Low Budget. live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island This epitomises what live rock concerts are all about. A great band striking up a great groove and everyone hooking in for some solid rock jamming. We open up with that great jam and Dave giving us some really nice live lead playing that fits the groove and feel of the song perfectly. Then we lay back a bit, and Ray, who on the video has been playing with the crowd up to this point. Ray starts singing and he hams it up beautifully, and the whole crowd is singing along with him, as well as the guys on the backing vocals. Ray gives us a broad spectrum of his vocal personalities and for me it enhances the song even more from the great studio version. On the video version Ray sings the line I'm Dropping My Standards So That I Can Buy More... but the album version is Dropping My Standards, and then sung in a sort of quiet, ashamed way And Dropping My Drawers.... The interesting thing about that is, they are supposed to be from the same Providence show. so I can only assume that the album version either isn't Providence, or they incredibly smoothly edited in a line/verse, or something from another show. We also get an extended lead break from Dave on the album that comes to a crescendo with a nice tip of the hat to the Stones via a chordal sort of variation on Satisfaction, which is apt, since for a lot of the lead break Dave sounded like he was playing with the Stones, to some degree. Actually, and it is somewhat difficult to piece it together, the versions are quite different, with I think, a whole verse missing somewhere. Extra crowd rousing on the video version as well. These are quite different takes. The thing about it to me is, it sort of shows the band jamming it up like live bands always used to. Rather than the general rote playing of the songs exactly as they appeared on an album or single in the more modern era. Anyway, this to me is a great example of a great live band just playing great rock music and involving the crowd in the whole experience.... From my years of going to concerts, that is one of the main things that really makes a great concert great.
Attitude. live, stereo mix, recorded 11 Nov, 1979 at Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland Essentially this is pretty much the same as we had on the Low Budget album, it just sounds a lot better, because it hasn't got that studio sound. It is a rock song, and it needs to have a live rock sound, and here we have that in spades and it is excellent. This time the album version is from a couple of weeks later in Switzerland. The song was the second song of the second encore and the last song of the night. They actually had a false start according to the info I have ... perhaps one of our resident experts can give us something about that. Again Ray delivers a great vocal on the album, there are a couple of rusty spots on the video. This is a solid full blooded live version of this song... and I know lots of folks didn't really like it on the album, so I suppose there isn't much chance they're going to like it here. To me this is just straight up knackers out rock, and that's a beautiful thing in my world.
The Video live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Fair enough that they put two songs in a row from the most recent studio album. Part of my journey on this thread has been to listen to lots of live Kinks as we go through the albums from my archive (some I have heard numerous times; others I heard for the first time). What I have heard convinces me that the Kinks were a pretty entertaining rock n roll band who put on a hell of a show. They're a lot like Bruce Springsteen in that Bruce elevates most of his material live and songs that may have produced a ho-hum reaction from me when I heard the studio version come alive in a concert context. The Kinks are the same way to me. So for these two songs, I prefer these versions of "Low Budget" and "Attitude" to their studio counterparts. A lot of energy came off the stage during Kinks shows and this live album shows that. It may not be everyone's preferred approach of the band but, from my point of view, a revved-up band is usually a good thing.
One thing that listening to these tracks makes me wonder - did Ray get hoarse or even lose his voice after a week or so of concerts with the shouty/growly vocals? There was a Bowie 1974 concert released last year for Record Store Day where his voice sounds pretty strained as it's towards the end of the tour, but I imagine that the way Ray was singing would have an even more pronounced effect.
