Today’s three: omg, what the?, and “I got tired of those administrations caught with their trousers down”? Not for me at all. A very disappointing album. Dave’s reinvented his vocal sound (there’s no way anyone could think “Ronnie Lane” while listening to this) and I’m really baffled how/why RCA signed him as a solo artist. Sorry to be the thread downer for the day but I simply don’t hear anything interesting on this platter.
Thanks for posting this, Avid Pyrrhicvictory. Mark Teehan's articles, which can be found in KindaKinks.net, basically gives you a history on how US Top 40 radio worked in the 1960s, using the Kinks' early singles. I also would like to know how & why "Superman" and "Do It Again" both stalled at #41.
"Wild Man" was actually on the UK edition of Unfinished Business. It sounds like a B side, but not a hidden treasure one, unfortunately. It's a good thing to have Dave express himself and there are a few songs of his latter career that I do enjoy, but generally he's not my cuppa tea. Let's get back On The Road w/the Kinks.
In You I Believe This song helped me through relationship woes in summer ‘88 so it’ll always be special to me. I’ve been lucky enough to see Dave perform this song (or at least part of it) live a couple times, always on acoustic guitar. And it stood up well. Run Another sentimental favorite as this was a song my mom(!) loved and would sing along to. As @Fortuleo reminds us (me) the ending is gorgeous, something I may have missed in younger years due to an eagerness to flip the album over and listen again. But back to mom, she was 59 in 1988 and mostly listened to country, Freddie Fender in particular. She also had a handful of Abba singles. How Dave got in the mix is lost to time but who had that triumvirate in the pools? I once asked her what it was about this song that appealed to her and her reply was ‘the drums’. When I relayed this to Dave after a show at the Turning Point in Piermont NY he smiled and thought I was taking the piss! Wild Man As I’ve noted before I played the heck out of this glorious mess of a song. Kudos to @mark winstanley for even attempting to transcribe this lyric. I happen to love that section where it seems the song will come apart like a wet paper bag and then somehow recovers. AFL1-3603 Subjective grade: B Objective grade : C
To be honest I just got the lyrics from kindakinks.net lol After years of trying to decipher lyrics for cover bands in the late eighties, I'm over it lol
Life got in the way so I wasn't able to properly listen to/comment upon this LP song-by-song. I did listen to bits & pieces when I was able to grab a moment -- probably not the best way to absorb it. Many of the songs seemed to end in fade-outs that didn't feel like proper resolutions. And yes even banishing the Kinks comparisons, pretending it was 1980 & I was hearing the album for the first time, there was a definite sense of "what's up with all the screaming?"
He was introducing screamo to the general public... so now Dave is responsible for the whole metal genre
Ok getting my walking papers today. Looking forward to catching up as this is where I came in and will always be MY Kinks. Thank you for all the well wishes. I’m gonna be ok. Time to ROCK
I found this RS review of Dave’s album tacked onto the One For the Road album review: Perhaps the single biggest factor in the resurgence of the Kinks as a hot live act has been Dave Davies. Except for a period during the early Seventies when he sulked on stacked heels while older brother Ray camped it up, Dave has always been the epitome of a ripped-pants, skin-it-back, roadhouse Johnny B. Goode. On his first solo album, AFLI-3603, Dave Davies finally gets a chance to see where his own extravagant tastes might lead him. His wryness has often threatened to turn brutal, so naming the LP after its catalog number (with a blown-up universal pricing code replacing the artist’s portrait on the front cover) is an entirely characteristic bit of social comment. Dave Davies’ lyrics reveal a man contrary and anarchic to a degree that would probably have shaken up 1976’s most antipro-grammatic punk. He matches a hip-socking Eddie Cochran guitar style to the barbaric vocal yawp of Little Richard. It’d take a long time to explain the pulse acceleration that hits me when Dave drops a couple of random power chords into his torrid treatment of “Nothin’ More to Lose”: “Well if we’re all so clever and technology rules/Why is it we’re so scared/I got a rocking psychosis/And my juke box has blown a fuse.” Though this Dave Davies-dominated disc (besides producing, he plays most of the instruments throughout) boasts the trebly echo and buzz-bomb dynamics of heavy metal, it’s really the cat-in-heat, rockabilly hiccuping that Dave displays in songs like “Move Over” that makes AFLI-3603 so distinctive in its honest frenzy.” End Dave section of RS review
In You I Believe The bass part is pretty... basic. Basically just playing on the quarter note. I would compare it to something by, say, Survivor. And I like several Survivor songs. About halfway through those, there is a bit of bass melody along with that verse for a while. So it's not just the straight quarter notes throughout the WHOLE song. I like the space that is allowed in this song. It's not overdone, and there are some good lead guitar lines as we get to the outro and fade. Run Love the various guitar overlays and more gentle vocals here by Dave. He even quotes a Ray song... "nothing lasts forever"! This one has grown me as I've listened several times over the past few days. Not sure how it works as a closer per se, but the album does end with a quality song. And the last minute or so is sublime. Perhaps my favorite of the album. Which is funny, because the outro of Ray's Nothing Lasts Forever is perhaps my favorite minute of Preservation Act 2! Wild Man Listened to this a few times over this week. I didn't realize this was a B-Side and thought it was the album closer as it appears on Spotify. All that said, this style is not my favorite, but it does seem to foreshadow some early-mid 80s hair metal. He's got those high-pitched (almost like blips) ending of some of his vocal lines, and I forget who, was it @Michael Streett who couldn't stand those blips in one of those Decade tracks? AFL1-3603 Overall, like @Fortuleo I tend to prefer to gentler pop songs here than the guitar shredding, but say what you will, Dave can shred with the best of them. I probably won't come back to this one though much in the future.
