The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    I actually like that. A lot! Because of the way he sings "the" Abbey Road… Listen to what the (late) man said : it's probably proof that it's another character song. Not Ray speaking but a younger kid, hoping to dream the sixties dream, loooong after the fact…
    I can see that, yeah. No horns, no backing singers, just the same five core rock musicians, seven years older.
    Yeah, interesting heated discussions this week-end. We all thought people would start taking things (too) personally with the RCA records, but it didn’t happen. My next guess would’ve been Low Budget… but to my surprise it happened right away with Sleepwalker, which I thought was universally liked. Not loved, mind you, but “universally” should’ve prevented us from any such kontroversy (still can’t help it, sorry). Or so I though.
    I was the one who made the Toto comparison, so I feel the need to explain myself: I never meant the Kinks sounded like Toto, just that the sound of the guitars on this LP (the way they’re processed or recorded) is a bit dated. And so I mentioned Steve Lukather for sonic reference, because of some of his late seventies session work on radio pop records. I’ve never owned a Toto LP, never listened to one. I know the three big hits (which I like) and I saw Lukather perform them in Ringo’s All Starr Band. But whatever. The harm is done, I guess.

    I agree the 1977 factor is probably important in the way we all approach this album. Not only because it’s such a landmark year for rock culture, with the punk and disco crazes and the rise of electronic music, but also because most of the very important older “classic rock” artists were absent that year. That’s why it’s not easy to compare Sleepwalker to anything, really, except vaguely equate it to what we think (or remember) American radio was sounding like at the time. In 1977, a lot of superb important albums were released. But the rock royalty was very quiet, like they knew something big was happening and needed to sit back and try understanding what it was… No Dylan album that year, his only absence between 73 and 81. No McCartney (just the bagpipes single). No George. Which makes Ringo the 4th the sole solo Beatles LP of the year, quite an anomaly in the seventies… No studio Stones. No Who (just the Townshend/Ronnie Lane collaboration LP). Not even an Elton record, his only mute year between 1969 and 1986! So yeah, Sleepwalker was something of an rarity, I think, which must've made it all the more noteworthy for people buying it at the time, but hard to place in the “classic rock” scheme of things for people getting it after the fact. In his own (baffling) 1977 LP, Van Morrison called it "A Period of Transition" for some reason! As far as the Kinks are concerned, it definitely seemed to be, as exemplified by this big lyrical short-circuit: starting the first song of the new "come-back" LP by the phrase “ever since I was a child”, just a year after proclaiming there would be no more looking back.
     
  2. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    You are right, of course. We can (and do) judge here. I think what I meant, and I should have been clearer about, is that Ray made this decision and only he truly knows why. We can speculate if it was to regain popularity, or to keep the band together, or that he just liked that musical landscape and wanted to explore it. I’m glad we have these discussions here and share our thoughts (and judgments)!
     
  3. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Praed Street seems a random place to namecheck too. Also I've just realized the song was recorded in October 1976 and mentions punks, that's a very early mention unless he just means punks as in street kids and ne'er-do-wells and not actual punk rockers. "Anarchy in the UK" wasn't released till the next month.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    No harm, no foul....
    I don't particularly hear this the way others seem to, but that's part of the interest factor to me.

    As far as guitar sounds go, I'm going to take it song by song, because it's just too hard for me to recall unless it's where I'm focused at the time. On this track I don't really hear it.... but that also doesn't mean it's not there...... but then again, when it comes down to the sound of anything, all I care about is if it suits the song, overall.
     
  5. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Aha!

    :D And I lied when I said I’d leave the Toto research up to someone else. I actually took a look at wiki. (Hold The Line didn’t come out until October’78. I know, too much information.)
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That is interesting. Although we often speak of Ray being somewhat disconnected, it really seems that at this point he knew what was going on around the place... punk, the music, seems to play a part in some of his songs from this period, even though it seems to mainly be in mocking, particularly Tom Robinson.... but we get somewhat to that tomorrow.
     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    To some degree The Abbey Road works as both a tip of the hat, and also a subtle sly dig.... in my opinion... the band the Kinks seemed forever in the shadow of, even though generally Ray was ahead of them in innovation, are no longer, and yet the Kinks are still rolling along...
    It certainly could be simply a London wanderer checking out well known landmarks, but I think there's more to it than that.
     
  8. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    By the way, Londoners, the protagonist arrived in Euston; what does it tell us of where he came from ?
     
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  9. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    Man, I forgot about this song. "Life On The Road" is a great song - I love its dramatic structure. It begins and ends with two poignant recollections but in the middle of that, you get this pretty grand rock n roll song about the road (not Ray's first or last on the subject). I love the idea that it is the British answer to "Thunder Road" as it has a similar structure. But someone mentioned Elton John upthread and I definitely hear "Love Lies Bleeding" in this recording. I keep thinking the term "mini-epic" in my head when I listen to some of these mid 1970s songs and this is another example. Also love the Chuck Berry style guitar fills.
     
  10. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I bet it was! :laugh:
     
  11. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    West Coast Main Line - Wikipedia

    [​IMG]
     
  12. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
  13. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Basically, West Midlands, North West England and West of Scotland - a well-trodden path!
     
  14. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    As I have often referenced, I am of an age where (oddly) my grandmother turned me onto the classics from the mid 60s through the mid to late 70s.Zep, Stones, Moody Blues, Yes, Thin Lizzy and the like.

