"Young Conservatives" Good conversation today with Alex P. Keaton, Mallory, and even the young conservative in Back To School, who was a menace in many 80s films. I appreciate the comments about this song in comparison to some of the songs on Preservation Act 2. It's helping me find my way into the song, but something is still holding me back. Is it the production? It's kind of muddy and needs some more definition. When he sings "Young Conservatives" it grates a bit on my nerves, but I like many of the verses that have some punk energy. Ray's vocal at times gets into his sort of Dracula voice, or should I say Count Chocula @markelis? "Keep your collars white and clean." The "David Watts", "Well Respected Man", and "Rebel Rebel" nods are a nice touch for all of us old school Kinks and Bowie fans. After about a half dozen listens to it this morning, I think it's a decent album track, but not one I will likely revisit very often. For a brief moment I could hear a band like Love and Rockets do a fuzzy cover of this. That would be interesting.
Young Conservatives I love this song! My 2nd favorite on the album behind Come Dancing. I'm not going to deny that the lyrics struck me as incredibly true at the time. And I will add that it seems to be possible that here in the US we have a problem with these conservatives having grown up to become what we have now. Musically I like the song a lot as well. A good solid rocker. And as Fortuleo and others noted the fa-fa-fa (David Watts anyone?) and nod to Well Respected Man are also pretty cool.
Labour of Love Great intro by Dave and then it gets nice and grungey with Ray telling the tale of far too many married couples. Maybe its the end result of the Out Of The Wardrobe couple after the 70s role-reversal and wife-swapping inevitably runs its course. As I wrote earlier Ray has grafted a country-ish lyric and melody to the only song on SOC that sonically would fit on GTPWTW. This begins the album's quartet of mature Kinks songs. The lyrics describe a relationship built on co-dependency and routine more than any love. The chorus is arena-rock ready. Dave really shines here. After two songs full of melodic twists and turns, this one is a plodder, but in a good way. Underrated track.
Young Conservatives: pretty much abrasive in every way. ‘Don’t Forget To Dance’, getting listeners all dreamy-eyed and pensive, feeling sophisticated…and then smash ‘em up the head with a two-by-four! Doesn’t fit the flow at all and I don’t have any interest.
Love & Rockets were great! Particularly Express and No New Tale To Tell era. Did they ever do a Kinks cover?
"I hope tomorrow you'll find better things" I agree! I love both of those albums and the debut. I'm not aware of any Kinks covers, but they should have! "Supersonic Rocket Ship" would have been a good choice. They did T.Rex, Pink Floyd, and The Temptations to good effect!
Come Dancing It took me a long time to appreciate this song although I always enjoyed the video. I was 16 when this came out and I thought it was a sell-out to Top 40. Also I was upset when listening to it because I hated that Dave's brief power chord flourish didn't lead to a more power-charged section and instead went back to Ray's strummed acoustic. I still wonder if there was something after the "Part of my childhood died, just died" line probably not but that verse always seemed to be the set up for Ray to write about. What did it feel like? What changed after the pally came down and the childhood died? I still think the rockier part should have lasted longer for the album version. That being said what I didn't know at 16 was that both the music hall and calypso sound of the song was very much in the Kinks wheelhouse. Ray was, as he had in the opening two songs, going back to the 60s for inspiration musically and his childhood lyrically. It's somewhat weird Ray divides the two Dance and two relationship songs here. I guess he was really taking the no concept album edict seriously.
Rental car..... were you just visiting? Did you dig it? I lived in the Springs and nearby Mountains over three separate stretches totalling about 19 years, last leaving just shy of 2 years old ago. The Springs is where I first bought State of Confusion, although that was way back upon release in '83.
