Heart of Gold Another of my favorites of the new-to-me songs on this album. I didn't notice on first listen, but the musical reference to The Pretenders hit me over the head a week or so ago. Back on the Chain Gang was the first Pretenders song that came to mind. I have a feeling there is another Pretenders song as well, but I'm not sure which one. It's like Ray was able to distill the essence of the Pretenders sound, without it being an exact copy of any specific song, and without it taking over all of Heart of Gold. For what its worth, the opening chords remind me of the opening chords of the Supertramp song Give a Little Bit. Of course, Ray's song is uniquely still a Kinks song. I don't really know much about Chrissie Hynde, but she definitely seemed to project a hard exterior, and one would have to imagine that, at least for a while, Ray felt that she had a heart of gold. I'm sure that the song is a composite. Neither Chrissie nor Princess Anne had little sisters. The only thing I know about the royal family I learned from watching The Crown, lol, but Princess Margaret seemed to be the one with the hard exterior, lol.
Someone has to post whatever nonsense Ray said about Princess Anne…because what I’m reading here doesn’t make any sense. I guess rock stars hobnob with royalty but it still doesn’t make any sense to me. Daddy’s girl/Mama’s boy…that’s the standard! (And I’m still gonna like the song, either way!)
Heart Of Gold is such a gem of a song, possibly (or arguably) my favorite from the album. Tried to get a cover band I was briefly in 30 years ago to do this one, but we settled on one from the next album. For what's it worth, Dave commented in his autobiography that he too thought it was written about Anne. It's certainly a composite as others have suggested and I would include the brothers D themselves in this composite as others have, personal pronouns within the lyrics notwithstanding.
"Heart of Gold": If only if it followed Neil Young's song of the same name and went to #1. Oh well, it's a nice jaunty, country fried song that's pleasant on the ears. I never really heard the Pretenders until now. As who it's about, Ray says that it's about Princess Anne (I remember her 1973 wedding being a major event even here in the US), while going through the lyrics seem to indicate it could well have been Ray himself. Probably it's Ray, being the artist that he is, blending many memories and thoughts to produce a work of art to show that people are sometimes not as they seem to be on the outside. It's another highlight on State of Confusion.
Was Andrew stripped of his title or just duties? I know he could no longer stand on the balcony with his family so he may be now similar to a harry rag as he looks to now be in a dickey seat!
The bit about the photographer is definitely about Anne, it's referencing her p*ssed off response to the paparazzi photographing her falling off her horse back in the day (at the time reported as Anne telling them to 'naff off', if has since been admitted that this was a milder substitute for the four letter work she actually used: Princess Anne’s infamous ‘naff off’ comment was 'cover up' for what was really shouted ). I do find it hard to see Anne in the rest of the lyric though and I do wonder if Ray claimed it was mainly about her as a cover to avoid revealing too much about the more personal inspirations behind the bulk of the song.
The park is still there, although we just received news that the Chinese food place there that serves their famous (well at least to us) chop suey sanwhiches has been sold to a corporation and will close in August. We're fearing that all the food places (including Hobbes' Popcorn, the best) and the arcades will follow suit and be replaced by condos . Also, I also have the Rhino box set, but that Everly Brothers collection is pretty good and has some songs that aren't on the box set. It's too bad that both Phil and Don are both gone now.
Looking at it that way on specific relations it doesn't bear thinking what if Natalie had been a Nelson!
Heart Of Gold Did I say Young Conservatives was my 2nd favorite song on this album? Guess I forgot about Heart Of Gold. What a great song! Great guitar and melody. Very catchy and a Klassic Kinks sound and sentiment. This may well rival Come Dancing as my favorite song on this fine album!
I seem to remember I wasn't that keen on "Heart of Gold" when I first got the album, but whatever my problem with it was at the time, I don't have a problem with it now. It's another example to show that Ray can pull another classic Ray Davies song out just about any time he wants to. I'd never thought of The Pretenders connection before now, but now it's been mentioned it seems obvious. I can actually hear Chrissie singing the song in my head now more than I can hear Ray! If I was going to pick one fault - the last verse is very similar to the last verse of "Come Dancing", in that it's flashing forward to the present where everybody's now grown up and the "boot is on the other foot", so to speak.
