they are to be sure a tough nut to crack and i don't pretend to totally understand them , a couple of years ago after decades and thinking how terrible they were ,i made a point of listening to their music. gradually it began to make sense a bit. there is some level of under current in a lot of there music that is hard to explain but it is alluring. the lyrics at times are bonkers. the music is layered and complex (even some of the early stuff). like i said i am not a huge fan but i peeled a few layers off the onion so to speak and they make some sense to me.
Education Performance wise, I have zero complaints with Ray’s vocals and the band’s playing. Numbers like this showcase how reliable efficient Mick Avory is. He’s a bit Ringo-like in that he is often under-appreciated for how he gives a number exactly what it needs, nothing more or less. And I like the ending—the last 20 seconds or so—where the arrangement lapses into a quasi-South-Side-of-Chicago-African-American-church-service-style fade out. Reminds me a bit of the fade out of the Stones “You Can’t Alway’s Get What You Want.” It's effective just as long as it is kept short--which I can't say for the rest of the song. As for the song, so far the comments seem to be tracking for a majority agreement that “Education” is an aim for the fence, swing and a miss. I won’t argue with that. In its ambition, length and overly wordy history lecture it feels like this is Nobody Gives, Part 2, my least favorite Kinks/RCA era track. This one would be second, I suppose. Ray should leave the history lessons to the teachers. For me, “Education” is that rarest of birds: a Kinks song I skip. It starts off like such a slog after the blood gets moving on “Jack the Idiot Dunce.” My ears tend to want the party to continue so I just go straight to the fun of the following track. “Education” feels a bit out of place on side one anyway, what with the other three being unmistakable 50’s throwbacks.
Education @Fortuleo said he’d likely be alone in naming the album opener as his favorite post-1971 Kinks song. Now it’s my turn as I will say the same about this. I might even go further and list this as my all time favorite Kinks song regardless of period. Of course comparing this to something like Waterloo Sunset is so apples to oranges it’s pretty much impossible for me to choose. I guess looking at these two songs as an example is for me the ultimate expression of the incredible Davies musical diversity. I find this to easily be the most epic of Kinks songs… their Telegraph Road if you will.. Not only is it on the high side of a full seven minutes, it is epic in scope, covering the history of humanity from origin to present… a massive undertaking! Not many would ever even try such a thing, let alone be so successful at it. And what makes it successful? A totally unique combination of a fantastic building the musical structure, a crazy but effective distillation of the universal-in-scope subject matter and, and (here’s where it gets truly unique) the infusion of the very best of the Davies wit perfectly melded into a topic and scope one wouldn’t naturally associate with a witty delivery. This thing is just gobsmackingly brilliant in every possible way, on every possible level. We start with these massive power chords…. Like the big bang itself. Then we move to the gentle piano interlude and within one corner of that great big universe, we begin the rise of man. Right from the get-go, we get distinctly clever Davies lyrics distilling the current state of the human condition to clever little snippets that are far too small to really explain the situation, but still somehow end up being so completed and so evocative And he spent his playtime Chewing meat from bones. He didn't know how to talk much He only knew how to groan Very clever, and very descriptive. I totally get that image of a hairy primitive in some kind of animal skin sitting on a rich gnawing on a bone… all by himself. Then things really get interesting. Then he lifted up his hands and reached to the sky Let out a yell and no one replied Okay, so now it’s building. Pace picking up. Volume increasing ever so slightly. You can hear it coming…. it’s coming…. something big…. Frustration and torment tore him inside Then he fell to the ground and he cried and he cried And it’s not just the building swell in the music, and it’s not just the words (great as they are)…. What really starts to put this over the top is you can hear real purpose in Ray’s vocal…. you can tell he’s got something to say, something of importance to the whole of mankind. But then education saved the day. He learned to speak and communicate Education saved the day. He thanked God for the friends he made. And now we’re rockin’! But we’re not rockin’ just to be rockin’… we’re rockin’ to bring home the first great revelation in the song…. what education has done for man! It’s brought us out of our isolation (I love the line “He thanked God for the friends he made.”) It allowed us to communicate! My stars, what could be better!?!? 