Of course it's not. Yet for some reason, I felt compelled to put some asterisk symbols in your post while quoting it, so that we remain undercover (or should I say keep under cover ??… ) Now on to London Town, er, sorry, London Song… A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that back in the day, because of its title, I approached it expecting a new Waterloo Sunset. Well… you who never heard it before today in its studio form now understand what I meant when I said that it was faaaaar off the mark. But I like it. I think I prefer it to the live promenade version. Or more accurately, I see it as a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde double take : I wouldn’t appreciate either one of them as much as I do if I didn’t know their counterpart. It’s the memory of the jaunty & bluesy live acoustic take that makes the chaotic urban studio version enjoyable. And reversely, hearing it in this studio form makes me understand the live one better, giving it the anchor it needed. So to me, it’s a two faced monster, whenever I listen to one of the versions, the other one pops into my head and blends with it, and it becomes a composite whole that I’ve learned to appreciate quite a bit.
"The Third Single"...as has been mentioned it leaves out some details, like the two recorded versions, but is an entertaining and affectionate tale from the studio. The semi-acoustic "You Really Got Me" - I like this. Whenever I hear a version of this song which is significantly different to the original, it brings the song itself more closely into focus, and that key change midway through the verse sounds even more astonishing, whereas it can be taken for granted in the original. I like the slower, lazier pace of this version. "London Song" - this is the version I have on the Thanksgiving Day CD single. It doesn't sound like The Kinks and nor does it sound like Ray's later solo work, so it's a kind of orphaned child of the 90s. I didn't know that it was Reef playing on it, but it makes sense given that it sounds like it lives in a world where TFI Friday is still on Channel 4 every week. It's entertaining enough, but I'd probably prefer to hear the acoustic version. As for the CD - I considered trying to hold of a copy a few weeks ago, but in all honesty I'd probably rarely listen to it. I would have loved to be at one of the shows, but the CD seems to be a strange mixture of live monologues, live acoustic renditions and studio enhanced/created sections.
The Third Single/You Really Got Me Another great story and conclusive evidence from Ray's own mouth that Dave deserved a co-writing credit for YRGM. Dave gave the song its sound and the guitar solo that was so good that some tried to attribute it to Jimmy Page. London Song I love this heavy, distorted version as much as the earlier one even though the clarity of the lyrics suffers. I didn't know the Jools Holland background so thanks @ajsmith for posting that info and the clip. Storyteller wrap-up I've thoroughly enjoyed walking down Ray's memory lane and can happily Do It Again. The stories were entertaining and complemented the song choices really well. I'd really like to see the video, which will be out there somewhere.
The story of You Really Got Me It's nice that Ray resisted the temptation to make a Jimmy Page joke or allusion (maybe he did on tour ?). The managing team here gets a nice rehabilitation nearly 30 years after The Money go round. You Really Got Me Great bluesy version. The good side of late 90s/00s musicianship. London Song (studio version) And here's the bad side. Huerk.
I enjoyed going through the Storyteller CD and I gained a greater appreciation for it. I found that Ray's ability as a performer easily transferred over to storytelling. The stories are performances. The music is important too and there are some interesting original songs worked into the mix. After the Kinks called it quits, it seemed like a logical thing for Ray to do and I am glad I spent some time focused on this CD.
And even the CD is out of print with no MP3 download or streaming options! There's something really wrong in the world when I can buy nearly all officially-released Dave Davies solo albums while Ray's is a patchwork of out-of-print work and severely neglected albums. If it wasn't for youtube, this album would no longer exist, much like a few others. That said, er, um, I don't think I'll be throwing down for a used copy after losing track of my CD copy somewhere in the hazy past. It's not bad, but it also feels ripe to cherry pick a few key tracks. The closing studio track of "London Song" is a good example of why I'm not overly enthused. Lyrically, a very good song, but musically Ray still seemed to be in that very strange creative space from the last Kinks album. He's somehow forgotten what's made him good, that sense of melody, and for the most part is putting out deeply unmemorable music here, which is only underlined by including some of the more memorable music he's made in the past! I get what he was trying to do - a companion piece to the X-Ray book - but even in that context it feels a little off. Would it work onstage? Surely. I saw a derivation of the format in NYC around this time period as mentioned earlier. Regardless of my mixed emotions towards the album, it's always shameful when the work of a great recording artist falls out of print. No excuse for it in this digital day and age.
Storyteller wrap (a lot to cover today!!) This album’s different from anything Ray (or anybody in rock, really) ever did. It’s not your usual pop concept album or performance, where the songs are part of a unifying whole but are still supposed to stand out. Here, the songs wouldn’t really exist out of context, most of them didn't pre-exist and never got any life after the fact, outside these particular shows and this particular release. They were never meant to, either, they 're part of a flow, most of them are almost not really songs at all, except for the opening and closing studio creations. They're little illustrations or vignettes in passing, deliberately made to feel like ad libs or even improvisations – just like the written dialogue, precise as it is, has to feel free-formed and natural. That’s the way they’re written, snippets of music that a guy with a guitar would/could make up on the spot, to illustrate his point. It’s a strength and a weakness, a strength because it underlines how original Ray’s Storyteller concept was, and a weakness because you can’t listen to the whole as often as I would a normal record, and can’t really “playlist” the songs in a very satisfactory way (despite @The late man's claims). It’s not really a “the whole’s better than the sum of its parts” situation, more a “all or nothing at all” kind of thing. I like it as such, a wonderful documented trace of a show I once attended, and a great showcase for Ray Davies’ superb showmanship.
Maybe for the early moptops (Job Learnin', Flingos Bra, Gorge Fatherason & Ball Mcparty) their own euphemism for scoring groupie action was possibly saying they played Revolveher or experienced the Mystery Tour of the Fellows Submarine Races?
it's interesting to compare the Storyteller album to To The Bone.. Cos I always recollected Storyteller as another 'Greatest Hits Unplugged' effort on the back of the similar material on TTB.. but in fact upon examining it I see there are only 7 'oldies' on the Storyteller album, and some only presented fragmentarily... I think I was conflating the album with Ray's actual live shows from the time where he'd open with a few story unrelated oldies so they had more of a feel of a greatest hits show.. also Ray would often do a longer version of the show which took later events like the first US visit and early financial woes and worked in some deeper cut oldies such as 'Two Sisters' and 'Money Go Round'.. but the Storyteller album as immortalised on disc is not really trying to be a 'look at the wealth of this back catalogue I got ovah heah' effort like TTB so much as it's using choice excerpts from same and about an equal amount of new material to weave a narrative.
‘The Third Single/You Really Got Me’: highly entertaining with the character voices. I laugh at the blues references when I think back to the early catalog…when my personal opinion was that The Kinks had to be about the worst British blues band of that era…but the Storyteller rendition is certainly steeped in a ‘good’ blues. Ray’s f-off story doesn’t make any sense! Though is very funny. If Dave never heard Ray shout, why would he (Dave) have yelled f-off?! But it’s humorous, is a key storyline and Ray gets to inject the Dave rebuke into his stage performance.
“The Third Single”/“You Really Got Me”: Probably the pivotal story of the entire album, it shows why YRGM was such an important song in the Kinks’ history, from Ray rejecting the first attempt of recording it (and we still wonder what it sounded like), to forcing the issue of re recording it, to Ray’s description of how Dave played that lead solo, “F**k off” and all. This is why I had the opinion that YRGM should have been on every Kinks live album, which Avid All Down the Line disagreed w/, bless his punning heart. YRGM was a very important song, not only for the Kinks, but for pop/rock in general, more so than “Satisfaction”, as great a song that it is. “London Song”: To me, it’s like the “Sunny Afternoon”/“I’m Not Like Everybody Else” single, showing all the qualities of Ray’s work, but using the same song this time. I enjoy them both. Storyteller: When this came out, it seemed like a new concept of having one of the premier songwriters of the rock era discuss his career and how the songs he wrote came to be. It’s a very good album that showcases Ray’s talent for telling a tale w/humor and compassion. I think the problem was that instead it of being a gateway to a revitalized Kinks, original lineup reunion or not, or a solo career, he spent the next few years continually touring it, driving it to the ground, w/nothing new for the next decade.
