The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    Thanks for posting and for working out the chords! I had to stop my own music project for a few minutes so I could play it! Did you do a lot of the chord sheets for the Kinda Kinks website?
     
  2. Northernlight

    Northernlight Forum Resident

    Never give up hope. I never thought we'd get them. Graeme was campaigning for many years to get them released, as far back as the 90's, so hopefully they'll put them out in the USA too.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2021
  3. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    With all this impatient talk about the next 4 albums, I think it's time for Mark to announce that he will make it 1 song per day for the live Showbiz album, and same for the bonus live disc, and watch the thread start a revolution. :)

    I approached Preservation as a triple album, and of course I trimmed it down to an exceptional no-filler double album. To me some of the very best music Ray wrote is here. Schoolboys is one of their best too, combining the best of both halves of the 70s, and I'm really warming to Soap Opera (I used to like Holiday Romance and nothing else).

    All this because I'm jealous other Avids had their anachronistic stance on the 4 remaining RCA albums, so I had to have mine. ;)
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Celluloid Heroes.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Produced by: Ray Davies
    Release date: 24 Nov, 1972
    Record label & catalog #: RCA Victor RCA 2299
    Country: UK
    Format: 7" vinyl single, 45 RPM
    Release type: Regular release

    stereo mix (6:20), recorded May-Jun 1972 at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London

    Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star,
    And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
    There are stars in every city,
    In every house and on every street,
    And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
    Their names are written in concrete!

    Don't step on Greta Garbo as you walk down the Boulevard,
    She looks so weak and fragile that's why she tried to be so hard
    But they turned her into a princess
    And they sat her on a throne,
    But she turned her back on stardom,
    Because she wanted to be alone.

    You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
    Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
    People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
    Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

    Rudolph Valentino, looks very much alive,
    And he looks up ladies' dresses as they sadly pass him by.
    Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi
    'Cos he's liable to turn and bite,
    But stand close by Bette Davis
    Because hers was such a lonely life.

    If you covered him with garbage,
    George Sanders would still have style,
    And if you stamped on Mickey Rooney
    He would still turn round and smile,
    But please don't tread on dearest Marilyn
    'Cos she's not very tough,
    She should have been made of iron or steel,
    But she was only made of flesh and blood.

    You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
    Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of.
    People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
    Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

    Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star
    And everybody's in show biz, it doesn't matter who you are.
    And those who are successful,
    Be always on your guard,
    Success walks hand in hand with failure
    Along Hollywood Boulevard.

    I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
    A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
    Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
    And celluloid heroes never really die.

    You can see all the stars as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard,
    Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
    People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
    Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

    Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain
    Oh celluloid heroes never really die.

    I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
    A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
    Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
    And celluloid heroes never really die.

    Written by: Ray Davies
    Published by: Davray Music Ltd.

    To some degree this album contrasts Hollywood stereotypes, and real people, and if that was the original theme, then this is the ultimate closer, because although it may seem like a laundry list of actors to some, for me it is an awful lot deeper than that, and further signals how deep in despair Ray was at this point in time.

    Apparently, Ray wrote this when he visited Los Angeles, and was pondering the Walk Of Fame.

    The organ on here is played by Dave Rowberry, who may be known to some of you as the guy that replaced Alan Price in The Animals.

    This was the second single from Everybody’s In Showbiz, and due to feeling that corporate radio wouldn’t play the full version, it was edited down by about two minutes…. And I think that was an error…. Although as much as I love this song, I’m not sure it was really a single, but as we have ascertained I am not really a singles guy, so what do I know.

    Much like 20th Century Man, I first fell in love with this song on One For The Road, and it took me a few listens to become comfortable with this studio version….. but now, as with 2oth Century Man, I love both versions for different reasons.

    I suppose first we need to address the fact that someone is bound to mention Puff The Magic Dragon, as it was already mentioned earlier in the thread…. For me it is there, I suppose, but it makes absolutely no difference to how I feel about this song at all. If you try to sing puff instead of the lyrics we have, it is a very awkward and uncomfortable fit, even though melodically similar, so it is a moot point to me…..

    This song is much more than a laundry list of Hollywood stars.
    We open with a statement of intent. The first verse addresses the fact that all over the world, and bearing no relation to movies, there are stars and actors, and they are in our everyday lives. I read this in two concurrent ways. First we have the fact that everyone, or at the very least the larger majority of people wear masks. We all do it to some degree, and in different places and times in our life we will put on a certain mask for certain people and situations…. Whether it is hiding our fears from our delicate partners, or parents, or whatever. Acting responsible and coherent for our bosses. Being polite in front of the ladies from the church group. Acting sober in front of the police officer that just pulled us over…. or whatever… This isn’t a judgement call at all, it is just a fact of life. We keep a little back for ourselves. Even the people that we think are so open and honest, have their masks that protect a certain part of themselves, their act of self-protection. The second part of that, to me, are the people who just seem to shine at everything they do. They appear to bring a little sunshine to those around them, and they often do it in a big bold way, that stands out like a billboard on Hollywood boulevard. Sometimes they do it to their own detriment out of kindness of heart, and sometimes they do it as some kind of self-aggrandising gesture. Not everyone that does nice things, does them for nice reasons.
    To me these are the people addressed in the first verse, and it seems like Ray is setting this up to use a compare and contrast with the actors he is about to go through …..

    This is where it gets even more interesting. The second verse sets the precedent, in my mind at least.
    Firstly, we notice that Ray is singing of the star on the sidewalk and using it as an identifier. It is like he is standing over each star as he writes, and writing his feeling s and descriptions as he moves along…. Again, humanizing it.
    Greta Garbo is introduced into the song, but we don’t just look at her Hollywood star, we look at her humanity.
    She looks so weak and fragile, and that’s why she put on the façade of being hard. The industry set her on a pedestal that she didn’t want to be on, and in a rare show of character she turned away from it all…. She went from the Celluloid Hero and back to a real person, and I think that’s why she opens up the narrative about the actors.

    Then we move into what I assume is the chorus…. I say that because to me this is another of Ray’s songs that seems to not be easily definable from that perspective, but for now I’m going to call it the chorus.
    You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
    Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
    People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
    Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
    To me this itself is speaking to the façade of fame, because as you walk along, you don’t recognize all these people. Certainly, many are seen to be household names, but I guess it all depends on the household…. Possibly more importantly these people suffered and struggled for fame. That was, in many cases, the whole point. Sure, there were likely people that just liked acting, but I think we’d be kidding ourselves if we thought that the majority weren’t looking for the bright lights of fame.
    Also, it may seem like a stretch to say they struggled and suffered to some folks…. but think about how that system works. Think about the much too frequently referenced casting couch, and certain Hollywood figures that have been outed in recent years … also think of the frequent stories of young ladies and men, in dive hotels, trying to get that “big break” … unless we’re watching a movie about it, or we frequent the seedy side of the movie world, it is rare that we see the casualties strewn along the Hollywood sidewalks, and then those that made it…. well, a large proportion of them had to sell a little bit of themselves to get out of the seedy hotels …. but we just see the glam and the glitz, and that’s all we’re supposed to see, because otherwise the façade falls to the ground ….

    We run through Rudolph Valentino and Bela Legosi, and Ray looks at them both in a lighthearted way. Rudy is looking up ladies’ dresses as the popular romantic love story figure, because that’s all there is left for him to do. Bela may turn and bite, making light of his famous horror movie roles.
    But when we move on to Bette Davis, we have a return to the human aspect, stand close by her, because she led a lonely life, and could do with the company.

    Then we move to George Sanders and Mickey Rooney…. And again we have the guys being treated in a lighthearted way….. but Marilyn, is dealt with very delicately, and again the humanity is brought into play. Don’t stand on this woman, she was only flesh and blood, she was more fragile than this game allowed.

    The chorus comes back, as if to re-emphasise what is going on here.

    Then we return to the opening statement, from where we get the title of our album. Ray reasserts that we are all dreamers and actors…. I feel Ray is obviously referencing Shakespeare here
    All the world’s a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players;
    They have their exits and their entrances;
    And one man in his time plays many parts,….

    And personally, I think he is doing it very well.
    This time though, this return to the opening idea comes with a warning, be always on your guard, because success walks hand in hand with failure, and although Ray says on Hollywood Boulevard, the reality is that success walks hand in hand with failure in every corner of the world, and in every aspect of each of our lives.

