The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I have long held on to the hope that the deep backing vocal intoning 'Noise' (first heard at around 0.59) is Mick Avory. I have no evidence for this, other than that his (confirmed) b/vs on 'Plastic Man' are similarly deep, and also that in the booklet to the Velvel reissue of AOC , there's a quote from him discussing Noise that's always associated him with the song in my mind. Quote follows:

    'Ray wrote about things going wrong in life that particularly annoy him, but always from a point of view people can relate to. Like the song 'Noise' - perhaps you wanna lay in 'cause you got the flu, and that always seems to be the time you get woken up by builders digging the road up somewhere with a pneumatic drill or a jackhammer. So there is a sense of humour to it''
     
  2. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Hmm, obviously that was meant to read SOC.. . it was not my intention, at least consciously to make that post political!
     
  3. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Well, Avid Ajsmith, at least he liked the Raiders' song. They never had much of a UK presence despite their US success. They didn't tour the UK until 1969 in support of the Beach Boys. I don't know if the American Revolution get up had something to do w/it, like having a group dress up like the Viet Cong back then. Or maybe it was their comedic bent, as shown many, many times on Where The Action Is. The Bonzo Dog Band were University educated so that they were praised for their humor (or hum our or humour) while the Raiders were a bunch of greasers from the backwoods of the Pacific Northwest, so they were thought to be cornballs. Anyway, the Raiders were a great band w/many great songs. Another thing I noticed is that Ray oddly looks like Scott Walker in the piccy in the article.

    Oh well, back to work to contemplate a bonus track called "Noise". There were some interesting lyrical twists, such as wishing that the noise would fade away w/the sunset and promising the girl a better life which is reminiscent of "We Got To Get Out of this Place." It was also interesting to have a "little sister" mentioned in the lyrics since Ray's actual sisters were all older than him. Another nice twist was the mock Arabic part in the background. However, it just doesn't add up to something memorable in my mind. If I want to hear a song about noise, I'd rather hear "Wot" by Captain Sensible.
     
  4. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    ‘Noise’: strikes out on this one. 1 for 2 on the extras; batting .500 so far.
     
  5. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Noise

    Not much to add this morning other than to say I can relate, so this song strikes a chord with me. Ironically though, as a fan of shouty Ray, the chorus is my least favorite part of the song. Still not quite sure why; as some have noted, this song is the perfect vehicle for that presentation. For me, I find Dave's guitar makes the best use of the song; there's some nicely aggressive fretboard work there.
     
  6. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    The Raiders made some fantastic records I agree. I have several of their albums on vinyl: I picked up a few when I visited Canada as a teen with my parents in the late 90s and their records were in plentiful supply in s/h record shops for one Canadian dollar apiece: I could hardly say no at that price. (wonder if they've gone up much since then)? I have Midnight Ride, Spirit of '67 and the first 2 greatest hits LPs (annoyingly, 'Him Or Me' which is one of their best seemed to fall between the cracks of the two greatest hits albums, appearing on neither!)

    I agree the American Revolution stance didn't help with selling them over here, although I'm still surprised they never even managed even one UK hit given the goods they had to offer. The Monkees made it in the UK but their show was actually shown here which would have helped, plus they were pals of the Beatles and generally more media visible.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2022
  7. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    The acronym AOC is related to food in France, especially wine and cheese, which are very political topics here indeed, so it took me some time to realise who you were talking about.
     
  8. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    "Him or Me" appeared on an album called Revolution!, which is another good album. It's ironic that you got your Raiders albums in Canada, where many Tories fled after the Revolution.

    Speaking of the Raiders and their perceived image, in 1969 they sent a copy of their latest album to one of the "underground" LA FM radio stations under the guise of a group called "Pink Fuzz". Apparently the station enthusiastically played it until they found out that it was really the Raiders, who were rather unhip at the time, and they pulled it out ASAP!
     
  9. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    To Dear @mark winstanley although you're gone (from Oz) Rage is still with us every Friday b-e-l-i-e-v-e m-e!

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Are they still using King Crimson for the theme music?
     
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  11. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Some of that Rage stuff has popped up on YouTube. There was a Bee Gees concert from 1971 that I burnt on DVD.
     
  12. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Noise

    This is like a thematic sequel perhaps to Pressure? "Noise, Noise, I've got Noise! Oh yeah! (oh yeah!)" Ok, not really. But perhaps it came from the same frame of mind. All this distraction and confusion and how we need to get away. So wait, maybe an update on Apeman? The swirls of Sitting by the Riverside?

    "Sometimes I get used to it and I forget that it's around."

    That line stands out to me. We get used to our troubles sometimes. Like a white noise machine. Or, for another sense, when you become nose-blind to the smell of your house. We get lost in our world and start to just accept it as normal. We get used to chronic pain in a joint and start to just ignore it. But when you focus, when you stop and think... you can smell it. You can hear that constant ringing in your ears. You can hear the road traffic, the TV in the other room, the stereo upstairs, etc. You can feel that your ankle is not quite right.

    Musically, those eastern sounding bridges sound like they could come off one of Dave's solo albums. Sounds like Dave had some good fun with this one. A nice change to the verses and choruses. What is interesting about that last remix that @Michael Streett posted was that the opening guitar almost takes over for the ambulance sound effect!

    The sound effects take me back to Big Black Smoke and again, Apeman. That tells me that this one is far from another throwaway or outtake, and clearly had a decent amount of thought and effort to get this sounding as Ray wanted. Probably should have been on the album, as Noise quite often adds to our State of Confusion. But alas, no concept albums for Ray...
     