I'm with you! Thank goodness this is over! I have nothing positive to say about these last three songs, and I don't have it in me to listen to them again. I find this album embarrassing and awful on many levels, but this is a type of music that I just don't connect with. I will be shocked if there is another album on this thread that I dislike more. The bad news is this part of Dave sneaks in on all the remaining Kinks albums. The good news is Ray keeps it balanced and returns us to more of a Kinks style that we love so much. Also, Dave has my favorite song on an upcoming album, so all hope is not lost. Anyone want a record? This one will never make it on my turntable again. Message me your address and AFL1-3603 can be all yours.
In You I Believe Good and heavy.... and yed the very heavy handed hammering on the beat wears on me had this becomes a hard-to-take plodder for me, even before the first change up. Lots to like, but that hammering 1*2*3*4 keeps me from fully getting there. Run Dave seems to have a talent for these moderate tempo ballads. The guitars are used as well here as in any song on the album, as is Dave's voice. Wild Man What Mark said.
AFL-1-3603 in summary. As solo LPs of legendary band members go, it’s not the letdown many of them are. It’s just not my taste. In both his work with the Kinks and solo, it is apparent Dave is gifted with a strong sense of melody as both a writer and guitarist. This strength is found in snips and snatches through out his debut solo album. There are some real ear worms to be found here if one has the patience to dig past the bloated lyrics and overdone production. Very few songs sustain my interest over the entire length, but there are enough ear worm-ish moments to stick to the ribs. I wish there was a moderating influence in the producer seat to balance things out, or perhaps a co-writer to help reign in his lyrics. As a lyricist I find Dave is at his worst when he believes he is making a deep insight or biting social commentary. His best is when he is simply being poetically romantic in a direct way. There is not enough of the later, and too much of the former. With better lyrics I would be curious to hear stripped down unplugged re-arrangements of some of these numbers. It might work better for me. But there was probably a marketing encouragement to play up Dave Davies Guitar hero, which drove this entire project. There was potential with this album, but I think it was missed because no one called Dave out when he was going too far. His voice is what it is. If a fan has come this far before exploring this album they should know what to expect. I never made the “sounds like Journey” connection until someone brought it up in this thread. I can hear that now, and perhaps that best explains my lack of connection with this LP, as I am as far as one can get from being a Journey fan. Still, back in the day I bought and listened to this disc over and over as a fan of all things Kinks-related, force feeding myself AFL-1-3603 like someone does a vegetable he doesn’t like, believing eventually I’ll start loving the thing. But 2022, I still don’t love it. I barely even like it. Except for the few fleeting moments here and there of memorable hooks. Still, I don’t plan on throwing this away. I’ll even listen to it again down the road, when it comes up when I am randomly playing things on my i-tunes and I’m too lazy to skip ahead. Still, great cover and packaging.
Unashamed Catch Up Attempt: 70s albums: Lola vs ... Sleepwalker Schoolboys in Disgrace Misfits Muswell Hillbillies Low Budget Everybody's in Showbiz (A) Soap Opera Preservation Percy Preservation 2 And the chasm between top and bottom isn't that large. This thread has brought a lot to the table. I mean my 5 year old's favorite songs are Ducks on The Wall and Hot Potatoes now so how bad can life be?
