Noise is my least fave of the three bonus tracks. I checked my CDs and I have a boot that claims to have a song named Julie on it. Haven’t had a listen yet but it doesn’t seem to be on YouTube.
Once a Thief I hate using this word, but this is pretty mainstream and a pretty forgettable Kinks song. This has no Kinkiness to it up to and including the lady back-up singer(s). I'm underwhelmed and it pains me to say that. Next...
Noise Ok, this is far better than the one I just reviewed. Phew. I'm hearing a bunch of different things going on here. I feel like it has a grunge/90s sound to it in parts. Then there's middle eastern bit...sort of shades of See My Friends. Dave of course is shredding it throughout. I guess I prefer this "noise" to some of the songs on the album. Maybe take out Property and replace it with this? Anyway, this is a nice hidden gem.
I didn't listen to this today(but it did pop up on youtube for me), but I did listen to a bunch of early and mid period Kinks stuff while reflecting on State of Confusion. State of Confusion just does not hold a candle to the rest of the Kinks Katalog thus far. I used the word mainstream earlier and I think State of Confusion is probably their most mainstream album to date...by a long shot. There are some marvelous moments within songs like Come Dancing and Don't Forget to Dance. But they don't make me quiver with happiness when they come on like so many Kinks songs do...even songs from the prior album. I don't NEED to hear Come Dancing again, even though I respect the song a great deal. Whereas when something like Dead End Street comes on, it still fills me with delight. It's as special to me as the first time I heard it. So though we're not quite summing up the whole album yet, I guess this post will act as my overview. I'm terrible with the words when all I have are FEELINGS about the songs, but with this album, most of the tracks don't tickle me. and I still will put Bernadette near the top of my list for this album. I keep singing it randomly. Fun stuff.
That's. interesting. Listening to those earlier albums today made me feel, that this is a more polished version (with/due to, the eighties sounds and emphasis) of the sort of Kontroversy to Something Else era reflection... or something like that. The band always have variety, but there is a stylistic similarity within each of the Arista albums up to now, even with the variety... This album seems to take snippets from each of the Arista albums up to this point, and kind of sprinkle a bit of sixties dust on a few songs... It's so hard to explain what I mean... It possibly has some more commercial parts in context with the year it was released, in comparison to the previous Aristas... but the sixties releases were about in that place too, with Kinks, Kinda, Kontroversy and Face leading up to Something and Village.... Anyway... I'm just speculating and pondering. To some degree, I think they had just started to lose the edge of youth, and as we do, we slide into a sort of middle age period.... soften a little, and rely more on learned skills than youthful exuberance and exploration... In listening ahead, that seems to be what I think I'm hearing.... But fear not... Ray is a skilled craftsman, and he still has some great songs in there... I don't know if any of that makes sense or not... my brains a bit fried this week, and I'm tired lol
Noise I had forgotten this though must have heard it as I once owned the Come Dancing single. While that's not a good omen it's not all bad as I do like some of the lyrics, Dave's lead guitar glee and the songs Arabic moments! Speaking of the latter @Brian x mentioned all the song's various sections not quite fitting together harmoniously and i tend to agree with this view. Reading the lyric before hearing the music got me thinking of Bob Dylan and specifically Subterranean Homesick Blues with its seperate opening lines about what mum and dad are doing and the later mention of a Pavement! We also have an "Oughta be a law" line that reminded me of Ballad Of A Thin Man. I believe @DISKOJOE mentioned the Animals reference upthread so i won't elaborate. All in all this could have made the parent LP in an infantile capacity with appropriate supervision!
yeh I heard the dylan references too and tomorrow's song -- if it's the song i think it's gonna be -- gives us more.
