That's quite a difficult question to answer but, put it this way, most people in the UK consider themselves working class (anything from 50% to 60%) while most people in the USA consider themselves middle class (up to 70%). Well, so Google tells me!
I get the distinct impression that part of what makes this difficult to fully comprehend in some ways, is the repetitive grind has the main character struggling with his sanity. We have the real time drudgery that flows through the movie, and it keeps getting interrupted by memories and fantasies. It is like a short time in someone's head, with a thoughtful soundtrack. I think there are red herrings or misdirection's added to distract also.
According to Dave (in Kink) their father (like his father) was a slaughterman (a butcher in the literal sense) and his mother worked in a coffee shop next to the cattle market near Kings Cross. I don't know how hard they worked but that's working class in any country. But I do agree they didn't do a good job of filling their kids heads full of working class ideals - at least not enough for them to be reflected in songwriting, except occasionally.
In the UK the term ‘middle class’ tends to be used pejoratively to mean the petit bourgeois and in the US it seems to be used aspirationally to mean the self made exponents of the American dream: this took a bit of getting used to when I started paying more attention to US politics a few years back!
“Return to Waterloo”: The title track of the album/movie, basically the musings of a daily commuter to Waterloo Station, London, which are rather more complex and profound than the usual commuter, especially these days. My brother, who survived 10 years of commuting on the MBTA Orange Line to Boston told me that all his fellow commuters did was look in their phones. Anyway, it’s a good intro song, w/it’s title harking back to “Waterloo Sunset”, although the POV is now among the masses going into the station rather than someone looking over them from above. Some things about the movie: 1. I noticed the hubby kissing his wife right after she took a puff. How gross is that? 2. The lead actor, Ken Colley, as well as Daniel Craig, both look like Putin to me. 3. The movie starts at the end of the trip (seemingly) and goes back to the beginning.
Return to Waterloo: First off, unlike most the other unknown-to-me stuff we have covered, I have not been able to listen to this often enough to really judge, I need a good 20+ airings, with a few with full focus. I guess if I was a better student and had paid attention to OFL's (Our Fearless Leader's) syllabus I would have seen this album coming weeks ago and been ready. I'll accept the F on this assignment without argument! perhaps I can do an extra credit assignment? Nonetheless, I can say this is a good song and it will make my playlist. That could be based on preconceptions based on others comments on here that this was a good song, or it could be that my four or five listens were enough to assess it. Not sure if it rises to the level of a lost Kinks ClassiK (yet). Dave's absence is very notable (but then it always is when Ray underutilizes him IMHO). A return to Ray's famous "Waterloo" setting is bound to bring with it a lot of high expectations, as it really is one of his (many) finest songs. I am not sure if RtW rises to the the level of a great follow up yet. I mean how often does that happen, when part 2 of anything matches or exceeds part 1? Taken on its own, without the weight of the expectations, though, its a fine little song. I am sure there is a lot to unpack in the lyrics here, Ray almost always writes with purpose and every word usually counts. I doubt I would be able to analyze the lyrics the way many of you do, even if I had listened to it more regularly, so I will wait and assimilate the meanings and find any Easter eggs as I read all your comments (I haven't yet, obviously). I'll just leave off saying this is a good song that will get closer attention from me going forward! Edit: Having now caught up with your all postings on this track, I did miss the point of the lyrics. Thanks, I like the song even more now that I see where Ray had sprinkled in his usual topics. Great write ups from OFL and all the other regulars. Great thread, so much fun!
Here’s what I found on Discogs: Ray Davies - Return To Waterloo (All Versions) For Sale at Discogs Marketplace The CD version is pricey: Ray Davies - Return To Waterloo (CD, US, 2005) For Sale | Discogs
Johnny Rogan's book joins the dots a bit and suggests they weren't quite considered respectable by some of their more upwardly mobile and aspirational neighbours. Kind of the neighbourhood family other kids get told to stay away from.
For anyone not owning this album in any physical form, and are debating on spending the money now, if you can do vinyl then that's the route you will want to take as the original LP (and cassette) has a unique mix on it that the later CD release (of course) botched up. If you have to have digital, then the CD is your only option unless you can rip vinyl.