    To me this is one of the most touching and human songs Ray ever wrote, and in typical Ray fashion he has dressed it up in such a way that you need to look at it a little more deeply to recognize exactly what he is saying, because this is really not particularly about Hollywood stars, to me at least, they are just the frame in which this picture is hung.
    Then even more poignantly we have Ray personalises the song.
    I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
    A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
    Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
    And celluloid heroes never really die….
    One thing I notice about this album is, in many of the songs Ray sends off signals that everything is not alright with him. He is not in a good place, he is not comfortable with life, and the comic relief is the façade that this song talks about. It is the clown trying to make us smile, while he cries behind the curtain. Ray being Ray though, we can see in many of the songs that he is struggling, and in less than twelve months we will see how much…. And that brings me back to the point of this song. We are all actors, and we fear to allow the real internal us be on view. Everybody’s in Showbiz…. We are all just putting on a show, wearing masks, playing parts to suit certain scenarios.
    In this little change up we get to the heart of the song, in my mind.
    I wish my life was a movie, because then the pain wouldn’t be real…. And I wouldn’t have to struggle through this pain and then just die.

    When reading any serious book … and for me the bible comes to mind, and I know that isn’t popular, but it’s a book I have studied, but that’s not the point here … the most important points are repeated. To gain a full and comprehensive context, you need to pay attention to the points that are re-emphasized, because they are repeated for a reason, they are the meat on the bones, they are the food for the soul. Here we have Ray repeating the fact that celluloid heroes never feel any pain and never really die. He is repeating that these people struggled and suffered for fame. He is doing it in different tones and different dynamics because that is the emphasis point, pain and struggle and death, and I wish it was a movie, but it is reality…

    This song is among my favourite Kinks songs, and that is in part due to the song itself, but the main reason I love this song so much, is the way Ray gets across these points in the lyrics.
    These stars are just people, who have struggled and suffered, no matter how we view the façade.
    These ordinary people are stars, who have struggled and suffered no matter how we view the façade.
    It also introduces the escapist idea that it would be so nice if this was all just a Hollywood movie show, where at the end of the day the pain and internal damage was just a piece of celluloid on a screen, and we could dispose of it as easily as that. It would be nice if we didn’t have to deal with it all, and the final end, and we could just start the movie again…..
    And I have to wonder if deeper in the mix of emotions here we have a longing for his lost sister, hidden between the lines …. Just as Elvis never recovered from the death of his mother, it sometimes feels like Ray never recovered from the death of his sister, and these internal demons haunt us, no matter how convincing the façade on the outside is….

    Anyway, sorry If I went on too long, but this is a very important song to me … somedays it is, in my opinion, the peak of Ray’s writing. For me it transcends just being a pop song, on a pop album, and becomes a deeper look at humanity. This is a song that can sometimes make me cry…. Yea I know, what weird wussy, such is life.

    So to the music…..
    We fade up to an almost hesitant piano, and then notice an acoustic guitar along with it.
    Then Ray comes in with a gentle, thoughtful, reflective vocal.
    The second verse comes in early… maybe a bar… not sure, but it seems like Ray is trying to catch us off guard. I like it, I think it works well.
    Also, with the second verse we get the drums come in. The bass does also, and though for the most part it is keeping it fairly simple, as the song goes along Dalton again shows his melodic and structural value to the band’s recordings, with some really nice wandering melodic phrases.

    As we move into the chorus, we get the entry of the organ, and the piano starts throwing in some Roy Bittan type flourishes.
    Mick puts in a couple of little fills that again, add to this almost ominous building up of the track.

    Just between the end of the chorus and the start of the next verse we get a voice in the background, that I think is Ray, with a “yea” or some form of emotional vocalizing, grunt or something or other, and it appears in a couple of other spots as well.
    With this verse (Rudolph Valentino) Mick swings the beat ever so slightly.
    Gosling keeps up his precursor to Roy Bittan on the piano.
    The end of the verse leading into the chorus has this beautiful, staggered fill by Mick, and it kind of speaks to all the little pieces of beauty that go together to create something that almost transcends itself.
    Again, the chorus pumps up, and the dynamic raises once again, and part of the rise is the backing vocal, that I think has Ray and Dave doing backing vocals, and Dave is singing in his lower register… but either way it all adds to the epic building emotion of this track for me.

    It’s at this point that we drop back to the piano and vocal, for a nice dynamic change to reprise the opening verse, with the little changes.
    The organ sits just underneath it, and slowly rises up, as does the bass.
    Then as we move into “I Wish My Life…” we start our rise up again.
    Then we get another build into “You can see all the stars…” with the backing vocals and some really solid fills from Mick.
    Then we break into one of my favourite la la la’s the band ever did.

    We get the repeat of “Celluloid Heroes never feel any pain…”
    Then we revert to the full statement
    I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
    A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
    Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
    And celluloid heroes never really die
    The thing about this section that works so nicely is the way the dynamic drops with each passing line, to fade out on the organ, sounding a little like a piano accordion. As if the song itself just disappeared on the breeze of life.

