It was a B side to the "One of the Survivors" single & it hasn't been reissued since, maybe if they do a SDE of Preservation Acts I & II
So would you know if she's the one singing on Oh Where Is Love ? The voices on Nothing Lasts and Scrapheap sound very similar, but that other one doesn't.
"Scraphead City" The one song that would be hard to tell that it was The Kinks. I feel like I already commented on this version when we looked at the single version. This one takes you straight to the saloon in Blazing Saddles. I can even picture Madeline Kahn singing it while Gene Wilder hops around the room. Not one of the essential tunes on the album and is likely my least favorite, but it would have worked great in a Gene Wilder or Mel Brooks film. Not from Blazing Saddles, but "Scraphead City" would also be right at home on this lost classic. Now, let's all do the "Kangaroo Hop"!
Oops, sorry. I simply remembered seeing the stage show with Tim Curry here in Los Angeles at the Whiskey around the time of my high school graduation in the spring of 1975. It didn't occur to me that it had already been there for awhile, and had opened in late 1974. Having seen the stage show, I never bothered to see the movie.
Yet another track that sounds more or less like something one would typically expect to hear on an album by The Jim Kweskin Jug Band or Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks. Pleasant, but certainly not innovative.
Well, Nothing Lasts Forever, but at this point it feels like Preservation Act 2 might . I’m looking forward to Soap Opera!
The second female lead vocal in three songs - am I still listening to a Kinks record? But seriously, no matter who was singing this, Ray has returned to his Americana style so this is the second skipper for me.
Scrapheap City is for me the biggest ear worm on the album. I have no problem that it isn’t Ray or Dave singing it as the album is meant to be like an Original Cast. I like Maryanne Price’s vocals, as I did her vocals with Dan Hicks. I also have always loved Ray’s demo version. It does sound a bit like a leftover from the period in which Ray wrote the songs for Act One, which is also okay with me as I prefer that album on balance. The songs from a POV of someone who isn’t Flash or Mr. Black are always more Kinksy to me, and also are the ones that work best outside of the storyline. It’s true that this is another bit of a pastiche of another style but clearly old time music had been fueling Ray for a while and his ambition to write classic-style theatrical material. I do imagine he thought he was doing Brecht/Weill with Act 2 and it wasn’t taken that was by most people, who thought he was doing Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Scrapheap City is the moment where I’m kind of numbed by the sheer length of the CD, double album fatigue and all… Only to wake up in the wrong movie? Is this still the Kinks‘ album? That Ray has some nerve! But it is a great song actually. For some reason it makes me think of the artwork most which is kind of desolate and surreal. I like the clash between the rootsy music,and the lyrics that deal with the tastelessness of modern design and the dystopian vision of the people looking all the same. Also the melody seems to grow more elaborate and more interesting as it goes on. What I appreciate most is the delayed vibrato on Maryann‘s vocal: she sings each line‘s last word long and straight and by the end of the note adds that delicate vibrato, marvelous.
The 1973 copyright and the early Ray-sung version of "Scrapheap City" indicate this song was part of the original vision of Preservation. In that context, the song would be lamenting the loss of the beloved Village Green as it was. Here, as @Vangro points out, it's lamenting the loss of Flash's world of demolition, where his thugs and bullies make (us) live in sin??? Once again, it feels like an early song that was used in the new Preservation concept but not modified to fit the new plot. I'm not a country fan, but I do like Western swing (and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks) occasionally. So musically I enjoy this, and the female vocals work for me. Lyrically, lines like "They're tearing old quality down" feel broad-brush to me compared to Ray's earlier songs about a similar subject.
Artificial Man First listen just over and no reviews read. I prefer Dave's vocals to Ray's here, the main chord progression is ok though overall there is a lot going on in the song. Mark suggested the lyrics may have been too close to reality and uncomfortable for some & If you listen very closely that may well be true. However i wonder how many did as I think I would dig seeing and hearing this in a live stage show that called on me to participate but just how good & Kinksian is this as a song/performance in the first place to have you wanting regular repeated listening?