Return to Waterloo Is it just me, or the opening strums seems like the same sort of chord sequence as the very beginning of Dave's Strangers? After the first acoustic intro, I can imagine Dave coming in with "Where are you going, I don't mind"... Overall, it's a great vocal, melody and song by Ray. I don't mind the 80s effects. It sounds of it's time, just as Ray's 60s production techniques sounded very of their time too. This is certainly elevated over other contemporary 80s songs due to Ray's melodies and voices. Musically, this kind of synth backing seems different from other 80s Kinks synth beds, so this does sound like a solo venture, which is appropriate here. It doesn't sound like the Kinks. It sounds like Ray!
Intro An effective, cinematic opening sounding like something Lynch/Badalamenti and (the late) Julee Cruise might cook up. Return to Waterloo Acoustic guitar straight out of 1966, reminiscent of ‘A Well Respected Man,’ then it’s straight into the eighties, with synths and handclaps. By the end of the first verse, the different blips of electronica could lead the song into Laurie Anderson territory, but then these accents retreat. The downside of ‘Producer’ Ray, his indecisiveness and self-compromises. He won’t commit fully to a new path yet scatters a trail of crumbs to alert the listener to what could have been. In this case, thankfully he didn’t go full throttle with the synths, as at a couple points it sounded like the origins to his (frankly intolerable) track ‘New World’ off of Did Ya (most notably at the end of first verse and at end of song). Yes, that cost me more in 1992 is weak, a throwaway rhyme; one I always hoped was referring to when the UK would join the European Union. But, as @ajsmith notes, the Maastricht Treaty wasn’t even in discussions yet, at least not among rock royalty. It is, though, a solid song that, as the rest of the album, does just fine without Davies junior.
The promo video for RTW. Was this not posted yet? Note poster of Diana Dors. Note also Larry Page, in his trademark thick goggles, dismissing Ray from his office. Delicious layers of irony.
I wonder if the acoustic opening and synthetic closing is a statement in itself? The old school lost, welcome to the new world?
F !!!!!!! I had NO IDEA there was a dedicated promo video for this, separate from the main feature material. Should have been a bonus on the DVD! I see on a quick glance through that Jim Rodford also cameos.
I hate the weatherman’s sweater! Larry Page scene. Interesting to see that Ray brought in a reel-to-reel tape (as it’s returned to him). I guess I would have expected cassettes for a home demo. Accordion player: that’s Jim Rodford? Isn’t it? edit: I see @ajsmith confirms my Rodford sighting
Crashing out 24 hours behind the thread but enjoying the holiday away in the hills and almost being well after a horrific flu of 18 days. Apologies if this two-fer DVD has been posted prior as I had not spotted it.
Having now watched the full thing, I think I prefer this to the film itself! The Larry Page scene is great: he totally looks the part of a cartoon Svengali, though I doubt much acting was involved on his part.
When they saw "remastered to 5.1", that's what it is, take the mono or stereo soundtrack and put it through 5 channels
Let's see how long this lasts but so far the difference between '68 & '84 RD is negligible when compared to '68 & '84 Dylan, Stones, Macca, or etc. Yes, bleeps and blips and synth snorts and handclaps, but the voice, the lyrics, the the essence of RD are all here, pure and fresh and undiluted. Will have to do a catch-up on the film once the latest tranche of work is off my desk, but like yesterday I was very pleasantly surprised when I played this and imagine (once I figure out how to get it digitally) that I'll love it for years to come. As for disdain for the *middle class*, I think RD just hates routine of any kind (tune up, start to play, just like any other day). He's doubtlessly got old *friends* who have been deadened and disillusioned by doing it again (and again), the early morning can't stop yawning push and shoving rush hour blues, the making decisions that affect no one, the ducks on the wall. And at various points he probably even thought -- if I gave this up, if this rock star thing fell apart, there but for the grace of god... I don't think it's about contempt for hard work and sacrifice so much as it's about a horror of routine, of getting trapped in a cycle where you're insulated from surprise and spontaneity, of getting ground down by any kind of system (the union man, the headmaster, the foreign publisher)... (I'm in a pit and I'm stuck in it)... until you've completely lost touch with yourself. Maybe that's why RD kept being original & unpredictable long past the general '60s pop star expiration date -- his refusal to get stuck, his aversion to living a lie.
Is this really where Terry meets Julie? I imagined rolling green hills and a little train stop. The video is a brilliant update with Ray now observing a psycho rapist instead of two innocent young lovers. (the last couple shots of the guy following the girl very ominous and effect imo) i remember hearing this in real time and searching the record shops for it, very atmospheric and Ray in her wheelhouse melodically and lyrically. well done
