Speaking as someone who grew up in the UK, the words "Young Conservatives" have a particular meaning - it's an actual organisation, the breeding ground of the Tories. The most enduring image of this is the 15 year old William Hague (a future Tory leader) speaking at the party conference in the early 80s. Without wishing to go any further into the politics, and because I'm typing this on a phone, I'll just say for now that I like this one, it's energetic and lively, and I love the callbacks to the earlier songs!
Young Conservatives At thirteen, when I first purchased State of Confusion, this was probably my favorite track. To this day, hearing it always manages to make me feel good, so why fight it? Some critics called it heavy-handed, but I never found it preachy; it’s just Ray being Ray, observing; the eternal flaneur. Now the schools and universities Are turning out a brand new breed Of young conservatives In the early eighties, yuppies started to appear in force. I remember being taken aback, my freshman year in high school, at the sight of a handful of teens dressing every day as li’l businessmen. Maybe that was the most effective way to rebel against liberal parents. ‘Young Conservatives’ would have been the perfect theme song for Alex Keaton. Family Ties (and Ray) had their finger on the pulse with this timely satire. In the interest of full disclosure, the main attraction of Family Ties, for me, was Justine Bateman, for whom I harbored a major crush. My luv for clear-eyed ‘Mallory’ flew out the window, though, upon the arrival of heavy-lidded Lisa Bonet. Fickle, fickle me and ‘Must See TV.’ I don’t mind Ray referencing a snatch or two of an old lyric, better that than repurposing a riff. It’s a sturdy lyric, sung well, and the band bashing along is energizing. Ray singing set your sights a little higher, get yourself some new attire, makes me think of Lloyd Cole’s line, a year later, read Norman Mailer, or get a new tailor. That was one fine debut by the Commotions; though they wouldn’t scale those heights ever again. In ‘84, Ray’s annus mirabilis, he was asked in an interview what albums he had been listening to, and he replied Rattlesnakes by Mr. Cole and Purple Rain by Prince. Good taste, Sir Ray.
This song is not a complete right off but it sounds awful, the band sounds like they're playing in a different room to Ray. I keep expecting it to go into the chorus of "Around the Dial" too. Ray is punning on the Young Conservatives, the youth (lol) wing of the Conservative Party and a sometime source of embarrassment to the party, especially to Minister/MPs who used to be members, and a rich vein of comedy for satirists.
Young Conservatives I LOVE this one, (though I would bet though I hope to be pleasantly surprised that it won't be a thread favourite) because it's one of Ray's knowingly perverse anthems, a bit like 'Salvation Road' or even 'Shepherds Of The Nation', it's like this air punching rebel yell celebrating.... something retrogressive and establishment, which to me is just tickles my sense of the absurd. I just love that kind of subversive combo of lyrics and music, and I can't think of many other songsmiths of Ray's generation who writes that way. I don't even mind the callbacks which usually annoy me: this time they seem well integrated. I could see how the lyrics of this one could seem a bit awkward and obvious to some and the whole tune/arrangement maybe a tad forced, but to me those qualities actually help convey the mood.. compare to the way that late 60s anti establishment anthems like 'For What It's Worth' 'All You Need Is Love' or 'Something In The Air' have an easy going roll to them, that seems to convey the idea that 'hey let's take a step back out of this system and look differently at things, maybe find a simpler more universal truth' whereas YC has this orderly, hoity toity 'let's exploit what's already been established and grab all we can' atmosphere to it which suits the subject. I think this was likely written in response to the rise of conservative tendencies in the early 80s.. not only Reagan and Thatcher (who weren't young of course but set the tone for the times) but observations of right leaning youth groups like the nascent yuppies, the Bullingdon Club and of course the Young Conservatives themselves Young Conservatives (UK) - Wikipedia . And it's also an observation of the fading of the anti-establishment tendencies of the 60s generation as they approached middle age and as they either join the establishment themselves or recede into irrelevance. I do suspect though he wasn't on board with the political mood of the 80s either there was a part of Ray that enjoyed the opportunity to put the boot into the dreams and hopes of the 60s generation that he had never shared now they were firmly on the slide. This song gained renewed currency and relevance for me about 5-6 years ago (as a morbidly interested observer 'watching it all go on, watching it all go wrong' I should add!) when there was another right wing youthquake with the rise of what was commonly called the alt-right: hopefully without wanting to get into specifics that might make this post debilitatingly contentious, I think the practitioners of this tendency were able to position themselves as beguiling iconoclastic figureheads because the Western establishment had been presenting as liberal and right on ( largely without being so in practice) for so long that those kind of values became associated with mainstream corruption for a generation and so 'traditional' values became the anti-establishment position. Since then things have become more muddied and many of the figures who rose in that time to offer this simplistic solution have (fortunately) faded as fast as they appeared, but in that recent moment that line 'Rebel Rebel* join the Young Conservatives, be a devil join the Young Conservatives' really hit home for me as I watched a wave of smooth talking grifters selling (their version of ) traditional-values-as-insurrection to the youth online. *a sideways dig at Bowie?