It really depends.... depending on how you use your voice, and what kind of health you're in, what you are eating and drinking, whether you smoke weed, and all sorts of others things will make all the difference as to whether it negatively effects your vocals or not ... also the space between gigs
Perhaps it's because you're thinking of the "pa pa pa / pa papa papa" of Do it Again, from 20/20 ? The Weight, of course, you're right!! It's probably a direct conscious quote, and very on point too, since the whole americana vibe of Muswell Hillbillies was very influenced by the Band in the first place… And now we’re entering the dedicated Low Budget section of the record/setlist. Four songs in a row!! I think it’s an excellent approach. First, we got a sense of the Kinks’ variety of music through the years and now, for something (not) completely different, we get a whole mini-set of the Kinks as they were circa 1979. Those versions are very close to the studio ones, only expanded on the guitar department and, well, simply better (especially Attitude). This time, there's no need for a re-appropriation of the material by a new line-up, no, we get the actual musicians who cut the record taking the songs on tour, something that, lest we forget, hadn't happened in the Kinks world for many years because of the big line-up changes during and after the Sleepwalker sessions. I don't say this just as an after the fact theorization. It’s very palpable, audible (on the record) and visible (on the video stuff) that they’re in their comfort zone and that they own the songs. Both today’s numbers are really a joy to appreciate with the video, even though the versions differ quite a bit from the LP. One of their main strength in my opinion is how Ray inhabits them and gives them even more purpose by acting out the lyrics. The accents and voice variations, of course, all a little bit "jaggerish" at times, but especially his intonations, moves and faces, allow him to project different meanings on the same words (almost every “it’s your attitude” is a little different), just as @Luckless Pedestrian noted yesterday about the "arrested" line of Misfits. On a side note, seeing Ray's gangling posture and moves, I'm now positively convinced that Andrew Garfield would be the apt actor to play him in a Kinks movie.
Low Budget Though it runs out to 6 minutes i prefer the video to the LP version and certainly the studio cut. Dave plays some nice leads but Ray is the star of the show being shouty, throaty and more reserved at different junctures as he keeps up the crowds interest through invited interaction. Though I like this song considerably more than when i was near repelled by it years ago i still find the chorus pretty banal and tuneless though i take my hat of to Ray here even though the song would not get within (Dave's) spitting distance of my top 100 Kinks songs!
Attitude The studio cut didn't leave any standout impressions and the video versions keys start way too loud, Dave seems more cautious and i am undecided about Mick. This time around i prefer the shorter LP cut as Dave seems to be tightly shooting from the hip and though Ray delivers some controlled angst here it is the music that appeals to me more as far as this song goes. Dave has a bit of a Rory Gallagher feel going on with this riff (the best part of the song to me) and some of Ray's vocals are uncannily not that far removed from said guitarist!
I’ve mentioned before that my gateway was the SNL performances of Destroyer and Art Lover. We are still a year or so away but once I heard those, my radio station and eventual employer filled in the rest. The RCA period ignored even then, it was One For The Road that filled in the gaps. Plenty of love for Lola and Celluloid Heroes but it was just as common to hear Misfits, Low Budget, Catch Me, ADMAAOTN, YRGM and others in their live incarnations any time of day and let’s not forget the King Biscuit Flour Hour for alternate live performances and an occasional rarity. A great time to be introduced and I still had NO idea there was a Village Green waiting out there too
Low Budget Studio version/live on video/live on album, that’s the order I’d rank them. As a teen I loved that nuclear blast kicking off side two but now it strikes me more like a lot of hot air. If Dave was an actor this would best be described as ‘chewing up the scenery.’ When OFTR was released in 1980 I knew nothing of the Kinks. I had an incredible teacher in seventh grade, John Skrzypek (sky-peck). He was tall, tanned and athletic, blonde hair and mustache. He always dressed as if he just came in from the disco, very fashionable for the time, and was very fidgety, always in motion. He would take me and three other nerdy baseball-mad classmates to Yankee Stadium for a game every so often, all on him. Anyway, watching Low Budget again for the thread, all these memories came rushing back to me. If you watch Ray as he struts down the catwalk near the end of the song, that’s Mr. Skrzypek, the way he comports himself, the walk, face pulls, everything. From the mid-eighties on, whenever I see that bit I think of grammar school and Mr. S. Attitude Live on album/live on video/studio version. Ray’s Jagger impression is back on display and it’s delicious. ‘All right, you’re all right, so what!’ And the band launch into a punchy Attitude. Good stuff. Someone’s on his uppers, and I’m not using Cockney rhyming slang.