'Cause everybody needs an education Everybody needs an education. Black skin, red skin, yellow or white, Everybody needs to read and write But of course, for education to be meaningful to mankind, it must be truly universal. No racism here. No divisions. Everybody need to be in on this. Really, there’s some kind of meaning tucked into every little nook and cranny of this song and if you’re not really paying attention, you’ll miss it. I love the powerful music here. On top of that, Ray’s vocal is positively soaring when he sings Thank the day when that primitive man Learned to talk with his brothers And live off the land This is also another tucked away connection most will miss. Early education was all tribal knowledge passed from generation to generation without formalized institutions or lesson plans. And it served man well at the time. This stands in stark contrast to what is to come later in the song. He left his cave and he moved far away And he lived with his friends in a house that they'd made Mobility! Learning allows us to expand our world as well as provide the basics (i.e. shelter)! Yes! He learned to think and to work with his brain This is so key… education (as opposed to mere training) teaches us to think rather than just regurgitate what we’ve heard…. again, a key component of education that the song will imply became lost later on. And at this point the song has this massive, unstoppable momentum. Big power chords, groovy rhythm, killer organ! It’s all building to a fantastic climax; there’s no stopping it, and while you know it’s coming, you still can’t help but be carried away on the crest…. Inevitable but still captivating, energizing. Well man built a boat and he learned how to sail And he travelled far and wide Then he looked up above saw the stars in the sky So he learned how to fly More exploration… more adventure…. more growth….. and more killer vocals telling us about it all! But we’re about to make a sudden, hard left turn down the wrong alley…. Thanks to all the mathematicians And the inventors with their high I.Q.s And the professors in their colleges Trying to feed me knowledge That I know I'll never use Yep. Education just went off the rails. And don’t you just love the sarcasm! Thanking the purveyors of this education for all the grief they’re brining. I love the specific pointing out of those with “High I.Q.s” for two reasons. First like education itself, these people while smart/educated, we learn are still missing a key ingredient, and second, because using “High I.Q.s as part of a rhyming couplet, especially one that actually makes perfect sense, is quite a trick! Gets me every time. It’s no longer about learning how to think…. It’s now about others astonishing us with the knowledge they’ve gained…. and indoctrinating us into their world. This alone is a tragedy, but the depth of that deficiency is still to come. Oh, and that little morse-codish single note piano tap that helps provide additional momentum at this point is one of those little musical nooks and crannies that also helps elevate the sheer power and motion of this song to a musical stratosphere. We won’t leave this theme until it’s had the opportunity for further exposition: Thank you sir for the millions of words That you've handed me down and you've told me to learn But I've got words in my ears and my eyes I've got so many facts that I must memorize Because education's doing me in I want to stop but my head's in a swim Education drives me insane I can't recall all the facts on my brain And now it’s time to calm down and really assess what all this motion has brought us. The musical transition is brilliant here and it perfectly sets up the associated lyrical transition: Teacher, teach me how to read and write, You can teach me about biology, But you can't tell me what I am living for 'Cause that's still a mystery Teacher, teach me about nuclear physics And teach me about the structure of man, But all your endless calculations Can't tell me why I am More and more knowledge. More and more facts. More and more and more and more on and on without end…. and yet have we come any closer to explaining (outside of religious faith that is) the central question of our very existence? No, we have not. It’s enough to make a sane man chuck the whole damn thing! Nice place for one of Dave’s more soulful solos here. Hey let’s bring back the organ. Oh, yeah, and let’s throw in some horns for the coda, and of course backup vocals…. building again…. swelling, speeding up, all the topics, all the people, faster faster faster until the whole thing explodes in a frenzy only to be brought to resolution by a brilliant church sounding choir (yet another sharp little irony given the subject matter) giving us one last, long Education and the whole thing comes crashing down in live performance style. You have just been through the entire sequence of human development from its origin through its rather unsatisfying current state. Lyrically, musically, emotionally, it’s been an epic journey (parts of this song can literally bring tears to my eyes… especially when the cave man first learns to communicate and make friends). I can find zero fault with this song and I never, ever tire of it. It is for me a monumental achievement in art. While it might be an exaggeration and I could easily be mocked for saying so, this is to me in a glory category with the likes of Beethoven’s 9th. It is all encompassing, all engrossing, and no matter how many times I live this sarcastic abridged history of man, I’m always ready to do it again.