Young Conservatives The call out to Well Respected Man underlines what was mentioned above about *show, don't tell* -- I wish RD had picked out a single individual unnamed composite Young Conservative and written this song about him/her. The music serves though it's nothing special. Of the Thousand Voices of RD, I kind of wish he had a better snarl for this one, but punk fury isn't really in his emotional range. But I love the song. I'm hoping the following will be read as intended, historical/cultural rather than political. If it comes off as too political, @mark winstanley, let me know and I'll delete it. As a '62 baby on the slightly older side of the people in this group, I wonder if my experience is unique: Growing up, soaking in the cultural ambiance, all I wanted was to join the youth revolution. I used to *play hippie* with my friends, using burnt cork to draw on sideburns, trooping around wearing black armbands on Moratorium Day, begging our parents to take us to see Hair. Growing up in the DC suburbs, it was particularly... intense, because most of our parents were in government (my parents and most of their friends working for of one of the most hippie-excoriated governmental agencies). Coming back to the states at 18, after 2 years in Japan, I was finally old enough to join the revolutionary ranks... and they were gone. Without a trace, really, except a leftover detritus of grungy drugs. & this dovetails with why I *boycotted* MTV and *sellout* bands -- they were all part and parcel of this seismic cultural shift that had denied me the opportunity to stick flowers into gun barrels & dream up utopian futures in pacifist free-love communes on the coast. Punk was partially a reaction to the failure of the sixties counter-cultural fantasy, and early Clash/Pistols/Jam best suited my mood of late-adolescent alienation and rebellion. But that kind of punk was dying by '83, and most hardcore was too nihilistic, so my musical tastes started to descend into a 20-ish year period of relative atrophy dominated by '60s music and early punk rock. The point being, having excluded Arista-period Kinks from my canon, I never gave myself the opportunity to hear RD addressing my exact feelings in Young Conservatives. I really, really, really would've liked this song, which now seems somewhat dated and obscure. Oh well, another experience lost to prejudice.
But it could just as easily be about the US. As I said before, the parallels are undeniable. It fits equally well on either side of the pond. And we know how aware of, and intent on capturing/keeping the US market Ray was.
Maybe the song as far as the US goes, was also directed at a perhaps sizeable segment of the audience who jumped aboard between '79-'81, some of whom were on their way or would become those types Ray is singing about on the song. Leave it to Ray to insult part of his own fanbase. You do raise a valid point too. Dave kind of wrote an epilogue of sorts to this song a few albums later. U S. and the U.K. were kind of mirroring one another in the 80s.
Let me just add here, once again, what a pleasure this thread is to participate in. We have gone through a couple pages of intent discussion of a song that, anywhere else, would have devolved into political squabbling, personal attacks, and just ill will in general. Here, despite avids spanning a pretty broad political spectrum, we've managed to keep it on the music, even when relating personal anecdotes and impressions. Very refreshing. Without anyone's trying to formally declare it, this seems to be a safe space thanks to the unspoken commitment of everyone here to maintain this place as one of shared joy in music (even when we disagree musically on a particular song!). Kudos and thanks to all Avids.
Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa... Hmm, Fa, Fa, Fa...wait a minute maybe Ray was sort of pulling Mr. Rebel Rebel's chain a bit after all. But Let's Dance wasn't released until after Young Conservatives was written. So maybe just coincidence.
Young Conservatives sounds like an outtake from the last album really. That dodgy sound and the metal sheet reverb are back. As if the last two ot three tracks were an experimental excursion into soft rock, now the Kinks are back to their trade. To this day I don’t quite get why this particular style was default at this point. I guess the notion that they invented heavy metal got to their heads? That being said, I like this track a lot more than anything on the last album. It has a playful melody and whatever thr message is and regardless of whether I agree, Ray sings it with such abandon that I can’t help but think: he’s right!
Yes, a rental car. We were visiting the better half’s family. She was born in Colorado Springs, interestingly, but moved within a year (military brat). Her family has come full circle and is back living in Colorado Springs after stints in Japan, Hawaii and a good 14 or 15 other spots. and yes, I love it there. I had never been to Colorado before getting involved with my fiancé. One visit was all it took for me to pretty much fall in love with Colorado. I am in ultrarunner and I prefer to run on trails. I used to do most of my trail running in Connecticut, where they were great trails around my house. Nothing takes me back there now and Miami Beach doesn’t have too many trails (although it’s fun to run out on the beach). So the endless trails and mountains in Colorado are incredibly appealing to me. I also was a skier until I was about 15. Visiting Courtney‘s family in Colorado Springs, which is right near Breckenridge, got me skiing again, after 40+ years off. So yes, Colorado is pretty cool!
Don't worry i am 6 years younger than you and also felt some disgust about MTV, money for nothing indeed! As a teen (& onwards) i was always looking for something worthy to sink my teeth into and rail against and i recall in the early to mid 80's speaking to some adults that shared this philosophy (having done so themselves in their day) who lamented that it was far harder to identify these things for today's youth than it had been in their day. Like yourself I deep dived into the 60's musically & culturally as i loved the strident vitality & questing that was going on & even if ones own country didn't have a place for a Street Fighting Man one could sure be motivated & articulate to present the scenarios others may relate to.
