The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I can only assume so. Unfortunately I can only go by the kindakinks site info there.
     
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  2. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    There wasn’t another! Dave’s unused songs from this period were later compiled on the 2018 album ‘Decade’.
     
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yep, we have five from 73 coming up soon.
     
  4. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    You Don't Know My Name

    I don't mind Dave's songs but I don't champion them all and found some of his (lauded here) late 60's recordings that were slated for his 1st solo LP somewhat underwhelming or not fully realised.

    That said I really like this and prefer it to some from the earlier period I just referred to.

    I find the vocal to be confident, authentic and the musical contributions (of Dave especially) to really be in sympathy with each other and the composition.
    It's not that I am saying Dave's lead vocal is technically great but nevertheless he sounds relaxed, committed and fully invested in the piece and it squeezes into my top 4 most enjoyable tracks on Showbiz.

    P.s. Maybe Dave's personal investment is in the title itself as for years he has travelled and worked hard as a Kink but i wonder how many times he has encountered people both well meaning and otherwise that may often know of his brother Ray but don't even know his name?
     
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  5. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    You Don’t Know My Name:
    Ray led off the album with a vocal that sounded as if he were Joe Walsh. On this track, Dave’s a dead ringer for Rod Stewart circa ‘Reason To Believe.’

    This song continues the endless “rolling on” theme of being on the road, this time emphasizing the anonymity (“does anybody know my name?).

    I was initially enamored and started to tick the playlist box…but then, unfortunately, the flute started warbling and that was the end of that consideration. Nope, I don’t mind the flute in a rock song (Tull or Marshall Tucker Band), but, no, not this time. The flute derails this rather formulaic song from any chance at the fast track.

    Horn Use Count: no horns on this one so now at 4/7.
     
  6. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    In my book, you cannot come up with a higher compliment. In fact, Rod's first four solo records are all top drawer to me.

    "You Don't Know My Name" - I like it. Mainly because I like a lot of what came out of England circa 1971 to 1972. But it is not a particularly remarkable song and I haven't paid that much attention to it over the years. I definitely hear the Mungo Jerry "In The Summertime" vibe.
     
  7. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I do think this is based on a real incident. Want to say he was in Europe somewhere. I don't have time to look it up right now, but will later (unless someone else comes to the rescue).
     
  8. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I wrote up my song-thoughts yesterday and, no, I didn’t count the flute as a brass track.
     
  9. side3

    side3 Younger Than Yesterday

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    You Don't Know My Name

    A Dave song is always welcome. Ray is a genius, of course, but a Dave track acts like a palette cleanser for me. I like this song. Dave sounds like he is having fun. Every Kinks albums should have a Dave track. Really weird, given how many Dave songs there were from 1966-1970, how few there were from that point forward.
     
  10. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    You Don't Know My Name

    This really seems to remind me of, and being in line quality-wise with, some of Dave's songs from '69, like Cryin' for example. It does seem more completely thought out and produced than those demos/attempted solo tracks. There are some really nice array of different guitar tones thrown in the mix. A fine B-Side, but to me, down a notch from Dave's peak songwriting (Strangers, Rats). Glad its on the album, though. I've missed Dave's songwriting contributions. It serves a nice counterpoint to Ray's boozy horn-drenched blues songs.
     
  11. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I searched the thread for ‘flute’ and it was referenced initially for Phenomenal Cat. Which was then determined to be a mellotron with a flute-setting.
     
  12. Brettlowden

    Brettlowden Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rochester ny

    Moments is a great song.
     
  13. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    As Ray would have said around this time, here's Dave "Death of a Clown" Davies trying to express himself as best he can. People probably didn't recognize Dave at that time because he was wearing a beard. Facial hair & the Davies brothers definitely don't mix! As for the song itself, it's a pleasant enough toe tapper. Unlike some of the Avids, I do like the flute solo on this one. This song fits in well w/the general theme of the album without any mention of food, thank goodness. This would be the last time that Dave managed to get one of his songs on a Kinks album until 1978, nearly a whole decade later.

    As for the arrest incident mentioned in the song, the only time that I heard the Kinks being arrested was in 1965, during a Scandinavian tour that ended in a riot & ended up w/them being late for the NME Pollwinners Show at Wembley. I'm speculating that the incident probably happened in Spain in 1966, when they performed w/John Dalton & the promoters were expecting Pete Quaife (I know the song says 1969, but maybe Dave was taking artistic license).
     
  14. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Thanks to yesterday’s spirited discussion, I remembered one more book that I’ve read to add to my Goodreads list. ‘Spotted Dick, S’il Vous Plait.’ (I’ve been trying to recall, and list, every book I’ve read in my life! Ha, good luck, eh?) This makes two books with spotted dick in the title (the other being ‘Snowshoes & Spotted Dick’).
    A side benefit of the Kinks thread!
     
