WORD OF MOUTH This was the last Kinks album I bought when it came out. There are some earlier albums I didn't get until after this, but I did not buy any of their later albums. I don't remember a whole lot about it. I know I did not think it was as good as STATE OF CONFUSION. Looking at the song titles, this is all I can recall: "Do It Again" was a great song. I think it was yet another Kinks song that stalled around #41 on the charts, but I heard it enough to call it a "hit". "Word Of Mouth" was just kind of loud and basic and not too good. "Living On A Thin Line" was a good song. That's basically it. The other song titles don't spark anything in my memory. I'll look forward to finding out what it sounds like to me in 2022!
I've never heard the soundtrack album of Return To Waterloo, but I assume that would use the versions from the film where some of the verses (e.g. in "Going Solo") are sung by the characters rather than Ray?
I bought either Word Of Mouth or Think Visual on vinyl on a shopping trip to London in about 1990. On my return to Victoria (not Waterloo!) Station, I must have left the bag on the top deck of the bus. My relationship with the album began and ended there, although I hope whoever picked up my lost property enjoyed it! (Well, when I say 'enjoyed' I do so a little begrudgingly... unintentional thieving tossers!)
Thank God.... I don't actually have the album.... I looked but it seemed long out of print and rather expensive... if I remember correctly
“Meanwhile, Dave continued to fight with long-running drummer (and Ray’s best friend) Mick Avory, a feud that had existed since the ’60s. When recording a track for the new album, Good Day, Ray was so hesitant to work with Dave and Mick at the same time, he decided to use a drum machine on the song. Dave eventually demanded Avory’s departure, and the drummer was fired during the Word of Mouth sessions – although his drumming is heard on three tracks…” Read More: Why the Kinks' Resurgence Ended With 'Word of Mouth' | Why the Kinks' Resurgence Ended With 'Word of Mouth'
Speaking as a fan and not a member of the group who had to navigate the landmine filled terrain of interband relations on an day to day basis I never liked the Avory/Henrit switch aesthetically because of how it depleted the group of one more original member, and to me pushed them closer when observed by a casual fan as to looking like some kind of Hermans Hermits ‘93 kind of nostalgia act, just one or two originals and a bunch of faceless replacements: I know that’s largely nonsensical as Ray and Dave are the essential membership of The Kinks (and NOT just Ray as I’ve seen written with despair-inducing frequency on other sectors of this forum) but there is a bit of that factor there. It didn’t help that the new line up failed to establish themselves with any major new hittage or popular presence and in fact were to usher in 12 years of commercial diminishing returns preceding a still ongoing hiatus. While I have no doubt this downturn was purely co-incidental re: the timing of Henrits addition there is a strong argument to be made for the more subtle, jazz-derived and yes sometimes scrappier Avory as the definitive Kinks drummer, and that something essential to their quintessence was lost thereafter.
Listening to The Road the other day for the first time, I was disappointed by what I felt was the mechanical competence of Henrit's drumming (not helped by the awfully bright sound and loudness in the mix maybe). Drums is the one instrument for which I like to feel the effort, and for me Avory struggling to keep both tempo, energy and inventiveness alive was a joy to hear.
I remember getting Word of Mouth at a music store in Salem called Ted Cole's on my way home from law school when it first came out. The front cover was and is a bit fugly, but I gotten used to seeing subpar Kinks album art by then (off somewhat topic but I know that some of the Avids are XTC fans, Skylarking was recently reissued w/what was supposed to be the original cover art, which to me is another fugly piece of.....art; I preferred the cover artwork from when it came out, which is very attractive and beautiful). I did enjoy the album very much back then and I consider it like a Kinks Controversy of the 80s, an album w/consistently good if no great songs, except for "Do It Again", a song forever doomed to stall at #41 and "Living On A Thin Line", a Dave song which resonated w/the listeners then and today while his Chosen People album did not. So why did Word of Mouth become a relative failure despite maintaing the general good quality of the previous Arista albums? I think that several factors came together to remove the wheels from the Kinks' Kommercial Kart: 1. Member Turmoil: This was the period when Dave was in "a bad period", possibly because of the failure of Chosen People and pissed that Ray didn't give him credit on SOC. This meant cancellation of at least one US tour. There was also the removal of Mick Avory, which was probably at Dave's insistence. There was also the fact that Ray was busy making Return to Waterloo, which Dave refused to participate in and which Ray was putting most of his efforts in. 2. Promotional Failures: This was when the Kinks' contract w/Arista was ending. There was uncertainty on both sides whether the Kinks would re-up w/Arista, especially since there were offers from other record companies, most notably MCA, who offered more money and an alleged chance for Ray to pursue his video fantasies. In light of this, Clive Davis was probably unwilling to fully get behind the promo efforts for this album. In addition, there was the great botch up of not issuing "Living On A Thin Line" as a single, especially since it was getting lots of air play, possible because of Ray's jealousy. 3. Audience/Marketplace Changes: The Kinks got a whole new audience during the Arista years, especially after One From The Road in 1980. By 1984, judging by the comments of some of the Avids on this thread, the Kinks were beginning to be seen as "old", especially after the success of "Come Dancing" and the perceived "softening" of the SOC album. Many of this audience stopped listening/buying the Kinks in favor of newer and heavier bands, such as Motley Crue, Twisted Sister. 1984 is generally thought of as the last great year in pop/rock w/plenty of competition among all types of music and the Kinks did not fare well. Well, those are my opinions and I also want to add a note of regret. The Kinks actually played in Lynn, MA, which is the next town over from me, in August 1985 in the same stadium that the Rolling Stones played to kick off their 1966 US tour and I didn't go for some stupid reason. I did see them a bunch of times after that, thank goodness, but I'm still bummed by that. Finally, I also like Avid Pyrrhicvictory's cover idea which is 1000x better than the actual cover.