The Third Single / You Really Got Me Yes, Ray should have had Mick Avory finally play on a studio recording of You Really Got Me since he missed out on the original 1964 recording, but he got the same replacement guy again (nothing against Bobby Graham, but just saying). This version is OK, but not something I would return to outside of the album. Hold that thought. London Song (Studio Version) I was curious to read the reactions from those who are new to this after hearing the acoustic version earlier in the album. My thoughts are this rocked up very digital sounding version does not work very well for me in contrast. Maybe if we had this rock version first or maybe this version without the acoustic, I would feel differently and embrace it more. I agree with Mark that this feels tacked on to the end of the album and it serves no real purpose here. For some reason Ray decided to remix this song and release this remix on the Thanksgiving Day CD Single 7 years later in 2005. It was performed in the Other People's Lives shows for that album's tour (it was in the set when I saw this show in 2006 in Atlanta, GA), but why the remix as an extra track on a CD single for a song not on that album? Not only was it remixed, but additional 2005 recording and overdubs were done for this remix - Hammond organ added by Serge Krebs, one original droning rhythm guitar mixed out and replaced with a different lead guitar here, guitars now together on one side instead of spread out in the mix, female backing vocals start earlier). Between the two studio versions I would take the original mix over this. London Song (Studio Version) (Remix) I laid out my thoughts earlier about The Storyteller album at the start and I still maintain those opinions. An original idea and concept and well executed by Ray as a longer live show that translates to the shorter album format with additional studio work. And it does work here. But again, I will only pull this out once every few years for a listen as find I enjoy it more with longer gaps between listens. It's a different listening experience from just about every other album I own. Shame it's only available on the used market these days. Glad for those who have never heard this who got to hear this here and can decide if it's worth tracking down a used CD. Listen to the original 1964 recording of You Really Got Me. At the 1:13 mark, at the end of the bar where the chord slides from D back to C, on the "and of 4" of that bar, right there you can hear a high-pitched short burst voice that sounds like "faw", then we get the "Oh no" and the scream right as the guitar solo starts. Check this out and decide for yourselves if Ray's story is true! (Whatever is actually uttered there, for all intents the story might as a well be. It gives this legendary song (and maybe more so the actual recording itself) even more historical relevance and notoriety if that's even possible).
‘London Song (studio version)’: Brilliant. I know this will sound strange but it’s overall sound, well…maybe just the beginning, reminds me of Drive-by Truckers ‘Days of Graduation’ or DBT’s this-year release ‘The Driver’; spoken vocals with music swirling and driving in the background. I like both versions of ‘London Song’ a lot. Well done.
Storyteller/London Song redux I skipped out on posting for almost all of the individual tracks, but really enjoyed listening to the album again after many years. It's a very enjoyable listen, and I'm sure if I wait a few years between listens I'll enjoy it all over again. As I said earlier, some of these stories had me grinning from ear to ear. Ray is so good at performing the spoken stories, and even the incomplete songs are great in the context of telling the story of the beginning of the Kinks. I only wish that there was a long silence at the end of YRGM, as that should be the end of the album proper. The studio version of London Song feels like it should be a bonus track. I still much prefer the acoustic version, but am starting to enjoy the studio version, where Ray's vocals are bordering on being a rap. I must have really not liked it when I first heard it, as I barely recollected hearing it before, compared to the acoustic version. Off-topic - but Ray talking about his brother yelling "F**k off," reminded me of the story that after the FBI spent two years investigating the Kingsmen's version of the song Louie Louie, listening for the reported obscene lyrics, they totally overlooked the one actual obscenity uttered. The drummer reportedly dropped his sticks and can faintly be heard shouting out the f-word about a minute into the recording, so the Kinks have more in common with the Kingsmen than just both having covered Louie Louie.
You know, given the gap in time, Ray's ability to er elaborate on his memories, and the (relative) lack of competing narratives, he could've gone in the direction of "no one believed in us but we insisted on recording it." But, as mentioned above, he instead redeems their managers (from how they were portrayed on Moneygoround and -- to a degree -- Top of the Pops) and even tips his hat to the generous cash infusion that made the YRGM recording possible. It's fascinating to hear how the faith of their representatives was a big part of what made YRGM, and thus the entire Kinks Kareer. I love the story and the Kwirky performance of this astonishing (blues-based!) song. The studio version of London Song had me thinking, again, well I'm screwed for this thread because I'm so in love with RD that I'll be into anything he records, no matter how meh. But by the end of the song, I was wanting some sort of chorus or bridge or quick sharp melodic turn. Still, for 3/4 of the song, I was right there with it, rocking out and enjoying (!) the vocal processing/studio sweetening. As for the LP as a whole, man, I wish he'd done volumes 2 through 30, covering every sub-phase of the band's career & his experiences. Yeah I might not listen to it every week, but it would be fascinating, a hugely valuable musical-historical document. & entertaining as hell.