We considered calling her Lola, but ended up going with Dani Rojas. (Shoot, the picture was supposed to go here. I can’t get it to show up and I am running out of time to edit this post and I can’t delete it fully. Might need the better half’s computer skills to try to fix this tomorrow. Sorry forthe screwed up post) I checked out the Ray vocal version of Scrapheap City. I like it better than the version on the album. I’ll need a few more listens to know if it makes the grade for my playlist.
I'm sure AJ is putting something together for you all to check out, but for those floating around here this morning. this is the Concert with Video!!!! that AJ posted earlier in the thread.... and it is actually really very good.
To the best of my knowledge this is the complete Nov 30th Providence show Set 1 0:00:00 01 Here Comes A New Day 0:04:59 02 You Really Got Me 0:08:09 03 All Day And All Of The Night 0:10:36 04 Celluloid Heroes 0:15:48 05 Waterloo Sunset 0:19:29 06 Sunny Afternoon 0:21:53 07 Band Intros 0:23:00 08 Banana Song -- Lola 0:27:42 09 Acute Scizophrenia Paranoia Blues 0:31:11 10 Alcohol 0:36:58 11 Skin And Bone 0:42:32 12 Good Golly Miss Molly Set 2 (Preservation) 0:46:16 13 Preservation 0:49:00 14 Morning Song 0:50:34 15 Daylight 0:53:15 16 There's A Change In The Weather 0:57:26 17 Money And Corruption 1:00:13 18 I'm Your Man 1:03:12 19 Here Comes Flash 1:07:48 20 Demolition 1:12:64 21 Money Talks 1:16:34 22 Shepherds Of The Nation 1:21:07 23 He's Evil 1:25:43 24 Scum Of The Earth 1:29:40 25 Slum Kids 1:33:15 26 Mirror Of Love 1:37:10 27 Alcohol 1:39:00 28 Flash's Dream -- Flash's Confession 1:44:14 29 Nothing Lasts Forever 1:47:27 30 Artificial Man 1:55:20 31 Scrap Heap City 1:58:17 32 Salvation Road -- Finale
A little history - this tape was made by a guy named Dan Lampinski who made audience tapes in the New England area in the 1970s. He had really good gear and most of his tapes are of a very high standard for the 1970s. This show is a very good capture of a Preservation theatre show. This was Mr. Lampinski's first Kinks recording but not his last. He did not know there was a network of people who collected audience recordings but later handed over his tapes to be digitized and circulated. The West Coast equivalent of Lampinski is Mike Millard who made nearly 300 very high quality audience tapes in California from 1973 to 1993. He is a legend in Led Zeppelin circles. He recorded the Kinks in 1978 and 1981.
I finally got a chance to sit and watch most of this, and it is very good. It is a taste of what the Preservation tour would have been like, with several of the opening songs from that tour, and Ray in his Mr Flash jacket ... sorry if I misrepresented it
I just watched it up to the intermission and then it froze on The Old Grey Whistle Test. So maybe the whole thing? Supposedly, ‘Soap Opera’ after the intermission. A lot of fun with Dave and John moving in sync, Dave doing scissors jumps, Ray non-stop playing to the crowd. They played ‘Slum Kids’ as part of the Preservation Act opening portion; a song which I’m unfamiliar with. Venue: The Beacon Theater. (What’s with all the paper plates being tossed?)
I was at that show! Back in the day, we used to write song requests on the paper plates, but folks also just liked tossing them at the stage like Ray liked squirting the front rows with beer. Good times!
I’m so sorry, I totally blanked on this! (I think I got my weekends mixed up) I will put a blurb together to accompany the stage show early on Monday Greenwich Mean Time, hopefully before your Salvation Road post if I can manage, hope that’s ok.
Yeah it’s the condensed version of the Preservation show from 1975 that was the support to the Soap Opera tour (that’s on YouTube too in a seperate upload). Not sure if any pro shot footage of the full blown late 1974 Pres show has ever surfaced, though I’m thinking surely Ray had it filmed? Maybe not. This is a halfway decent substitute though if not.
It's all good mate. For Sunday, I just wanted a show up for those that wanted a chance to listen before Wednesday. If you want to just put together a post for Wednesday morning, that's cool too. I managed to put a basic intro together for Wednesday this morning.
