Tricksy Ray. Sometimes outfoxing even himself… I like Creatures of Little Faith. If it’s so that one of them is guilty, I like it less. See, I’m unpredictable. l highly rate Art Lover, with its twist, but here I just wouldn’t get the point, except maybe to say that we are untrusting for good reason? Anyway, back to the music. It’s a pretty song. The sax adds nothing but I don’t have the allergy to sax that some around here seem to possess. (have at it @All Down The Line I’ve given you gold!). At some point Ray’s arrangement craft may have grown to the point where it’s hurting some songs. I’ve noticed on the other hand that his remixes of old material recently has tended toward the direct and straight-ahead A pretty good album so far.
Oh wow, yes ! It took me a full day to process this (I read your post yesterday morning and thought "yeah, maybe"), but now I hear it crystal clear. It has that Beware of Darkness quality… And the key change towards the bridge also brings that song to mind. The sax and lounge vibe are more like something from Extra Texture, though. But hey, coming from me, it's still a serious compliment. This song's the biggest revelation for me so far on the record. If I needed one full day to process the above observation, it took me the best of seventeen years to fully process this tune. What can I say, I'm slow… I agree that the "creatures" move really elevates the song. It allows the term "faith" to resonate in all its tongue in cheek double meaning glory. Only Ray Davies could bring a "pants down" lyrics to an (almost) metaphysical level.
I'm wondering if we ought to consider some key TV programmes? The 2003 Documentary 'The World From My Window', and more importantly the two TV Documentary films from Julien Temple - 2010 Ray Davies 'Imaginary Man' and 2011 Dave Davies 'Kinkdom Come'.
Yes! I think they've all already been posted on the thread but I think they deserve to be re-considered at the appropriate point in the timeline. We're already a couple of years on from 'World From My Window' but it essentially documents the OPL era (most of it was recorded in 2002-3 anyway) so is still era appropriate. Maybe slot it in this Sunday?
I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but there is this excellent US TV show 'Austin City Limits' from around the time of 'Other People's Lives'. Here's 'After The Fall' There's a lovely version of 'A Long Way From Home' in the show too. EDIT: I see @Michael Streett has mentioned this one. Certainly worthy of a consideration from the team!
Another for perhaps a Sunday, or a slot at the end of this album, this BBC radio concert from 2006 'Sold On Song' Set List : 1. Dead End Street 2. 20th Century Man 3. Village Green 4. Picture Book 5. Big Sky 6. Do You remember Walter? 7. Sunny Afternoon 8. I Go To Sleep 9. All She Wrote 10. Other People's Lives 11. Muswell Hillbilly 12. Oklahoma USA 13. The Getaway (Lonesome train) 14. After the Fall 15. Harry Rag
Run Away From Time. stereo mix (3:47), recorded 23 Jan, 2003 (additional recording 6-9 Jul, 2004) at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Hey, my friend You can't run away from time They say you can't fight fate Time won't wait You can't run away from time And time is the avenger But why should we just surrender to it? Why go through it? Run run run run run run run away Let's run away from time Run run run run run run run away Girl, you and me We've got to set ourselves free this time We must try to escape because it's never too late Liberation is ours to find Hey, hey let's run away Let's run away from time Hey, hey let's run away Hey, girl Let's run away from time We've still got mountains to climb A day at a time It's never too late, so why should we wait? Take me Save me Maybe, baby Run run run away Run run run away Run run run away The world is too obsessed by the continual quest For the fountain of youth they will never find And time is the avenger But why should we just surrender to it? Why go through it? Run run run run run run run away Let's run away from time Run run run run run run run away Run run run away Run run run away Run run run away Run run run away Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music, Ltd. All in all, this may be the weakest song on the album for me, but it is still a cool little track. It has a sort of Motown(ish) kind of sound and feel, and that's rarely a bad thing. I think in some ways the lyric here is a bit lighter... Certainly to some degree the topic could be seen as heavier for some, but it's done in a light way. We start off singing about the fact that you can't run away from time, and then for the rest of the song, we're trying to run away from time lol and that's probably a pretty reasonable picture of our realities, on many levels. We know something isn't possible, or at the very least, likely, yet we pursue and strive and try anyhow. I like the tip of the hat to Chrissie Hynde via Time The Avenger... a neat little touch. Then Ray puts forth the notion of why should we just surrender to it? Then we are urged to run away from time. Ray then says "Girl ... we've got to