Stop Your Sobbing: I knew the Pretenders’ version before I had ever heard either Kinks’ version. The Pretenders’ version is obviously great and it did The Kinks the favor of elevating the awareness of this song. Since I discovered the live version first and I have made it apparent that I like this live album, it probably comes as no surprise that I prefer this live version by the kinks to the original. Perhaps the Pretenders version is the best of the three, but I still would rather hear the kinks play their own song, so I also go with the live version as my top choice of the three (in case anyone was wondering ). Low Budget: You other-side-of-the-worlders all get up so early that you generally get it all said before I even have my first cuppa coffee! This is a great live version of this song, a complete Dave guitarfest. As Mark has well noted, Ray really hams it up and, especially in the video, hats off to Fortuleo for noting that you can see how much fun he and the rest of the band are all having. Attitude: Again, as already noted, improves on the studio version just by losing the 80s studio glass. Clearly in no way an essential song but it’s a fun romp through a fast paced throwaway rocker nonetheless. I wouldn’t introduce somebody to the Kinks with the song (obviously), but it’s a good fun blast of rock ‘n’ roll that’ll make the cut for my live playlist.
Don't like either of these songs - though "Low Budget" is amusing - and even with the added oomph in these live versions I still don't like them.
Low Budget I like the studio version but I like this live version even more. Dave's guitar work is especially good and Ray is on top of his game - hamming up the lyrics and involving the crowd. Attitude For the third time, a slow number is followed by a punkish thrashing which keeps up the energy of the concert experience - even though these songs were taken from different shows. It's not a great song but it has a great attitude. So far so good. I'm still rocking out.
An outstanding album. The version of celluloid heroes is sublime with extended workouts at either end. I saw them in 82 when they did this version. It's one of those gigs I've never forgotten.
"Low Budget"/"Attitude" I've only listened to the audio versions so far. There is certainly something to be said for these versions - great performances from everyone, played a bit faster and with plenty of pep and snarl. I wouldn't necessarily take them over the studio versions that I've known for 30 years, but they are definitely viable alternatives to those versions. Dave's guitar in particular sounds excellent on these.
The live show form NY Eve 1980 is particularly good. It's from New York. The BBC even put this one out and I taped it. They really are good on this one. SQ is also very good. Celluloid heroes runs to 8 minutes. Oh yes. I am playing now and yes it's a stonker
I remember where I was when I saw that Kinks SNL performance. I was in Boston, just starting out my sophomore year and I was at a dorm party and SNL was on the telly. I remember the host (a woman)holding one of Dave's kids introducing the Kinks doing "Art Lover". Going back to One From the Road, "Low Budget" & "Attitude" kick off Side 3 of the album, which is wholly comprised of Low Budget songs. I could see Avid Fortuleo's view that it shows how the Kinks were in 1980, but someone else might say, "I just bought Low Budget, why are these songs here again?" As I said before, that's a flaw that this album shares w/the live version of Showbiz, that it's a bit too dependent on the studio album that preceded it. They should of just changed a song or two & put in something like "Live Life" and/or "Life on the Road" to make it a bit more diverse. Anyway, the performances of the songs in question are a bit more livelier than the studio counterparts, especially "Low Budget", where Ray indulges in his hammy acting, which is noticible in both audio & video versions.
Wow, Avid Pyrrhicvictory, you got to see the Reggie Jackson/Billy Martin era Yankees live in Yankee Stadium. In 1980 they were still mourning the death of Thurman Munson the previous year, which I remember. They lost in the ALCS to the Royals, who in turn lost to Pete Rose & the Phillies in the World Series. Those late 70s Yankees teams were so easy to hate, especially for a Red Sox fan . That teacher of yours seemed rather cool. What did he teach? Sounds like a Polish guy.