The Kinks One For The Road - An All Time Classic. One for the Road Live album by the Kinks Released 4 June 1980 (US) (record and cassette) 25 June 1980 (US) (video) 1 August 1980 (UK) Recorded 3 March 1979 – 4 March 1980 Genre Rock Length 77:21 Label Arista Producer Ray Davies Produced by: Ray Davies Release date: 1 Aug, 1980 Record label & catalog #: Arista DARTY 6 Country: UK Format: 12" vinyl 2-LP set (double album), 33 1/3 RPM Release type: Regular release Side 1 1. Opening live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York 2. The Hard Way live, stereo mix, recorded 3 Mar, 1979 at The Barn, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 3. Catch Me Now I'm Falling live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 4. Where Have All The Good Times Gone live, stereo mix (2:16), recorded 6 Mar, 1979 at Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts 5. Introduction to Lola live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 6. Lola live, stereo mix (4:48), recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 7. Pressure live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island Side 2 1. All Day And All Of The Night live, stereo mix, recorded 3 Mar, 1979 at The Barn, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 2. 20th Century Man live, stereo mix, recorded 3 Mar, 1979 at The Barn, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 3. Misfits live, stereo mix, recorded (probably) 23 Sep, 1979 at (probably) Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 4. Prince Of The Punks live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York 5. Stop Your Sobbing live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York Side 3 1. Low Budget live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 2. Attitude live, stereo mix, recorded 11 Nov, 1979 at Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland 3. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman live, stereo mix, recorded 11 Nov, 1979 at Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland 4. National Health live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York Side 4 1. Till The End Of The Day live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York 2. Celluloid Heroes live, stereo mix (7:21), recorded 11 Nov, 1979 at Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland 3. You Really Got Me live, stereo mix, recorded 6 Mar, 1979 at Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts 4. Victoria live, stereo mix, recorded (probably) 11 Nov, 1979 at (probably) Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland 5. David Watts live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York Liner Notes: Musicians: RAY DAVIES: Lead Vocals, Guitar DAVE DAVIES: Lead Guitar, Background Vocals MICK AVORY: Drums JIM RODFORD: Bass, Background Vocals IAN GIBBONS: Keyboards, Background Vocals Keyboard Parts on "All Day And All Of The Night" and "You Really Got Me" overdubbed by Ian Gibbons Additional Keyboards: Nick Newall PRODUCED AND MIXED BY RAY DAVIES Recorded by: Mike Moran/RCA Mobile Truck Arnie Rosenberg/Roadmaster II Barry Ainesworth/Mobile I Brooks Taylor/Showco, Inc. Mixed at Blue Rock Studios, New York Engineer: Michael Ewaskow & at Konk Studios, London Art Direction: Howard Fritzson Cover Photography: Lauren Recht ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm assuming this album will be another that divides the folks here, but I guess it's going to depend on the perspective from which you look at this album.... This isn't a Greatest Hits album This isn't a nostalgia act live album It isn't concerned with trying to replicate the past, in most senses It isn't whimsical and reflective, for the most part. What this album is, is a live compilation from the successful US/Euro tour, of a successful US album release. Low Budget is the most successful album the Kinks released in the US, and aside from the nonsensical result of the Kinks first three albums being their highest charting albums in the UK, and also doing very well in Germany, it is their highest charting album. Low Budget 11 One For The Road 14 Give The People What They Want 15 State Of Confusion 12 This is the most successful period the Kinks had with the record buying public, and aside from an early compilation, Low Budget, One For The Road and Give The People What They Want are the only albums certified for the band in the US, Achieving Gold status - 500,000 sales, certified within 12 months of their releases, and never revisited for updates. Early on in the Kinks career, they seemed to get tagged as somewhat second raters when it came to playing live, and their contemporaries seemed to get all the kudos. During the early seventies they were seen as somewhat boozy and disheveled, scrappy and all sorts of other descriptions that we here would probably to some degree argue against, or rationalise As much as the majority of people reject the majority of the RCA years as rubbish, self indulgent, impenetrable, and again, a whole load of other descriptors, one thing that did come from those RCA years, regardless of what anyone thought of the material, was a certain familiarity with showmanship that became more and more present, particularly in Ray. Also what we saw was the necessary tightening of the band as a live unit. When we hit the Arista years, and the death of the concept album, and not just for the Kinks, aside from some notable exceptions concept albums were pretty much frowned on by the majority, particularly record labels, Ray moved into more subtle themed albums that had subtle threads, rather than expansive, deep, and hard to engage stories, and it opened up the band's music to a lot more people. We have looked at the albums, and as we could probably have judged before we even started the thread, we have as many varying opinions as there