Doing my Saturday catch up here. Such great writing and commentary from Come Dancing up to Young Conservatives. It was great to see the Come Dancing video again. It's been so many years and I marvel at what a great little film it is. I had grown tired of the song way back in the day and it didn't help that my folks loved the song and the video and it was just a little too popular for my teenage mindset. This is a truly great song and one of Ray's best. Property was a total new listen for me and it's wonderful in its own right. I'm glad some folks pointed out the ELOish sound on this song. It was bugging me. Maybe a little cheesy, but a nice juxtaposition with the excellent lyrics. Rounding out this remarkable three song stretch, Don't Forget To Dance comes across a little better for me on a fresh listen. At the time of the video it just seemed like an attempt to milk the success of Come Dancing. I was flat wrong. This is another great ballad. I'm beginning to think that my head was in the wrong place to appreciate this album upon its release. For me, the quiet poppier songs are the cream on this record and that ain't a bad thing.
Young Conservatives This sounds very British to me in terms of style and lyric and very consciously up with the times so it's too bad i have scant awareness of the political situation as i fancy that would ratchet up my meagre interest in a song i fail to find musically pleasing. My evidence in part is that i recently posted a photo of the last Kinks single so i checked first and mentioned here that this was the B side and i had zero recollection of how it went. Still it's not all bad and i would like to think it would be in my top 200 Kinks songs though i may need to be more conservative as i find it's truly housed in the commons!
Young Conservatives I was politically aware in the era of this song, and the lyrics don’t hold much more interest to me than they do to you, lol. I do find the song both somewhat catchy in that I want to sing along, but annoying at the same time, like when you have a song that you really don’t like stuck in your head. I’m not really trying to say I don’t like it. It’s just fine in the context of the album.
Young Conservatives 1983. I'm 19 years old. I'm attending university. I'm politically aware but not at all settled into any ideology ar anything you could label as such. I'm watching my liberal professors subtly or blatantly infuse their political agendas into my education, and my peers are lapping it up.... and being contrarian, that's nudging me right into conservatism. And while I'm not seeing it in my university, I am noticing the nationwide increase in conservatism in my age group, an age group which has traditionally rebelled against tradition! Reagan became our oldest President, but scored exceptional well among my youthful demographic. It was fascinating and defied accepted norms. The political parallels between the UK and US were also fascinating with the conservative movement, especially among the young almost perfectly matching. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, despite such differences in background, were two peas from the same political pod. So here's this song about this seemingly upside down phenomenon. As such, you can hear Ray's incredulity in both word and delivery. It's not sympathetic to the movement I was identifying with at the time. In fact, it was having a little fun at our expense. A recipe for dislike. But I loved the song. Why? Because it's good natured fun. It's not mean spirited. There is no malicious intent. It's all in good humour and effectively delivered as such. And it's catchy as hell. This is another of Ray's massive genius strokes; that he can write a song which is ostensibly political, but make it something we can all have fun with, no matter our inclinations.