  13. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Sorry just watched Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout tonight so don't know.
     
  14. Brian Kelly

    Brian Kelly 1964-73 rock's best decade

    Noise
    Not a very enjoyable listen, though ironically perhaps that actually fits with the theme of the song!
     
  15. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Noise

    This one is pretty much neither here nor there for me but there are a couple of interesting bits, mentioned above -- the middle-eastern sounding trill, particularly at the end, that I'd never heard RD do with his voice before, and the bang-up fun DD's having with his leads.

    It did lead to a question, though; please excuse my ignorance of musical terminology...

    With a lot of catchy pop songs, when they transition from one bit to another (verse to bridge, bridge to chorus, etc), it feels *inevitable,* there's a kind of *relief* or *resolution* that's very satisfying, like you almost knew it was coming, you almost could've predicted it, & the moment you hear it you know that the song needed exactly that variation to feel *complete.*

    Then there are songs where the different parts don't cohere (I'm looking at you, DD solo LPs), so the various sections of the song actually feel like different songs, or stray bits from unrelated songs.

    But RD does this thing -- for one, as mentioned, he doesn't structure things the way other pop songwriters do, so you're always getting unidentifiable & unexpected bits (on this thread, there's been a lot of I think this could be the pre-chorus, etc) showing up at unanticipated points. But it also feels like, even if the bits were where they *should* be, they would still be jarring, startling, anything but *inevitable.*

    Kinks songs easily get stuck in your head, generally, and RD has written some of the greatest pop songs of all time -- I could probably hum as many RD songs as songs by any other composer -- but a lot of them have parts that, sure they fit perfectly, but they come in at a weird angle, a half-turn away from the pure clear pop perfection of a McCartney or Brian Wilson song.

    But then, what might feel on first listen like a flaw is what makes the songs somehow more memorable and effective.

    Anyway in kind of a raw form this tune does a lot of that, these weird tempo shifts, parts that feel like they come from different songs, weird almost experimental twists thrown in seemingly at random, but yet the whole thing hangs together in a way it feels like it shouldn't. If one of the more musically literate people here could explain this phenomenon, it would be much appreciated.
     
  16. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    This is the album I have. Alias Pink Puzz? :laugh:
    I like the sound of this song with the fuzz. I played it this morning and it was oddly reminding me of KISS!
     
  17. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    One of my favorites!
     
  18. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Catching up up

    Heart of Gold

    This one wraps up the run of the more mature-sounding Kinks tracks on this album.

    Heart of Gold

    It's great in an understated way. Wonderful lyrics and chorus-should have been a single. A kind of Beach Boys harmony going on at times here.

    Cliches of the World (B-Movies)

    The only really heavy rock song on SOC. It's a winner. Ray's storytelling taking an expected sci-fi movie detour that comes out of nowhere. This one deserves more acclaim. Imaginative.

    Bernadette

    Not a Four Tops cover but a Dave raver. One of the few times Ray joins Dave on his songs. I like it. After an absence of 3 albums the return of the Dave lead vox track and he will have 2-3 on every album that follows.
     
  19. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    First time hearing "Noise". I would say that it's at least more interesting than a few songs that made the album. All the shouting is a bit of a turn off, but he goes in and out of it. This does sound more like a song that may have been on one of Dave's albums. I probably will not be re-visiting this one again. A bit heavy on the Dave jamming and Ray shouting for my taste, which becomes too much "Noise" for me to bear.
     
  20. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    Noise: Of the three album outtakes, this is my second favorite. I think it’s great and would have been a good addition to the album. It probably would’ve been an even better fit on LowBudget or GTPWTW. Dave rips off a good solo and Ray, as always, has interesting and unusual things on his mind. It does have a pretty heavy grinding rock sound that I’m betting will be off putting to many of the Avitts on here (I again am not looking at other peoples’ reviews until after I write mine) but from my perspective, it’s a perfectly good kinks album track.
     
  21. CheshireCat

    CheshireCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cheshire
    Noise
    A great piece of noise. The UK 7" Single Mix is the one I know best. Lots of nice contrasting passages, some of Ray's favourite themes mixed in. I like it, and it should have been on the LP proper. I'd replace 'Bernadette' without a second thought. Pop this at the start of Side 2 and end the album with 'Don't Forget To Dance'. Confusion songs starting both sides. But then there's the issue of where to place tomorrow's track, and which one to replace...
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I was looking for something to listen to while I was doing my paperwork, and found this.
    3:16:48 The 10cd Pye collection...
    Good revision, and a reminder of where we were before we got to where we are.

     
  23. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Actual footage of Ray writing today's song:

    [​IMG]
     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    For the record it's just the first 6 cd's
     
  25. Paul Mazz

    Paul Mazz Senior Member

    Noise

    I’m sure that for the senior set, that’s what many of our parents thought of rock music - that it was just noise. I never heard this song before this morning. I like that a song called noise starts out very quietly. It’s not bad, but it’s not my favorite. I agree with @markelis that it might fit better on GTPWTW. I think it might have increased my enjoyment of that album, but I don’t think it would improve SOC for me.

    I don’t mind noisy music. I’ll have to dig out my cd of Neil Young’s Le Noise now that he’s gone from Spotify. Speaking of Spotify, I thought I’d see if the Kinks track was there, it’s not, but a search for Kinks Noise turned up some interesting results like “She…sounds and moans|EROTICA,” and, no, I didn’t listen to it, lol.
     

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