are songs on Sleepwalker, Misfits and Low Budget, but we also have a bunch of folks here that are more music obsessives and aficionados than they are average Joe Blow record buyers.... so there's that.... By the time we get to One For The Road, we have the Kinks having pretty much rebuilt a fanbase that was unfairly cut off for 5 years in their heyday .... but it is more than likely a completely different fanbase, with a few hardcore longtime fans in there for good measure. Over this period of time the band had started to make their live shows more concise and less rambling, for want of a better word. They also had a batch of great new material to draw from. They also had, pretty much, hit albums to draw from, as well as the older hit singles of the past. They had also, over the majority of the seventies, been tightening up their live shows to be something a little above what they had been prior. There is nothing wrong with a loose and free and easy delivery of live tracks, but with that, and the fights on stage, and all the other stuff we have read about, it isn't something that is going to draw many people consistently, and we can argue of the virtues of one verses the other, but at the end of the day, b*ms on seats are what it is all about if you want the band to remain in existence. The band had clawed their way back into contention, even with Ray writing a couple of songs that would have really ruffled a few feathers, even back in the more carefree seventies... The band were back from the brink of extinction and now were in the mix, and for a 16 year old band that had never really fulfilled their commercial potential, that is remarkable in itself. There are some pretty noticeable differences between the album and video versions of the songs here, and I can only assume that, being from the same tour, that this speaks to some studio sweetening on the album..... There will always be debates about live albums and whether there should or shouldn't be overdubs, and whether they should even exist for many.... I am not particularly concerned about overdubs on live albums, because I try to look at it realistically.... At a concert, you are in a loud boisterous crowd absorbing the atmosphere as much as anything else... In fact, I think it's fair to say that the atmosphere is a large percentage of what makes a live concert the event that it is, and that cannot be captured on tape, no matter how much people talk about a live album capturing an atmosphere... It really can't, all it can capture is sound. The atmosphere and the environment of the gig aren't really much to do with sound, and that's why, no matter how good a concert album or video is, it is not the same as being at a concert .... even if you got 5000 people around your house to listen to the album/watch the video, it still wouldn't be the same, because stereo speakers and musical instrument speakers are also different beasts..... Now as for overdubs.... I don't care what performer you are talking about, there will be flubs at a live show.... that is just the nature of a live show, and human beings. At a concert and physically present, you don't really notice these things, because they are there and gone, and the whole atmosphere of the crowd and the show pretty much overrides anything to do with the odd flat vocal, the odd b*m note .... and the physical presence of the band, there just in front of you, brings a whole different perspective and feel also.... on an album though, the bloopers stand out, and are there for eternity on repeat... so to make an album listenable for the majority, almost always things like that are smoothed out of the picture .... It is a balancing act, and there is a fine line between capturing the show, and having an album that reflects the show well, and having a stale studio replication with a crowd track added, which has certainly happened, but that isn't what we have here. A good example of all this is the Kiss Alive album. The band had recorded three studio albums that were poorly recorded and produced and failed to capture what the band sounded like. They released Alive and suddenly the band were in the picture. There is a raw urgency and a great sound that really does reflect what the band sound like in concert, which is how those songs were designed to be heard. The overdubs on it are neither as bad as some people who hate the band suggest, nor are they as limited as some of the fans suggest, but at the end of the day it is a great sounding rock album that presents the band in a better way than the studio albums did. For me that is somewhat what we have here with One For The Road. It is a predominantly live album, that presents the band's songs, or the majority of them at least, in a better, more rock and roll sound, than the studio albums did .... and you know I'm not dissing the studio albums there, because I gather you all realise I like/love them by now. The Kelvin Hall live album is a nice historical document, and I believe it made some songs available that weren't easily accessible for fans at the time, but essentially it is not really well recorded, doesn't sound particularly good, and fails to be a particularly great album.... or really, even a particularly good album. Everybody's In Showbiz was somewhat of an experiment with a studio album, and a tacked on edited live album .... and although the lot of us were somewhat coming at the live album from different angles, I think it is fair to say that the live album captures some good tracks, and a fairly rough idea of the kinds of things the band did live, but it is nowhere near a complete live album, and it is somewhat weakened by a little too much of a leaning towards the live novelty tracks like Baby Face and the Banana Boat song.... I understand why they were on there, they hadn't been on the albums and so they were