Word of Mouth (the album): As previously noted, I did not buy this on release nor at any point over the subsequent 38 years. It wasn't the album cover, I seem to be one of the few here who doesn't hate it. I would merely say its inoffensive to me. I tend to prefer art work, not a group picture (unless its made into artwork, for example, I love the cover of One for the Road (Ray and Dave look "cool"). I knew both Do It Again and Living on a Thin Line, played heavily on the local classic rock stations in CT and MA (at least on WAAF), and those songs did get cranked up when they would come on the radio, but they just weren't strong enough at the time to get me over the line to buy the album. So what was I buying instead? Here is a good sampling. Heavy on the metal and hard rock, but you will also see my tendencies towards pop: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Iron Maiden - Powerslave April Wine - Animal Grace Dio - The Last in Line Dokken - Tooth and Nail Sammy Hagar - VOA Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps from the Move Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith Metallica - Ride the Lightning Queensrÿche - The Warning Ratt - Out of the Cellar Triumph - Thunder Seven Whitesnake - Slide It In Van Halen - 1984 Rush - Grace Under Pressure Bon Jovi - Debut album Scorpions - Love at First Sting Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers Yngwie Malmsteens Rising Force Rock and Pop: Prince - Purple Rain Michael Jackson - Thriller Don Henley - Building the Perfect Beast Replacements - Let it Be Queen - The Works U2 - Unforgettable fire Cars - Heartbeat City Pretenders - Learning to Crawl INXS - The Swing Foreigner - Agent Provocateur Bryan Adams - Reckless Cindi Lauper - Time After Time Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand The Weather Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA I count 13 crossovers with our leader.
A perfect album, in my opinion. Amazing songs, production, performance, and one of the best album covers ever. So, you can't really blame 1984 for bad music or bad album covers! I also like many of the other albums you listed. A pretty great year for music. Here is a recent thread that some of us posted on. 1984 in 10 songs
Mick leaving and Bob arriving...... It's always disappointing when original members move on... It's only really on this thread that I have fully appreciated Mick's stick-work... not that I ever thought poorly of him, just that until paying closer attention to the 65-77 material he had seemed slightly anonymous. Obviously now, I consider him to be a big part of the Kinks sound, and it is no small feat being the longest lasting non-Davies member of the band..... I can imagine if Ray and Mick were best friends, and Dave literally hated Mick, that could well be part of the friction between the brothers, but obviously there was more to it than that. It seems by the late seventies, early eighties, the drums just weren't a leading instrument in the Kinks songs anymore, and I have very little idea about Argent... so that makes two things come to mind A - Mick's input had dwindled into insignificance.. whether by design or default. B - it's hard to know what I think of Henritt's drumming.... solid and steady seems to be the order of the day, and that's fine, but I lean towards more adventurous drumming, generally. The Kinks seem quite blessed with bass players, with Quaife and Dalton... and Rodford is solid. The Kinks seem quite blessed with Avory .... and Henritt is sold. I like what we have coming up, but the thoughts in that previous paragraph make me wonder if the edge that I suggested may be missing, was actually the engine room... the rhythm section. Sometimes it seems slightly irrelevant... surely it's mainly the songs, and the guys up front.... but the engine room is the skeletal system that the musical muscle sits on. Sorry, another of my random ponderances It's totally bewildering to me the whole "Dave and Mick Issue", because you'd think after twenty years they would have figured it out... but sadly, no.
That whole "Dave and Mick Issue" really began w/the Cardiff incident. Dave was seriously injured. To me it's a bit of a miracle that Mick was able to hang on as long as he did. How would you feel if a fellow employee injured you at work and you had to work w/him for the next twenty years? It's part and parcel of the Kinks' dysfunction like how Moonie's behavior affected the Who.
Word of Mouth - Until recently I was mostly only familiar with "Do It Again," "Living on a Thin Line," and "Good Day," from compilations and live versions. I don't recall hearing any of the album in real time. It has two of my Top 10 Kinks songs, and others seem quite promising (and will be even better after I edit them down). The cover? It was the 80s, what can I say? I like it more than the next one...
I'm sure that's part of it.... but it seems something must have triggered that.... I still wonder what happened when they were living together....
Long Distance This is a good one! And yes, it should have been on the album. I don't know what kind of thought process went on where Ray passed up this one for [fill in the blank]. A postcard to us from on the road. We get the roadie updates. We get a weather update as well as the the tale of loneliness that accompanies being on the road even he's "livin' the life that [he] chose". Definitely countrified and Dylan-ish, but I don't mind either. Liking it a lot!
