The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Great minds Mark however I didn't want to type it as here that's a sort of underground fetishest club so as i don't know it's US equivalent i don't think you should be throwing aspersions on the character of our @Wondergirl.
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    For the record I wasn't having a dig at you. The Hellfire Club is a very famous club in Sydney, just an Aussie joke with @All Down The Line
     
  3. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I remember WFNX quite well. Its studios were in Lynn, right next to me. They played great music and gave 'BCN a scare. Also, I mentioned this before, I did see the Kinks play there in 1993, the closest they ever got to playing Fenway Park (which would have been a great thing; to those Avids who don't know, Fenway Park is the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. It's the oldest baseball park & it has been the host to a few concerts)
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Ha, we must have thought the same thing at the same time :)
     
    All Down The Line and DISKOJOE like this.
  5. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    The Kinks played Axis?? Gahhhh. I missed soooo many great shows. :(

    oh and Paul McCartney (or according to the Kinks he's called Pull MyC0ckOff) is playing Fenway this year.
     
  6. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    it's all good. When I see @All Down The Line come at ya with a query or a one-liner, I know there's usually more to it. He's such a naughty boy and would likely fit in with the folks at Hellfire. :p
    (the Boston area had its own club like that called ManRay...and no, never went).
     
  7. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Life on the Road

    First heard this a couple weeks ago, and I pretty immediately thought this still sounded like the Kinks I know and love. It has a Everybody's in Show-Biz vibe in the upbeat rockin' section, and it has a continuation of the Soap Opera / Schoolboys sound in the intro. Now, until I actually read the lyrics, I assumed it was about a band being "on the road".... But yeah, as @Fortuleo mentioned, it's a gender-reversed take on Starstruck and Big Black Smoke. I mean, would this story have been that out of place on Preservation Act 1?

    ...same here! You are not alone. In fact, that only reinforced my thought that this was about a band touring the USA. But in typical Ray fashion, he throws us a curveball and this song is really about "Life on the Streets of London" or "Life in the Big Black Smoke"?

    Just wanted to add a comment on this:

    Crystal Ball is one of my favorite Tommy Shaw 70s-Styx songs, and I absolutely love it. It actually started out as an acoustic folk ballad written by Tommy Shaw for his old band, before he joined Styx. When he brought it to Styx, the band "Styxified" it and gave it that powerful chorus and Tommy added that smooth 1976-drenched guitar solo. I don't think it's an insult to say that some of the guitar tones in the mid-late 70s are shared by Dave Davies and Tommy Shaw. To me, they both sound fantastic.

    What the Kinks add to that sound is Ray's lyrics and melodies, and Dave's harmonies. And that is the difference maker that makes whatever the Kinks do sound like the Kinks.
     
  8. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Too bad Tom Yawkey (former owner of the Red Sox) probably hated rock & roll. It would have been a blast to see the Beatles play Fenway Park.
     
  9. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Once I discovered WFNX, I became an avid listener. I only would listen to WBCN when I couldn't pick up WFNX's signal (which was not that strong as I could not pick it up in my house, but could in my car parked outside).
     
  10. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Tom Yawkey was known for not liking a lot of things...if you get what I mean.
     
  11. side3

    side3 Younger Than Yesterday

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    That Mike Douglas Show appearance was the first time I ever saw the Kinks (as opposed to just hearing them). My Mom loved Mike Douglas, and it was always on after school. Though I love the Pye era, and it is my favorite, and I've learned to love the RCA era thanks to this thread... I lived the Arista albums. I was into them as they came out. I haven't listened to them for quite a while, so I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with them.
     
  12. And don't forget, Saville Row is another fab location. Are bespoke suits the first things that come to mind, or apples?
     
  13. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Definitely bespoke suits, I actually had no idea it had anything to do with you-know-who. In the UK, Saville Row's fame as a venue for upper class tailoring pre-dates any of that.
     
  14. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    No reason to be embarrased personally I like tunes and in some cases a lot more than that by all of those bands. Crystal Ball is a rockin' song.
     
    markelis, DISKOJOE, Zeki and 2 others like this.
  15. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    The Kinks should reform just to play Fenway. In fact, it's looking like they may have plenty of open dates to fill as things stand now.
     
  16. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    DISKOJOE and mark winstanley like this.
  17. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Life On The Road

    I personally don't hear any difference between this or the RCA years. It would fit on any of them except Muswell. You have the horns, the rollicking piano and a song cruising along like an opener to revue show. There's some dance hall and a bit of show tune in the bones of the song. The opening reminds me of The Road from the next decade. And for an album that is supposedly their cash grab for the American audience Ray proudly displays his Britishness right at the jump. There's not really much separating this from Here Comes Yet Another Day, to me they mine similar sounds and inspirations. Except now Ray is sort of celebrating his road warriorness. He seems to be telling his story here as opposed to a character's or singing in third person. Dave gets off some nice salvos on guitar and the Kinks commence the Arista years in fine style. And away we go...
     
  18. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Yes, you'd have to go through Wales for that!
     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea, some clubs it's best to skip..... I'm just not quite that kinky lol
     
  20. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Thank you.

    Despite my largely fond memories of Sleepwalker in general and this song in particular, upon the return listen for this thread, I was rather flat and at a loss as to how to explain why. I think you've helped articulate this for me.

    I've now listened a half dozen times in the last three days and I've kind of gone back and forth on this one, but the dust is settling in a less favorable way than I would have expected going in.

    I hope that's not the trend for the whole album. I've really gotten accustomed to emerging from these album discussions with an elevated impression relative to how I entered.
     
  21. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    At the 0'40'' mark in the following video (audio only), starts my favorite version of Life on the Road. Ray alone on the acoustic, one tone lower than on the LP version. The intimacy of it is breathtaking. The rest of the show is pretty cool as well. And Ray does say, as an introduction to the tune, that it's about his own experience of "wanting to see Piccadilly". I don't know about that, but I do know that this version has exactly what I feel is (somewhat) lacking in the band performances of it : a lot of charm.

     
  22. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    “Life on the Road”

    The album kicks off as if there has not been much of a change in the bands sound. We get some familiar lyrical content and a song that wouldn’t be out of place on the last several albums. It’s my favorite song on the album. The problems I have with this record have not become known yet. Maybe this is another reason that much of the rest of the album feels like a let down?

    I listened again to the entire album last night. I have never spent this much time with this record, but I’m trying to find my way into it. It still doesn’t excite me much, but I was thinking it’s a perfectly fine album if it was made by anyone other than The Kinks. I have lofty expectations, and for me personally, they have set the bar so high on my enjoyment scale that this album just isn’t in the same arena.

    All of the comparisons to light 70s bands are being made because this is overall a light and slick 70s rock album. It’s not necessarily that it particularly sounds exactly like any of these bands, but it can be placed in the same category with them.

    I like Ray’s vocal on this. I can see this being a great opener for their upcoming tours. It looks like they played it frequently, and it stayed in the set list for a few years.

    As far as this album is concerned, this is a great opener, and likely the best tune on it. On any previous Kinks album it would be a decent album track, but far from the best song.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2022
  23. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    If this is where Arista is leading to…I’ll be…speechless. (It is pretty funny, though, because remember there was that Pete Goalby period of Uriah Heep where they sounded like Foreigner. Moral? All roads lead to…nah! :D )
     
  24. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! Thank you
     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Lol
     
    DISKOJOE likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine