Doing The Best For You I like Dave's softer singing here and the song appears to be higher on the scale of concision and structure which is great though i concur that that synth riff may take more getting used to. Prefer the solo guitar work here but it is way to short, thems the breaks!
This is tricky. Right now I am in such a “Kinks and only Kinks“ mode that I’m going to have trouble approaching this album with the open mind it’s going to clearly require. It’s not the kinks, it’s Dave solo. It’s not going to sound like the kinks, or why would he bother doing a solo album? But I WANT it to sound like the kinks and that’s the problem. I am measuring each one of the songs on this album to see if it would fit on my Kinks playlist for the Arista era. I love Dave’s work within the kinks, but I don’t envision I would make a separate Dave Davies playlist, because a bit like Will Farrell, he is great in small doses. Maybe a better analogy would be Keith Richards. I love the Stone. I love when Keith Richards sings a song (or even sometimes two) on a stones album. But every time I make a Keith Richards playlist, I never play it, probably because I would rather hear the stones. I’m not going to opine yet on today’s two songs. I need a bit more time with them. I like the guitar work in the first one, though I haven’t yet got a feel for what he’s trying to achieve song-wise. It needs a few more plays to see if it crystallizes into a “song”. The second song sounds pretty good so far actually. I guess, like our fearless leader, the 80s sound doesn’t bother me. I hear the icey sounding synths and I just think, Aldo Nova, Foreigner, Journey. And I think to myself, why wouldn’t Dave try to incorporate that sound at that time? He is a guitar hero and if he’s going to do a solo album, he should do guitar heroics, and if he wants to be accepted by the masses as a guitar hero, why not incorporate his guitar heroics into the current song styles of the era. anyway, I am going to keep giving the album some spins over the weekend and hopefully be able to give some more definitive thoughts by Monday.
His name was Tony Kunewalder. We were inseparable, even when we were continents apart, from 8th grade till the day he died. Wrote together, shot together, traveled the world together. Thanks for the kind words.
In the United States, the first LP by The Kinks to feature (if that's the correct term) a barcode was Give the People What They Want—issued midsummer '81. ~Huck
DJ: Yes, I worked at Disneyland for five years in the ‘70s (great fun!) and quit in late August of ’80. This was pre-Eisner, pre-EPCOT—back when the park was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter and still run by people who’d worked with and for Walt Disney, himself. It was quite a different place than it is now. We were well paid, there were fewer than 2,000 year-round employees and management tried hard to fit schedules around school and other pursuits (such as playing in a band!). Like many of my friends there, I’d first been offered a ride operator position but had heard that sweepers had a lot more fun and only made a nickel less per hour than the ROs (we were ALF-CIO while they were Teamsters) so I waited until there was an open sweeping position. Allowing for night differential (no longer offered) and foreman rate, I'm told I made more back in 1977 than the typical sweeper earns now. Sheesh. We typically walked 30 miles a day, had keys that opened up pretty much everything at the place and were able to spend more than a fair amount of time chatting up the many cute outdoor foods girls selling popcorn, etc. All this and many of my workmates were enthusiastic fans of The Kinks! So, we often traveled as a group (with girlfriends and wives in tow) to see the boys play whenever they were anywhere near Southern California. Ain’t life somethin’?!? ~Huck
"Where Do You Come From?" I like the opening instrumental section, but once Dave starts singing the song gets on my nerves a little. There’s not much to make the song memorable to me. Definitely not a song you want to listen to when you have a headache. "Doing The Best For You" This one I like a lot better, musically. At least there’s a discernible melody. Not a big fan of the song lyrically. Speaking of the melody, I hear a strong resemblance to Mason Williams “Classical Gas,” a tune I hadn’t thought about in ages.
Interesting: so it was a pretty new thing at the time. There’s a Clash single from circa this era that has a silhouette of a hand flipping the bird superimposed over it’s bar code: I guess that represents another acts small statement of rebellion through graphic design against the widespread adoption of this system.
It must have been a fun time for you. When I went there in 1988, it was w/a friend of my friend who was a voice actress and who went there so many times that she actually had a yearly pass like people back here having a pass to get on the trains and buses. She showed me to a place that was somewhat hidden where she said that the Disney family still had a private apartment.
It was indeed strange when supermarket checkout clerks stopped calling out prices and instead scanned each item’s Universal Product Code. As that started happening in Southern California (at many stores, anyway) in early 1979, we all assumed it wouldn’t be long before barcode usage spread to albums and just about everything else. At the time, I recall reading several indignant rants from musicians who were against the darn things “sullying” the fine art that were their album covers… so, your reference to that Clash single makes perfect sense. Of course, we know who ultimately won that fight in the long run, don’t we? :/
Wow, Our Headmaster knows his stuff! Did you own a Ford Falcon that used plenty of oil filters? It always amazes me that you Aussies took a car like the Ford Falcon and developed it many years after the original US model left the market in 1970.