London Song This rocks. Especially in concert, around the time of 'Other People's Lives'. It must have been Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, where Ray arrived late, seemingly in a bad mood and had the volume turned up. Not to 11, at least 15. The whole building was shaking and the sound banging back from the rear of the auditorium making a cacophonous noise. And every now and then, especially in a concert, that noise is good. I recall in that time period, seeing another band, famous from the 1960s in a similar sized venue, while an elderly woman watched their concert while knitting. I expect if you were sat in the neighbouring seats, you'd have heard the needles clicking away. You could have jammed them in the amps and you'd not have heard much difference. There would be no knitting at a Ray Davies show. It is 'London Song' for which I remember this assault on the ears. Possibly because of this, I prefer the studio version. I do find the 1998 version a touch distorted, the later version on the USA 'Thanksgiving Day' and the UK 'The Tourist' singles are preferable to my ears as the distortion is removed. OK in a one-off concert, not for repeated CD listening pleasure. This remixed version is also on Ray's compilation album, 'Collected'. Storyteller It's been lovely to re-listen to this unique album, and to recall the live shows, that were initially unique. Ray dragged it on for a few too many years for me, causing too much of a delay before the next project. Of course, Dave had a bit of a go at his own storytelling album hybrid, with his 'Live at Marion College' CD which also includes anecdotes. I wonder where he got the idea from...
The Third Single / You Really Got Me Ray's the standup comic! Oh wait, that will be on a future solo album... Ray makes Grenville sounds like Lavinia's husband is coming to collect her today! I don't have much else to add. This song means so much, this third single opens up the next three decades of the band. I can sorta hear the "fakov" in there, I always just assumed it was something like "Alright yeah!" with an "oh no!" on top. I always loved it, the band being so in the moment. The same kind of jubilant playing is heard several times on Arthur. The acoustic version has an almost Peter Gunn Theme bassline in it that adds a new flavor to my ears. London Song Agreed this really seems like it is tacked on after the album as a bonus track. Really the only sequencing issue that I think we've seen on this album. Quite different than To the Bone that seemed to have a lot of sequencing issues, or at least questionable decisions. This is the only one for me here. Should have been perhaps released separately? Non-album single? Part of a late 90s EP of fuller band recordings of these new songs from Storyteller? As for the song itself, I think I prefer the acoustic folk version from earlier, and this one is definitely a different side of that coin. I do like how it sounds very of its time and would fit in musically in the late 90s rock sound. Storyteller wrap-up I don't know how often I'd come back to this. Perhaps I'll play the whole YouTube album once in a while, just to hear the stories again. It's a wonderful concept, and I'm glad it led to a bit of legacy of this concept... the Storytellers series on VH1. I remember the Billy Joel one was particularly good. A bit like unplugged, but with....telling stories... Really makes it a very personal and intimate thing. Hearing what went into the song, what was riding on it, and then seeing it performed live in that singer/songwriter way.
Julie Finkle / The Ballad of Julie Finkle / The Third Single / You Really Got Me The narrative of the Storyteller show reaches its conclusion with the recording session for "You Really Got Me" and before that we get to hear about being young and in a touring band building towards massive success. The mysterious Julie Finkle, a composite of many characters (many groupies?), enters the story. It must certainly be a different feeling to discover, as a young soon-to-be-rock-star guy, that suddenly women are more interested than those art school babes he previously encountered. While perhaps a difficult thing for non-rock musicians to relate to, the anecdote about Julie Finkle is told in a typically humourous and self-deprecating way, very entertaining. And the actual song holds up very well, I think it could work well as an album track on a studio album as well. It does sound a bit loose here, but is very charming and energetic. I realise that it wasn't possible to include every character from the book, but the one I'd loved to hear more about, especially being imitated, would have been Hal the tour manager on the 1964 package tour who constantly patronised the group and constantly referred back to his time working with Billy Fury. I bet it would have been fun to hear Ray imitate tour manager Hal's way of telling the band off after each gig! "The Third Single" is a great final monologue on the album, you can really hear what a special and crucial period this was for the group and how much commitment they put into the song. I like how Ray talks of his bond with Dave at this time with such heartfelt respect and admiration. Obviously, a version of "You Really Got Me" concludes the show with an unspoken "...and the rest is history". I think it is a terrific version, it really works in this acoustic more bluesy way too and just from hearing it on The Storyteller I can vividly imagine the impact the single must have made on listeners back in 1964 when it was brand new. A superb way to end the show section of the CD!