And if Ray was yelling at a car in when he says “Hey buddy, turn that radio down!”, well, there auto be a law. (This looks and sounds suspiciously like an @All Down The Line pun so I couldn’t resist)
this actually makes total sense. It's like in the previous LPs they were sort of struggling with defining their legacy in light of their re-discovery by hot heavy metal bands (eg Van Halen).... & then you add in the tributes (musical as well as... romantic) from the period's new wave bands... and RD is exploring and excavating those roots... & yes if we're to define an "Arista vibe" it would be, how are we relevant NOW to what people want to hear... how can we re-contextualize what we did before so a 17 year old will respond to it... but I would say, for this album, there was a kind of "well, okay, whatever, but we still have unmined detpths" -- particularly felt on Cliches of the World -- "remember, we did rock opera, too".... altogether, a fascinating period....
We still have one more great track to go so I’ll elaborate my album wrap up thoughts more after that discussion tomorrow or Sunday. I would suggest The Kinks were never “mainstream”. Always on the outside and looking in. That’s a good thing! You could argue that production-wise they were “mainstream” in 1983 with this album but not in terms of Ray’s songwriting which is still at a high-level here and even more so compared to most other contemporary albums. I’ve said many times before I don’t do rankings or playlists or album versus album stuff as it’s pretty pointless. What’s the point of doing a State Of Confusion versus Arthur comparison for example?
Long Distance. stereo mix, recorded Feb-Mar 1983 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Spent last winter playing in the sand With the prisoners of the motherland Damn hotel is feeling like a cell And even paradise can be so cruel Sitting by the swimming pool Trying to keep my head together In that hot Australia weather Three days to kill and my per diem's getting low 'Cause I spent all my money calling long distance Calling long distance, such a long way from home Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through? Twelve thousand miles but I've got no resistance, long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance Now the Road Hog's face is turning red Larry's still asleep in bed Romeo he can't get no head at all And the Doctor looks on so annoyed You disappoint me, Mr. Boyd And the Electric Dwarf wishes he was six foot tall Now Romeo's patience is wearing thin C'mon baby, let me in It's five a.m. and I've been creeping 'round the hall Got no resistance calling long distance You sound so close but your such a long way from home Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through? Twelve thousand miles but I've got not resistance, long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance Still no points for my merrymen, Except Ricard, he just scored ten Now Road Hog's getting drunk again And I only get to hold my pen Instead of what I love to hold the most. I feel so lonesome I could cry Count the hours as they roll by It's day time now I think I'll make a call Hello long distance, calling long distance You sound so close but you're such a long way from home You're such a long way from home Have to admit I got no resistance to the red light on the wall The message said I got a call, long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. Initially this could be seen as one of those road songs, but I think there's more to it than that really... many people are miles from home, that aren't in bands... I love the US, but even though I was born in England, and I certainly have a connection there, Australia will always be home... and that's where my family and most of my friends are, but I also spent all my formative years there, so I don't think that the feeling of Australia being home will ever go away.... and it is literally on the opposite side of the world..... I skype my parents every Thursday, and it's great, but it isn't the same as being able to give someone a hug, when you both really need one.... So there is a certain connection that I get from this song. We open with what sounds like an operator connecting a call?... I may be wrong, but I'm surrounded by noise lol There is a certain Dylanesque feel to this song in the way the lyric is written, from a certain point, and Ray even plays on that at one point. This song has a tenuous link to Muswell Hillbillies in its styling, although its semi-country feel is slightly different to that of the Muswell album. It is flavoured with just a dash of eighties ballad. We open with a Brit on vacation in Australia. If that isn't shown in the line Spent last winter playing in the sand With the prisoners of the motherland It is certainly driven home by Trying to keep my head together In that hot Australia weather I suppose someone in Aus may take offence at the prisoners of the motherland, but that line could be taken two ways really. It could be referring to the penal colony of long ago, or in fact it could be referring to the fact that as part of the commonwealth, Australia is still to some degree under the coattails of mother England. This is sort of like a song about writing a song. We have Ray letting us know where he is and that he is missing someone 12,000 miles away, but then we move into this narrative about the people with him, and a good chunk of the song is seemingly observing his road crew? and the things they are getting up to, almost like it is distracting him from the people/person he is missing. I guess the other thing is, sometimes when talking to someone on the phone from a long way away, it seems like not much of interest has happened to you, so you start to blather about random things in order to keep some form of conversation going, and here is this bunch of guys, going through these weird rituals that at least seem funny or interesting. I wonder if this was in some way related to Ray being away and wanting to call Chrissie? Or if it was merely a thought that crossed his mind for a good song. Interestingly for me at least, this song doesn't really settle in one zone lyrically. It kind of has several things it could be ... road song, vacation song, lonely love song, observational Ray song ... but they all kind of tie in together, and although it isn't the neatest tie in Ray has ever done, I really like it a lot. So we open with a semi-country ballad type of opening and it smoothly rolls along. I really like the feel, and I really like the use of the guitar and organ on here. The transition into the chorus goes through a few changes that for me really add to the song nicely. Although this is a fairly simple song in technical terms, that run into the chorus is really nice and gives the song enough oomph to make it worthwhile for me. The chorus ending with the plaintive long distance sung three times, works as an irresistible hook for me. Lots of great little subtle things here that make me enjoy this song a lot. It has a bit of Dylan, and a bit of Tom Petty, and frankly I just like the song...
