Don't think either Superman or HaD mention the IRA specifically. Lyrics for "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" Lyrics for "Have Another Drink"
Permanent Waves: what a great title. No wonder Rush stole it . Not sure the song lives up to it but it's kinda cool and different and i dig it Live Life: The live clip shows how much fun it might be in concert (Mick is into it) but I think overall not very Kinksy and too generic. Get Up is so much better....should've combined the best, Get Up and Live Life?
"Live Life" Another favorite on the album. That makes three in a row. The live video that was posted is excellent. They appear to be having a blast. I love the slower break down and the vocals on the verses. I don't hear anything generic about it. It may be the last great Kinks riff rocker. Even if it points the way to the future, I don't think they were ever this successful again with a guitar heavy rock n roll song. This is my first time hearing the longer version. I guess I like the shorter version because that is what I am familiar with. I have had this song stuck in my head over the last few weeks. It's fantastic turned up to maximum volume. It doesn't sound far off from The Stones in the late 70s. I hear a little Keef in the guitar riff. On the US album it gives the album a nice jolt of energy as the third song. This should have been a hit, but what's odd is it was already a B side before it became an A side. That can't be a good strategy to sell more records.
If I'm on the same page with you here (this is when Ray is singing "It's only life / it's really fine" in a somewhat detached delivery), yes this really stands out to me also. The guitar is actually playing a major 3rd but a couple octaves over the root note of the power chord, and stays in lock step with the root of the power chords as they slide around, which creates an unsettling, ominous feeling that I think works really well with Ray's ironic vocal to give that sense that, despite what the lyric says, life is all we have, it's incredibly important and it's really not fine!. I love Dave's guitar tone in Live Life, it sounds like a swarm of angry hornets! The lyrical sentiment/message of Live Life reminds me of Phobia's Drift Away, which I'm also fond of.
Live Life - Now we're talking! I don't remember if I heard this back in the day, so I believe it's a recent discovery. I am in the @Endicott camp that loves this song; the best Kinks rocker since "The Hard Way" IMO. I think I prefer the U.S. version for being more concise. I now hear some BTO in the opening riff after someone mentioned it, but in some parts - especially the "ooh, life's a mother" section - it feels a couple of years ahead of its time to me. At least, it conjures up the early 80s for me more than the late 70s. I don't think we should bury our heads in the sand about what's going on, but the last couple of weeks I had gotten so down about current events that I committed to avoiding the news yesterday. This song lifted me up emotionally. I call that a songwriting success on Ray's part. Here, and in the next couple of albums, some may hear a band that has resigned itself to following trends, but I hear a band that is rejuvenated.
I'm sure we'll dig into this more when we get to the album itself, but reportedly 1979 recorded live versions of "Live Life" and "A Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy" were both mixed in late 1979 for possible inclusion on One For The Road but were ultimately dropped from the final track list. The live version of "Slum Kids" that eventually saw release on the 1998 Velvel Preservation Act 2 CD reissue was another of these tracks that was mixed at that time for One For The Road but got cut.
Just a bit of cleanup.... This post by @ThereOnceWasANote made me realize I had overly dismissed the lyrical depth of "Permanent Waves." I'd like to modify my position and acknowledge that it's a more pointed social commentary than I first appreciated. That is all.
I reckon there a bit of Keef in the One For The Road album too, particularly side 3.... if I remember rightly .... it's decades since I had the record.
Totally agree.... I also think, as per @palisantrancho 's post, the fun and enthusiasm of rocking out is the real reason for Low Budget. When you're trying to be artistic it is very easy to forget how much fun, for band and audience, it is to just put the pedal to the metal and rock out. I think that's why as much as I love Low Budget, the songs came over better live
And considering Ray's perfectionism in the studio that translated into lengthy and tedious tracking and overdub sessions that often frustrated and bored the rest of the band, they must have loved the freedom of just blasting the songs live.
One For The Road will be mostly new to me. I think it’s probably time for me to dive in. I don’t even have a copy. I should visit some record shops this weekend. I have never been interested in a live record from this era. Any past attempts to check it out didn’t go very well. In general, I don’t really care for live albums. There are a few exceptions. The track listing looks good. Maybe I will enjoy some if it? I do like Low Budget a little more than I ever have, so it would be great if I feel the same way about One For The Road. Watched the movie The Misfits today. Seemed like a good time to revisit it. It’s still as great as ever. What a cast! It’s a shame it was pretty much the end for many of them. We all know that Ray loved old movies. I was looking through Montgomery Clift’s filmography and listed was a TV movie from 1939 called Hay Fever! I wonder if there are any more of these Misfit links out there!
That is beautiful...both the practice of putting notes in your child's lunch and the message you gave. I'd say your 12-year-old has a pretty great Dad. Au contraire @Wondergirl, here on the SHF Kinks song-by-song thread you are renowned and beloved.
This live version is tuned a full step down from the album version, which solves a mystery for me since you can clearly hear Dave liberally letting open strings ring out to create that meaty main riff; I guess he was using a capo in the studio recording, though it usually doesn’t sound quite the same. Maybe he just tuned all the strings higher.
We'll get to it obviously, but One For The Road, to me at least, is how the Low Budget songs should/could have sounded. The only sticking point for you on it, I think, is the loss of the bridge from Misfits, and 1 verse from Celluloid Heroes.... on the upside though, I think the arrangements aside from that are excellent.
Guess we’ll need to account for the many differences between the video and and album versions of One For the Road? I was at the Providence concert featured in the video, and felt a bit let down when I heard the album, culled from various shows. Anyway, onward!
Live Life Definitely their hardest rocker since The Hard Way. My favorite part though is the softer "Oooh, life's a mother" breakdown and Dave echoing Ray's vocals there... That is magical. Dave really is all over this one. Great to hear. Overall yeah, the song seems to take a very cynical take that unless those awful things are directly affecting you (and maybe even if they are), there's nothing you can do about it. The world keeps going on.... Life goes on.... etc, etc. So, what's the least you can do? Live your life, and ignore the horrors all around. A depressing take. But delivered with a thick heavy riff and an intense, stabby chorus.
1978 was an interesting year for the Big 4 of the Brit Invasion (Beatles solo of course): The Who-Who Are You? Paul McCartney & Wings-London Town George Harrison-George Harrison The Kinks-Misfits Stones-Some Girls Ringo Starr-Bad Boy John Lennon was still on his 5 year sabbatical.
Today in Kinks history Big day in The Kinks history - today in 1964 was the recording session that birthed 'You Really Got Me,' 'It's Alright' and 'It's You'. Ray recalls that while rehearsing 'You Really Got Me' for the session, their parents' neighbors would knock on doors and walls compaining and threatening to call the police, which of course just 'spurred them on.