The Third Single/ You Really Got Me. Storyteller Ray displays all his hallmark skills inclusive of Komedy, timing, Konstruction, tension - release, Kharacter Kwirks, editing, Kreativity, inflection, Kontrol, nuance & Kink. The reworked or if you like reimagined arrangement/tempo/extended riffing all come of like a (good luck) charm as we are aurally ushered invitingly in to the third single, but not as we know it Jim! The dragging tempo sounds cool especially with Mathiesons taut riff at the end and at the break a masterstroke as Reprise Ray Reintroduces Dave's profanity and we are uplifted and off to the races with laughter if not a Finkle Philly. I must say it has been great to revisit this and even moreso to read our Avids thoughts who are new to Storyteller and none moreso than the cinematic @Brian x who's sheer delight and praise remind me of my initial sky high exuberance for this album that ballooned for a decade before levelling out to be simply still pretty great. So thanks Ray, thanks Dave, thanks Larry & thanks Brian!
London Song Not quite as organic as the rawer live cut, this one has some heavy production touches. The bouncing guitar bits are good and the guitar distortion is ok but i don't enjoy either Ray's or the backing vocals nor how they were treated/recorded. I had forgotten about this largely charmless & busy piece i think i shall now call London Smog.
R E E F I always thought their name was in homage to and an anagram of: F R E E Watching the Jools Holland performance of their big hit i noticed their bass player just strutting and not playing in the opening verse but it's all right now and very Andy Fraser an' all.
Crystal Radio (2), Dave Davies, Russell T. Davies* – Purusha And The Spiritual Planet Label: Meta Media Records – MM01 Format: CD, Album Country: US Released: Oct 14, 1998 Genre: Folk, World, & Country 1 Kochan 2 Arrival 3 Mysterious Love 4 Feeling 5 Dance Of The Azuras 6 One Energy 7 Beautiful Night 8 Spiritual Planet 9 Return 10 Soothe Sayer (Mukti"s Song) 11 Spiritual Planet (Refection) Performed, produced and written by Dave Davies & Russell T. Davies ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is something that prior to a couple of months ago I had never heard of, and so I am not going to try and pretend I have much knowledge or connection to it. Thanks again to @Michael Streett for his unending value in our thread for uploading this so we had something to work with. It is a beautiful thing that Dave and Russell decided to work on some music together, just in and of itself that makes this valuable in a sense, even if it didn't happen to be something that we would want to own or whatever, but having said that, I am only just listening to the first bit of the album for the first time and I have no idea about where it's going. Kochan. This is an atmospheric synth based track, that has a sort of percussive synthetic vibraphone? type sound over wind sound in the background. We get a change of sound, followed by some sort of psy-fi sfx that crescendos into a sort of explosion. Arrival . This follows on with more synthetic atmospheres. It's quite pretty, and somewhat melancholy. It has a sort of Jean Michel Jarre type sound, of the seventies, at the start and then we move through a series of atmospheric type changes. I guess to some degree there is some kind of theme the guys were thinking of, but it sort of seems somewhat aimless on a first listen. A melodic section followed by a sound effect section, followed by a melodic section. It sort of has a movie soundtrack intro kind of feel. Again we crescendo into the finish. Mysterious Love. More synth pad type sounds. This time we get some percussive sounding synth parts, and the track develops into a more fully formed piece for a moment with some synthetic drums coming in. Again we're on the melancholy side of things. To be honest it kind of reminds me of some of the semi-aimless things I played around with on the synth when I had a studio to play with. That certainly doesn't completely discount it, but generally we guitarists are best using synth ideas in the background, not as the sum total of our writing. Another track that's nice enough but doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Feeling. With the pulsing kick drum, we get a sort of trance/rave kind of synth thing going on here. It is constructed of a repeat staccato melody that occasionally changes tone, and different layers of tonal things and percussive things coming in. Then we get one of those modulating synth type sounds coming in. It's all about spacey sounding synth stuff, which is probably great if your on E's or shrooms, but unless in the expert hands of Jean Michel Jarre or Vangelis or someone like that, it's hard to make something like this that captures my attention. We move into a murky kind of synth bass roll thing, with some sort of glissando synth flourishes to colour it up a bit. Towards the end I start thinking of a cross between Donna Summer