State Of Confusion. So for me another album that has grown in my eyes, after having a closer better look at it. I can only assume when I first got this album that I was looking for One For The Road, the studio version, and of course as we go through the band's catalog on this thread, we see it is very rare for the band to follow an album with something particularly similar to the one prior... There are often connections, but generally subtle snippets. Even during these Arista years when the band apparently weren't mixing it up enough, none of these albums are particularly similar on close inspection. What State Of Confusion does really well, for me at least, having looked more closely, it probably comes about as close as the band could to being a sort of sampler of the types of things the Kinks do. We have a little bit of the more modern rock, we have the older style whimsy and reflection, we have a little Muswell country, a little bit of stylistic exploration, and it all fits together cohesively as a band album. To some degree Dave may be not as prominent, but I'm not so sure I generally hear that really... he's definitely there, and we get his guitar, even if we don't get a high percentage of Dave lead breaks, Dave's guitar is still doing the sorts of things Dave's guitar has always done... I think Ray's writing is high quality, and I think his concentrated effort to revisit himself works extremely well. The two dance songs are both Klassics, to varying degrees... Property and Heart Of Gold are also high points and really add some mileage to the album for me. For me there were two errors with this album... and I kind of understand both. I don't think Bernadette should have been on the album..... but by the same token I think it was important to have a Dave track on the album I do think that Long Distance should have been on the album, but it is likely that with its inclusion the band may have felt the album was leaning a little bit too mellow... or ballad oriented.... So although I don't necessarily think the album is presented as well as it could have been, I do understand why it was presented as it was. Even with the album laid out the way it is, it has risen considerably in my appreciation.... it would probably get somewhere around 4.5 out of 5 on the dodgy as all get out Mark rating system..... and even with some changes, it may not end up getting a lot higher, but still, being the annoying little faplunk that I am, I have to try and make it suit me, or propose what I feel would have been a better tracklist.... If I had to keep it in the record format, something like this would work for me Cliches Of The World 4:52 Definite Maybe 4:27 Come Dancing 3:54 Property 4:19 State Of Confusion 3:41 Don't Forget to Dance 4:34 Once A Thief 4:06 Noise 4:38 Heart Of Gold 4:02 Long Distance 5:23 But I actually think this album is ideally suited to being a cd... Cliches Of The World 4:52 Definite Maybe 4:27 Come Dancing 3:54 Labour Of Love 3:54 Property 4:19 State Of Confusion 3:41 Young Conservatives 3:58 Bernadette 3:41 Don't Forget To Dance 4:34 Noise 4:38 Once A Thief 4:06 Heart Of Gold 4:02 Long Distance 5:23 Or the compromise album Cliches Of The World 4:52 Definite Maybe 4:27 Come Dancing 3:54 Property 4:19 State Of Confusion 3:41 Noise 4:38 Labour Of Love 3:54 Don't Forget To Dance 4:34 Young Conservatives 3:58 Once A Thief 4:06 Heart Of Gold 4:02 Long Distance 5:23 I like the fact that these songs create a musical buffet/smorgasbord, and one of the strengths of this album for me is the diversity... I know that I said Bernadette should have just been a b-side, but for me there isn't really anything here that I consider to be particularly weak, even if I may have some slight reservations about some of the tracks. It's never a whole track that I have any reservations with on this album, it is just the odd lyric here and the odd bit of music there, on the whole I think it is a strong batch of songs. Funnily enough the variety actually makes it hard to settle on a completely satisfactory sequence ... but due to the songs being strong, it ends up not making too much difference. Anyway, I