Isn’t it amazing how the right song hitting you at the right stage in your life can just be devastating and eye-opening. It’s one of the things that I love about music. I have an analogous story which relates to the Black Crowes and one of their songs on the album Amorica. It’s much more ambiguous lyrically but the connections it made for me related to decisions that I almost made when my now ex-wife became pregnant with my daughter before we were married are you so powerful that, like you, almost every time I hear the song it can bring me to tears. Worth noting that in my opinion Chris and Rich Robinson share that brotherly thing, like Ray and Dave. Two siblings that are not even half as good apart (or call it twice is good together) and who allowed the fighting and stubbornness to break apart a fantastic band.
Heart of Gold Holy crap. Here it is. Another stone cold new Kinks klassic that I have never heard until the last two weeks. Unbelievable, I really didn't think I would find yet another timeless song by this band post 1980. Upon first hearing this, I pegged this to a Everybody's in Show-biz era style track. I have enjoyed a great number of these early 80s Kinks songs, but for the most part, they all sound like the early 80s. And I expected to like more songs we go through. But not timeless songs. This one, though. It's just timeless. It could be plucked from any year between 1969 and today. It sounds so clean, so classic, I love the driving bass, the driving drums through the chorus that reminds me of Mick's drumming use of toms from the Lola vs Powerman album, the descending "ooh ooh" backing vocals. I love Dave's harmonies. I love the hand-claps that appear near the end. The intro has the jangly lead guitar, but the first verse drops the jangly guitar. It returns for the 2nd verse. And gets even more colorful for the 3rd verse. And yes, @All Down The Line I also got the Give a Little Bit intro bit. I have never thought that the Kinks sound like Supertramp, but there a few Supertramp songs that I do think sound like the Kinks. The "Iiii couldn't understand your attitude..." bridge reminds me of my favorite Kinks bridge of all time - the bridge from Nothing to Say. A bit of the melody, and some of the tone of Ray's voice as he drags out the "Iiiiiiii"s in the bridge here. It's magic. This is another circle of life song. Taking us back in time, then coming back to present time. This line brings all timelines together: "Underneath that hard exterior, Is a little girl waiting to be told, You've got a heart of gold." Inside of us now is that little child we were.
Heart of Gold Yes rather than get too caught up in who inspired this song, or where we are in the timeline of that person's life in various verses, it's a tune I can just lie back and & let wash over me, leading to a strong emotional imprint not of anyone specific, and not of a type of person exactly, but of the feeling you get with certain people, or one person, their tough exterior and their tender heart. @Fischman 's poignant story says it all -- this song is more about the people we relate it to than about anyone RD may or may not have known. Another example of the universal specificity, or specific universality, RD has been employing to amazing emotional effect since he started making music. Sunday hangovers: Heh @Fortuleo though I'll never forget what Bowie said about it, I'm pretty embarrassed by that script now; it was an early effort. @ThereOnceWasANote, excellent. Make sure your streamer pays on time. It takes a whole team of people to drag money out of mine.
when i first heard this song when the album came out i thought that Ray wrote it about Chrissie Hynde, but someone mentioned Princess Anne and being American i don't know much about her. I see the song also being about the relationship between Ray and Dave, especially the first two verses. I remember reading that Ray said(or some writer/critic) that Two Sisters was about the brothers, Ray being the stay at home with the family Pricilla and Dave being the partying Sibylla, so it could also be about that, an updated Two Sisters in part of the song.
"Heart of Gold". This is more like it. This track sounds great, it's really well produced (surprise surprise) and it's a good song too. The album is getting better.
Heart Of Gold A highlight on an album that keeps delivering gift after gift, pretty incredible actually. The song is a bit of a throwback to a bygone era, yet the melody in the verses has some sort of modern feel to it. It reminds me a bit of the melodic flow in Have You Seen This Face from Return To Waterloo. Now the sequencing of the album makes more sense, if Young Conservatives wasn’t there, it would have been four non hard rockers in a row and would have thrown the balance off.
Wow, I got goosebumps reading that. I can't imagine what that must have felt like, and I'm glad it was a piece of validation you could carry with you. You can share stories any time as far as I'm concerned! LOL! I remember that. I loved that show! Will have to come back later for "Heart of Gold."
Heart Of Gold A nice bouncy pop song, which in my opinion would have made for a better follow up single to 'Come Dancing'. Not to denigrate 'Don't Forget To Dance', but 'Heart Of Gold', I'm sure would have garnered more airplay. Another favourite on the album for me. This album's 'Better Things' (and possibly better than that song), full of jangly guitars and brotherly harmonies.