I Feel Love and Jean Michel Jarre Oxygene lol Dance Of The Azuras. We start off in that light ambient kind of zone, and then we get a more ominous foreboding kind of sound. A stabby synth riff comes in with a sort of robotic melodic feel. We get a drum machine rhythm and a more melancholy layered pad section with slow moving melodic patterns, and this moves back into the stabby synth verse? This in some ways seems like the most fully formed and interesting track so far, for me. One Energy. By this stage, it's obvious that this is a synth based album playing with the idea of layered synths to create textured feelings. Here we open with synth pad ideas and then alternate between those and a bass type section that is a staccato things, and then they entangle together. Here we actually get a guitar come in, and it takes the form of one of the more avant garde lead guitar outings from Dave. It ends up being a nice textural change, and in its own way it is an interesting and quite adventurous bit of guitar from Dave. It closes out with a return to the dreamy synth pads Beautiful Night. This opens with a sequenced synth section and then a low synth bass, and I start wondering if Dave or Russell were heading of to Raves at this point in time with a pocket full of MDMA (ecstasy). It rolls along and we get a vocoder vocal, with the Kraftwerk, we are the Robots kind of sound. A sort of trance/rave/techno kind of track. Spiritual Planet. A very subtle opening, that has an ambient, airy kind of backing, and a sort of New Age piano imitation on the keyboard, with some washes of minimalist synth. This is a reflective sounding track, and at this stage listening along, it kind of has the feel of some ambient chill music you might hear when you go to one of those places were they do massages and stuff.... I have dropped off and picked up the Mrs from these kind of joints lol, so that's the best I have there lol.... not my kinda scene It builds a little in layered density, but remains in this zone, with a slight crescendo near the end of these layers meshing into.... a realization? Return . This opens as some really punchy hard rock .... nah I'm just joking.... This is minimalist washes of synth tones, floating on air. In the background there is a sort of radiogram sounding voice, buried just enough that I have no idea what is being said. Bird Noises, laughter.... This is pretty much straight atmospherics, and closes with a plane flying across the sky. Digital crescendo, and then she's gone. Soothe Sayer (Mukti's Song). Open up your eyes, see the world around you It's not what we thought it was. It's not what we were told. Flashing signs before us. They're even reading the last rites. All our systems have failed us. Now they've turned out the lights. Soothe Sayer. The miracle's just begun. What a cool player. Love is the only one! Soothe Sayer. New age, millenium. The coming of the new messiah. Wall Street, big businesses, pretending it's alright. Preachers lost in ministry, while the sinners laugh and mock. Angels watching helplessly the final ticking of the clock! Soothe Sayer. Got you on the run. What a cool player. Love is the only one! Soothe Sayer. Got 'em on the run. What a mind blower. Love is the only one! Soothe Sayer. When you walk that rocky road, you need food to feed your soul. I'll help you with that heavy load, until you reach your home! You're not alone! Soothe Sayer. The miracle's just begun. What a cool player. Love is the only one. Soothe Sayer. Soothe Sayer. The Devils on the run. What a cruel player. Love is the only one! Soothe Sayer! Open up your heart. Look up in to the sky. Feel the energy around you and know that we must try. Love's the new reality, the true saviour of this world. We're gonna live through this insanity. You better hold on to me Guru! Soothe Sayer. Soothe Sayer Written by: Dave Davies/Russell T. Davies This track opens in a similar manner, but then, almost shockingly, a vocal comes in.. We have a musical palette that's very similar to what we have had had, but a nice percussion section comes in behind and it adds a little flavour to the proceedings. The first verse is actually pretty good, it addresses the fact that the world around us is not exactly what the world tries to tell us it is.... there is something else going on beyond our ability to see. I wonder if the flashing signs before us represent either the world we have created, or the non-neon signs around us, that would be flashing signs to people in touch with the actual world around us. Their reading the last rites, for me, speaks to the idea that this can't go on as it has been, because we have become disconnected from the real reality, and it can't and won't go on like that, much longer, because people need the reality we are shielded from these days. All the things we have created have failed us... they were illusions, distractions from the real story, and they are doomed to failure, and will wither and fade like fallen leaves