Education: Hmm. I forced myself to listen to this around 5 times over the past couple weeks, and after that many listens, I could keep the tune in my head throughout the whole song. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, eh? I very much agree with the others who liken it to lesser Elton John (especially that "primitive man" section, it's very easy to imagine him singing that). I don't think it's bad, per se, but a Kinks song rarely requires such investment from me to get something out of it. Additionally, with the easily invited comparison to He's Evil, it's just natural to think about how I'd rather be listening to that one instead. Criticisms aside, I'll end on a positive note with regard to the first section; the piano is nice, Ray sings it beautifully, and the lyrics are just so unintentionally hilarious to me, I could just imagine a troupe of clowns over-acting it out or something.
This is a fantastic post. It's the kind of standard that I've got to aspire to when we get to Think Visual.
Well…as the old saying goes, this is worth the price of admission. You’ve outdone yourself, Fischman. What a superb post. Brilliant. You might even be the one fan that can meet my earlier challenge…recite the lyrics! Anyway, I’m not changing my mind but I thoroughly enjoyed your write-up.
I think it's important to remember it was the poor and working class that were initially held off from being educated. Still today it is the poor that struggle, or need to get huge loans to participate in anything beyond basic education. Certainly in some places race and gender were an issue for a time, but wealth has always been the big one.
If you have an appreciation for Think Visual that most of us are lacking, then that would be most welcome!
For some reason "Education" makes me tired. Maybe it's the subject of the lyrics. Maybe the Neil Young-like opening verse, and probably also the sheer bloated structure of the track. Much as I liked Preservation, the callback to "He's Evil" feels artificial and unnecessary. It appears Dave has discovered the flanger for his guitar. This might have been exciting in 1975, but it really dates the track. The lyrics seem to be simpler than necessary. I wish Ray had a bit more courage to challenge the listener like Roger Waters.
I love the Beach Boys too, and I might have been a little over-systematic in acknowledging their lyrics, some of them are nice, really. But being over-systematic is my hobby. I'm not aware of the extent of Beach Boys Lore, and really I'm not asking for it. Their characters don't appeal much to me, unlike Ray and Dave's. Maybe this West Coast is a little bit too far away for me. I really dig the suggested character equivalences !
"Education": I once read in a biography of Evelyn Waugh that the difference between religious faith between him and his brother Alec was like someone who sees a stained glass window and its beauties from the inside and one who sees it in the dullness from the outside. Avid Fischman has done a splendid job in describing this song in its beauties while the rest of us Avids resolutely stay outside in the dullness. I'm surprised that no one has compared "Education" with "Shangri-La", the other Kinks song w/perhaps the same length. I think that Ray probably had "Shangri-La" in mind when he composed "Education". As the other Avids has commented, "Education" is an attempt for a grand statement which doesn't quite make it despite it's musical charms. It's a bit too long & repetitive. I think that maybe it should have been replaced w/a studio take of "Slum Kids", which does fit the concept of Schooldays, but we go back to Avid Fischman's passionate defense and wonder....... I would like to comment on other things that I have seen in this thread this morning. First off, a gentle rebuke to Avid Gary Steel for misnaming "Disney Girls (1957)" as "Disney Gurls (1969)", although the latter does sounds like a good Alex Chilton song title. I also commensurate w/Avid Ajsmith on his lack of mathematical ability. I too had problems w/math at school to the point that I would consider a C- an achievement. Finally, kudos to Avid Last man on earth for his analysis of the differences between the Beach Boys & the Kinks, which is interesting from an European point of view.
