Yes, I think he could pull off a half decent standards album. It would be better than that duets one that came out instead!
True (two years) but they did release the live album between that time so, from a release perspective, it was they continued to crank out an album a year (which is still amazing to me) still quite a feat. I love Forbert. I saw him o-en for (of all people) Kenny Loggins in Florida just before “Romeo’s Tune” began to chart and instantly bought the album. He’s a perfect fit for covering a Davies song. As to the album, this was intended to be much rawer (IMHO) much like the live album Ray was energized by the New Wave and Punk movement.
I wonder if anyone has ever switched the 1981 version of Massive Reductions out for the 1984 version on their digital Word Of Mouth playlist in order to have an album that's 33% Mick on drums, not 25%?
The Kinks Phase III Playlist: Life On The Road Father Christmas Misfits A Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Live Life Out of the Wardrobe (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman National Health Little Bit Of Emotion Nuclear Love (Demo; Low Budget era) Hidden Quality (Low Budget era) Around The Dial Better Things —-13 songs/53 minutes—
Better Things Somehow amazingly, I was not familiar with this song at all until a few weeks ago. I don't recall hearing it in tv shows or movies. This is another song that I now wish could have been in my life for the past 25 years rather than just the last 25 days. The comparison to Days has been made, but I think the theme here also recalls a different "Day" song, and as I recall, one of Avid @Fortuleo's absolute favorites.... Schooldays. It's almost like looking at that song in a mirror. Lines like this... "If ever you think about the happiest days of your life" "Don't think of things that make you sad, Just remember all the good times that you had." "But we never appreciate the good times we have until it's too late" ....are from the same genius and perhaps tormented mind as the one who penned these today, but now trying to look ahead and hope for good times and more happy days: "Here's hoping all the days ahead won't be as bitter as the ones behind you." "Forget what happened yesterday, I know that better things are on the way." Even the production and style of songs are mirror images. Schooldays being sad, melancholy, nostalgic, almost bluesy.... But Better Things been pure optimistic pop, more upbeat tempo, more energetic. Ray almost can't wait to get to the chorus, and he starts the chorus vocals ("it's really good to see you") before the first bar of the chorus structure ("rocking out and having fun") As far as that first verse, part of the genius of this how meta it all is... and I think I can see how part of this was written sarcastically. Think about: "Here's wishing you the bluest sky, and hoping something better comes tomorrow. Hoping all the verses rhyme, and the very best of choruses to Follow all the doubt and sadness." Well, the verse sorta rhymes. "sky" and "rhyme" are close. But for "tomorrow"... the expected rhyme meter is actually "choruses to" (or "choruses, too" perhaps). And then the payoff rhyme of "follow" is actually not in the verse, but in the pre-chorus. I actually think this is meant to be read/heard like this: "the very best of choruses to follow" ending that statement (with choruses following verses), with "follow" simultaneously starting the next line and/or continuing the previous line with an alternate meaning of "choruses to follow all the doubt and sadness" (with choruses following the doubt and sadness). (I listened to this song on loop for about 10 times in a row this morning as I was driving around town running some errands, so I had plenty of time to think deeply about this). Love the piano intro, love the jangly guitars, love the riff recalling the first verse melody, love the layered guitar lines, love the again, Rasa-esque backing vocals in the pre-chorus.... A song justifiably worthy of being on anyone's top 10 Kinks Klassics going back to the 60s.
Good live clip (goes some way to making up for the fact that none of the (mimed) 1964 TOTP appearances for 'You Really Got Me' were kept!) and I do kinda like the military greatcoats attire, but I have to say that 'mullet and shades' combo that Ray was 'Rocking' in the 90s really did him no favours! It just looks so 'embarrassing middle aged rock star' in a way he didn't have to.
Massive Reductions: first time hearing this and only listened to the beginning. But…this is clearly (a very bad) ‘Summertime Blues’ with different lyrics. At least the beginning part.
I imagine because it sounded like the sort of Kinks song people in the UK preferred listening to, instead of stuff like Destroyer?
This album gets off to a pretty good start with 'Around the Dial", ends strongly with the last three tracks, but I don't like anything in between those two poles unfortunately. The drum sound is a constant irritation, in fact I don't like the sound of the album overall. I probably still prefer this album to "Low Budget" though.
Better Things Perfect end to this harrowing journey through "sex, perversion, and rape" (not to mention crass materialism, mental illness, and murder). Reminds me of how "No More Looking Back" and "Life Goes On" sort of tie a bow on Schoolboys and Sleepwalker -- But really everything I want to say about this song has been said -- Give the People What They Want (LP) Given that this thread introduced me to GTPWTW it's hard to say if I just have a very deep and intense crush on it or am at the beginning of a beautiful lifelong relationship. I will say that I either really, really like or absolutely love every song except Predictable and Back to Front (& the latter is growing on me). Like @donstemple (except, older), I just wish I'd had this LP along to accompany me through the decades since its release. With "legacy" artists, I have various cutoff points after which I stop listening -- Stones (Tattoo You), Joni (Hejira), Dylan (Infidels), Fleetwood Mac (Tusk), Elton (Rock of the Westies), Aerosmith (Draw the Line), etc etc etc. With the Kinks, for decades, it was Sleepwalker. From my disappointment with Misfits through the scraps I heard off the following LPs, I assumed it would be too depressing to hear one of my favorite bands go through their last sad, desperate paces. Still ambivalent about Misfits, but it's now clear that, for me, "classic Kinks" stretches at least two albums forward. Excited to hear what comes next.
