There's no question that the meter and tempo of this was inspired by The Rolling Stones' OFF THE HOOK. Lyrically, it's an early entry in the "I Wonder What Tomorrow Will Bring" genre that would soon become quite popular. The Cyrkle would later close their second LP with a similar sentiment (HERE). My guess is that while touring America earlier in the year, Ray must've heard "Mohair Sam" on the radio a few times, and was inspired to compose something with a similar feel. For those of you who might not be familiar with it:
It puzzles me to see such extreme views. I've always found it to be gradual decline, with each successive album after Lola being worse than the one that came before it, till we bottom out a PA2 (after which, each album is better than its predecessor for awhile). It's certainly hard for me to see how someone could regard Show-Biz as "fantastic" and yet find nothing to like about PA1, since they are not that different in quality in my view. And it's also interesting that I can remember when Show-Biz was regarded as the first really "bad" album by those who hated the RCA period (most notably, John Mendelssohn), so it's fascinating to see it portrayed instead as the last great album.
Hey Mark Wanna throw my 2 cents in before the wife pulls me out the door. This is directed to everyone on here. Don't feed the trolls. We have a great thread here that people are trying to sidetrack with records that are a long way from reviewing. Almost everyone has a get off point with artists that stay at it a long time. Call me crazy but I don't with The Kinks. I can even find gems among Think Visual, U.K. Jive and Phobia. To me musicians are a lot like athletes-they have a peak, but are still capable of occasional greatness as time goes by. But claiming the artist has no talent or brains is lazy trolling. Peace!
I always thought 'What's In Store For Me' was an interesting, and somewhat poignant lyric with Ray, still at the dawn of his career wondering what would become of him in days, years, decades hence, at a time when though he’d only just broken through and didn’t yet have the crutch of ‘I am the great Ray Davies with quite the song portfolio’. Again with another angle on existential insecurity. The way it's expressed in this song is still pretty wide eyed (even though it shares an LP with his first really world weary song) and is all the more appealing for it. Maybe it was given to Dave to sing cos Ray’s was already growing too cynical to sell it? Shades of the French fairy tale 'The Magic Thread' about a boy named Peter who can't wait to see what his future's like and gains the ability to pull on a magic thread to fastforward to the highlights: The magic thread | Kids Story - Short stories for kids (also apparently the inspiration for the Adam Sandler film 'Click') in the innocent ponderings on the blank page of the future held by the young in this song. Didn’t all our wee minds wonder this away at some point in our youth?
I LOVE the dirty, sleazy groove on this track, and Nicky's maniacal piano work. One thing nobody's pointed out: it's tuned down a half-step! It's pitched in Eb, and that first rather heavy lick sounds all the more cooler being tuned down. Dave's guitar fills throughout have a great kind of "punk" attitude, as do many other songs on this album. This song stands out as being a good example of the Kinks' forthcoming hard rock sound... Overall I listen to this LP more often than Kinda Kinks, and feel that the band are on their way to the great "middle period" so lauded by many (and rightly so!). Kontroversy ROCKS!
WHAT'S IN STORE FOR ME Not much if this song is anything to go by. YOU CAN'T WIN Some great piano buried so low you can"t hear it. For all those Milk Cow fanatics, this album sure comes in with a bang and goes out with a whimper. You can win, actually, by not putting too many weak tracks at the end ... but sequencing wasn't the Kinks forte on this album.
What's in Store for Me I've never heard this song before today. The music isn't going to light the world on fire, but I think the lyrics are pretty revealing about Ray. I think a lot but I'll stop trying I'll just get old before my time I'll live the life I've got But I don't sleep at night I wanna know just what's in store for me He's an (over)thinker, probably old before his time (or old soul) and he's a well known insomniac. Not writing about a character here, but himself 100% You Can't Win Of the two, I really like this one. I've been listening to it of late and it's grown on me. i love how it momentarily settles down with: What more can I say now? What more can I do? I'm in the groove here. It's an album track for sure, but it's not something I'd skip whereas I might skip the other song.
Thank you. Agreed. ...or put another way, disagree with wordnat and williamson. I may be in the minority, but I love the run from Sleepwalker through Give the People What They Want(and perhaps even State of Confusion), and I intend to defend those albums vigorously against what I anticipate will be an onslaught of haters. Critics can hate all they want, I love when the kinks rock out. I’ll take misfits and low budget over the rock opera self indulgence albums all day long. I say let Dave loose on the guitar!
Agreed. Just picked up a nice copy of the Give the People album last week. I'm ready to go into battle on that one. Can't wait to get to Art Lover. LOL.
Disliking or preferring one album (or era) over another, and expressing that, doesn’t equate to hate. The whole point of the thread is participation by expressing a viewpoint. That said, I’ve conducted my own preview of the next album on the docket and am quite happy.