Young Conservatives Another new song for me. Don’t have too much to say. It’s not their best, but it’s not bad either. It’s catchy, and I like the “rebel, rebel found a cause” line that sort of combines David Bowie with James Dean. The David Watts callback is awesome, and a wonderful Easter egg for the kultists. Right after that, the “You’re going to join the young conservatives” is delivered by Ray that evokes some of his Preservation Act 2 vocals. When I think of “young conservatives” of 1983, I think of the mean (but smiling) preppy rich kids with flowing blonde hair from early 80s movies like Back to School. Like the guy on the right here.
I mentioned this previously regarding the GTPWTW album, but Utopia's 1982 'Swing To The Right' LP (in particular the title track) stands comparison with some Kinks work of this time in that it somewhat satirically deals with adjusting to the new conservatism of the early 80s, with surely some gleeful awareness of the faint ludicrousness of trying to convey that message through the medium of Rock. Some great lyrics in the title track like: 'Hair's short again and a suit is in, Better brush up on how to tie a Windsor knot' and 'And I don't want to be left holding the bag for them 'S'cuse me for living but I have to say, I've got some worries of my own, like staying fat'
Young Conservatives: I can tell you why this song still makes sense to me, despite not being one of my favorites from the album. At that time in my life, college, a handful of guys I grew up with starting palling around the Young Republicans group in the county (this was Reagan era). I couldn't see it at the time, but their parents were deeply Republican, something we all rebelled against in high school and early college years. This was the first sign that some of us were going to become either exactly like our parents or what they wanted us to be. Which didn't mean giving up drinking, drugging and screwing around. It just meant pretending they actually cared about some deeper morality they professed in public while still drinking, drugging and screwing around. I don't recall that official organization being all that terrible: it seemed like it existed so those folks could hold large parties and social events, under the guise of being politically motivated, while I now recognize a few local Congressmen in Pennsylvania who were at those parties partaking. Some of these folks went on to exploit their familial connections, two becoming attorneys (despite being C minus high-school students and numerous failed bar exams), one becoming a district attorney (at least for one cloudy, unproductive term!) ... and most became hard-luck blue-collar workers, suffering from alcoholism and poor health care, often using up welfare and health benefits they railed against. After 2016, it was impossible to have conversation with most of these guys, as every time I'd meet them, they'd appoint me King of the Left (despite knowing I'm not far-left leaning) and start haranguing me with their Limbaugh-inspired takes on current social issues. I simply stopped seeking them out when I visit back there - and felt sad that this nonsense was so ingrained with them that it trumped the deep, lifetime connections we had formed, sometimes going back to our early childhood days. And I can see, that's where it all started in earnest.
Young Conservatives: I know very little about the politics in the UK, and frankly I don’t like politics and don’t pay attention to them even here in the US (unless they are so out of control that they can’t be ignored, like recently). Since the lyrics are a bit meaningless to me, this song oddly hits all the right buttons for me and did right out of the gate upon my first listens. Not to be redundant, but this was not an album that I bought back up on its release, so the only songs I knew from it were the three radio hits. This one caught my attention immediately with the nice Dave riffage and the aggressive rock ‘n’ roll style of the music overall. Add to that the catchy (though meaningless to me) lyrics and you’ve got a winner. I will say that the first time I put this on about six weeks ago, I was driving in a very busy parking lot at the local mega supermarket in Colorado Springs. The song had just started up when I got in the car and by the time the second chorus rolled around I was singing along with Ray about the “young conservatives”. Sitting alone in my rental car, I remember laughing out loud and thinking how funny it was (and what a great songwriter Ray Davies was) that he could write an oddball song with a chorus and lyrics that really meant nothing to me on a personal level yet instantly get me singing along. Definitely not my favorite song on the album, but it has enough high-powered octane that is it in no way detracts from the flow of the album for me either. On a scale of 1 to 10 it gets two thumbs up!