    The music that I gravitated towards, when I began discovering it and buying it myself (at the age off 12 or so, let’s say 77 or 78) definitely included Toto, and other much-maligned bands such as REO Speedwagon, Styx, Foreigner, Van Halen, Thin Lizzy, UFO, AC DC (all of which may have started earlier, but were hitting their peak popularity in the US in the late 70s and early 80s) as well as the following wave of bands such as Def Leppard, Scorpions, Maiden etc. Clearly, within this grouping, many of these bands were deemed AOR.

    I am going to guess that, on average, those of us on this thread that have no interest in the kinks music post RCA, also don’t care much for any of the above . Those of us that follow them forward and enjoy the kinks output on Arista probably have a greater tolerance for the 80s AOR stuff.

    I suppose I could be embarrassed that my musical tastes also run in the above direction, but why? I’m just a product of the age in which I grew up. I’d rather own it. Early REO was some great Midwestern rock with raging guitar work by Gary Richrath. Sure, foreigner maybe nothing more than a modern sounding bad company or free, I but at least on the first five albums, almost every song was great and it was chock-full of hits.

    I don’t think sleepwalker sounds a bit like any of those bands, but if they are going to be used for comparative purposes in a derogatory fashion, someone should at least stick up for them

    Oh yeah, and y’all we’re trying to figure out what crappy AOR song No More Looking Back sounded like, my suggestion is to give a listen to Crystal Ball by Styx. I don’t think it’s a crappy song personally, I think it’s pretty great, but I do think that smooth 80s sound along with the very clear melodic guitar lines is very similar.
     
  15. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Was that radio station playing stuff like The Saints & Radio Birdman by any chance?
     
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  16. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Life on the Road: Ray liked road songs, even before this. He'd add a few more after. Eventually, the "weary road song" would become a staple for so many rock bands, well through the 80s. So much so that the listeners would find themselves more weary than the musicians themselves upon hearing them.

    But is this a road song? If so, it's a walking tour of London! Until a few minutes ago, I thought Ray had been singing "when I arrived in Houston" ... but Mark's lyric sheet lists Euston, Google tells me this is a train station, which makes sense. I'm not sure if Ray means "punks" in the older/prison vernacular of someone who looked like a hapless victim, or actual punk-rock punks? This is a very similar set-up to "Lola" and the country rube not knowing the place, or people, he's encountering for the first time, but enjoying the thrill of it.

    I was over-joyed to hear this coming out of the speakers for the first time, a great introduction to the album. I'm now hearing strains of "American Pie" by Don McLean in the rolling verses, and that similar slow/fast interplay in the song structure. It's still one of my Kinks favorites. And for the record, I really enjoy REO Speedwagon's road song!
     
  17. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    I am so playing catch up and I now discover you already mentioned the band's I had just posted!
     
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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    :righton:
    No derogatory thoughts about any of them from me.
    As I stated earlier AOR means nothing to me, an empty term that is merely used as a put down these days.

    As for those bands, I'll stand with you.
    I have most of Lizzy's stuff, all the Maiden albums except Blayze, all Acdc up to Flick Of The Switch, probably 6 or 7 Styx albums, 10 or so UFO albums, Lee Roth Van Halen, a couple of Scorpions, Pyromania, a couple of Foreigner .... and whatever anyone thinks of that means little to me.... I also don't feel any of them sound like the Kinks lol
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2022
  19. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    You mention some fine Amigos!
     
  20. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    What type of club was it?
     
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  21. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    "Life On The Road" is a great beginning to Sleepwalker, with its soft beginning, rocking middle, back to softness and finally ending on a rocking note. Lyrically, it's the same story as "Big Black Smoke" or "Polly", but this time it's a boy who leaves the country for the big city lights and regrets it. Was I the only person who misread "Houston" for "Euston" the first few hundred times that I played this song? :laugh:
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Hellfire Club lol :)
     
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  23. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Life on the Road
    Maybe we've left the musicals, but we haven't left the characters. For me, this song is a continuation of what happened after this boy left the village green on the song Village Green. He left Daisy by the old oak tree and sought fame. and here we are. Not quite what he thought, but it certainly makes for good stories.

    Amusing Ray is still there. my favorite lyrical part is:
    And so I searched night and day
    To catch a kissable lady,
    But all that I caught was a cold


    "Kissable lady" - now that's a good songwriter. There are so many adjectives you could have put before the word "lady". this is perfect.

    Another favorite part is Ray hitting the high note on: "And I'm livin' the life that I chose." Wowwww.

    This is totally the Kinks we know and love. Great start to this album! This song becomes better the more that I listen to it. How do they do that?
     
  24. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    @The late man thank you for your very moving & wistful post, it sounds like you've kept all the great memories to cherish.
    N.b. Love your post in regards preferring Black And Blue to Some Girls.
     
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  25. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Assuming this is a serious question about what club and you're not wanting me to answer "truncheon" :p

    The club was called Axis and it mostly played alternative music. On Saturdays, a local radio station (WFNX) would host X Night and play recent faves and older songs. It was heaven on earth for this alternative music gal (wish I had been wise enough at the time to go to Kinks shows in the 80s into the 90s, but was into newer bands at the time).
     

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