows no motivations, no sect or organisation,
    It knows no one religion,
    Nor political belief.

    Chorus

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Davray Music Ltd.

    This song is a marvelous tonic … if the themes here have been a little strong, it’s time to have a cuppa tea.
    We get a sort of return to Ray’s music hall style, but I think it has a bit of a twist.

    It is also interesting to me that we have a similar structure as side one here…… we have an announcement of bad news, or something that could be seen as negative, and the heavy track is followed by a tonic (ie Acute Schizophrenia – Holiday)

    I was born in England, and so a hot cuppa tea has been part of my life…. Pretty much my whole life…. And I wasn’t joking when I was painting, I was having many cups of tea.

    Again, we have this choice placement of this track. We have just been alerted that the people in grey are coming to kick us out of our houses, and so what do we do? We sit down with a cup of tea and think about the situation.
    We also have the situation where Ray again introduces us to more of the people who live here.
    Now Granny and Grandpappy don’t seem to be having the troubles that the characters on side one were having, but perhaps the characters on side one didn’t have their cups of tea.

    Most of the lyrics are pretty straight forward, and somewhat based in hyperbole, but it is really interesting that Ray sort of quotes the Mcguire Sisters 1958 song Sugartime (Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at suppertime) in what I gather is the third verse.

    I love the last verse
    “Whatever the situation, whatever the race or creed,
    Tea knows no segregation, no class nor pedigree
    It knows no motivations, no sect or organisation,
    It knows no one religion,
    Nor political belief.”

    This is actually a fun little ditty, and I don’t really see any hidden insidious or subversive message here, just an ode to a lovely cup of tea, that anyone can enjoy … I guess providing they don’t hate tea.

    Another small sideline for those that aren’t aware, because I wasn’t….. I thought the lyric was Hallelujah Rosalie…. But as we see it is Rosie Lea… Rosie Lea takes us back to Cockney Rhyming slang and means tea…. And in my search for who Rosie Lea is/was, I also found that there is a Loose-Leaf tea making company in England called Rosie Lea…. Where I actually learned this in my little research…. This from the about us section of their site Loose Leaf Tea and Tea Accessories | Free UK shipping
    “The reason we exist? Well this a brief outline: My Dad was a true "Teapot" in every sense, he was never without a cuppa in his hand! His family came from the East End of London, and were very much Cockneys, and my Nana always read the leaves in the bottom of the cup! All this helped to inspire me into starting our little English tea company. If you aren’t familiar with Cockney Rhyming Slang then you may not know that Rosie Lea is rhyming slang for tea, ‘ Let’s have a lovely cup of Rosie’. it is not my name!”

    Funnily enough Cockney Rhyming slang didn’t even come to mind while I was doing this, and I was thinking “Is this Ray’s favourite brand of tea?”, “Did they name their company after the song?” etc etc…. but a short read revealed my blinkers

    Musically this is wonderful.
    We start with a wandering piano chord arrangement, and then it gently bounces into the verse.
    We get a typically great vocal delivery from Ray, and it is a very characterful vocal.
    About halfway through we get the guitars come in, and it is more great sounding guitars …
    The spiky part chordal, part riff-like guitars are fantastic in this song.

    We move into the chorus with Ray gently singing “have a cuppa tea” over a beautiful rolling piano arpeggio, and then in a great dynamic shift we burst into the rejoicing “Hallelujah” section, and it is a kick-ass chorus. A big, bold singalong, with that excellent thumping beat.

    The dynamic shifts in this song are beautiful. We have the obvious volume shifts, but we also have several shifts in the arrangement style through the song. We have the gentle piano led sections, and also the grunting guitar led sections.
    Also we have the Sugartime bridge which drops back to the acoustic guitar led section, where the piano moves into a honkytonk bar part way through.