There are too many differences between UK and US society, then and now, for parallels to be drawn between, for instance, the rise of Thatcher and Reagan. I don't know that much about Reagan and "Reaganism" but I think a lot of the drivers were different from Thatcher and "Thatcherism". Liberals and conservatives are not the same in both countries though, as the UK gets more and more Americanized, that's beginning to change. A lot of the language and concepts you currently hear around politics in the UK media and on social media, in particular, have been transplanted straight from the US, something that would never have happened up until relatively recently. As for Ray, I think there's an element of be careful what you wish for about this song. Ray had been merrily lambasting lefties and revolutionary poseurs throughout much of the 70s but once Thatcher got in, got in to stay and started changing UK society, then it seems like that didn't meet with his approval either. I don't think he was alone in that either.
"Young Conservatives": Like some of the Avids, I do remember the social/political times when this song came out. As well as the other issues mentioned, this was also the time of the Solidarity movement in Poland, which was close to my heart and whose success hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Anyway, it was also the time of The Preppy Handbook and as Avid Pyrrhicvictory pointed out, the rise of stardom of Michael J. Fox through his portrayal as a mini William F. Buckley, Jr. in Family Times. As for the song itself, it's not the direct Thatcher bashing that one would expect from a UK pop/rock act in 1983. I see Ray's lyrics as a semi-comedic, semi-serious observation that youth at that time were turning into "old fogies" in mindset being yuppies without experiencing the experiments and follies of youth. It's interesting hearing the call backs to "David Watts", but musically it's not a patch on the previous three songs or the next song coming up.
Property I'm not really digging the "waaah" sound of the synth - very 80s, but not in a good way(and I'm an 80s chick). And the drums sound programmed and not "real", so that's a drawback. The lyrics are fine, but they're not connecting with me. The pace of the song and the music are just not there for me. though there are some good things on side 1, there are no songs that stick out (in a good way) like they did in the last album. So far, this album is not blowing my mind...which I was afraid of.
If true (and I have a tendency to believe it), Ray could be such a d!ckhead especially to his brother. Ray, in his worst moments, can never give of himself. It's very childish and, dare I say, narcissistic.
Don't Forget to Dance I'm certain I heard/saw this a bunch back in the day, but just took a look at the video and I remember the part with the coat girl, but much of the video I don't recollect. I'm not sure I understand why the coat girl ran away scared while she and Ray were dancing. And Ray looks damned good in a tux. Rawrrr... Back then, I'm sure I was a bit bored by the slow pace of this tune. I was into much punchier stuff back then. But now I see that between the lyrics and the music, it's a very beautiful and touching song. "A nice bit of old" - kind of love this lyric. I'd like to think(hope?) that's what I'm turning into. LOL. and my other favorite lyrics is: And when they ask me how you dance, I say that you dance real close. That's just lovely, isn't it? More nostalgia from Ray, which can be nice. He's a master at it. But is this a Klassic? Argh...it's right on the line. I think it would depend on my mood.
thanks for the shout out. Feeling a bit better. I have terrible congestion, but slow improvement. Glad I got the jabs.
“Young Conservatives” – I've only read Mark's post so far but I’m posting this now. There’s a lot I like about this. As Mark mentioned, lyrically it feels less about political positions and more about youthful idealism and activism that fades into conforming and complacency. Lines like “The only action you see is in the Sunday Times” and ”Keep your collars white and clean” are worthy of 60s Ray. But then he'll fall back to broadly complaining about “complacency.” Don’t tell us, Ray, show us! It rocks, and sound-wise and energy-wise it feels like we're back in Give the People What They Want, which I welcome at this point. I like the section with his trademark descending chords and the "fa-fa-fa," but again the verse melody doesn't stick with me. I do love his delivery when he mock-proudly stands tall and proclaims “conSER-va-TIVES!” Not a playlister, but a strong album cut I enjoy hearing. 3/5
Right? On Tuesday I started feeling congested, so I thought it was allergies. I had no problem going into work due to that. In fact, that day, the weather people could see a line of pollen on their radar, that's how bad it was. I was in a closed door meeting with about 5 folks for an hour that same day too. So my company had to send out an email that "someone" was positive for COVID. Ugh! I'm calling myself COVID Mary.