something new for the fans, but they are hardly top class Kinks songs, and the album either needed to be a full show, for context, or it should have purely been Kinks songs, and perhaps one of these novelty sideline songs, to represent a Kinks show of the time in a more balanced light. With One For The Road we get something completely different again... this is the tour for the Low Budget album, so there are a lot of Low Budget tracks on here, and for those that don't like the album, I guess that is problematic, but these versions are very different to the album versions. These sound more like what I think the majority of us would have liked the album to sound like. A straight up rock band playing some great rock songs, with straight rock sounds. On the album Ray leaned towards some of the modern sounds (of the day) and used those to try and make the album sound contemporaneous.... which doesn't necessarily suit everyone, particularly folks that don't like late seventies and early eighties music. Here though we have pretty much raw straight rock music, with tight arrangements suited to a live scenario, and for all the pros and cons of the arrangements, which I am certain will arise during the discussions, this album represents this tour by the band, better than any of their previous attempts do, and by a very long way.. Another thing is, this album launched the band into the homes of thousands of us, who didn't really know much about the Kinks, except for the three or four songs we had heard on the radio, if we were lucky. Whether any one likes it or not, the fact of the matter is, this was a huge album for the Kinks, and the momentum it created in this latter stage of their career, gave them the momentum to survive and actually thrive for several more albums... with the next two studio albums continuing to lean on the success that the Low Budget album, and subsequent concert album, One For The Road actually set up. On this album Dave Davies shines, and his tone and attack are highlights quite frequently. After most of the seventies being sat in the background while Ray wandered the fields with his muse, Dave comes from behind the wall to stamp his name on the guitar sound that brought the Kinks to the forefront in 1964, and lead to the Kinks being early leaders in the sixties rock and roll revolution. For the most part the arrangements update the songs to sound current and there is also a unity of sound between the tracks. Of course this will annoy some, because the songs don't sound like they did in the early seventies, but it is almost 1980, so that would go without saying anyway. Ray is playful and singing up a storm. He is no longer the drunken vaudeville performer here, he is the rock and roll preacher delivering the gospel according to Ray. Even though some of the quirky little sidelines that the band often put in the shows in the early seventies are missing, I don't think they are really logically missed. We have great song after great song, delivered with the appropriate emotion each song requires. This was my first Kinks album, and without it, I may have never bought an album by the band, and although this album certainly doesn't set one up for the sixties material, in the early eighties when I first got and heard this, we were a long way from the sixties, and although, or in fact even though the sixties may well be the peak creativity of the band and Ray's writing, there is still a freshness and fire in this album. The band are not going through the motions. They are not just popping out the oldies to satisfy the fans of yesteryear. This is a band looking to the present and the future, and doing a fine job of it. So let us know your thoughts about this album.. When did you first hear it? What did you think then? What do you think now?
One For The Road - concert video. Here is the review I did for the Live On Saturdays thread May 23 2021 Live on Saturdays: Video Reviews and Summaries The Kinks – One For The Road Label: Velvel – VEL-DV-79818, Konk – VEL-DV-79818 Format: DVD, DVD-Video Country: US Released: 2006 Genre: Rock Style: Classic Rock Bass – John Rodford* Drums – Mick Avory Guitar, Vocals – Dave Davies Keyboards – Ian Gibbons Vocals, Guitar – Ray Davies 1 Introduction 2 All Day And All Of The Night 3 Lola 4 Low Budget 5 Superman 6 Attitude 7 Celluloid Heroes 8 The Hard Way 9 Where Have All The Good Times Gone 10 You Really Got Me 11 Pressure 12 Catch Me Now I'm Falling 13 Victoria ------------------------------------------------- The Kinks are one of my favourite bands. They covered so much music, and essentially had their own style. Starting off as a British beat band of the sixties, with that somewhat R&B, variation on the US sound, they quickly developed into their own band. From pretty much the very start, they were innovators, and moved through so many different styles within a short period of time. One of their earliest singles, You Really Got Me is basically the prototype for hard rock/metal/punk/ and garage rock. They played around with this technique in several songs, but also moved in vastly different fields. See My Friends is an Indian inspired piece of music with a tilt towards psychedelia, before that was really a thing, and also pre-dates the Beatles journey's into raga. They had thematic singles with A and B sides that worked thematically, sometimes in unison, and sometimes polar opposites, but presented in such a way that it is hard to avoid the fact that they were themed. The band was banned from touring the US for a number of years, because when they went over there, the industry folks were disturbed at the fighting between the brothers, and thought they were a menace or something ... This actually enabled Ray Davies the main writer for the band to refocus himself, and it gave him the freedom to explore his Englishness via