Exactly a year ago (June 12, 2021): “I look through Mark’s Reference Guide and can just imagine the exam questions. True or False: Mick Avory thought he killed Dave Davies by throwing a drum cymbal at his head. —- Above, me!
The drummer switch - Dave could no longer work with Mick so either Dave leaves (and the band probably breaks up) or Mick leaves. Remember I'm coming at this of two minds, a fan of the band's entire career as a listener and a music lover, but also a musician myself and I cannot separate these things no matter who I'm listening to. I understand injecting your own personality and I also understand checking your ego at the door. I'll just say that what the band had now become due to the way Ray was now writing and what the requirements of live shows of the era dictated, required a different more consistent heavier approach. The band was no longer a Band. It had been leading to this since 1978. This was the final piece where it became Ray and Dave and whoever else for the duration. Henrit alludes to this in that interview posted over the weekend. He said the band hired him to do exactly what he did. He knew and understood he was a hired hand and played what served the song and the band. History is history now, so I'll be moving on from this discussion. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ... I came in? Yes, this is where I came in where whatever wall or resistance I may have had towards The Kinks came down. February 1985 cassette bought at the local independent store called Ray's Novel Shop, a small store that sold records and tapes and later CDs, but also books, especially paperbacks on those 6 feet tall spinner racks that held hundreds apiece. And magazines (including the ones in the dark back corner that was partially blocked by a short locked gate that had to be opened by the store clerk. We used to crawl over it anyway to check those rags out until we were were caught out by the clerk via the round mirror hanging up in the corner that was visible from the front of the store where they could see us as soon as they had time to check). The cover? Yeah, it sucks. Almost didn't buy it due that cover. It's astonishing to me that a band of this stature and longevity had consistently bad covers and never even settled on a standard logo for the band's name. Bought this on the strength of Do It Again and so the odyssey began. I had just started driving back in late 83 and still had my first beater car, a 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass. A tank. Folks here that were around in those days know cars didn't necessarily come with anything other than a factory AM/FM radio (if that) and this was true for this Olds. A couple of months prior during the Christmas school break, my friends had helped me put in a new cassette deck and rewiring new speaker wire under the door thresholds to the trunk and new speakers (we all helped each other with each other's cars when it came to this kind of stuff). Got the tape and drove a mile or so to the local Pizza Inn and grabbed a pizza and then drove around listening to this tape while gulping down pizza and Dr. Pepper. Still a favorite combination of food and drink even though that Pizza Inn and Ray's is now long gone. Still a favorite album even though I know it's nowhere near their best. But you never forget your first. Isn't this where...?
Word of Mouth Not much to tell. I’m only familiar with Do it Again and Living on a Thin Line from the radio, and don’t remember hearing them that often at that.
Word of Mouth In real time, I had mostly checked out of the Kinks when Word of Mouth came out and was heading down my own road. The two singles from the album I do recall hearing quite a bit - probably on the radio more so than on MTV. And I liked them both. But so far I have not really given much of a listen to the rest of the songs on this album. I will try to do so in the coming days so I can situate myself. I'm not sure what to expect though. I wasn't overly impressed by the prior album, so my fear is that we're on the 'big slide'. But trying to remain positive. the cover: oy. Like Mark said, they got lazy. Word of Mouth..."so let's put a bunch of mouths on the album cover, you following me?!" And knowing some of the album covers coming up, this may be the best of the bunch until we hit To the Bone. LOL. At least the Kinks are pretty consistent.
Actually my English grandfather came here by choice around 1920 and my Romanian father in 1950 and there was no known family history of punning from either so i blame Hawkeye Pierce!
My first concert was the Word of Mouth tour when it stopped at the Meadowlands, March of ‘85. Ever the bookworm, at the merch tables I chose to purchase the Jon Savage Kinks book, not the traditional tee shirt. Yes, it went from Ray threatening to sue Faber and Faber to stop publication, to having its book sold at his concerts. And since we’ve been on the topic of album artwork (and thank you for the kind words), have you ever noticed the striking similarities between that bio and the Kinks next album, Think Visual? Something fishy here, no?
Transformer is a CLASSIC album cover. It's an example of what I would have wanted from the Kinks. Maybe it's a good thing that Ray didn't follow his first desires to pursue visual arts.
Re: Point 2 How on earth post WOM would Ray even consider resigning with Arista? If they were still theoretically in the hunt, they bothered to turn up at the picnic without the food!
What basically happened was that Clive Davis got the news that the Kinks were going to sign w/MCA before they actually did so, so he withdrew his offer to resign them and said "good luck boys." Both Ray and Dave subsequently said that it was a mistake to go w/MCA and wished they stayed w/Arista.