That why I noticed that there was never any closeness between them during the show. They always seemed to be on the verge of a breakup. I think she did actually leave, but I gave up watching the show by then.
Look out, @mark winstanley , there is a new headmaster in town! I do however plead sheer ignorance and blame a bad upbringing amongst wolves under wintery skies for this particulary incident and my borderline (?) lewd tribute to Alex C via Bruce Johnston's fantabulous wonder of a song.
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. Given this song’s place in the Kinks canon (I wouldn’t call it obscure so much as overlooked) “Education” seems like such an unlikely song to champion, so I applaud you for the great effort to justify your take on this. And—thanks to your work here—I went back just now and listened to it. Not once, but twice. So here’s where I wind up: Okay, you’ve pointed out some nuances in lyrical structure that had previously escaped me. I’ve always appreciated Ray was an extremely clever lyricist, and here he is summing up education in total. Yet, still, I can recall a Ray Davies who is capable of writing a song like “Two Sisters” where he summing up everything that needs to be said about sibling rivalry in half the time in a less heavy handed way. You see, it’s the Epic Pretense where this song loses me. It’s there in the arrangement, for sure. But when an artist endeavours to fill a canvas that is going to take up an entire wall it better be filled with things that hold my interest. This one just doesn’t raise to the challenge for me. I can’t put my finger on any one particular reason. It’s not an aversion to Epic songs. “Shangri La” has an epic structure, and I like that one just fine. Maybe it’s because it takes itself so seriously? Possibly. I dunno, it overall comes off as lecturing, and maybe I can’t see past that. (As I was writing this I noticed Disko Joe beat me to the Shangri La comparison!) But..again…nice work on your analysis. I know how much work goes into stuff like this. Makes me feel a little less lonely for celebrating “Have Another Drink” a few weeks ago to the sound of crickets.
Education A few hundred pages ago, I hinted at this song as a "missed opportunity". Then, yesterday, or earlier in the week, I suggested it was growing on me. I listened to it again this morning and, well, maybe I got a bit carried away yesterday. The real problem, in my opinion, is musical laziness. You can't pull out a multi-part epic with so little harmonic variety and imagination. In this, Education veers towards Ray's later musical gimmicks, with excessive use of repeated two-chords sequences, and clumsy attempts at variation. The D-C-Am-G sequence around which the chorus is built is not a very happy choice of chords (I wonder if it doesn't fall under the old taboo of the parallel fifth, a rule in classical composition that forbids you to move the tonic and the fifth simultaneously in the same direction. But then I'm not sure I ever understood how that works, it's just that every time I feel uncomfortable at a chord progression I suspect this is the thing). It's a pity, because the playing is good (even if the acceleration shortly before the 3' mark is probably unintentionnal), as is the singing. The beginning is nice, even if slightly reminiscent of Apeman (of which I am not a big fan), and the "you don't know why I am" sequence is moving. Avid Fischmann really made me want to love this track, and I believe he's succeeded in showing the full grandness of the design, but at best this is a song I will enjoy on some listens, but not most.
This goes along with what Mark said the other day; the more you listen, the less liked it becomes (paraphrasing). Separately: that education, education, education chorus is exactly what he did with preservation, preservation, preservation. Becomes a tad tedious.
This, but also Water's ability to take the teacher's perspective on The Final Cut ("One Of The Few"). Also the way Waters manages to portray the sadistic teacher in much fewer words ("Poems everybody!").