song, and over a five or six year period they released some of the best albums that the sixties ever produced. To some degree these albums have been seriously underappreciated, partly due to the ban limiting the bands exposure. Partly due to the fact that although they were a top class band, they were on a second class label. The band didn't have the industry clout and equipment of most of the other bands at the time, and in spite of their brilliant groundbreaking work, they tended to sit behind the crowd for the majority of music listeners. Ray Davies himself is among the most under appreciated song writers of the sixties and seventies, and I guess that is partly due to Ray just doing whatever he wanted and not really pandering to the market or expectations. I think the early albums - Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola and Muswell Hillbillies, are essential albums for any music lovers collection. The band, or likely more particularly Ray moved into doing Thematic, play type albums... generally referred to as Rock Operas, but that's somewhat selling the albums short, because really they were a somewhat natural carry on from the Music Hall influences that had covered the albums listed above. Somewhat typically these albums were filled with pop/rock hits like Lola and Apeman, and the dozens prior to those, and so a lot of folks didn't really get into that idea.... yet they are very good albums, that thematically work, and get across the message that he was trying to send. The first series of these albums were Preservation Act I and Act II, which to me are both excellent albums, and almost certainly a natural follow on from the Village Green Preservation Society album. A Soap Opera and Schoolboys In Disgrace followed, both in 1975, and then Ray changed direction again. Much to the chagrin of some Kinks fans the band altered their focus, and started making more typical rock music albums, but the thing is for thirteen years they had been experimenting and pushing boundaries and exploring many facets of music. They had explored just about every angle you could about England and English society, and Ray redirected his attentions to other areas. With this came a more stripped down rock sound.... essentially it was a going back to the roots of the band, Your Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night, Till The End Of The Day, Where Have All The Good Times Gone, but of course instead of being seen as a return to roots by some, it was seen as selling out to the US market ... which I think is a little short sighted, and tends to ignore who the band started off as. It is essentially the band coming full circle after a glorious journey through many different streams and fields. This all culminated in the album Low Budget coming out in 1979, which was the band's top charting album in the US, hitting number 11. The band went on a tour and the live album One For The Road came out in 1980. One For The Road was my first Kinks album, and even though it has studio additions to it, it is one of my favourite live albums of all time. In the early 2000's I suddenly noticed there was a dvd of One For The Road, and of course I had to get it. It is quite different to the album, and it captures the band firing on all cylinders in the world of rock. For some it will be disappointing because it doesn't have Waterloo Sunset, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Dead End Street, Mr Pleasant, and a plethora of quirky and unforgettable Kinks songs from the sixties, but the band were trying something different, and they were doing it well. They were claiming their rightful crown as the originators of hard rock essentially, and why shouldn't they.... Initially I was somewhat disappointed with the dvd, because it is only 60 minutes, and lots of stuff from the album I would have loved wasn't there, but that is an expectations related issue, not a quality issue. Hopefully one day we can get perhaps the full show, but for now, I am content with what we were given. As I am such a cyclical listener, I haven't listened to/watched this in ages.... and last night while I was off in la la land I put youtube on and Celluloid Heroes came on from this disc, and so today, I wanted to give it a listen/watch.... Sorry about the rambling.... I guess that's just how I feel today Sadly the dvd is nearly a hundred bucks on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Kinks-One-Road/dp/B000GNOGUQ Completely unavailable on discogs There are a lot of copies on ebay from between about $25 - $80 the kinks one for the road dvd | eBay Ultra Music Store has the Russian version of this, with the full cd (not a cdr) and the dvd for about $16 Euros (be aware that it says it is not a secured site) THE KINKS "One for the road" CD+DVD set in digipack We have three audio settings AC3 Dave Davies commentary And original mono The intro is an instrumental version of You Really Got Me, it is edited for the video, and is a snippet. All Day And All If The Night Ray is bouncing around like a madman, and I reckon Doc Neesan of the Angel's may have been inspired by Ray. During the show Ray picks up and puts down his guitar. He picks it up here for Dave to let loose with a lead break. Dave is a very underrated guitarist, not a flash meister, but a really solid rock guitarist who is versatile enough to cover the bases. We have a 4:3 ratio video, and the quality is good. I would guess it was shot on videotape, but the clarity is solid, and very watchable. I think All Day.... is an edited version, compared to the album, but they could be from different shows, although I don't think they are. Also it is obviously from late in the set, but put up front. After All Day.... we get a short back stage sequence, introducing the band members with subtitles as they walk out to the stage... it isn't