The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    National Health

    Great song

    Although I can't say I like it quite as much as Mark does, I will say Mark does an excellent job of explaining why I like it as much as I do.
     
  2. Brian Kelly

    Brian Kelly 1964-73 rock's best decade

    National Health
    This is one of my favorite songs on this album! It starts out slow and then gets a nice funky pick up. I love the percussion and backing vocals. Ray's lead vocals are also energetic, varied, and just plain fun (as is this song)!
    I'll agree with the previous poster that this song might be better ending before the 2nd valium verse (that would make it about 3:15 in length, the perfect length for a song like this), but that's a small complaint. This is a quality Kinks album track!
     
  3. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    "National Health": Although the title may imply the UK's NHS, it's more about the collective health of modern society, which seems very precarious if one watches the telly and sees the commercials for various pills and medicines, ironically using pop hits of the past and even more ironically having long lists of warnings that seem more dangerous that the initial problem itself! Ray's lyrics are great, imploring us to release the tension built up in daily life by any means necessary.

    Anyway, as a song, "National Health" is certainly an unusual song by Kinks standards. I hear a modified reggae/ska beat for its basis. As some of the other Avids have noticed. Dave's guitar verges on the avant garde (see Avids Fortuelo & The late man, I can use French real well!) and I like how it stops and collides into the next song.
     
  4. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    National Health

    Just heard a few moments ago and then read Mark's enthusiastic review which for me contained a wonderful history lesson on excersize, suspicious joggers and the origins (& originators) of the home work out craze.
    Whilst I have unfortunately been reminded of Richard Symonds I do think crediting Ray with influencing Jane's video fitness craze is having a fondle!

    Yes it is Kinky musically and lyrically which is never a bad thing and it may grow on me.
    Don't know if it's Afro Carib meets Colin Hay (Men At Work) with a splash of Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues but methinks Peter Tosh could have done a super fun cover expanding stylistically on what we already have!

    N.b. Re Jogging for Aussie Avids of cricket culture.

    In 1975 the Oz team had a new captain, Greg Chappell who was keen to get more serious about the National sides Health through training and fitness.
    In the very first compulsory session everyone fell into line under the new captain's directive except a senior player that enjoyed smoking and gambling named Doug Walters.
    When Dougie rolled up to the first session he was wearing a T-shirt that said,; "Jogging Can Kill You!"
     
  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Lol
     
    All Down The Line and DISKOJOE like this.
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea I know, I was taking Ray's advice :)
     
  7. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Ray forgot to mention the pivotal fitness role played by leg warmers.
    [​IMG]
     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I never understood the leg warmers thing lol
     
  9. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    National Health

    I like it but it is probably my least favorite song on the album but that is more a reflection on how strong the album is. It's fun, quirky, musically adventurous all the while making a play on words about National Health. Ray is making a pointed social commentary here about health fads, the link between mental/physical health, drug culture, pharma-health of the individuals of the nation. He does this while drawing lines of comparison between the health of the nation itself (UK in this case) and its citizens as well as those citizens' socialized medicine platform.

    It does link well with the next song both thematically as well as a seque into it. I guess leave Pressure where it is after all as it does thematically fit leading into National Health. Musically the song is a bit of a mess. It's not reggae, or ska, or Calypso but awkwardly tries to be all three. To me, its Ray putting on black-face to be Harry Belafontesque which is cringe-inducing (moreso than Black Messiah) because Ray sounds incredibly white. It detracts from the song. Now he doesn't do it throughout the song but when he does its pretty bad. I do like how it segues into the next song which is the best on the album and an all-time Kinks Klassic.

    Ray's bad Carribean patois aside this is a catchy little number that obviously kicked off the whole exercise trend of the early 80s. Jane Fonda must've liked Low Budget too. Her and Gov. Jerry drinking pina coladas or pinot grigio, sharing a joint while dancing around singing National Health. Ooo-Aww blame it on the National Health.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2022
  10. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    “Jim Fixx was one of millions ofAmericans who started running in the 1 960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Unlike other runners, however, Fixx wrote a best-selling book about running and, ironically, died of a heart attack at the age of 52 years while running.”
    National Library of Medicine
     
  11. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Yes but you clearly moved to a "Solo" career before Ray!
     
  12. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    He was also a smoker too I believe though he quit years earlier.
     
  13. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    I just fondly recall the pivots!
     
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  14. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    With a final chapter like that one could be sceptical about reading his book!
     
  15. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Two things since reading the posts this a.m.:
    While out walking the dog I had ‘Shattered’ running non-stop through my head. And I loathe the song so I wasn’t happy. But couldn’t dislodge it.

