At the halfway mark: this album is umpteen times better than the Arista debut. A rekindling of hope for one Dan the Fan.
In a Foreign Land This falls in a category that Ray really seemed to employ a lot during these hears... a sort of almost-novelty song. We got one earlier on the album with Hay Fever (and you could even argue Black Messiah fits in that category). It's tough for such songs to warrant serious consideration or to bear up to repeated listening. Thanks to a more clever lyric, the fun atmosphere, and better music, this one succeeds better than it's previous album mates in the same vein.
In a Foreign Land. Wow! i forgot about this one, almost could see it being on 'Something Else' or 'Arthur'. The song just whips by leaving us in it's wake with daydreams of sandy beaches and a carefree life and those Davies high harmonies ps maybe that Holiday wasn't so bad
“In A Foreign Land” Interesting to find out this was recorded earlier. I was thinking it sounded more like the RCA years. I’m hearing more of a Schoolboys In Disgrace style in the music and Ray’s vocals. This is a gem of a deep album cut and it goes so well with the the next song coming up. These are a couple of the secret weapons on the album. Thanks to the UK track listing we still have plenty to look forward to on Side B. I was against this track listing in the beginning, but now I find it brings more balance to the sides.
I want to circle back to this quote from Gosling: KOK : Can you give us an insight of what it was like in the studio? JG : Recording sessions in the early part of the Seventies were more concise. We would convene at Morgan Studios in Willesden and Ray might start strumming a chord sequence and maybe try out fragments of vocal. We would gradually join in once we got the ‘feel’. Dave would usually have his songs complete by the time we eventually recorded them. It was a fun and creative time for all of us. Once Konk was operational things seemed to change, and Ray rarely seemed happy with anything. We took forever over every track until we eventually ran out of ideas. Sitting through endless overdubs and remixing sessions became terminally boring. I still think we should have had an independent producer. I find the bolded text about Konk very telling. What you have with the outtakes from Sleepwalker and about half of Misfits is Ray returning to a tight, bouncy, almost effortless 60s power pop style with la,la,la,la's and Beach Boy harmonies. This is a way he hadn't written in a long time. Just deceptively simple 3-3:30 minute songs with some quirk in the lyrics and music that made them uniquely Kinksian. It seems though, if we believe Gosling, Ray was in full-om Woody Allen neurosis mode not trusting himself. It seems on those Sleepwalker outtakes and on Misfits he wanted to make a stripped down Kinksian power pop album of tight and quirky songs that mined yet updated that 60s Kinks style. But he talked himself out of it. It's too bad because these are probably the best songs of this era. He would rarely if ever return to writing these types of songs again which is a shame. You wonder if Better Things maybe originated during this time as well. In some ways what he's creating on songs like In A Foreign Land, The Poseur, Permanent Waves is a proto-New Wave sound (I would include the underrated Moving Pictures in here too) that he discarded in favor of a more Arena rock approach that pretty much continued till the end (especially the final two Kinks albums).
In a Foreign Land The scrappy, late sixties Kinks are back with sharp lyrics and a punchy tune. All done rather tidily, get in and get out. This may be my favorite song on Misfits. It could be about the Stones or other peers, maybe the guy from Sunny Afternoon or House in the Country, maybe a composite. I know one of the biographies tells of Ray, shortly after his heart scare, insisting on flying to Ireland to recover, putting his wealth ahead of his health. So he may be chiding himself here too. Anyway, love Dave’s backup vocals here. After decades (a lifetime?) of listening I am slightly deflated to learn he sings ‘bananas and sand’; I always heard it as ‘mummy’s and sand’, which I rather like.
I have always thought the Kinks would have been better served with an outside producer or, better yet, a co-producer...but who would want to put themself in that unenviable position?
Got to say I don’t entirely agree: there are plenty of what I’d call lighter, or power poppy or new wavey songs on the remaining Arista albums: Just off the top of my head: Pressure, National Health, Misery, Add It Up, Better Things (as you mentioned) Heart Of Gold, Young Conservatives, Too Hot, Do It Again, heck let’s not forget Come Dancing itself which is very far removed from Arena Rock. I don’t see any drop off of this style after 1978 at all. I admit it does start fading by the MCA records though, and it almost totally absent from Phobia.
I just hear the power pop differently in these 1976-1977 songs. These are short 3-3.5 songs about oddball characters or subjects. While the songs you listed are either straightforward rock in more the vein of Live Life or melodic pop rock but they're not about quirky subjects or characters. I think I got it, its more accurate to say Ray never again wrote somewhat light-hearted power pop songs about quirky or oddball people or subjects in a tight 3-3:30 structure that recalled the Kinks 60s material.
I think I said somewhere up the front of the thread that a producer would have been a good thing for the seventies and beyond..... but I'm happy with what we have anyway. I see changes in the Kinks sound, style and songs over the years, but none of them particularly drastic to me. I guess that could come from me listening to Zappa for years, and each album often sounds completely different to the last, who knows.... I'm surprised by the somewhat "meh" reaction to today's song by many, I guess. I love it lol With Sleepwalker I will concede that it has a different mood to ... probably most other Kinks albums, but I still love it.... and the difference may be why
Is it me or does the la la section bring Oklahoma USA to mind? And the opening guitar notes bring Moments to mind as well?
We talked about it back in October, but it was for Spinout, not Roustabout (D'oh! again): The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)
Thanks! I thought we had discussed this in the past, but couldn’t remember which song. Spinout is another soundtrack I like, but either would have been improved with this Ray song.
Like todays track even though it does sound like a Sleepwalker outtake which it apparently is. Fairly lightweight overall, but I still like it. Glad it got released.
In a Foreign Land How do I not know this song from back in the day?? It's fantastic and should have been played all over FM radio back then. Love the guitar echoing "far away". And that Dave could have been given a major solo on this, but they held back. Very restrained - but in a good way. You don't have to put in ALL the bells and whistles in after all. And you get a somewhat affected Ray voice here and there, but otherwise he plays it straight. I hardly ever say this and I usually say the opposite: I wish this song was a little longer. It sweeps me along and I'm still wanting MORE as the dreamy "la la's" slowly disappear into the Jamaican sunset. this is Kinks hidden gem! I love this album so far - warts, messiahs and all!
