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 Come Dancing Heart Of Gold —-15 songs/61 minutes—
There is a thread on Robyn Hitchcock which just concluded: Wey Wey Hep a Hole Ding Dong: Robyn Hitchcock the song by song, album by album thread Like youself, I'm not as into Robyn Hitchcock as I used to, but I like his work more than Elvis Costello's.
Bernadette I've always liked this song and appreciated having a Dave rocker on the album. Two things always bothered me. 1. Could have come up with a different three-sylllable woman's name. The reuse of the name from the Four Tops's classic in a different song is a bit of a distraction. 2. This is a good example of my complaints with sequencing on this album. This song is not a closer. It feels more like a bonus cut; something picked up off the studio floor and tacked onto the end just because there eas space.
I think ‘Bernadette’ works as a closer, I can’t exactly explain why as when Squeeze pulled a similar trick 2 years earlier by ending East Side Story with the basic rockabillyng of ‘Messed Around’ I find it hugely underwhelming! I dunno, there’s something about the 80s yuppy glamour factor of ‘Bernadette’ that makes it the perfect capper to the LP for me.
My favorite song on this album. It’s one of those buried Paul Simon classics. I will take this album over any of his last few. I just wish Paul would have sung every song. I never understood why this album was ridiculed. I know the play didn’t go over well, but the music is great. I’ll skip The Kinks “Bernadette”. I’m not a fan of Dave’s vocal on this song. They should have ended the album with “Long Distance”.
I read that Simon approached this adventure with excessive confidence and some arrogance, saying that Broadway musicals were mostly crap and he was going to show them how things are done. At any rate that's how the Broadway people heard it. I still have to go deeper into this record, even if I bought it at the time.
Bernadette I had never heard this Kinks song until a couple weeks ago. And I never heard of the Paul Simon tune or the Four Tops tune until today! The Paul Simon one is a nice surprise, one of those mid-late career gems. The Four Tops one was enjoyable too, and echoes their other big hits. The Kinks' Bernadette is very different than those two other tunes, for sure. Dave probably should have gotten co-write credit because I assume he's the one that added his signature "oooh"s in the chorus hook. Ray's bridge/spoken vocal after the sax solo is a good change up. Overall though, seems like a fun album filler for Dave to get a vocal. but probably more regulated to a bonus track or B-side. If it had to be on the album, then I guess the last track would be the best place for it. Certainly doesn't belong any earlier to my ears. A good fun live number. Funny how in the live versions, they REALLY turn it into the Birthday riff.
Bernadette After hearing Bernadette, I put it on my playlist. The Paul Simon song. But the other Bernadette -- yes, that goes on. The Four Tops song. As for the Bernadette sung by Dave Death of a Clown, yeah, I'm going to choose to pretend Cliches of the World is this bang-up album's bang-up final track
Yes 2's a wild blast from a teen genius. His 9th, written a few years later, is a bit more measured but immensely powerful. Still listening to Moss Elixir this morning; wife loved it. Hypnotized.
Supporting my contention that SOC starts the transition to a different sound that becomes fully realized on Ray's solo albums, Bernadette shares its bridge (the part Ray sings) with the bridge from "All She Wrote" from Ray's album Other People's Lives (the part ending with "titty bars and low-life clubs"). However, in All She Wrote the shoe is on the other foot, and it's the woman's turn to take some shots at her male partner. Both bridges use major chords on the root, then drop down whole steps playing major chords on the natural minor scale's 7th and 6th. This creates a modern rock feel with some moody tension that's looking for resolution. If you'll allow a minor digression, the bridge in All She Wrote is in a different key, and it allows the guitarist to let the open E and B strings ring as the E shape slides up to the F#, a dramatic effect that Alex Lifeson uses a lot in Rush albums like Hemispheres. In any case, I enjoy Bernadette as a closer; I think Dave is in great voice here, and it's fun to hear Ray and Dave switch lead vocal, which is rare. I'm glad to learn of the missing "House in the country" verse because it certainly shares some DNA with that good fun, put-down rocker. Like many Kinks songs, Bernadette starts from a classic trope (like Soap Opera and the doo-wop progression) but then moves off in kinky directions and finds it's own identity, for example with the modern bridge described above using the VI (F#), which also ties back to Bernadette's chorus which adds a vi (F#m) to I (A) transition ([...] so expensive).
Bernadette This is just a good old fashioned rocker. I remember when I first heard the beginning I wondered if this was a cover of Little Richard's "Lucille" with the name changed to Bernadettte, though it becomes clear soon enough that this is its own song. I love the sax and the mix of Dave doing the main vocal with Ray taking over in the middle is a nice touch. A good solid rocker that is at least in the middle range of quality tracks on this very good album!
For the record... I normally put my album summary at the end of the album.... I think... but in this instance I'm waiting for the bonus tracks, because I think they're stronger than some of the album tracks, and it would seem odd to talk about them prior to looking at them.
Bernadette is a good song. Not a huge fan of the verses but man that chorus is awesome and so hooky. I also really enjoy Ray's parts
I think that's a good call. For some folks the original cassette is the version they are familiar with from their initial purchase (like me) and that version of the album contained two of these three extra tracks anyway ending with Long Distance as we've discussed. If we just look at the RCA and Arista Velvel 1998/1999 single CD reissues starting with Muswell Hillbillies and ending with Word Of Mouth, I would argue that the three extra "new" tracks on this State Of Confusion reissue are the strongest set of bonuses on all of these (I'm ignoring the later Sanctuary and RCA Legacy 2 CD deluxe sets of Muswell and Showbiz and not counting the alternate Don't Forget To Dance included here). I'm happy for all the extras on all of these CD reissues and while they are all incomplete from what they could have included, this one has the best set.
I don’t know the songs at all so you have singlehandedly upped my expectations. (A heavy burden, I know! )
Its close between the two, but I would say that Sleepwalker has the strongest set of bonuses of the Velvel reissues.
It will be interesting to hear "Noise" and "Long Distance" - I don't think I've heard either in the 30 years since I borrowed the cassette, but bits of them are still stuck in my mind.