I look at Education as the rousing centerpiece of a fun rock and roll musical - if I understand correctly, writing and performing rock and roll theater was Ray's focus during the RCA years, and the reaction to these shows from the public and critics was very positive. So for me, Education is the "big number" for the Schoolboys show. It's reprise at the end of the LP seems designed to be played as the cast comes out to take their bows. Listening to Education with this context in mind helps me relax and have fun with it. I don't think it's intended to be taken too seriously, although as @Fischman points out the lyrics are thoughtful and intelligent (as can be expected with R. D). We moderns think we are so clever, but what is this value of this educational system that engenders the beating and humiliation of it's children? There are two moments in Education that make me laugh out loud: The first is the "... but then - Education saved the day!". It strikes me as so funny and absurd (in a good way) that transition, the caveman crying out in despair, and then Education (of all things) shows up, and the musical change is dramatic and triumphant, that moment really tickles me. The other is that sudden piano glissando that comes in really hot volume-wise, it always startles me and makes me laugh. Beyond that I'm always ready for Ray in existential mode ("You can't tell me why I am"), and I love the big finish with the tempo ramping up and the backup singers chanting "EDUCATION EDUCATION", Ray's crazy yelling fadeout, it's all so intense, absurd and nutty, it brings a smile to my face every time. Great, entertaining song!
I do… Always liked this record, maybe my favorite post-RCA Kinks LP… But don't you worry, I won't equate it to Beethoven! That fantastic @Fischman post was most beautiful and… educational. I'm always impressed and inspired when someone "gets" a song or any piece of art exactly how the author envisioned it, like two brains plugged to one another, perfectly in synch. I think it's wonderful. Reading this post, it's clear he heard Education the way it was intended and received it loud and clear. I know the fantastic feeling it can be (I do have it with Telegraph Road) and I'm a bit envious. I've also enjoyed the Beach Boys conversations and tried to refrain from participating, but it looks like I can"t refrain from doing so. I disagree with most of what's been said. I don't think there's anything dumb in the Beach Boys music or lyrics (up to the early 80's, that is). I think most of their lyrics are fabulous and expertly crafted to appear simple. Some are clever like Chuck Berry, some have a Zen Hal David quality, which is very hard to do. « When a man loves a woman / They make things like you, my son. » If you read this phrase, it's possible to find it corny (I don't, but I see how). But if you sing it (with that melody), it's as profound as anything Dylan, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell or, er, Ray Davies ever wrote. And I don't take any of these guys & girls for granted… « The woman sitting next to me tells me 'bout her guy / And I tell her all about you and I ». This is some haiku quality stuff, there. « If the song I sing to you / Could fill your heart with joy / I'd sing forever »… « Still I have the warmth of the sun / Within me at night »… « Where did your long hair go? / Where is the girl I used to know? » ; « Get a breath of that country air / Breathe the beauty of it everywhere / Get a look at that clear blue sky ». Man, this one is extraordinary, and with the voice ascending in the « sky-y », too… Or yet another sublime one : « I lost my way / Hey hey hey… » I've just quoted the ones that first came to mind. I don't usually pay too much attention to lyrics. They have to become music for me to really notice them, and with the best Beach Boys stuff, that's what the words do : they become music. I think that's an immense quality they share with a lot of great Ray Davies songs. You can't really read them without singing them, as I remember us noting many times in this thread, especially regarding the sixties stuff. A lot of Ray lyrics sing themselves. I don't think the Beach Boys beauty is incidental or accidental, I think it's a perpetual quest on their part, elusive yet deliberate, as elemental and rooted in the human experience as a Miyazaki film or a Hokusai painting (I didn't even realize his shared interest in "waves" with the Boys before writing his name down). You don't achieve this kind of beauty without actively looking for it, searching, refining, crafting, conceptualizing. I do hope @Wondergirl and others end up warming to them. I still remember the day it happened to me (after failing at it for some time) as one of the most illuminating days of my music listening life.