set ourselves free this time" and in my mind this creates a beautiful irony.. contradiction ... contradictory irony? lol We have to escape, we need to liberate ourselves. "Let's run away from time We've still got mountains to climb A day at a time It's never too late, so why should we wait?" Ray does it again here. Lets run away from time... and then hugely funny to me - A Day at a Time - It's never too late, so why should we wait. Four different words all directly related to time, spaced as if intentionally done so. "The world is too obsessed by the continual quest For the fountain of youth they will never find" This is something I completely agree with. By all means look after yourself, but don't waste your life, resources and energy trying to avoid the inevitable. So lyrically I see a few angles here A) Ray just slapped together some words to go with his cool little Motown style track B) Running away from time, is running away from worrying about it My train of thought was broken, and it took me a week to be able to get back to this, so I don't remember my other angles lol Anyway, I really like the music here... Like I say, it kind of makes me think of a modern variation of the Motown kind of sound. We have a nice organ base, with the rhythm section with a really nice smooth rhythm, even though it isn't generally a straight kind of beat. The bridge works as a nice change up. Then we get the "ooo" and lead guitar trading off, and that's pretty cool too. I think the chorus is very singable, and I reckon a lot of people could sing along with this chorus with a different context to the song. As humans we are normally running away from something, even if just ourselves. Anyway, I made a pig's ear out of that, but in spite of it possibly being one of the weaker tracks, I reckon this is a great track. I guess looking back reading this as I post it... weakest/ weaker tracks is not really a correct way of looking at it.... This is a great singable, fun song, but in comparison to many of the other songs, I think the lyrics are somewhat weaker
Run Away From Time This one grew on me. I originally thought it was one of the weaker tracks, but now it's up there in the mix with most of the other tracks on the album. Perhaps I'm coming around to the view that there's too many similarly tempo'd songs on the album. Could be the first time in our deep-dive where an album is moving downwards in estimation for me. It's catchy enough with its 'run run run run runaway'. (or am I getting confused with Del Shannon...) It's in the right place on the album. It doesn't jump out, nor is it a letdown really. It has singalongability. This was never played on the tours I saw, so no idea why it was attempted on this 'Austin City Limits' Show, Ray struggles with it in my opinion here.
My first reaction (still influenced by @Rockford & Roll's Harrison comment copied above): the intro's almost exactly like This Song by George. Second reaction : well, This Song's intro directly quoted (intentionally, I'm sure…) I Can’t Help Myself by the Four Tops. So yeah, Motown, and it's the second time (after It's the Same Old Song in Lost and Found) that Ray's paid tribute to that beautiful band. Like George, he probably can't help himself… Third reaction : Del Shannon’s there too, as are many other run run run runaway singers, though I can't help but hearing shades of Karma Chameleon Culture clubbing, too. It’s not really a great song. More of an ok album track, sustaining the overall existential theme that seems to be the conceptual anchor of the whole thing.
The studio versions posted for this album are coming up "unavailable in my country" so I usually just YouTube it but this time I had to use the aforementioned Austin City Limits (never knew Ray was on ACL) to hear this song. And based on that version, I really liked this song. Sounds like a good old rock n roll song on a universal theme by a still engaged master (In the clip it was clear how much Ray loves to perform). In the final monologue in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird Of Youth, the character Chance talks of "time - the enemy in us all" (Bob Dylan borrowed that in "Up To Me") and, to me,this is Ray's version of that huge theme. Of course, Chrissie Hynde wrote "Time The Avenger" (as @mark winstanley mentioned) around the time she and Ray were together and it is ultra cool to me that Ray throws that reference in there as well. I enjoyed this song and I may have to pick up this CD to hear the studio version of this song!
"Run Away From Time" I think this is one of my favourites from the album - it's generally straightforward and uncomplicated, until it decides it's not (the bridge coming in from nowhere). Plus Ray sounds more like Ray than on much of what we've heard so far. I don't know whether the "set ourselves free" bit was meant to be a callback to to "Set Me Free", but either way it jumps off the page at you. I haven't studied the lyrics too closely but they slip past just fine on a track that works well as simple fun. (The Chrissie Hynde reference has gone over my head, so to speak, up to now!)
