Catch Me Now I'm Falling I was 14 when this came out and it was played everywhere. This song always makes me feel sad. Whether I'm relating to it as a teenager in the late 70s where things weren't that great in the US or today. Maybe the notion that being the top world power can't last forever if history is to be relied upon. The fear of losing that position, and when/if that occurs, it could be ugly[fill in any kind of horror you want here...nuclear war, a totalitarian regime, etc]. I'm a worrier. this is the stuff I think about...maybe even as a teenager. Love the piano throughout this song especially in the beginning. What a great start to the tune. And the sax, i think, goes over well. The synth work is ok. As always, I'd rather find a more organic way to get those sounds. Dave's vocals really stand out in this song in the best way possible. And great guitar sounds throughout. As I was just listening to the song and following along with the lyrics and saw that there was a still a lot more to the song, I was like "I don't remember this song being this long". Yes, it's a tad too long. But I don't recall ever feeling that before today, oddly enough. The Stones "rip-off"...that's not an issue for me. Though I couldn't even begin to guess what Sir Ray was thinking when he wrote the song, you can bet it was very deliberate. now to the "Shouty Ray" vocals...at first I wanted to say Shouty Ray isn't really in this song but gave it yet another listen and Ray hits that point only in "Catch me now I'm falling" part but nowhere else...which is pretty appropriate since he's yelling for help, essentially. It works here. His vocals are really good throughout, in fact. this song will always be quintessential Kinks for me. Shouty Ray running total: 2 out of 2 songs (but just barely)
It must be the intro to In a Space, but put me out of my (ahem) misery and tell me which Stones song, before I go round the bend.
In the first 7 seconds of In a Space, before the bass comes in, I hear a hint of Stop Breaking Down from Exile. But this is pretty generic stuff unless the Stones have copyright on Elmore James and Little Walter... Later on in the album I'll be pointing out a riff that sounds eerily similar to one used by an obscure artist in the 1980s whose music was subsequently "discovered" to some fanfare about ten years ago.
Ok, mine wasn’t that but I can sorta hear a Stones-style on that but too, now that you mention it! Not that either.
Lord! I'd forgotten about your avatar. Can I amend it to "Elephant Seal voice"? Meanwhile you have every right to compare Ray's voice to anybody in my avatar...
I don't have much time and a lot of things crossed my mind these last few days. I'll have to compress them, for everyone's benefit. Attitude I love this song, shouty parts and all. I didn't think about Who are you at all, but the short bridge did make me think of something Pete Townshend might have written and sung. I even have a song in mind, but can't put my finger on the title. I don't know if it's punk or not and I don't care. Because I'm a punk. Ah ah. Seriously, I'm not a fan of "one-genre" artists. I almost always prefer the copies by amateur multi-stylists to the originals by professionals of such and such genre. It pains me to sit through a whole album's worth of reggae, country, punk, ska, metal, rap or whatever else. I do it, sometimes, for discovery's sake. But these albums rarely become favorites of mine. I don't care a tiny bit about "the real thing". I'm a very superficial punk, at that. So the Kinks are fine by me, up to this album at least. Catch Me Now I'm Falling My history with this song is long, meandering and repetitive, a bit like, let me think... this song. As I said, a whole album in one genre is a tough nut to crack for me, and One For The Road was in that case. So I know mostly the beginning of it, where Catch Me Now is found. It struck me as a great song. The transition to the studio version was not easy, but I really liked the piano intro. I didn't care much for the riff part, even though I didn't know Jumping Jack Flash at the time : it's a non-album single, and I hadn't bought any one of the scandalously redundant compilations the Stones have released over the years. So my brother had to reveal the rip-off to me. The thing is, I don't like this riff very much anyway, whether in the Stones context or in this song. On the Stones single, it sounds like a awkward attempt to reproduce the success of Satisfaction (but the chorus is good, though). On the Kinks song, it's an ornament stuck over the least interesting part of the song. I didn't have a notion of the political meaning of the song. To me the guy was acting the wounded hero, and I loved the imagery, since I love to wallow into self-pity myself, and even more so when I have someone to blame. So the feeling expressed in this song resonates with me, and the intro and verse are really great (why on earth is there only 2 of them ?). When I learned about the political subtext I was a bit disappointed, but I managed to treat it with my most powerful weapon: denial. Then yesterday I was listening to the song and I suddenly realized that the superhero's name was not Captain America by coincidence (yes, it took me more than 30 years). Trouble is, I couldn't care less about rock singers' political opinions, and especially Ray's, a great painter of portraits and small-scale scenes. Now, if I want to go on loving this song (because I do love it), I have to treat it with the same condescending irony that I used to protect my sentiments towards McCartney's "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" or Joe Jackson's "Evil Empire". I have no scorn for American's feelings for the song, though. I'm not much of a patriot (that's a fact, not a standard I raise), but a foreigner singing in support of my country will wet my eyes for sure. (That is if there is one some day). Last obstacle to my love of Catch Me Now I'm Falling: the length and random repetitiveness of these 3 sections that, contrary to Mark (whose musical analysis is great, by the way), I don't think fit very well together. So I took my electronic scissors, I savagely cut through the soft flesh of the song, stitched them with steel guitar strings and uploaded it on youtube. It's badly edited, it will satisfy no-one but me, but it's the blueprint to how I would like to hear this song.
