The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    Enjoyed your thoughtful post @Brian x! I use shuffle for the vast majority of my listening, it works especially well for the songs on Kinks and Kinda Kinks - not albums I would choose to listen to start to finish, but it’s great to hear the individual songs pop in now and then. Also, I find that on occasion hearing a song out of context will reveal some aspect that gives you a new appreciation of it, since you may not have given your full attention to it in the past, or it may have been overshadowed the tracks surrounding it.
     
  2. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Er no as they were not married and clearly this fellow was far more a Don Juan, Clooney & Casanova than the fellow I encountered.
    However the young lady had a similarly plunging neckline and shorter skirt but I digress........
     
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  3. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    So they shared a similar, Quaife not Quiff?
     
  4. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    I heard a resemblance to that song also so thank you knowing it was not my imagination running away with me.
     
  5. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I'm sure one day I'll have to try "random Kinks". I'm more an album gal OR I'm really in the mood to hear, say, Powerman and then that leads down a path of listening to specific songs that fit my mood. But to give up control...can I really do that?? lol:help:
     
  6. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Can this forum ban the term "yacht rock" please?
    it's so grating.
     
  7. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    mark winstanley, Steve62 and DISKOJOE like this.
  8. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Are we talking Beauty & the Beast here?

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Brilliantly said!
     
  10. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Hey, man, save it for a rainy day.

    (Inside Steven Bishop joke)
     
  11. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    I fully understand and empathise but am newly considering if we should all move to New York?

    There is apparently clearly more inhibition though it may be accompanied by that dreaded York rock!
     
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  12. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Run awaaay, run awaaaay, run awaaaay, run awaaay, run awaaaay, run, run...
     
  13. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It is like a high dive but -- & I wonder if @Luckless Pedestrian has noticed this -- sometimes shuffle has a sort of mystical ability to come up with the exact right song at the exact right moment.
     
  14. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Off Topic but trying to look a little on the Sunny side with this.......

    [​IMG]

    Somewhat given recent weather events I am prophetically playing Shangri-la!
     
  15. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    Yes in fact this very evening I was sitting at the dinner table chewing meat from bones like a lonely caveman when those dramatic, fuzzy power chords of Education kicked in … followed by The Big Weird from Ray’s Americana Act II which contains the line “Now I just can’t look myself in the face / Because I’m in disgrace” - connecting it right back to Schoolboys!
     
  16. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    I was working out the chords to Stormy Sky earlier and right at the start there’s an unusual and quite dramatic change from C to A flat major… Searching my memory for other songs with that change, all I could come up with was Rush’s Cygnus X-1, in the part where the black hole takes control! Apparently that’s an interval suited to storms and black holes lol
     
  17. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Enjoying the thread and some time on the road last hour while thinking of all the comments....

    [​IMG]
     
  18. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Apparently it's also suited to possession by devils, as Paul Williams uses it in the chorus of his Phantom's Theme, from Phantom of the Paradise (in A though, not in C, so it's A - F). It's a great chord change. I think Williams uses it several times but I'm not sure. He often uses Am F or equivalent, which is nice too but less "radical".

     
  19. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    Just two in about ten 70’s guys, girls & bands mentioned in the last few days that I never even heard of!! My best guess: a lot of those late 70's radio people never translated too well to French radio. We had our own tepid brand of local acts doing what we used to call "variétés" (or "varièt'", something that managed to take out the slightest bit of "rock" from that yacht thing). So whenever I hear the mellow vibe of Stormy Sky and its breezy electric piano, I think Light Album Beach Boys (or solo Carl doing Heaven), London Town Wings, Here Comes the Moon Harrison, mid-late seventies Bee Gees (Charade, Spirits Having Flown), Elton John's Little Jeannie, Gerry Rafferty's Right Down the Line and Still Crazy/Slip Slidin' era Paul Simon, or his soundtrack to his self-written One Trick Pony movie. All things I'll admit to loving unashamedly. So, in @Fischman and @Luckless Pedestrian words,
    or as @Brian x said a couple of days ago
    I thought this was a very astute and eye-opening observation, in regards to our ongoing "does it sound like the Kinks" conversation. This never occurred to me, I never would've even considered this before, but our thread has shown it to be consistently true, day after day after day : Ray uses genres and musical idioms (say vaudeville, trad-jazz, jerry lee rock or acoustic blues) as starting points to almost all his songs. His intuitive knowledge and mastery of the different styles and genres from all eras matches that of the two great pastiche masters McCartney and Barry Gibb. Of course, the three guys's musical personality is so huge that almost all they do bears their individual stamp. But it's to be noted we've used the word "idiosyncratic" many a time in this thread (half a dozen times for me alone, at least) like Ray was doing something 100% original, almost unheard of, whilst he was often just revisiting neglected song styles, paying tribute to them, or using them to convey specific meanings or emotions. And on Sleepwalker, it's fair to say he does exactly the same thing, but with the current contemporary sound of the 70’s In the end, whenever some of us feel that something "doesn't sound like the Kinks", it probably means we think Ray's own personality was overcome by the genre he chose on any given day. And that appreciation generates the biggest divide among us fans. It happened with some hard rocking tracks (Money Talks comes to mind) or some of the 50's ones during the theater years (maybe The Last Assembly, as fond as I am of it) or some merseybeat stuff in the early days, or some "americana" or horns tracks. But it's extremely rare, even in this unabashed laid back 1977 radio record. Stormy Sky may be the most 70's laid back radio tune they ever did, but boy, does it sound like the Kinks to my ears, and gloriously so!
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2022
  20. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    It all comes down to the quality of the songwriting, whatever the genre is, I guess. One-Trick Pony suffered commercially from the movie's fate and Simon's overreaching ambitions, but to me it's his musical peak.
     