    Second, the “loosen up your muscles’ part recalls, just for a moment, ‘Jack the Idiot Dunce’ dance instructions (ala Hokey Pokey). On my first listen, that’s what I was expecting in the lyrics.
     
  16. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I remember exactly where I was when I first heard the news. I was over a friend's house and we were watching the TV while we were stuffing our faces w/junk food!
     
  17. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    National Health

    Heard this for the first time yesterday & it went straight onto the playlist. But it will take a few dozen more listens to form a coherent take.

    All I can say now is that I love it, it was completely unexpected, and again I kick myself for assuming that the Kinks went totally corporate/arena on this LP. Missed years of fun.
     
  18. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    This one really is out of left field. I don't know what this reminds me of, it's kind of like Devo meets .... *Kleenex?!?!? If it wasn't for Dave's lead guitar sneaking in there, this would be a pretty convincing post punk track. I don't think the actual song is that great but it's definitely unusual and the lyrics are good.

    (*Great Swiss all girl punk band)
     
  19. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    National Health

    This is what you call a kwirky Kinks song. Great sound! A new wave kind of feel but ALL Kinks here. That percussive sound, whatever that is, is a lot of fun. And Dave coming in with bits of guitar sprinkled here and there. I'm imagining there aren't too many Kinks songs that have Dave doing that. And Ray's vocals are delightful and perfect. Not a shouty Ray for miles...but it's probably because of the Valium.

    The lyrics I do have a problem with as it simplifies mental health issues. Just eat better or exercise more and stay away from those evil drugs - it's not that simple, is it? And I feel our fair leader, Mark, simplifies this issue too. I don't want to get into it too much but many people are born with "chemical imbalances" if I may use that term. Some do not have the appropriate amount of serotonin and other naturally occurring chemicals coursing through their body to make for a happy life. And sometimes a pill can make the difference between simply existing (that's how someone affected may perceive it) and a full life. And I know that Raymond D Davies could have sure used some pharmaceutical assistance over the years to treat his issues. I have heard he has refused that help over the years...to the detriment of his relationships with others.

    I'm not looking to get into a battle, I just wish to express that mental health is not as simple as proposed in these lyrics.

    I think I'll enjoy this song once we get to the live one. Right now, I'm a little rattled.
     
  20. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Aha!! As I was listening to today's song, I was thinking "this reminds me of a Stones song...and by George, I think you nailed it! thanks!!!
     
  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Wasn't intending to. Steph deals with this every day of her life, and is still on the medication.... I was merely meaning the exercise, in her words, makes a huge difference.
    Bipolar and an anxiety issue, believe me, we know how complex it is :righton:
     
  22. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    :righton: backatcha. Obviously it's a topic I have strong feelings about. Sorry about getting all serious on here.

    onward...
     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Nah mate, it's all good.
    It is an important topic, and one to easily miss important info from.

    I wasn't really looking at the lyric as being specifically from a mental health perspective, but literally from a general stress and tension perspective
     
  24. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    It is serious indeed. That shrink that gave me an antidepressant whose notice boasted it could kill people gave me another one, after stating that the first one drove me nuts, and that new one did help me a lot. It doesn't drive the problem away, as alcohol does (for a short while), it just put it at a distance so that you can stare at it and fix it. As every human invention, great stuff if you don't ask it to do what it can't do. But exercise helped too !
     
  25. Rockford & Roll

    Rockford & Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midway, KY
    I’ve listened to Low Budget a few times in the last four days. Today, I had it on in the car while driving to job sites for work. It's a great driving record.

    My impressions for the first four tracks:

    Attitude - Out of the gates rocking. The band is locked in and they announce they are ready for new wave or whatever the 80’s will bring. I do catch the Townsend type licks towards the end. The lyrics are classic Ray, clever commentary and another of his "positive attitude" lyrics that speak to me.

    Catch Me Now I'm Falling - Ray's direct message to the U.S. The tail end of the Carter years and America was at a low ebb. The intro piano reminds me of Pattis Smith's Because The Night but The Bad Co. comparison is also apt. And then it kicks in with the "great riff". I love the message, the borrowed riffs, the sax work and the song length (it helps if you're out for a long drive and your cranking it).

    Pressure - Can't beat the Chuck intro, the energy, the hand claps and the length. More great lyrics, he seems to be enjoying working in the confines of going for record sales while keeping his sense of fun.

    National Health - A real new wave gem. I could imagine Devo doing this one justice.
     

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