turning to mulch on the ground. The second verse has Dave in some familiar territory, with this idea that a new age is coming.... and I guess at this time he was looking towards the year 2000, and imagining a change ... he ponders a new messiah, but I doubt he expected it to be an electronic web locked inside tiny little tv phones to completely remove us from reality He looks at the idea that Wall Street and Big Business are pretending everything is cool.... the reality turned out that they actually had greater control, because we became more disconnected. We get an allusion to a spiritual idea in the line about Preachers being lost in ministry and mocked by sinners... And at the same time the Angels are weeping, because we are so locked into our faux world, that the disconnect is just about complete, and the time is winding down, to an end. With the next verse, it kind of casts light back on the previous, and to some degree gives the impression that this may well be some vague representation of Dave's interpretation of biblical/spiritual ideas ... The idea that life is a hard road to walk, and the road is rocky. The idea that we need to feed our soul, to sustain us until we make it home... Which would essentially speak to the idea of a Christian perspective of the world, particularly when tied into the previous verse... but there are several religions where similar ideas could be reflected by this idea. A reassurance that we aren't walking alone, even when we feel like we are.... We get a vague reference to the Devil being on the run and Love is the answer.... Everyone knows that love is the answer, but I'm not convinced we know how that love is supposed to manifest. We end with Dave looking up to the sky and asking his Guru to hold on to him, pursuing the ideas he has presented here. It's an interesting and thoughtful kind of lyric, sung like Dave over music that is in tune with what we have been listening to over the course of this album. Spiritual Planet (Reflection). We close out with another reflective synth track that seems to work like a coda to the album. Like most of the tracks were building to the statement that Dave wanted to make, and this is the come down at the end of that. This isn't a bad album. We have Dave trying something new, and working with his son, and no matter how that ends up working out, it's a beautiful thing. For me the album itself isn't something that really interests me beyond that. I guess stepping away from who it is, for me it is some meandering exploration in synth textures, and there is always a place for that, but it isn't something that greatly interests me.... Perhaps it's because I have done this kind of thing myself before, and it merely exposes that I am not an ahead of the game synth stylist like Jarre, Vangelis or whoever else is on the list. I do really enjoy some synth styled (mainly) instrumental albums, but they are minority albums in my collection and mindset. So an ok album of vaguely interesting exploration just doesn't hold my interest much... I'd lean towards Instrumental - Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene - Zoolook Vangelis - China - Opera Sauvage Tangerine Dream - Phaedra - Ricochet Maybe Kraftwerk Then there are more varied artists like Mike Oldfield that use synths but not exclusively. With vocal bands, I love a lot of them Ultravox, Depeche Mode, early OMD, early Gary Numan, early Tears For Fears, Howard Jones, early New Order and this album is ok, but not on par with any of that stuff for me, making it a little uninteresting for me personally. 0:00 Kochan 2:00 Arrival 6:04 Mysterious Love 9:27 Feeling 15:17 Dance Of The Azuras 20:31 One Energy 24:57 Beautiful Night 32:38 Spiritual Planet 37:48 Return 40:39 Soothe Sayer (Mukti's Song) 46:38 Spiritual Planet (Reflection)
Graphic Design Is My Passion! (sorry that is a total cheap shot but I couldn't resist.. wonder what @Martyj 's take on this sleeve art would be...) To be quite frank I won't have the time to even attempt to ingest todays album so I'll shut up now. I'm just glad it exists as part of the Kinks omniverse and maybe one day I'll get around to exploring this far flung and strange planet orbiting the main catalogue. I do feel that Dave's later work significantly broadens the scope of what Kinks related music can be genre wise, and helps round it out to a Zappa-sized universe in a way it just wouldn't be if we were going on Ray penned stuff alone.
Looking at the song titles I'm getting a strong Jon Anderson vibe - Olias 2 anyone? I doubt whether Jon would go with Comic Sans for his cover art, though. I've tried dipping in at various points - there is clearly some nice-sounding synth music in there - very "new age", but whether I could stay with it for the whole 50 minutes is debatable. There are also a couple of tracks which are heading towards the kind of techno dance vibe found on side 4 of Bug. I'll certainly have a closer listen to the track with vocals later on today.