Avid All Down the Line, you are rather cunning in your punning! I'm beginning to think that an ancestor of yours was sent to Australia for the crime of bad punning
I’m not sure. Those kinds of decorative typefaces were trendy in the 80’s. It may indeed be hand drawn rather than an actual font. Certainly, that is the look this kind of lettering was meant to evoke. Removed from the context of the album art, it’s a fairly decent logo, IMO. A bit reminiscent of the Sleepwalker and Misfit logos. As for the LP design….I’ve never been able to wrap my head around it. I certainly understand why it ranks low among Kinks covers. I don’t care for it much, either. I don’t have much time to participate in this forum these days. I was mostly absent during “State of Confusion,” and foresee things being the same for the next few weeks. I’ll make time, though, just for my quick overview of Word of Mouth: When it comes to what I enjoy rehearing, I can’t think of any other Kinks LP where the disparity between sides one and two is so extreme. Side one, song for song, if my favorite side of all the Arista albums. It contains three of the very best tracks the band did for the label. The other two songs are workman-like rockers that compare favorably to the best moments on SOC and GTPWTW. Side two is a big drop off. “Massive Reduction” just sounds ugly. The rest are kind of generic and forgettable. I do like “Missing Persons,” however.
I can't find the post anymore but some 300 or 400 pages ago, I seem to recall something said about Arista stopping promotion and re-press of Word of Mouth as a reaction to the Kinks not re-newing their contract ? Or maybe I've dreamed it ? I like the new drummer. Well, no, but I certainly don't hate him. I can enjoy some of what he's doing. But it's a bit like the guy who replaced Bill Wyman, I don't even listen close enough to really determine if I like him or not. I'l admit being very conservative about band members. The original members, I'm always paying attention to see how that particular alchemy works. If you're not an original member, you'll need to bring something very new and specific to the table (think Mick Taylor) for me to even raise an eyebrow (well, for Mick Taylor, it's more like trying to get my jaw back from the floor and into my face again). With the Kinks, both Johns did just that in the seventies, especially the Baptist. After which, it's mostly sidemen to me. The irony comes with the Do It Again Julian Temple video, in which two drummers appear, and none of them is Bob Henrit : one is Ray behind the kit (in a red comedia del arte outfit bearing a huge fake nose) and the other is… Mick Avory who plays Ray's side-kick for the bulk of the video. The new guy ? Nowhere to be seen, even when Ray "shoots" all the band members one after the other in a fairground shooting game… And Mick's in the concluding shot, too!
Very strange about the drummer credits. Yeah, I just watched and Avory has a very prominent role in the video right from the beginning. But the credits read: Mick Avory: Drums & percussion on "Missing Persons," "Sold Me Out" & "Going Solo" —- Nothing about ‘Do It Again.’
I think Avory’s appearance in the ‘Do It Again’ video was intended as a kind of farewell gesture: the beginning of the video is a nod to that with Ray and Mick parting and Ray shaking his head. It’s Henrit on drums on the song: not sure why he’s not in the video, unless he’s the other guitarist in the band on the pier, swopping places with Ray. Mick also cameos in the ‘Rock N Roll Cities’ video from two years later, although confusingly he DOES play drums on that track, even though he was still out of the band!
Thanks, it was krude, but only a prototype. The assignment was to come up with alternative artwork for existing magazine ads, movie posters, record and book covers, etc. My teacher gave me a B+. When I showed him the actual Word of Mouth album, he told me if I had submitted that I’d be looking at a C-.