really like this, I just think it could have gone together better, and I would have picked a different set of tracks for a ten track album.... Going through it with a serious mind to try to get the order I would want, I actually really like the idea of opening with Cliches Of The World... it's a really strong dynamic track 5 star albums Arthur Muswell Hillbillies Village Green Preservation Society One For The Road Something Else Low Budget Lola vs Powerman Give The People What They Want Face To Face 4.5 star albums Sleepwalker/State Of Confusion Misfits Kontroversy 4 star albums Preservation Act 2 Preservations Act 1 Everybody's In Showbiz Soap Opera Kinda Kinks Schoolboys In Disgrace 3.5 star albums Percy The Kinks Kelvin Hall This probably looks really odd to most folks, but I personally don't see a whole lot of variance in quality across the band's catalog, and I like a broad enough range of music that there aren't really any styles the band do that I find grating.... Shouty Ray, as we have apparently, lovingly? dubbed him, is just another variance in the multifaceted world of Ray Davies ... and it works for me...though I do understand that many folks don't like rough edged vocals ... personally I have always loved them, and a lot of my favourite singers are singers that sound like they may barf out a lung at any moment .... though I have to add, I don't like the mud gargling metal dudes at all lol Also.... Sleepwalker and State Of Confusion ... I couldn't really separate them. I like them about the same really, but for completely different reasons.
I would bet that 'Julie' is 'There Is No Life Without Love' which I know has been mislabelled as such on bootlegs, due to a mishearing of the opening and repeated word of the song 'Truly'. Although if it's not that please let the thread know!
Wonderful, wonderful song. So many little snippets everywhere, the Party Line throwback, the little arpeggio guitar hook coming directly from the sixties, all the subtle (and not so subtle) dylanisms, in tone, pitch, phrasing, accent, organ, allusions to Australia, Long Way from Home, I hear the concluding chord change of the obscure and then unreleased Duke, Hank Williams gets a nod, probably many more… The images Ray writes are sensational, he gives context and a narrative, there’s both a sense of time and space, and a sense of losing track of time and space. It’s daylight by the pool, then it’s nighttime in the hallway, or we get glimpses of books or TV characters, perhaps switching channels on cable, getting some porn, some sitcom, some soap or a long-lost film. That’s what I get from the Romeo/Larry/Boyd verse anyway, but I can see how it's probably just about the other members of the band and crew. I wish I knew the specifics, because with Ray there’s always specifics, that’s what he does best: conveying a universal sensation from specific observations. You might get them or not, but you get the idea no matter what. What counts here is the state of mind of the narrator. Long Distance, Long Distance, Long Distance!! I too think this moment’s the high point. Not sure if Dave does the high voice or if it’s Jim, but the song’s elevated by this surge of intensity. Maybe it's a case of what @Brian x was alluding to yesterday about “unexpected” bits in Ray songs. We get this hook fairly early in the song as if out of nowhere (at the end of what will prove not to be a chorus), then it doesn’t come back until the very end, when you’d least expect it. We’re then in a “quiet” bridge and bang, out of the blue, here it comes again, the release is huge and you realize your brain’s been waiting for it the whole freaking time!! To me it’s all about structure and it’s very specific to songwriting (as opposed to other types of writing, literature, films, TV or classical music) because repetition and playing with expectations (fulfilling them once, deflecting them the other) is such a critical part of everything. Anyway, the song’s beautiful, one of the best of the batch and a very weird beast : a kanonik klassik for anyone buying the cassette at the time and a long lost gem for everybody else.