Oct 1963 - Nov 1966 Starstruck promo video/ Days video/ Sunny Afternoon TOTP Apr 1967 - Feb 1970 Nov 1970 - Jun 1976 Feb 1977 - Dec 1983 The Kinks Punk Christmas Artificial Light or. mix Life Goes On OGWT Morphing docu of Hotelroom sessions + interview Ray + live KinKs in Vienna 1978. One For The Road - the lost videos 1981 A Woman In Love (chorus girls) Oh Tokyo live in 1982 - lyrics Jan 1984 - Dec 1993 1994 - 2006. Quaife Holland 2004 Kompilations 2005 Americana (Hey Big Fat Cowboy) - live Jane Street Otis Riffs Feb 2006 Ray Davies - Other People's Lives Things Are Gonna Change (the Morning After) - Alt After The Fall Next Door Neighbour All She Wrote Creatures Of Little Faith Run Away From Time Austin City Linits After The Fall Next Door Neighbour Run Away From Time Sold On Song - live Mar 2006 Dave Davies - Kinked God In My Brain 2006 Ray gets top honour at BMI awards 2006 Dave - Too Much On My Mind 2010 Come Dancing play 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) 2019 Kast Off Kinks with Ray 2022 Muswell/ Showbiz box 2022 Celluloid Heroes Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues Travelling Montage Travelling With My Band - I'm Going Home - You Can't Stop The Music 2022 remixes pt 1 - part 2 - part 3 2022 Dave - Something Else - Josh Meyers Podcast 2022 Dave Davies - 21st Century Creem articles - Mar 70 - Mar 71 - Feb 72 - Nov 72 - Aug 73 - Apr 74 - Jul 74 - Aug 75 - Feb 76 - Aug 77 - Apr 78 - Aug 78 - Oct 78 - Jan 81 - May 85 - Apr 85 - Apr 87 - May 87 - Jun 87 - Jun 88 Rare Silent Video Dave Interview 2022? newspaper Rob Kopp has made his 1999 Kinks discography 'Down All The days Till 1992' US Chart Stats The Music Industry Machine Album flow chart Album poll graph Mick Avory - Shut Up Frank -Lola - We Gotta Get Outta This Place 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 Bob Henrit Mark Haley - info Jakko Jaksyk
I don't want to look at Austin City Limits yet, because we have songs on the album we haven't gotten to yet, but if folks want to post them when the songs come up, that's fine, and then I'll organise on the Tuesday that we have Dave's Fractured Mindz, to wrap up the rest of Austin City Limits and get to Dave's album on the Wednesday
Creatures of Little Faith I enjoyed this change of pace. It's a pleasant song with a serious theme. Ray says "it's probably sung by the guy who received the letter in All She Wrote. He's a low-down scoundrel and he knows it but still tries to come out with some semblance of dignity." Now that I know this I can put to the back of my mind Ray being unfaithful to Rasa and then accusing her of being too friendly with another man. Not cool. Runaway From Time Upbeat, catchy chorus, what's not to like? Well, the lyrics are so generic they could have been written in five minutes. Still, they convey a good message - don't surrender to time. Or, as Dylan Thomas more eloquently put it: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. When I heard the run, run, run chorus I immediately thought of the Velvet Underground's Run Run Run (funnily enough...) which are the same words sung differently. Ray says (liner notes again) that he really loved singing that chorus "and even though they might not seem the most original words, that's not what matters. The secret is in believing that no one has quite sung them that way before." That's a pretty good get out of jail card. Not a bad song either.
Michael I held out the hat to the other Avids in praise of your Quality Vintage Kinks Knowledge and though we were "Old Con$ervatives" you still got the chocolates! VINTAGE TIN MACKINTOSH'S QUALITY STREET CHOCOLATES ENGLAND RARE COLLECTIBLES # 2 | eBay Disclaimer; Er we raised enough to send you this link but unfortunately you will have to bid yourself whilst we cheer you on!
The singer in that Austin City Limits screenshot was Ray's then girlfriend. I haven't seen a komplete list of his WAGS but the incomplete list suggests Ray's faith has alternated between little and lots over the years.
I can't fairly speak of your claims of other Avids allergies to Sax though something happened to me yesterday in a main street that set mine off. No it was not the sight of an intimidating beauty entering my personal space nor the sight of one that looked ugly but a Salvation Army Marching Band! Anyone know of a counsellor in our streett?
‘Runaway From Time’: My initial thought (in my notes!) was “straight ahead filler” but I am kind of enjoying it as I listen now. Ray does a bit of his Caribbean accent, just a touch, and, as noted by many, there’s a Motown sound, as well. Especially in the beginning. The weak point is the “but why should we surrender to it”, early in the song; just something that doesn’t quite work.
It's no issue, we've been posting live versions of tracks we're looking at since the start of the thread... I'm not messed up about it at all