    I guess as my overly long post shows, I really love this song. It is among my favourite Kinks songs, and in fact, on the right day, is among my favourite songs ever written.
    Perhaps I read too much into these lyrics, but that’s what they say to me, and the music accompanies it perfectly.
    For me, an absolute masterpiece, that as much as I like other songs on the album, this eclipses them, and when it is finished the only thing I would really want to hear is this song again.
    The best album closer in a catalog full of brilliant album closers, and we almost posted on the 49th anniversary of its single release.

     
  5. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Obviously a brilliant track, and arguably Ray’s best song of the 70s. But the few people who bought the single must have been shocked when they turned it over and heard Hot Potatoes!
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I can't find the single version. I think this live version is the closest to the single edit

     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    In 2002 Sir Ray joined Bon Jovi on stage to sing it together

     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Ritchie Blackmore, Candice Night and Mick Foley sit at a bar singing most of it

     
  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The brilliant, but much maligned Steve Vai does a very faithful cover

     
  10. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    It’s a very majestic song. I said “grandiose” in a previous post but yeah, I think “majestic” is a better word to describe the way it takes its time to unfold its profound beauty and subtle power. It’s not a “big 70’s rock ballad” by any stretch, more a subdued elegy, very sweet, very soft, that you could easily sing as a lullaby. I love long melodies, and the verse sounds like a never-ending melodic river. It’s always a very hard trick to pull off, especially with extremely long lines and sentences that try not only to create vivid images but considerate statements and articulate ideas, almost like in a speech or a conversation. As such, it’s a very unconventional song, not only by Ray’s standards but by pop’n’roll standards. There are many ways to enjoy this, and @Mark has already been through a lot of them. What I love best is the way he constantly blurs the line between the actors he sings about and their on-screen persona. All those great names… their celluloid avatars don’t die and don’t feel any pain, but in life, they did feel pain, loneliness, suffering, even though half of them were still alive when he wrote the song (at least Garbo, Rooney, Bette Davis, and maybe even George Sanders, who'd only died a few months before the LP was released). Indeed, the whole concept is laid out in the prologue : “everybody’s in movies”, these stars, they’re giving their faces, their bodies in sacrifice, to represent everyone on the big screen. In an extremely effective way, the song captures this weird phenomenon, the transfer that occurs between their real self and their celluloid images, between ourselves and those images, between ourselves and their real self, the biggest paradox being this incredible symbol of the Hollywood boulevard “stars” that anyone can step on. Walking on (the) stars, that’s a pretty powerful image… After all the album’s comedy, Ray reflects on the sacrificial nature of any entertainment endeavor, stars turned into not Godlike but Christlike figures, at the same time idolized by their audience but suffering just like them and even suffering for them. All quite complex ideas, delivered with depth and tenderness, incredible modesty and artfulness by a guy who, as a mid-sized star, knew exactly what he was talking about, because he could identify with both ends of the show-biz circus' spectrum, the people in the audience and the people on stage or on screen. All humans, all too humans.
     
  11. CheshireCat

    CheshireCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cheshire
    Celluloid Heroes
    So Ray to put this one at the end of the album! It's a classic. For me the best track on this (to my mind) weakest of all Kinks studio albums, and one of the best songs of his from the entire decade. Again detailing fame and its travails (as per the previous song on the album), its one which has stood the test of time. Always one which I find incredulous that it made no impact whatsoever on the UK charts. Probably too good for it. A majestic piece of work.

    A live staple from here on in, has no doubt made this the most well known of The Kinks RCA recordings.
     
  12. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    "Celluloid Heroes"

    This is where we come across probably the biggest victim of my wilful ignorance of most of the RCA albums for 30+ years. Obviously it didn't make much of an impact on me in 1986 when I played the album once, and although over the years I've been well aware of its existence and its status within the Kinks Kanon, I'd still never really heard this song properly until three months ago when I bought the album. Of course it is a brilliant track on every level. It's just that I've barely begun to scratch the surface on how great it is.

    It's melodically beautiful - yes, I have the sneaking suspicion that I've heard these melodies elsewhere, but not done as well as this. The lyrics may get sentimental in places but that only adds to their charm. You don't need to look into the lyrics too deeply to appreciate them - there is so much on the surface, but also so much underneath once you start looking.

    And of course the performance is great - for once this is a track in which Dave's work doesn't stand out so much, but Mick and the two Johns are at the top of their game here, and Ray's vocal is perfectly yearning. Over six minutes long and it doesn't outstay its welcome by a second. Perhaps if RCA had given it enough push, or if a sympathetic DJ had insisted on giving it a full spin, it might have achieved the success it deserved. But maybe its status as a huge track unknown to most people gives it more mystique?