HALF-STONED TEEN LOSES VIRGINITY TO KINK You’ve crystallized my thoughts, mate. I think you’d make an excellent headline writer for the New York Post. When I was twelve and brought home GTPWTW, my sister, nine years the elder, said, ‘The Kinks, are they still around!?!’ Two songs in she said, ‘Are you sure this is The Kinks?’ She was/is a huge Moody Blues fan (and didn’t the Moodies have a quietly successful eighties? Long Distance Voyager went to #1, The Other Side of Life #9. Four singles in the top Thirty, including two, Your Wildest Dreams and I Know You’re Out There Somewhere, that compliment each other similarly as Come Dancing and Don’t Forget To Dance do). My big sis started warming to the Kinks after hearing those two on the radio and later would always come into my room anytime she heard Living On A Thin Line played, which was often. Guess she didn’t care for shouty Ray, either.
A Little Bit Of Abuse One of my favourites on the album. It may be 'plodding', but it suits the nature of the dutiful partner returning yet again, and again. Lyrically a harrowing topic to write about. But Ray can make a beautiful song about almost anything. And the Ray and Dave harmonies! Wonderful.
After a few pages of praise for “Better Things”, I don’t have much to add. It’s not only the best song on the album, but it’s their best song of the 80s. It can lift you out of the darkest corner and take you to the top of the highest mountain within 30 seconds. A song that makes you hope for a brighter future and Ray makes it sound easily achievable. I’m nearly tearing up thinking about the power of this song, and I am not even playing it. This is a tremendous song that has never failed to lift my spirits. As far as the album is concerned, I have no choice, but to rank it near the bottom. Is it better than Sleepwalker? I’m not quite sure yet. It’s almost neck and neck with Low Budget, but that works better as an album for me. Side two just isn’t much to my taste until we get to this last song. I do like the album more than I did a month ago, and find most of side one to be a pretty solid piece of music. I would probably only add 3 songs to any kind of playlist. “Add it Up” “Predictable” and “Better Things” are the winners.
Many years ago, a friend of mine collected cheap records with what we thought were humorous and terrible album covers. He had quite a collection going. One of them was Steve Forbert- Jackrabbit Slim. That’s not even that bad of a cover, but for some reason we thought it was funny. Who is this goofball named Forbert and who is Jackrabbit Slim? We took the album home and we were soon singing along to “Let me smell the moon in your perfume.” It was goofy, but we loved it! Pretty soon he had a Forbert collection! It’s another song that never fails to make me smile. I mentioned Forbert on a few earlier Dave songs with The Kinks. They share a similar raspy quality at times.
Give the People What They Want I think this is a great album. It seems more klassic/kwirky than Low Budget, and for that I rank it above that one. It might go above Misfits as well. Neck and neck with Sleepwalker and Everybody's in Show-Biz, but tucked far below all the other RCA and Pye albums (I absolutely LOVE Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace). There is a lot of sarcasm, dark humor, light humor, solid rockers (even one that I insist sounds like proto Foo Fighters -- that's a good thing, to me!), pop ballads.... I will go back to this album a lot. If the next few can compete with this one, I will be very happy.
Better Things What's not to love?! A Klassic Kut by the Kinks. For the longest time, I knew this song, but had no idea what album it was associated with. It could have been from the 60s (maybe?) or 70s for all I knew. It's a standard whatever age it's from. The combo of the music and lyrics always brings me to near tears. Someone else pointed this out and I thought the same as well...I believed the lyric was "And the very best of choruses too". Kind of disappointing as I think it's a wonderful thing to wish onto a musician or music enthusiast. It's a brilliant set of lyrics nonetheless. Ray outdid himself on this one. The opening piano, the jangly guitar, Ray's finest, sincerest vocals, spot-on backing vocals. Pop perfection. Reminds me of some Marshall Crenshaw songs like "Someday Someway". Whatever accolades this song receives are well-deserved. All hail the Kinks!
Maybe when our older siblings lost theirs to Kink it was really Something Else due the wider hue of Kolors that Kontained?
Avid Pyrrhicvictory, I also have a sister who's 9 years older than me. She's the one who got my love of music started. She had most of the early Beatles records and I remember her playing them, which left quite an impression in my extremely young mind, as well as hearing the radio of that era (1964-66), so by the time I was old enough to buy records, I started to get 60s records first. I remember my father pulling a joke on her once by claiming that the Beatles were going to visit the House of the Seven Gables (the basis of the Hawthorne novel), which was across the street from us then.
Better Things Just shared this with my daughter who’s freaking out as her flight back home to attend her best friends bridal shower keeps getting pushed back by hours and may get canceled, and her alternative in the morning would be cutting it really close. Hope it cheers her up. Anyway sorry about the aside. I first heard Better Things on the radio when it was released, and loved it. Crazily, I don’t remember knowing it was on GTPWTW just that it was their latest single, but I do remember thinking ‘now that’s the Kinks I know and love.’ Better Things indeed. The song is appropriate for so many situations. Great upbeat pop song, but I always still feel the sorrow being left behind, if that makes sense. As far as the overall album, I like it much more than I expected. I guess I had a preconceived idea about what it was like based on the title, the title cut, and the track Destroyer. I guess…. Just got a kick out of seeing the line of gogo dancers in this video about 50 seconds in.
I think you’re onto something, or on something, not sure which. I will say, that for me, it was Face to Face.
A Large Bit Of Abuse Some nice toches from Dave on guitar and backing vocal as Ray persues healthy verbosity. Ok we know the female protagonist likely doesn't leave due to self blame & guilt, low self worth, delusions he loves (or may come to love her), feeling she can't do better & deserves her lot but Ray is pretty flip & general as he avoids what he surely knows it's all about. N.b. I get the Huey Lewis feel which is ok but overall instrumentally I find little here to stimulate.