I'm excited because in the last 3 years I've collected all of The Kinks' CD releases (barring a couple comps and the box sets) and, although P1 and P2 aren't my favorites they are still interesting. I enjoy every Kinks album from here to To The Bone. Since early 2018 I've gone from thinking "yeah, The Kinks are all right" to "The Kinks are totally awesome and Ray is a genius lyricist and Dave is one of the most underrated guitarists ever!" So I'm really looking forward to everything coming up, not saying I don't like their first 3 albums, I just think they were still young and learning everything.
What's In Store For Me-An rocker featuring Dave on lead vocals. His voice seems more listenable than he on the previous Kinks albums. Decent melody, but not their best. The instrumentation is tight with crackling guitar. Not quite the singer as his brother but who is? You Can't Win- The album closes with a good rocker that has a gravelly sounding Ray on vocals. Dave’s guitar lick is just oustanding, and his solo is awesome. The brothers vocals are a "winner" despite the songs title. Good closer.
It is interesting that we are just moving to the end of the Kontroversy era, possibly ironic even, and we have little era scuffles breaking out lol. Personally, from my perspective, I think there is very little to dislike from the debut through to To The Bone, although the post Word of Mouth albums are extremely new to me. There are a couple of albums that come off a little patchy to me, and one I am hoping for a breakthrough with, because it just hasn't clicked with me...... yet. At the end of the day all I would ask is - please allow folks their opinions, discussion is cool, arguing futile. - if you prefer the seventies or eighties stuff, please make sure you give the sixties stuff a fair listen, even if you think you know it. - if you generally prefer the sixties stuff, please give the later stuff a fair listen, even if you think you know it... None of that is for anyone's benefit but your own. I'll give my example. I grew up on the seventies and eighties stuff, and when I first got the sixties stuff, believe it or not, I was a little underwhelmed... I loved the songs i knew, and was a little nonplussed with most of the other stuff. Over the last several years, I have put an album on here and there, and allowed the style and feel to soak in, almost subliminally.... Then while we were doing The Kinks, Kinda Kinks was getting a lot of rotation. During Kinda, Kontroversy was getting spun, and the last two weeks Face To Face, Something Else and Arthur have been getting rotated... Each morning I hear the tracks, several times while trying to put together some kind of worthwhile intro..... The result, I now love these albums, my conditioning to the later stuff, has softened and allowed this stuff room to live..... and now my Klassic Kinks albums have grown, a lot. I know that's probably bewildering to the long term sixties fans, but the reality is it can work in reverse for any of you that may feel you aren't keen on the later stuff.... For me, that's the whole point of these threads. Sharing knowledge and feelings is beautiful, and helpful to everyone that bothers to read, but we can all learn here Anyway, I hope that isnt just some rambling BS
I completely agree. Everyone's experience and introduction to a band is different. When you become a fan has a lot to do with how you respond to different eras. Growing up I was familiar with all the big 60s hits and the newer hits such as "Come Dancing". I don't think I became a super fan until hearing Village Green Preservation Society in my late teens and it blew my mind. That is still my favorite Kinks album and one of my favorite albums by anyone. I also remember having Schoolboys In Disgrace on cassette soon after. It never left my car. I still have flashbacks of driving around my hometown when I hear parts of that album. I do hope that people really give some of these albums a good listen. I know we are all gonna have our disagreements and those are really going to escalate as we get into the 70s. The rest of the 60s should be smooth sailing. A few years back I finally got around to giving some attention to Think Visual and UK Jive. I avoided those based on the cover art. While they are not their best, those albums surprised me with quite a few excellent songs. This is gonna be an epic thread. Thanks for grabbing the wheel!
I completely agree with this, and the sameness heard on these first 3 albums almost dilutes for me the distinctive impact of the 60s singles I love. The thin-sounding, recorded-over-a-transatlantic-telephone-line sonics of these Talmy-produced albums don't help a bit. And I don't understand how the band that virtually invented heavy metal in YRGM can have such anemic-sounding guitars on some of their recordings. I have tried several times since 1977 to love and covet the Kinks' catalog but the majority of the material (even from their most celebrated albums) just hasn't grabbed me, even if I respect it. AND YET, my favorite tracks throughout their catalog are strong enough that some days I might consider the Kinks my 4th favorite band after The Beach Boys, Beatles and The Who. So I am soaking in this thread and newly appreciating less familiar tracks here and there as well as the thoughtful comments you all are making. Just an aside: Several years ago I made a compilation CD of live tracks from '77 through '87 and it caused me to favorably reappraise this era of the band. Most of the live versions smoke their studio counterparts IMO. But we'll get to that in time...
My Kinks Kontroversy playlist: Till the End of the Day and Where Have All the Good Times Gone have long been favorites. I would add to a Tier 2 song list: The World Keeps Going Round I'm on an Island You Can't Win
Hear, hear! We all need to live by the words of a great man, “Everyone is entitled to their own wrong opinion.” I am sure we will all get by in peace and a cooperative spirit as long as we can all agree that the Star Wars prequels (and sequels?) sucked.