"Long Distance" - as a pretty huge Bob Dylan fan, it is interesting to hear Ray do his Dylan imitation. He doesn't do it all the way through but some of his phrasing is obviously Dylanesque. And musically, I hear references to "Like A Rolling Stone" (the organ and the repeated guitar lick). I love the beginning and end with the recorded woman's voice. I was thinking we have another Shakespeare reference but Ray's pronunciation suggests Romeo is a character with a name spelled the same way as one of Shakespeare's most famous characters (Lou Reed did the same thing in "Romeo Had Juliette" in 1989). It is also another Ray life on the road song but with invented characters. Some of the references are pretty "inside baseball" as the narrator talks about his per diems getting low. This song has its own little vibe quite different to anything else from these sessions and I like it.
Oct 1963 - Nov 1966 - Kinks get a haircut Apr 1967 - Feb 1970 1965 Never Say Yes 1965 Who'll Be The Next In Line tv 1966 Trouble In Madrid Lincoln County promo video Ray Reviews singles of June 67 Nov 1970 - Jun 1976 Lola, Percy and the Apeman.... 1974 Ray interview Ray Interview with Studs Terkel 1969 The Kinks Move To Arista Records Feb 1977 Sleepwalker Life On The Road - OGWT 77 - ITV 78 Mr Big Man Sleepwalker - Mike Douglas - OGWT - Supersonic - SNL - Outtake Brother Juke Box Music - single - OGWT Sleepless Night Stormy Sky - OGWT 77 Full Moon - live 77 - Ray live Life Goes On - OGWT 77 Artificial Light Prince Of The Punks The Poseur On The Outside - remix Elevator Man Kinks Live Feb 1977 Ray acoustic Apr 77 Kinks Old Grey Whistle Test show 77 Kinks Live Dec 1977 Christmas Concert 1977 The Pressures Of The Road Nov 1977 Father Christmas - video - live 1977 - tv promo - Dave live May 1978 Misfits Misfits - tv 1978 Hay Fever - live? Black Messiah Rock And Roll Fantasy- the hotel room - live Paris 1978 In A Foreign Land Permanent Waves Live Life - US version - UK tv Out Of The Wardrobe Trust Your Heart - live 1979 Get Up 1978 The Misfit Record EP Lola live in the hotel room UK tv 1978 The Misfits Tour Live in Paris 1978 Sept. 1978 20 Golden Greats Jul 1979 Low Budget Attitude Catch Me Now I'm Falling - remix - alt mix - The Late Man, Sea Cows In Love Mix Pressure - live 1983 National Health Superman (ext. mix) - single/album mix - ext fan mix - video - straight mix 12" Low Budget - Extended mix - Live 89 - Ray Live In A Space A Little Bit Of Emotion A Gallon Of Gas - Live in 1982 - Full US single version - Alt mix Misery Moving Pictures studio outtakes Hidden Quality Duke Nuclear Love Maybe I Love You Stolen Away Your Heart Mike Konopka Restores the Kinks for the Velvel Reissues The Low Budget interview Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Aug 1974 Live At Cobo Hall Ray On Wonderworld The Kunks Ray on the Stones Compilations part 1 The Kinks (France 78) Dave Davies - AFL1-3603 Where Do You Come From Doing The Best For You Visionary Dreamer Nothing More To Lose The World Is Changing Hands Move Over See The Beast Imaginations Real - Dave live In You I Believe Run Wild Man June 1980 One For The Road - The Concert Video - The 1979 Setlists - Cover analysis - album review Opening/Hardway - Hardway video Catch Me Now I'm Falling - video Where Have All the Good Times Gone - video Lola - video Pressure - video All Day And All Of The Night - video 20th Century Man Misfits Prince Of The Punks Stop Your Sobbing Low Budget - video Attitude - video Superman - video National Health Till The End Of The Day Celluloid Heroes - video You Really Got Me - video Victoria - video David Watts Slum Kids 79 live July 1980 The Live EP - Promo EP 1980 Waterloo Sunset EP Live at the Palladium 1980 1981 The Kinks - What's It All About? Jul 1981 Dave Davies Glamour Is This The Only Way? Glamour Reveal Yourself World Of Our Own Body Too Serious Telepathy 7th Channel Eastern Eyes 1981 Chorus Girls Aug 1981 Give The People What They Want Around The Dial - live 1982 - extended intro Give The People What They Want - video - extra verse Killer's Eyes - live 1982 Predictable - video Add It Up - live 1982 Destroyer - tv show - YRGM/Destroyer Don Lane Show -ext mix? - vimeo Yo-Yo - live 1982 - Tokyo 1982 Back To Front - live 1982 Art Lover - live 1982 - alt version - SNL 1981 A Little Bit Of Abuse Better Things - Kast-Off Kinks, with Ray - single - live - TOTP 94 b-side Massive Reductions Ray Interview Compilations part 2 1981/82 1981/82 Tour Ray And Chrissie Postcard From London Rockpalast concert 1982 US Festival Ray On Wonderworld 1983 Dave Davies - Chosen People Tapas Charity Mean Disposition - video Love Gets You - video - live Danger Zone True Story Take One More Chance Freedom Lies Matter Of Decision Is It Any Wonder Fire Burning Chosen People Cold Winter One Night With You b-side - live Dave Interview June 1983 State Of Confusion - interview State Of Confusion - live - video Definite Maybe Labour Of Love Come Dancing - TOTP - Stuttgart - ext - demo - Ray live - Frankfurt - US mix Property - live Don't Forget To Dance - video - live - video - ext - US mix - Aus mix - Alt Young Conservatives Heart Of Gold Clichés Of The World (B-movie) - live 87 Bernadette - live 82 - live 83 -alt - UK single Once A Thief Noise - UK 7" - UK 12" Long Distance State Of Confusion tour MTV interview You Really Got Me reissue State Of Confusion EP Compilations part 3 1983 - +1 Spotty Grotty Anna mono Scenes From A Video Marriage Live In Frankfurt in 1984 Kinks live TOTP 1994 Dave Creeping Jean live 2004 2005 Thanksgiving Day Ray live on Conan Obrien Oct 2018 Dave Davies - Decade - interview If You Are Leaving (71) Cradle To The Grace (73) Midnight Sun (73) Mystic Woman (73) The Journey (73) Shadows (73) Web Of Time (75) Mr Moon (75) - Why Islands (78) Give You All My Love (78) Within Each Day (78) Same Old Blues (78) This Precious Time (78) Rob Kopp has made his 1999 Kinks discography 'Down All The days Till 1992' US Chart Stats The Music Industry Machine Mick Avory Pete Quaife - interview - Kast Off Kinks - I Could See It In Your Eyes - Dead End Street Rasa Didzpetris Davies John Dalton John Gosling Jim Rodford Ian Gibbons Andy Pyle Gordon Edwards Clive Davis
State Of Confusion is a record I always thought was a good record with a memorable hit single proving the Kinks' long term survival was no fluke. Going through the album now, I am struck by the variety of approaches (and subject matter) Ray was taking in his songwriting. Also, a song like "Don't Forget To Dance" was probably a song I would have resisted back in 1983 because of its pure pop sheen but today, I find its charm much more striking. I always thought "Come Dancing" was a very clever single that was the first song that really revealed a key part of the Ray Davies persona to me which involved songs looking back on a part of the past that has been lost (symbolized by the Palais) with a certain amount of nostalgia but also, I sense, a certain amount of painful longing to be able to return to that era. Otherwise, I see the Kinks here as a band trying to stay relevant, absorbing some contemporary influences but their greatest strength here is the front man, singer and (most importantly) songwriter. Ray has a variety of ways of writing songs and that is shown on this album.
Long Distance First, an incomplete cast of characters (in order of appearance): Roadhog is played by Kevin Brown (production back line). Larry is most certainly Larry Raul, Ray’s longtime guitar tech. Who is Romeo, though, and why can’t he get any...? The Doctor and Mr. Boyd, anyone? My guess on The Electric Dwarf is that it’s probably Ian Gibbons, aka Stubz. I’m surprised road manager Ken Jones isn’t included; then again, maybe he is. And who is the chap who just scored ten? 12,000 miles but I’ve got no resistance ~ Ray 2,000 miles is very far in through the snow ~ Chrissie Oh, the frustrations of the long distance relationship; time zones, phone tag, wondering what your love is up to when they don’t answer. Now, this was a time of wine (on the wall) and roses, so it stays lighthearted, no hint of the storm clouds brewing. Doesn’t matter that you’re a rock star, you’re still powerless. For a neurotic, and, as per Ms. Hynde, an often jealous guy, he must have been going ‘round the bend.’ Ray once wouldn’t leave Chrissie’s dressing room when her bassist (and ex) Pete Farndon wanted a word in private. The end result was Ray getting decked. Though I have also heard this tale attributed to James Honeyman-Scott; not much remains clear through the fog of war, and the mists of time. When the roles were reversed, and Chrissie was on tour in Australia in early ‘84, it got ugly. Break-ups are rarely clean. It was claimed Ray phoned relentlessly; of course, Chrissie wouldn’t answer, she was keeping time with Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, tour mates. In Nick Hasted’s excellent Kinks bio, SM drummer Mel Gaynor remembers: ‘Chrissie was in a bit of a fly by night situation. I don’t know the ins and outs. But I believe it got quite physical in places. She upped and left because she had enough.’ From The Pretenders, With Hynde Sight: (describing her and Ray) The most violent relationship I’ve ever seen or heard of. We once watched Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and laughed at how mild it all seemed.’ Well, at least we got this great song (we get the property), written in a presumably happier time, before the tumult of ‘84. Some say absence (some Absinthe) makes the heart grow fonder. There is a romance to loneliness and this is a v. romantic song. On the lighter side, Ray has some wonderful lines here. What other band would bring up their per diems, especially the lack there of? Mick J. wouldn’t dare, nor would Pete T. or Paul M. For a minute, I thought, Mekons! Maybe ‘Curse’ or ‘100% Song’, but no, I’ve come up empty handed. With the prisoners of the mother land is top shelf Ray and paradise can be so cruel isn’t far behind. Musically, I catch a hint of ‘In a Foreign Land, especially with the finishing la la la’s. A terrible omission to not make the album proper. Maybe it was too personal of a song for Ray to release. Noise In late October of ‘83, Quiet Riot’s cover of Slade’s ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ entered the US top-ten, and in November, came to rest at #5. My circle of friends liked it, and so did I, which was fortunate because it was all over the radio. I wasn’t a Quiet Riot fan, but I noticed, even at the age of thirteen, that this was, at least, a heavy metal band with a sense of humor about themselves; somewhat Kinksian in that respect. Though Kevin DuBrow was one of the least-liked frontmen by his peers. When I got State of Confusion on cassette over the holidays I really dug in (and dug) the two bonus tracks. I did lament that the Kinks ‘Noise’ wasn’t as radio-friendly as Mr. DuBrow’s cover, but today, I grade it on its own merits. Namely, a strong B-side/bonus track. I see our headmaster has noticed Dave’s guitar ticking like a clock but does he picture my mother in the kitchen, too? Surely not. But I do. Whenever I play this track there is some Proustian recall that occurs. My mom was always in the kitchen fixing something; supper, afters, next day’s lunch; always with the radio on. WHN-AM, country music and home of the Mets (she hated when the ballgames interrupted things). The kitchen, with the old wooden clock right above her head, never closed. I’m sure it’s a conflated memory, but it’s my personal music video without fail. Then Ray starts growling, Dave kicks into gear, the clock explodes (in my mind) and the reverie vaporizes, my childhood is lost once more, and the song clatters on. I wonder if artists can appreciate what even their most inconsequential songs (or other medium) can mean to (and do for) people in the most abstract and personal ways. The way they fossilize in your DNA, merely playing them carries with it a certain weight. Like you’re not just listening to product, you’re examining a core sample from layers of your life. I imagine in their youth, as mortals, this was open to them. But maybe that door closes, once upon the treadmill, and you’re competing with other musicians. I doubt an artist’s own work could have the desired effect. So you never know what will move you, how it will move you, or when. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten ~ Cesare Pavese