  15. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    The Yesterday’s Papers channel uploaded an interesting video (based I think around a piece Ray wrote for Record Mirror at the time) about the Spanish incident a few weeks ago. Features some neat photos of the 1966 line up with Dalton I’d never seen before:


     
  16. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Fantastic! A must watch. The opening advertisement for “gin f————-“ starts things off. Interesting and entertaining. John Dalton in peril!
     
  17. Martyj

    Martyj Who dares to wake me from my slumber? -- Mr. Flash

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    I agree with this. Those boys have very distinctive jaw lines that, for me, are the defining feature of how I caricaturize them in my head. Throw in the gap tooth for Ray. Facial hair interferes with all that stuff. I will admit, though, the early 70's Dave wears the "bennigans"** more convincing than Ray circa mid-80's, where the gapped-tooth one looks more like a guy who forgot to shave for a few weeks.

    (**"Bennigans" an obscure, outdated vaudeville-era nickname for beards, based on caricatures of Irish (hence "Bennigan") men's tendency to be caricatured with beards.)

    As for today's song, I'm not sure why I had such original apathy towards it, judging it at the time among my least favorite RCA era cuts. Possibly because it's inclusion meant denying the disc yet another Ray song. But that was THEN. Over the years my thinking has evolved on Dave's non-rocker songs in general. I used to just tolerate them. Now I love 'em.
     
  18. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    "You Don't Know My Name"

    I've been travelling all day long, so I haven't had a chance to comment yet. Sounds like I'm writing lyrics for this album. This is a good track - it's the right point in the album for a Dave song to change things up, and this one is up there near his best. Good tune, and an early Rod vibe is never going to be a bad thing. The flute bits are odd, and threaten to take it off into a strange proggy direction, but it all hangs together and packs a lot of content into two and a half minutes.
     
  19. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is very odd.
    Ray seemed to accommodate songs from Dave, and they even did Dave songs as solo tracks, with The Kinks as the band.... but when we get into the seventies Dave dries up a little, at first.

    I kind of get the feeling that the solo album not coming together took the wind out of Dave's sails a little.
    70-72 seems like Dave wrote very little.
    A couple of tracks on Lola, one here, and one on the Decade compile.
    Yet when we get to 73, Dave has 5 tracks on Decade, but he didn't record them with the band.....
    Perhaps with Ray's thematic projects Dave felt he had nothing to add to them, and just did his own thing?

    However it came about, the dynamic changed, and I feel like it was partly because of Dave, and partly because of Ray.
     
  21. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Was there ever any hint of Dave going rouge and forming a band with someone else? Just an idle thought as I’ve occasionally read that so-and-so talked with such-and-such about forming a band. A quick look at the John Mayall world sees Fleetwood Mac, Mark-Almond, Clapton forming Cream etc etc as it goes on and on. Dave’s a good songwriter and might have brought more to a different pairing.

    I’m not advocating it, by the way! (Go Kinks!) I was just wondering because it happened all the time.
     
  22. Martyj

    Martyj Who dares to wake me from my slumber? -- Mr. Flash

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    It could be more of RCA having zero interest in Dave during this period (or more probably no interest in marketing The Kinks as anything other than a vehicle for the artistic muse of Ray Davies, rock and roll auteur.) Certainly Dave was writing during this period--as evidenced by "Decade"--but no room to release them. Whereas Reprise was pushing to establish Dave as a break out solo star and was more receptive, hence Daves increased involvement during that contractual era. I'm just guessing. Usually there's a money-related marketing explanation behind why all things in the Kinks history play out the way they did.
     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Good point, the label could well be another issue
     
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  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    From what I have read regarding Dave, he didn't really seem interested in another band
     
  25. malco49

    malco49 Forum Resident

    well this is certainly the kinks line up gen 2 ? that i first heard and feel in love with. ray , dave , mick , john d , john g. so happy i got to see them several times live in the 70's and did get to see dave live once ( since we are on one of his songs it made me remember the gig etc) pre illness and it was pretty damn great. small theater ( no seats) setting in suburban baltimore ,not a huge crowd. show starting out like gangbusters with i think susannah's still alive , and stayed pretty solid. thinking it was in the late 90's very late 90's. sorry never got to ray solo say on the storyteller tour , i am sure the shows were masterful. i really like ray's solo work but will save that for when/if his solo records come up for discussion. just off from work for a few days , (doctor's orders , all is well just needed some time to let my old bones and brain regenerate a wee bit).
     

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