    Mick does more great drumming, Dalton does some more great bass….. these guys are super reliable….. Dave plays some wonderful guitar parts……

    It isn’t surprising to me that this is Dave’s favourite Kinks album. This album has a wonderful array of guitar styles, some wonderful playing, and some of the best guitar sounds the band had produced up to this point.
    With all the talk of Dave’s lack of vocals on here…. Or reduction, or the missing lead vocal or whatever we want to see it as, I think the thing we need to remember is that Dave was primarily the band’s guitarist, and perhaps this focus on the guitars is why we get such great guitar parts and guitar sounds on this album….. It may be Dave’s crowning glory of guitar work, but we have a lot of albums to go through yet, so I will hold judgement on that….. Dave has certainly had some great guitar parts over the time we have looked at, but I think just about every song here has some wonderful guitar contributions from Dave, and for me, his playing and stylistic choices have an awful lot to do with how great this album is … or isn’t for those not feeling it.

    Anyway,
    This song moves between the traditional-ish type Ray music hall song, drops into music hall meets the blues/rock kings, and then we have this glorious pub singalong type section.

    For me, on every level this track is a winner. It isn’t my favourite song on the album, but it is yet another great song on this album, and it brings a slightly different flavour to the album, no not tea flavour …. I think to some degree it also brings a little of the late sixties Kinks styling back into the album also, but generously smothered in 1971 Kinks also.

    Oh yea, 8 for 8 boys and girls … but I doubt the ratio will change, I love this album.

     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The alt version

    It seems like this is an earlier take where they hadn't settled on the arrangement, and we have much better guitar and dynamic sections in the final version.

     
  20. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    "Have A Cuppa Tea"

    Some mentioned "Harry Rag" with reference to "Alcohol", but I think it's more appropriate here - in fact, altogether now...

    "Rosie Lee, Rosie Lee, do anything for a cuppa Rosie Lee
    Then he curses himself for the life he's led, and pours himself a Rosie Lee and puts himself to bed"

    It does strike me that the verses are trying to do the same for tea as "Harry Rag" did for the cigarette.

    The first time I played this album I was quite relieved when this track came on, as it was something that actually sounded more like what I expected from The Kinks. But then the rather plodding chorus dragged it down a bit. I still think the chorus is a bit of a drag, but I've grown to live with it, and I'd probably rank this one as second on the album after "20th Century Man". Nice chirpy, light-hearted tune which lifts the mood after the previous track.

    Various bands have been mentioned along the way on this album - there's one that hasn't been mentioned yet that I've been reminded of at various points, but it's really prominent here - Lindisfarne.
     
  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I know we're a couple of years early, but I seem to remember someone saying this was no longer available on youtube..... So while it is still available
    The Kinks BBC Concert 1973

    Victoria
    Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
    Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
    Lola
    Holiday
    Good Golly Miss Molly
    You Really Got Me
    Waterloo Sunset
    The Village Green Preservation Society

     
  22. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Not the last time he'll use rhyming slang in a song. The trick about rhyming slang though is not to use the whole phrase but only part of it, so you would say, "A cup of Rosie", that wouldn't rhyme though.
     
  23. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    You can't get any more English than a song about having a cuppa tea that incorporates rhyming slang. Culturally, I get this song but I also love its combination of two styles one would not expect to mesh together so well - British music hall and kickass bluesy rock n roll. There is something so joyous about this song (should post it in the thread about songs that just make you feel good) that I find it hard to not love it. The portraits of Granny and Grandpappy painted in the first two verses with the national English beverage an ever-present part of life is wonderful writing. I also love the verse about tea's supposed medical benefits and the verse about tea's place in every one's home no matter one's creed, status or beliefs. Obviously this is one of those songs that North Americans might think too English but it's hard not to love it once you hear it in my view.
     
  24. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    Makes you wonder what they put in their tea !
     
  25. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    This is a song that I feel that I shouldn't really like, but I actually love! It's so joyous and funny, and even the sing-along chorus doesn't bother me, although I prefer the verses.
     

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