  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Spot on.... It doesn't sound like the Kinks is bewildering to me. It all sounds like the Kinks. It would be more accurate for folks to say "it doesn't sound like the Kinks I want to hear"
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Full Moon.

    stereo mix, recorded 15-17 Sep, 1976 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London

    Haven't you noticed a kind of madness in my eyes?
    It's only me, dear, in my midnight disguise.
    Pay no attention if I crawl across the room.
    It's just another full moon.

    Don't be afraid of me when I'm walking in my sleep.
    Don't get alarmed, dear, when I start to crawl and creep.
    Try not to listen when I mumble like a loon.
    It's just another full moon.
    It's just another full moon.

    You see before you a truly broken man.
    'Cause when it gets to midnight, I don't know who I am.
    Full moon's a-callin', and it's put a curse on me,
    And it will never set me free.

    The full moon's still up there,
    Like a great white balloon.
    The owls are a-callin',
    And they're singin' my tune.
    The night keeps a-callin'.
    I wish the day would come soon,
    To get away from another full moon.
    Here comes another full moon.

    If your hands start shakin'
    When night starts to fall,
    If you're scared of the moonlight
    And the shadows on the wall,
    If the face in the mirror
    Isn't you at all,
    It's just another full moon.
    It's just another full moon.

    La la la la la la.
    La la la la la la.
    La la la la la la.
    La la la la la la.
    It's just another full moon.

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Davray Music Ltd.

    I have had a bit of a chuckle about the Werewolf posts I've seen about this track, and I understand it, particularly if Ray is Dracula in Sleepwalker :)

    For what it's worth, this is my take....
    The gravitational pull of the moon pushes and pulls the tides of the world. It very clearly and scientifically makes water move..... now bear with me here.
    The human body is around 60% water. So based on those two scientific facts, it seems quite logical that if 60 percent of our body is water and the moon effects it, it would likely effect us also.
    Taking that one step further the heart and brain are apparently about 73% water ... so that seems to accentuate the effect.....
    Feel free to discard that, but that's how I have always seen it. Bearing in mind though, that as we constantly learn, everybody is effected in different ways to different things, and some are more susceptible than others to any general kind of thing like this.

    So I don't really see the Werewolf here, but I'm not going to completely discount it either, because the legend of the Werewolf ties in very closely to the moon and its effect on the human body/brain (via water).... it is just amplified and twisted a little :)
    I see Ray writing a track about the legendary effect of the moon on the individual, and in a typically excellent Ray way.

    Ray states from the outset that he is singing to his partner, and suggests not to be afraid when he appears to have a midnight madness in his eyes, as it's only me dear.
    I may go crawling across the room.... is this from the Full Moon in the sky or the alcohol?
    For the record a Full Moon Cocktail is Amaretto and Orange Curacao ....
    It is also a wine cooler, a beer and upon looking there are a plethora of Full Moon alcohols available out there.... So as an addition to the statement about the moon and water in the body, alcohol is also 40-60% water... and that would be logical as many state that alcohol intake is also effected by the Full Moon ... damn this starting to sound like a science lesson lol

    Anyway, all of that to say, perhaps alcohol plays a part in this song also, even though not directly mentioned, because we know the boys like to have a drink, and it has been in a few songs leading up to this point.

    Anyway ...
    We also move in to have Ray again walking in his sleep, and it makes me wonder if the pressures on him around this time had him sleepwalking, and that is where the vague theme of this album comes from.
    He is sleepwalking, creeping and crawling and mumbling like a loon. These seem to be somewhat exaggerated descriptions of the effect the Full Moon (whether literal, or the alcohol variant) has on him.

    Ray sets forth the very interesting line that "You see before you a truly broken man."
    If we characterise this as being somewhat autobiographical, then there is certainly a lot of truth in that. Gone is the king of the sixties single. Gone is the critical darling of some years before. Gone is the wife of his youth. Gone, seemingly, is the love of the British music buying public. In not so distant times - Gone was the will to live. He has had family issues, alcohol issues, mental health issues, general health issues .... and now here we are. So it isn't really difficult to think Ray sometimes appeared to feel or be broken. To some degree once we have a few miles on the clock, we all are .... anyway... lots of thoughts here, I hope they aren't annoying....