this is it! I'm not sure what you did but I love it... I was about to give a middling review based on distant memory and sitting thru the long version on YT but It is a great song!
This is brilliant. In this form it makes my playlist in a heartbeat. I formally nominate you as Editor-in-Chief Extraordinaire.
Agreed. They never needed the whole "isn't this a Stones ripoff?" problem in the first place; this is a much better song.
The Low Budget album was my first real exposure to this band via my taping it off the radio and "Attitude" was my favorite song on the album at the time. My earliest days of fandom had officially started.
Jeez, no chance in hell that this song is “better” than Jumpin’ Jack Flash. The provenance of the riff, which. could be debated if there was any point to it, is just one minor issue though. This is one Kinks song that I just never liked. It’s probably my least favorite on the album. Ray just isn’t much of a geopolitical thinker. Gimme Attitude over Catch Me Now anytime.
Nicely done! I still don't care for some of Dave's guitar playing, but this is miles better. This version would work on any of the last three albums. Can we now give you edit requests? You would be very busy over the next year! Just when I think I really dislike a song, you saved it from the trash bin.
I agree, so much better in this edit, without the riff. But now I notice from the jump how similar the piano opening is to Because the Night! (The Springsteen song as recorded by Patti Smith). And with the saxophone coming in later to boot, like they had Roy Bittan and Clarence (well, or someone) in the studio with them. I bet Clive liked that. And five years before Born in the USA!
An amazing rethinking. Great job. Now I wish I could go back and edit my earlier post when I wrote... ...because, thanks to you, now I can imagine it without it!
Pressure. stereo mix, recorded Jan 1979 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Pressure pressure I got pressure, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah Pressure pressure I got pressure, oh yeah I don't really want to give it to you 'Cos it's really contagious You can pick it up anywhere And it can be quite dangerous You can spread it mouth to mouth You can even get it when you're alone But I can always live with it Whenever I am close to you Pressure pressure I got pressure, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah Pressure pressure I got pressure I get it driving in my motor car I get it when I'm drinking in a bar I get it riding on the subway I get it regular every day And anyone who never had it yet And doesn't know what I'm going through But I forget the pressure When I am close to you Altogether now-Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah Pressure pressure I got pressure Oh yeah. oh yeah. oh yeah Pressure pressure FEEL THE PRESSURE You got the pressure and that's a fact I can tell by the way you act And I can tell that you're pressurised By the look that's in your eyes I know the pressure 'cos I've got it too So I know what you're going through But I forget the pressure Whenever I am close to you Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. Here we have a very short, and very Ray song. In many ways this album is a reflection of our failure to take the advice of The Village Green Preservation Society. There are many songs on here that are pretty much working on the same kind of principle based around Industrial Disease. Here we have a song about, as the title would suggest, Pressure. We have this whole idea that the modern world is full of pressure, real and inferred. The only time the pressure is lowered is when he is with/near/close to his loved one. Lyrically this is a pretty straight forward track. The first verse states that this pressure is contagious and you can get it anywhere, even if you're alone. We also get the line that it can be quite dangerous, and we will revisit that idea in the very next song. The second verse lists all the places it can happen, which is everywhere. The third verse recognises that his partner has this pressure too. The punchline is that I can live with it - I forget the pressure - Whenever I am next to/close to you. It is a sort of modern day love song. The world has become this tinderbox of pressure, caused by all sorts of things, in all sorts of places, and the only way he can really cope with it is when he is with you, and it eases the pressure enough to make it bearable. Musically this starts off in the land of Chuck Berry, and then essentially to my ears moves closer to Status Quo than I had ever really considered I suppose that one could say this has some kind of Stones connection, but essentially most of the Stones catalog is directly influenced by, or if we are going to take that line (which I personally generally wouldn't) stolen from old fifties rock and roll and the blues. If we are going to scorn the Kinks for the Jumpin' Jack Flash riff, there goes 