distracting, or like a doco insert, the concert maintains its flow. Lola was a big track for the band, and was the signal that the band was able to return to the US. Here we get the famous intro where Ray plays the opening chords, and then says, we're not going to play that one tonight... the showman aspect of Ray is often overlooked, and he brings his love of theater to the band's live shows. We get the title track of the touring album, Low Budget. This is a great rock song, and Ray is in full entertainer mode. Vocal accents and revving the crowd up are entertaining. The band is super tight and firing on all cylinders. Superman live is excellent, and loses a few of the effects of the album version. Ray's lyric works so very well. A gentle stab at the state of the world, with a self deprecating tilt. This song is just another brilliant Kinks song. I'm pretty sure this is slightly extended from the album version. This is a high energy performance, everyone is right into it, and knocking it out of the park. Attitude is a straight ahead rocker, with a bit of a punkish feel. It's a little more smooth, but the heart of it is rough and ready. Another great lyric, and performance. Celluloid Heroes.... this is one of my favourite songs of all time. The music is great, and the lyrics are simply wonderful. We open up with a bit of a jam on the theme, and then move into the song. We get video of the crowd getting tickets and assembling in the arena, and the band backstage. We get back to the stage at the verse before Dave's melodic lead break. The Hard Way is from Schoolboys in Disgrace. Ray puts on an old man mask, taking on the guise of the headmaster. This is a great rock song, and shows part of why Schoolboys is a better album than often suggested. Where Have All The Good Times Gone, is another Kinks track that Van Halen covered. We open with a quick snippet of archive footage of the band back in the sixties, as this was off their third album, Kontroversy. The old footage and new smoothly work together. Another great version of the song. You Really Got Me opens with a tease chord. Then takes off at a rate of knots. This is an adrenaline pumped version, with the band and the crowd feeding off each other nicely. Dave drops to his knees to burst into the lead break, and some idiot grabs his fretboard, Dave pushes his hands away, and gets up and continues his lead. Pressure is another light speed rocker, and another great lyric. Again off the new album. The band were never afraid to lead with the new material, and were far from a nostalgia act..... which is the likely reason for omitting a lot of the sixties hits. This is prime, grade A beef rock music. Here we get the titles rolling, and the band leaving the stage.... the crowd are obviously pumped up... Another great new track, Catch Me Now I'm Falling. Sure it has the Stones Jack Flash riff, but it is a variant, and the song goes off on many different tangents. This is Ray looking at the US and its state in the late seventies, but ties in with the idea of an individual as well. Another great live performance. Victoria opens the classic Arthur album, and stylistically suits this hard rocking version of the band. This is just a great live performance, and everyone is having a blast. The crowd is rapturous and even though the house lights come on, the folks of Providence want more.... just a great show. Just having a quick listen to Dave's commentary. He is in the centre and the music is spread more, and Dave is just making little comments. Some of it is very interesting, some of it is just little comments. The special features starts with Kinkdom, an interactive map of the London tube system, with a lot of selectable places on the map, with a loop of a tube station announcer. Simply select the location, and it links to a video snippet of the location and a little snippet of the relevance to the Kinks ie Soho - seedy part of London where Lola was met. Kassner Publishing 25 Denmark street where the band got their first publishing deal. There is a trivia game, with questions and multiple choice answers. You answer the questions and get Celluloid Heroes as a bonus with video of Dave doing his commentary. The discography is a simple scroll through, 5-ish album covers, titles and year released per screen. I suppose in some ways this is a slightly flawed release, not in the quality of music or anything like that, more in the unusual way that it is set out. I may be very wrong, but I get the impression that there was footage missing, and perhaps that's why we don't get the full show ... perhaps it was just somebody's artistic choice to do it this way ... but regardless of all that, this is a fine document of the Kinks at the height of their US popularity, putting on a great rock show, that can easily be seen down the ages as a great rock show. I personally think that any serious Kinks fan, that hasn't got some particular dislike of the late seventies style of the band, would want this ... I also kind of feel that it may well bring interested observers into appreciating the band, as a great live outfit, with some remarkably good songs. I think the Kinks made some fantastic albums, and I would consider at the very least half a dozen of them essential classic albums of the rock era, but the band never really had a producer, like most of the big bands in the world of big time rock. So sometimes, in fact often, the band is presented well in the live environment where they just play their hearts out and Give The People What They Want. I reckon this is great and worth looking at. God Save The Kinks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not sure if that adds anything to the picture we're looking at or not, and I'll be going through the songs on the video as well as the songs on the album, so I guess we'll see where we end up.