    I get the feeling that empathetic/sympathetic types of people are often very good observational writers, but I also get the feeling that it takes a great toll... it is really hard taking all that stuff on board, it wears you down..... and I get the feeling Ray was this kind of person.... I also get the feeling that his particular spin on that, as is many people's, is that often it makes him/them close themselves off a little, as a self preservation mode kind of thing.

    Like any natural effect we get from the world and the way it physically functions, sometimes we just want it to stop. I'm sure women don't want PMT/PMS whatever the current name may be. We often would prefer that gravity didn't hold us down, although it is very practical on occasion lol
    I'm guessing extreme weather conditions aren't something people love, though they have been going since the dawn of time.... etc etc
    The world just isn't an easy place to live ...

    The last verse speaks to the idea of apprehension, because when you know something effects you negatively - weather - public speaking - playing gigs - the full moon, it tends to create apprehension.

    We end up closing out on a Classic Kinks thing here. La la la's...

    Musically this, to me, is another really good track.
    We open with the solo piano, and it comes in gently and them we get these punchy, dramatic run up chords.
    The drums come in with an accented fill.
    Dave comes in with a somewhat Muswell Hillbillies style guitar, that is part chordal and part lick oriented.
    Then Ray comes in with a gentle, thoughtful vocal.

    The second verse continues in the same vein, but we have a bed of choral ahhh's and ooh's thrown in to very good effect.
    Again, from my perspective, we have a nice easy flowing melody that has a comforting style to match the lyrics that are trying to comfort the partner.

    We then move into the bridge with some Ray falsetto, and it sounds very sweet.
    We get a couple of chords thrown in that give us a very smooth key transition.
    Halfway through the bridge Ray uses a really nice technique to sort of transition keys again, when he takes the last chord and follows it with the relative minor of its scale, and it creates another really nice smooth key change, and then in a wonderful series of clever chord changes Ray manages to take us out in such a way as to transition into the original key, and still make it sound like another key change.... and the vocal delivery changes, which sort of amplifies that as well.

    The next verse is somewhat on the fringes of shouty Ray, but it is reflecting the anxiety of the lyric, and increases the drama nicely.
    It gives way to a really nice passage of chords and then we move into an instrumental break.

    We get the piano just rolling over some chords and some atmospheric things in the background.... synth strings again?... I don't know, it all sounds great to me anyhow ...
    The drums come in and we get a sort of faux key change that leads to the final verse.
    The thing that strikes me a very interesting here is, if Ray was just looking for commercial and not musical satisfaction, surely he would have had Dave throw some lead guitar in there.... but the song relies on the strength of the musical break as a step back from the intensity and a reflective chordal section is the order of the day.

    Anyway, then we burst into another intense vocal from Ray, that again, just touches the edges of shouty Ray.
    The intensity has reach maximum ...
    Anyway, then we get the La la's .... and this is incredibly interesting to me.
    Listen to these La la's, and see if you don't hear a slowed down version of the outro to Johnny Thunder. I knew it was Village Green Preservation Society I heard, but it took me a few minutes to place it, and the la la's at the end here seem to be directly, and intentionally stolen from Johnny Thunder.

    Masterfully Ray brings the song to a close with an unresolved ritard.

    I have to be honest and say I have generally overlooked this song, but on a closer listen, this is Ray in top gear as a writer...
    So at this point I have no weak tracks on this album ... and I even think Brother makes sense to me now we have discussed it a bit further.
    I am almost certain to follow @Fortuleo 's post album discussion listen for this one, because this album was rising in the ranks for me anyhow, and with a deep dive it has risen quite a bit higher.

     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  24. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    "Full Moon"

    My theory about penultimate tracks comes undone with this one - it's a great track - possibly the best on the album. It's excellent right from the start with the piano opening (which reminds me a bit of Paul Simon's "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor"). Then the drums come in, and the lazy beat reminds me a bit of Lindisfarne. But then on the second verse we get the addition of that "Lola" acoustic guitar sound and then it is unmistakably Kinks. The "you see before you a truly broken man" bridge section drives it to even greater heights. And then we even get a couple of verses of peak "shouty Ray" and it totally works in this context. And the whole thing is built around a very nice chord sequence. I like the way that it teases with a doubling of the pace during the outro - but then thinks better of it after barely a couple of beats and returns to the slower pace. If there was one track from this album that I would include on a "best of The Kinks" playlist, it would probably be this one.
     
  25. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Interestingly, Ray revived this one live much later in his solo career in the 2010s. Not a lot of Arista deep cuts tended to get included in his solo live set, so this was a rare treat. Also, it's revival doesn't seem to have been prompted by a younger artist rediscovering it or anything, it seems to have been a personal choice by Ray. Here's a 2012 version:

     

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