90% of the rock music world up in smoke... and probably most of the other genres too lol The opening lick is a variant on the Chuck Berry double stop lead riff, and it has appeared in many different forms, and many different bands, over the years. It is also interesting to note that the lead lick is pretty much a clean electric guitar. So although we do get a solid grungy guitar in the mix as well, the main guitar here is not a distorted guitar. The power and momentum of this song is based on the arrangement and the bass and driving drums. It is also interesting that this is a song often seen as a shouty Ray song, but the reality is, this isn't really shouty at all. The majority of the vocal is melodic and reflective. The chorus vocal is probably on the cusp of shouty Ray, but it never really enters that zone. The writing here is actually pretty good. The chorus is essentially an A and a G, and that back and forth chord attack drives the chorus vocal, but the choruses are short and punchy. Also that back and forth chord attack is a nice picture of the back and forth turmoil that pressure can cause. The verses are something else altogether. If you added some ooooo-eeee-ooooo backing vocals this could be an early surf rock and roll song, and we know who everyone's favourite surf rock and roll band on here are Again Ray delivers the vocal in a lot of different voices, and aside from the chorus, none of them are aggressive. Jim Rodford gives us some great bass playing that really fills out the rhythm section. Mick is playing it pretty straight and hard, with a few little snare accents, but essentially just a straight driving beat for the guys to play against. On the left we have the clean guitar that plays the riffs, but on the right we have this really overloaded guitar, that isn't really mixed very high. It is as though it represents the pressure laying under the surface. It is a simple but really clever idea, that I actually think in this studio version is mixed perfectly for the intent it seems to have. This is one of the more simple songs on here, but it does exactly what it needs to do, and really very well. It is short, sharp and to the point. Unless someone hates rock music, we have three for three
This track is so new wave I can see them all in skinny ties! Fortunately, I like new wave, although I'm not keen on the 'Pressure, pressure, I got pressure' bits. But still, it's my favourite song on the album thus far.
This is… surprisingly great!! See how the big songs can mislead you in the way you approach an LP : like @Endicott suggested yesterday, you could be fooled into thinking Catch Me Now I’m Falling is a Celluloid Heroes type of song, piano, length and all. So whenever I listen to Low Budget, after Catch Me, I need a couple of minutes to figure out what to make of it, and Pressure usually falls through the cracks… But thanks to our beloved thread, I had a blast this morning listening to this perfectly kinksian ditty about how complicated life can be, set to a neat Chuck Berry /Beach Boys tune, that Ray delivers with his customary panache. Three songs in, and I’ve realized for the first time that they all do feature a little bit of aggressive singing (you know what to call it), but alternated with witty funny tongue in cheek affectionate Ray, a guy we could call Charming Ray or Breezy Ray. In this song, it’s just wonderful (and with some double tracking too!). I’m beginning to appreciate how the slight “barks” are used to create contrasts and context for the breezy parts, and in this song's case, it's really effective, because it does work as a display then a release of pressure (the simple "whenever I am close to you" ascending melody really clears the sky). The term “pressure” is an interesting one. It was soon to be replaced by “stress” everywhere, but it seems more accurate because it’s something the external world puts on you. Stress is the psychological/internal manifestation of that external pressure. My 18 years old boy never talks about stress but he does say that he feels a lot of pressure (studies and all), and he uses the French term for it, which makes me think it may’ve made some sort of come back. Anyway, this is a great song. Guitar : good. Pace : good. Melody : good. Oh yeah’s : great. Handclaps : fantastic!! (like tambourine, handclaps are one of my favorite features in rock, but the way they were recorded and mixed could be a huge problem in the late seventies / eighties, but not here; here, they’re spot on!). With the Who, Stones and now Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, I wonder if the Kinks are trying to tell us something about rock’n roll with this record. Let’s see if we get some Liverpool stuff in one of the next songs, and some theories might follow…
The verse melody reminds me a bit of a sped up ‘Darlin’ by The Beach Boys. Interesting that Gordon Edwards was still in the band when this one was taped but doesn’t seem to appear on it.