The Live EP. Release info: Produced by: Ray Davies Release date: 11 Jul, 1980 Record label & catalog #: Arista ARIST 360 Country: UK Format: 7" vinyl EP, 45 RPM Release type: Regular release Tracks: A side 1. David Watts live, stereo mix, recorded 4 Mar, 1980 at Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York 2. Where Have All The Good Times Gone live, stereo mix (2:16), recorded 6 Mar, 1979 at Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts B side 1. Attitude live, stereo mix, recorded 11 Nov, 1979 at Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland 2. Victoria live, stereo mix, recorded (probably) 11 Nov, 1979 at (probably) Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland Prior to 1980 The Kinks hadn't released an EP in 9 years, but EP's had gone out of fashion with the advent of the album era. In June they had released the Waterloo Sunset EP, and in July this EP came out, likely to promote the live album.... We are looking at this now to tie it into the live album that it is essentially a sampler of.
The 1979 setlists paint a picture?. The Low Budget tour is represented by the One For The Road live album, but is the live album representative of the setlists from the 1979, Low Budget tour? Low Budget was released in July of 1979 in the US, so lets look at some setlists and get a feel for what the actual concerts were like..... Aug 16 1979, Universal Amphitheater CA. Sleepwalker Where Have All the Good Times Gone Life on the Road Permanent Waves A Well Respected Man Death of a Clown Sunny Afternoon Misfits / I'm on an Island Lola Low Budget (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman Catch Me Now I'm Falling You Really Got Me A Gallon Of Gas Alcohol Celluloid Heroes All Day And All Of The Night Pressure Twist And Shout The Hard Way Victoria Live Life Little Queenie The band did a series of 4 shows at the Universal Amphitheater, and for the most part the setlists for those shows seems to be longer than the regular setlists for the rest of the tour. Of course this is all based on setlist.fm ... here are some sets from the kindakinks.net website The Kinks Saturday, 15th September, 1979 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota Contributed by: Michael Bourdaghs (Opening Act: John Cougar & The Zone) Sleepwalker Life on the Road Permanent Waves Lola Misfits Low Budget Superman You Really Got Me Gallon of Gas (Extended instrumental intro) Celluloid Heroes (Extended instrumental intro) All Day and All of the Night 1st Encore: Pressure Twist and Shout 2nd Encore: Catch Me Now I'm Falling Live Life Bo Diddley-style instrumental number Setlist Munich,Germany, November 2, 1979 Sleepwalker Life on the road Where have all the good times gone Lola Misfits Low Budget Superman Catch me now I`m falling You really got me A gallon of gas Celluloid heroes All day & all of the night Encore 1: A well respected man/Death of a clown Attitude Encore 2: Pressure Twist & shout Setlist Düsseldorf,Germany, November 3, 1979 Sleepwalker Life on the road Where have all the good times gone Lola Misfits Low Budget Superman Catch me now I`m falling You really got me A gallon of gas Celluloid heroes A well respected man/Death of a clown/Sunny afternoon All day & all of the night Encore 1: Attitude Twist & shout Encore 2: Pressure Till the end of the day So for the most part we see quite short setlists on this tour it seems. There are some tracks left out of the live album, but they are tracks that generally appeared on the previous live albums. Probably the most interesting thing to me is the Sleepwalker tracks being MIA from the live album to be honest. I think they picked the best tracks for live performance from Sleepwalker in the shows, but they never made the album, which is interesting and a little odd, and I wonder if anyone can tell us why that might be.... the songs are certainly still current really, and it seems that the sets were generally introduced by two or three Sleepwalker tracks..... On setlist.fm I can only assume that the Sept. 9 show at Red Rocks CO. is incorrect, because it has 4 or 5 tracks from Give The People What They Want on it .... anybody know what happened there? The Kinks Setlist at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison So on the whole the live album represents the tour pretty well, aside from the missing Sleepwalker tracks, and a few oldies that were likely left off to remove any thought that the Kinks were now a legacy artist touring on the back of sixties hits.... which although probably irritating for fans who prefer that era, is the sensible move on the part of the band or management. The Providence show is where the video comes from, but the setlist on setlist.fm is essentially just what is on the concert video, or at least the dvd version I have, so I am not altogether sure that it is totally correct. The Switzerland show gets quite a few tracks on the live album, and here is the setlist from that night Nov. 11 1979, Vaulkshous, Switz. Sleepwalker / Tired of Waiting Till the End of the Day Where Have All the Good Times Gone Lola A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Low Budget (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman Catch Me Now I'm Falling You Really Got Me A Gallon of Gas Celluloid Heroes A Well Respected Man / Death of a Clown / Sunny Afternoon All Day And All Of The Night encore The Hard Way Pressure encore Victoria Attitude
A link to the Rolling Stone review of the album... also linked somewhere in one of the song reviews... I think, and @Zeki also posted a small piece of One for the Road