    Ray's best song of the 70s? Possibly, but I have some other contenders coming up towards the end of the RCA period.
     
  13. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    "Celluloid Heroes" is absolute top tier Kinks and the main reason one should own this record (I don't do most compilations). Also, this was a Kinks live staple (nothing else on the studio disc was) so I have heard it many times listening to Kinks live tapes. There is something extraordinary about the song, lyrically and musically, that separates it from the rest of the songs on the studio disc. Of course, Ray chose to focus on bygone movie stars who would have been considered pretty unhip in 1972. And the message is not dissimilar from the Bard's "all the world's a stage" verse. At the end of the decade, the Clash wrote "The Right Profile" telling the story of movie star Montgomery Clift whose car crash led to personal tragedy. I'd like to believe that song was not possible without "Celluloid Heroes".
     
  14. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    The mourning will start when we get to Preservation 2.
     
  15. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    My favourite verse is the one about stamping on Mickey Rooney and covering George Sanders in garbage. I always found it speaks to something incredibly moving in a weird way that isn’t in the other lyrics in the same way: I dunno, a weird possibly irrational worry/tension I’ve often had when I’ve seen stars I like perform live or live on TV is ‘what if they suddenly humiliated themselves, or what if another guest shoots them down with a cutting comment, or what if a stage invader comes up and pies them or pulls their pants down? They wouldn’t be the big star then, they’d be shown to be small and silly.’ I can even get this when I see representations of favourite figures being mistreated …

    these worries can particularly come into play when it’s veteran acts of the kind we follow on this forum (Ray included!) stepping up for another round in their advanced years. But with these lines Ray assures us that George and Mickey and all those who achieved iconic status can never have their stardom truly dimmed, even as their tributary stars are left out in the uncaring open to be casually disregarded and or even denigrated, disrespected and vandalised by anyone passing by ignorant of their stories. Ray assures us that the legends of these stars at their brightest and best are assured forever.

    Of course, this was the verse that they cut for live performances (and I’m pretty sure the single edit) so every live version is missing something for me :( Has to be the studio take or nothing.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2021
  16. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    And the Morning (song) will start when we get to Preservation 1.
     
    DISKOJOE, Zack, ARL and 3 others like this.
  17. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Live 1982, German Rockapalaste concert:

     
  18. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    This is 1978, recorded for an ITV show I can’t recall the name of off the top of my head.
     
  19. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I don't know where or when I first heard this song but my instant reaction was , "Why I haven't I heard this before?" I had a similar reaction on hearing "God's Children" for the first time. So, yes, it's a great song and, for me, it was instantly a great song, an obvious classic, but, if you hadn't been following the Kinks' career diligently from the 70s onwards, it's very probable you would never have heard it - not in the UK anyway.
     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Oct 1963 - Nov 1966
    Apr 1967 - Feb 1970

    1965 Never Say Yes

    1966 Trouble In Madrid

    Nov 1970 Lola Vs Powerman And The Moneygoround
    The Contenders
    Strangers - live 1970 - Dave live
    Denmark Street
    Get Back In Line
    Lola - TOTP - video - alt version
    Top Of The Pops - video
    Moneygoround - mono
    This Time Tomorrow - 2020 mix
    A Long Way From Home - live 70's - Ray live
    Rats
    Apeman - video - alt stereo - alt mono - ToTP - Calypso - live 94
    Powerman - mono - 2020 mix - live 70's
    Got To Be Free
    Anytime
    The Good Life

    1971 Golden Hour Of The Kinks

    Feb 1971 Percy (movie) - trailer
    Mar 1971 Percy (soundtrack)
    God's Children
    Lola
    The Way Love Used To Be - Ray live
    Completely
    Running Round Town
    Moments - Ray live
    Animals In The Zoo
    Just Friends
    Whip Lady
    Dreams
    Helga
    Willesden Green
    God's Children Outro

    The Follower
    Ray On Wonderworld

    1971 You Really Got Me - Mini Monster EP

    Nov 1971 Muswell Hillbillies

    20th Century Man - single - Alt Instr - Ray live
    Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues - live 73 - John Peel
    Holiday - live 73
    Skin And Bone - live 70's - Ray live
    Alcohol - live 75 - cartoon
    Complicated Life
    Here Come The People In Grey - live 72
    Have A Cuppa Tea - alt version - live 72
    Holloway Jail
    Oklahoma USA - Ray Live
    Uncle Son - Alternate
    Muswell Hillbilly
    Lavender Lane
    Mountain Woman
    Kentucky Moon
    Nobody's Fool - Cold Turkey(Kinks?)
    Queenie