Word of Mouth Been listening several times over the past couple weeks. I had only known Do It Again and Living on a Thin Line prior to this. The former has long been on my playlists and I think is the last (chronological) song of theirs that I ever knew. The latter I hadn't heard until it was on the Sopranos, so that was my exposure to it. It deserves all the accolades of being up there with Dave's best compositions. I will hold off on any other comments until we cover those songs, and the others as well. Seems to be a pretty consistent pop/rock album, although when I listened to it over the weekend while grilling, the ballad (Missing Persons) I couldn't really hear much at all, so I think I need to listen more closely to that (and likely a few others as well) to really get them. It is sad to see the end of Mick's tenure with the band. Perhaps it was for the best for all involved, but it doesn't make it any less sad. Bring on the song by song. Time to do it again.
Word Of Mouth: Something is off with this album, and I believe it's down to the fragmented nature of its content. There's the Return To Waterloo tracks which are not even the best from the movie, and - annoyingly enough - in slightly different mixes. And anyway, they belong in the movie and not on the Kinks album. Then some tracks seem a bit irrelevant. But I believe what really ruins this album for me is the drum computer beeps in Good Day. Strange how just a fracture of a second can color your whole opinion of an album. I never even bought this album. But I listened to it in the shop. Yes, I was one of those who in the late 90es would grab a stack of CDs in the shop and walk to the listening station and block that for hours on end.
No outtakes for Word Of Mouth. The extra tracks on the Velvel CD show us the full versions of a couple of tracks (one previously unreleased) before being edited for the album. There is one alternate version of another track that was only issued as B-side on a 12" single that I'll post at the time, as it's not on YouTube yet. There will be extra tracks/versions/demos for Return To Waterloo that are probably not on You tube either and if not, I'll have those too. The liner notes in the Velvel CD suggest this but doing some further headphone listening recently and revisiting my notes from years ago just to confirm or correct those notes, I'm of the opinion Dave is not on any of these three shared tracks. Really the only one in question would be Sold Me Out but I'm not hearing it. There are at least two guitars on all three tracks, separated in mix so they are discernable within each song but I think it's all Ray. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As was typical with most of the 1998/1999 Velvel CD reissues of most of their back catalog, they got a couple of things wrong on both their Word Of Mouth and Return To Waterloo reissues in regards to some of the tracks that were issued on these CDs. Some of the tracks on the original 1980s releases and early 90s pressings are in their original different edits or mixes between the two albums but the Velvels have muddied those waters by getting things mixed up. So for those that are familiar with only the original release or only the late 1990s CDs there may some differences from what you are/were used to hearing. Depending on what videos show up here for any of these tracks on those days I'll try to sort all of that out coherently for those that are interested.
Word of Mouth Unlike LB (Superman) GTPWTW (Destroyer) or SOC (Come Dancing), I can safely say I have never heard even a stray note from this LP leaking out from a frat house window or a fern bar. So going in without expectations except that I've learned that the Kinks never cease to surprise me. The cover is truly abysmal. I don't know what it was about this period in the history of western civilization but our ability to design attractive things (automobiles, for instance) seems to have degraded considerably. Thanks man & I'll keep two ears open for the lyrics.
Word Of Mouth This was the first 80s Kinks albums I ever bought. One of those albums that was in every $3 used vinyl bin across the country. I have probably only played the entire record twice in the last 20 years, and one of those times was recently. I am only very familiar with the two big singles from the album. This is a time when I think they chose the right songs to represent the record. “Do It Again” and “Living on a Thin Line” are both of the brothers giving 1984 a solid blast of The Kinks! I don’t mind the album cover. I like it more than the last cover or the next cover! Something about it makes me want to put on a skinny leather tie and some pink peg slacks. It’s of its time and looks like it might be a fun 80s new wave album. I’m not sure if that is entirely the case, but I’m looking forward to finding out. I gave it a few listens a couple months ago to start preparing for this discussion. I recall being disappointed. I wanted more songs like the singles, and I’m not sure it delivered. I wasn’t very enthusiastic going into the last two albums either, and they turned out slightly better than expected. I’m hoping for the same outcome on this record. All three of these albums share a sort of similarity in my mind. The three early 80s Kinks albums all feel like they are cut from the same cloth. I never even realized that Mick left around this time. I wasn’t aware that he ever left the band until it was brought up on this thread many moons ago. That’s a bummer. Even though he had been practically reduced to a drum machine on the last few records. Today, It’s time to “Do it Again” and play it loud on the old turntable.