1960-2016 for the Aussie made Falcon. For many years it was the Falcon - base Fairmont - bit more flash Fairlane - luxury I worked in two different Ford parts places... simple storeman work while I was rehearsing and playing in the band ... I had fun at those places, I was carefree back in those days... One time i poured a bunch of powdered sugar on the bench, chopped it into big ol' lines, waited for the boss to come, and snorted it all as he walked up Lol... he just walked away.. ahhh memories...
Where Do You Come From? You Don't Know My Name. Where Do You Come From? Are You Ready? You could make a little dialog out of Dave song titles... I like the instrumental beginning. The cymbal work is almost jazz like... Mick would be proud. But then the shredding guitar does scream 1980s. This is certainly not a Kinks song of the 60s and 70s, that's for sure! Not my favorite style of music, but there are some lead guitar melodies in there. Doing the Best For You I like the synth melody here. The distorted guitar/synth combo is interesting... The verses.. It almost seems like he's making it up as he goes along? Sometimes an extra word seems to be tossed in there, and I am not sure if it belongs in the previous line of the verse or the next line of the verse. Overall, I like Dave's voice here much better. Still digesting these songs though...
What, no Kwack Kinks or More Kinks on Pie? ;p Two of my favorite Kinks compilations… both purchased upon release way back in 1983 from the sorely missed Zed Records in Long Beach, CA. They're gold, I tells ya, pure GOLD! ~Huck
I think we talked about those albums earlier in the thread. Rather imaginative titles & artwork, I must say.
That's great! How did it feel? In high school at a party some friends gave a really drunk guy we knew a line of salt told him it was coke...it didn't end well.
Oh, sorry… I apologize about that. While I have followed this thread from day one, I was in North Carolina working crazy long hours on a movie for much of spring/early summer 2021 and obviously missed the earlier reference to these Japanese releases. A pox upon me! I was just thinking if they were going to ever pop up, they’d pop up soon having been issued in 1983. Anyway, sorry… carry on! I’ll attempt to do better in the future. Honest. ~Huck P.S. As a sign of sincere contrition, please allow me to contribute a scan of my Imaginations Real/Wild Man promo 45 procured in early 1981 from the fine folks at KNAC (broadcasting from high atop the Farmers & Merchants Bank in downtown Long Beach) after they decided they’d never (ever) play the thing.
I don't know if you've noticed but we talk about all kinds of stuff lol ... No Apologies Necessary ... and I may end up doing a compile day or two or something like that, in the midst of the albums, because the official ones are supposedly what I have there, but there are a ton
Lord help me, but I’m really starting to like this album, what a nice surprise! Here’s the thing, it fits perfectly into a listening niche I have, the “after work put some music on to feel human again and put together something to eat” niche. In order for an album to work in this scenario, it has to have a high and consistent level of energy to snap you out of the work-zombie state. It needs to be loud enough to not be drowned out by the clamor of dishes, pots and pans. It can’t be too “difficult” or demand constant attention, because you just want to relax and need to focus on dinner. AFL1 has a great consistency to it from song to song so if you have to step into the other room you don’t feel like you are going to miss anything important. It also has a nice album flow, swapping between harder rockers to cleaner guitar sounds with poppy beats, but all the songs have similar feel and tempo - and there is a lack of dull sections, somber moments, or drawn out interludes. The lyrics don’t demand any focus, which is actually a nice break from brainy Ray. It’s perfect for passive listening. On the other hand, when you do pay attention, it sounds good- the guitars actually sound great, and of course they do, this is Dave Davies, the man knows how to create a great guitar tone! I also really like the fact that there are barely any cymbals played, which is wild - I like the space that leaves in the upper frequencies for the guitar and Daves vocals, and it gives the album a unique sound, seems to me. Where Do You Come From has an interesting and long intro (nearly 2 minutes!), i really like the chorused guitar figure played over the 7 beat bar. There’s also some interesting chord changes here that return as the bedrock for the vocal. It’s rocking but has a modern feel a bit towards prog but never quite gets there, it stays in this inbetween land, pretty unique I would say. Doing the Best for You- love the echoey piano, the great clean sound and insistent beat. Some earth shaking guitar comes in before the chorus, then a nice transition back to the clean beat and echoey piano. Nice vocals from Dave here as well. Throughout this song the sound is always changing, light then heavy, it never rests for long - I find that appealing. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t skip Kinks school this week!
You notice in Doing The Best For You, Dave is still at his odd meter tricks during the verses with a bar of 2/4 snuck in there each time through. I doubt any of these odd time signature things were intentional. I don’t think any of the original band could read music. I think he came up with whatever melody or riff he wanted and it just happened to be in something other than 4/4. I love these little kwirks.
According to Wiki: The first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack (50 sticks) of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, purchased at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974.[7] The NCR cash register rang up 67 cents.