    Dec 1971 Muswell Hillbilly EP

    1972 Muswell Hillbilly single (Jap)

    Mar 1972 Kink Kronikles

    Aug 1972 Everybody's In Showbiz

    Here Comes Yet Another Day - live 74 - live 75
    Maximum Consumption
    Unreal Reality
    Hot Potatoes
    Sitting In My Hotel - 76 remix
    Motorway
    You Don't Know My Name
    Supersonic Rocket Ship - fan vid - BBC live - band video - live
    Look A Little On The Sunny Side
    Celluloid Heroes - live 82

    The Kinks Live AT The BBC 1973

    Preservation Live

    World Radio History

    Starmaker Tv Play

    Ray On Wonderworld

    2005 Thanksgiving Day Ray live on Conan Obrien

    Oct 2018 Dave Davies - Decade
    If You Are Leaving (71)
     
  21. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    Taking Celluloid Heroes and the track of resolution on Showbiz, one can surmise that the whole album is the "careful what you ask for, you might get it" aspect of having watched tons of old movies as a boy, idolizing the stars, imagining how wonderful their lives must be, and wanting to be a star himself. Of course his path was music, not film. He by and large achieved his goal and became one of the biggest pop stars in the UK from 64-67 and in doing so, acutely felt the stress of having to feed the machine with another brilliant new ditty every few months. Then as he really started to grow as an artist VGPS and Arthur, he found the public not too interested in what he rightly perceived as his best work ever. Alienated by it all, he turned his focus to the music industry brilliantly on the Lola album (love the point that Showbiz can be seen as the lost Lola part 2 -- the down side), his bile tempered with humor. Despite the success of the Lola single, the bloom was off the rose, and Ray tried a whole new direction with the RCA contract and Muswell. (Imagine the faces of the RCA execs hearing "a mechanical nightmare" at the top of the very first track!)

    Having been largely spared the tedium of touring during the U.S. ban, Ray wasn't prepared for the grind of hitting the road and promoting the new album for the new label, and being a fussy and somewhat precious guy, let it get under his skin. So after the bitch fest that is much of Showbiz, he again considers those movie stars he idolized as looks at the their stars on the street. So the resolution comes as he contemplates that these are real people -- not just the characters he saw on the screen in the cinema -- and being a star must have sucked for them at times as well. Ray resolves that it's time to stop giving a damn, get off the pop star train and write his little musicals instead, with decidedly mixed results for the listener, but with Ray finally writing and performing for himself, and not exclusively to give the people what they want (until the Arista signing).

    Celluloid Heroes has, as @Fortuleo pointed out has a wonderful, winding melody and a gorgeous delivery and piano accompaniment. He overdid the (curious) list of stars a bit, thankfully trimming it down for the epic live version to come. As a say, this track kind of marks the end of an era despite it being part of only the second album on a new label.
     
  22. GarySteel

    GarySteel Bastard of old

    Location:
    Molde, Norway
    Another one of those "all-time almost favorite tracks by the Kinks" for me. Simply wonderful.

    I love the album as a whole (sorry but really not sorry) and this is the perfect way to end it. That is with the best song and what is perhaps the last Klassik Kinks kut from this type of kloth. My love for what is up for the next couple of months is strong enough to survive all naysaying and derogatory comments for the coming 'attractions' but something changed in the way Ray wrote songs after this.
     
  23. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I don't like the idea of Ray editing this song, to be honest, this is one 6 minute song that deserves to be 6 minutes! Admittedly including Mickey Rooney was a bit odd as he was only in his early 50s and definitely still working and had another 40 years to live!
     
  24. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I don't think this album really functions as a concept album, in the sense of having any kind of narrative, but if, as seems the case, it was conceived to accompany a film about the band on the road then it works as a soundtrack. In that case, "Celluloid Heroes" could work as a finale with the band in Hollywood, at the end of a US tour, but I think it takes a lot convoluted thinking to make it fit into a 'plot'.
     
  25. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Some years ago an older gent who had worked for both the ABC & BBC told me that any region DVD could play on any machine with a adjustment he could do inside.
    He stated unsurprisingly that the whole multi region business was BS and entirely money driven.
     
    mark winstanley and DISKOJOE like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine