The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Dedicated Follower of Fashion - This might be the epitome of a Kinks Klassic? The acting/performance delivery of the lyric sets this apart and is so much better than the earlier attempt at this kind of song, A Well Respected Man. I laugh every time I hear Ray sing the line "And when he pulls his frilly nylon panties right up tight", because I can just picture the vaudeville routine that'd accompany that. I have always loved this 1973 "In Koncert" video with an abridged version of this song. Note that they skip the power chord intro/outro, and how Ray interacts with the crowd. If they made "The Greatest Showman" movie in the early 70s, I think Ray could have pulled off that part perfectly.



    Sittin' On My Sofa - an interesting themed jam where it seems like they just discovered this riff and recorded it live in one take. I just wish the recording quality of songs like this were better. Can't make out some of the vocals. Nicky's piano work just continues to dazzle.
     
  2. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    I was drafting my post as you shared this. This entire set is so entertaining.
     
  3. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    “Do You Want Power?” Very entertaining promo.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    How can you not. The wording, the delivery, it is class A1 musical comedy... yet it is not directly a comedy song.
    It's just brilliant.
     
  5. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    No problem, good to have it near the top of the page anyway!
     
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  6. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    The World Keeps Going Round
    This sounds very much like the Kinks I've known since childhood.
    Musically I particularly like the drum pattern, with the way it doesn't quite settle down into a comfortable rhythm, and the guitar too.
    Lyrically, I like very much that he's simply acknowledging that there's no use worrying, rather than telling people not to worry (as in Don't Worry, Be Happy, or Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright). Its a lot more realistic and left open to the listener to decide whether to take an optimistic or pessimistic message from it! I'm not entirely sure which I think it is...! I suppose if anything it places us and our small worries within their planetary context, without ever diminishing the individual significance of those worries.

    I'm On An Island
    I also often enjoy Ray's acting-type vocals, but didn't this one doesn't work for me. I can't get past that strange, faux-Caribbean accent... I'm sure this is partly because it reminds me of a song from the musical Joseph... (which I strongly dislike but had to sing relentlessly in primary school!) about Benjamin and a palm tree... Sorry, this one isn't for me!

    It's Too Late
    Like others, I think the boogie woogie piano is the star here.
    (I think I'm struggling a little overall to find much to say about the music as the instrumentation is largely the same on each song, and I don't listen to a lot of guitar-based or 'rock' music these days! Perhaps if I managed to keep up I'd get into it a bit more...:sigh::laugh:)

    :cheers: Here's to that. Its how the whole forum and internet should be :) Having the room to both agree and disagree freely and respectfully is a lovely thing.
     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Interestingly I have never really associated this as having the Caribbean accent... but clearly everyone else does lol
     
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  8. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Side note: the upper headline caught my eye (Proby Pitney Clash) because I’ve been participating in a Van Morrison thread. We discussed ‘Whatever Happened Tp PJ Proby’ not too long ago. I’m assuming that’s the Proby being referenced. Pitney? Gene Pitney, I’m guessing.
    Okay...back to The Kinks!
     
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  9. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    What's In Store For Me
    Nice little tune. It has no 'chorus' as such, which I like, and the way 'I wanna know just what's in store for me' fits into the music is somehow slightly unusual or confusing, as though the musical phrase is longer than it ought to be, and yet somehow it works.

    You Can't Win
    In a similar vein lyrically to The World Keeps Going Round, but I don't think its as good overall. This does have a nice piano line going on though, which gives it a lift. Its not the strongest closing track, and having a fade out on the final track feels a bit anti-climactic, but I hadn't realised albums weren't really a thing at this point in time, so that can definitely be forgiven! :D
     
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  10. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Another relevant feature from an early 1966 'A Whole Scene Going On' featuring a brief interview (the earliest on camera one known I think!) with Ray. Seems particularly appropriate at this juncture as the titles of nearly every song he had published up until just before 'Dedicated Follower' scroll across the screen at the beginning!

     
    Last edited: May 21, 2021
  11. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Today in Kinks history:

    Set Me Free is released on this day back in 1965. In November of the same year it became the first track from the band to be used on a film or tv show, after featuring in the Ken Loach directed, Up The Junction, on the BBC. Written by Ray Davies and recorded at Pye Studios on 1 track to 1 track mono April 13th to 14th 1965.
     
  12. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    You’re providing a wealth of information/material. Thank you!
     
  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Recorded on 1 track.... the mind boggles... hard to even imagine that these days
     
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  14. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    'Dedicated' has always been one that tickled me for all the obvious reasons, but that "bell" intro to me has always sounded from the get-go like Swinging London to me. I can't pinpoint why, but I think because when I first heard it I thought it was actually a sound effect of a bell. Either way, from the telephone filtered intro (which has been noted as completely intentional), to Ray's spot on delivery throughout, everything about this track works perfectly. I love the dry nature of most of the track, combined with the very ambient sound of Dave's lead, which blends to give a jaunty trick to the whole affair.

    My wife and I are going into London tomorrow for the first time in a long time, and given where were are in the catalogue, I feel it couldn't be timed better.

    As for Sofa, here's another track that I have a strong allegiance to from the "Sunny Afternoon" Marble Arch comp. I never had too much to say about it, but I always enjoyed it greatly. As mentioned upthread, this was turned on it's head at the Ray Davies 2013 Hyde Park performance, where hanging in the afternoon with some (much) older Kinks fans randomly turned into a (very) brief singalong of this track, where I first learnt the "sippin' on my soda" line, after thinking it was another repeat of the title again before. This track has quintessential b-side written all over it, and it's all the better for it.
     
  15. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I counted 39 song titles scrolling. (My count could be off).
     
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  16. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Yeah, I don’t know the content yet of those lp’s but if it weren’t for this intensive Kinks course, I wouldn’t even be slightly interested. Album covers matter.
     
  17. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: Songs based on the "Ja-Da" chord progression were very popular throughout the 1960s, and this one came out around the same time as The Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream." It wasn't until I heard a couple of the alternative versions that I actually understood the line "When he pulls his frilly nylon panties right up tight." In the released version it sounds something like "When he pulls his frilly nylon and his raked up tate." Just as "Daydream" would inspire McCartney's "Good Day Sunshine," this certainly must have been at least in the back, if not the front of Jagger & Richards' minds when they were working on "Cool Calm & Collected."
    :kilroy: Just as Ian Whitcomb's "You Turn Me On" evolved out of a jam session in which the musicians were extemporaneously pounding away at Marvin Gaye's then fairly recent hit, "Can I Get A Witness," this certainly came about in the same manner, only with Slim Harpo's "Baby Scratch My Back" being the obvious source material. I've never quite understood why the lyrics vacillate between "Sitting On My Sofa" and "Sippin' At My Sofa." It's a bit like singing "Sitting On My Coffee." Mildly entertaining, but insignificant. It's not a track that's on my portable mp3 player.

     
    Last edited: May 21, 2021
  18. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    King Of The Whole Wide World / Leapy Lee (March, 1966)

    :kilroy: While there might've been some space in between Kinks releases in 1966, four Ray Davies give-away tunes were sprinkled throughout the periods in between.

    :kilroy: This is very strangely musically similar to Herman's Hermit's then current U.S. hit, LISTEN PEOPLE (a Graham Gouldman tune that was the B-side of "You Won't Be Leaving" in the UK). Not just in the obvious use of Pachelbel's Canon chords, but a similar melody and tempo as well. I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally intended for them (unlike "Dandy"). The suspended chord that closes the bridge is interesting:

     
  19. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    ‘King Of The Whole Wide World’ is also notable for being a quasi Kinks recording, with Dave and Pete on guitar and bass. Goldie of the Gingerbreads is on b/vs as well!
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2021
  20. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Dedicated Follower of Fashion
    Yes definitely! I'm straight back to being about 6 years old and hearing it in the car. This and Autumn Almanac both take me back the moment they start (the caterpillar...! :D:p). Such appeal to a kid... and an adult too!
    This is such a brilliant song, great fun and couldn't have been written by anyone else. I really can't separate my nostalgia from it at all, but I certainly live hearing it.
    Its one step away from being a comedy/novelty song, but stays just on tye right side of the line that it can't be written off as such as its a fantastic tune.
    This song (and the Kinks in general I think) has been hugely influential on the type of music I got into as a teenager, and am still drawn to now. It has a sense of fun and warmth, of not taking themselves too seriously or being afraid to do something for fear of looking silly, writing about something other than 'boy meets girl', but writing about it without meanness or malice, and blending it all with really good writing and musicianship. Not much to ask... :laugh:
    I think I've been looking for that secret combination in music ever since... and not many artists can do it successfully either! :D

    Others have mentioned music hall and vaudeville, which I hadn't associated it with, but do see now.
    I've recently discovered a (low level!) family connection to the London music hall scene (a great-grandfather performed a whistling act around north London's music halls! :)), and have been discovering a style that I'd written off as twee and silly. It was the popular entertainment of the day, and so a music hall show would contain acts and songs that reflected life in all its aspects - funny, moving, sad, sweet etc. I've only been to one real life music hall evening, at Charing Cross, and it was brilliant.
    Its been a joy to discover, and I think the Kinks absolutely fall within that tradition.

    Oh, and I really like the silly voices on this one!
     
  21. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion"

    All of the dedicated followers have already covered this pretty swell! There isn't a better song that conjures up thoughts of those swinging 60s in London. Nice conversation on this song about how many bands gave this type of song a go go, but none feel as authentic as The Kinks. I'd say The Stones were once again paying attention to The Kinks with a song like "Something Happened To Me" which appears to have been recorded a few months later for their album Between The Buttons. This is a classic tune that anyone with at least a passing interest in the 60s would think was groovy.

    "Sitting On My Sofa"

    This also feels very much like we are still in swinging London. The perfect B side. An excellent groove and riff that makes you want to dance on the sofa. Just be sure to take off your Kinky boots so you don't ruin my new orange sofa that I bought on King's Road. This single signifies the beginning of a new chapter for The Kinks.
     
  22. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    I agree. I started to post more thoughts about this last night, but then deleted it to save the discussion until we get to those albums. Soap Opera and Schoolboys In Disgrace could have or should have been as popular as the musical Grease which was playing on Broadway in 1972 and The West End in 1973. Ray was clearly influenced by it.
     
  23. bvb1123

    bvb1123 Rock and Roll Martian

    Location:
    Cincinnati Ohio
    "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion"
    One of the first Kinks' songs that I knew that I also knew was by the band. I knew other songs when I was younger but I really didn't pay attention to who sang what until I was about 12 or 13. If I'm not mistaken there was a video on MTV for this when the channel first started. They were so short on videos when the channel first came out they used to show old clips from Top Of The Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test. I think this was one of those clips. This is a definite klassic Kinks' song. Ray's lyrics are biting, lovingly somehow. The music is undeniably Kinks-ian. In their upper echelon of songs IMHO.
    "Sitting On My Sofa"
    Didn't discover this until much later but it is another very very mid-60s Kinks' sounding tune. I've always liked it. It doesn't stand way out to me as one of their best or anything like that but it's still a great tune and I like it a lot.
     
  24. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    The Ray Davies of "A Well Respected Man" returns in "Dedicated Follower of Fashion." I'm surprised this charted better in the UK and US than the previous single, "Till the End of the Day." Maybe one of the most British songs I've ever heard. Seems a bit vaudevillian if that's a thing. Dave's guitar riff throughout is the hook and the "oh yes, he is" is most memorable. I've never really cared much for this song, but I don't hate it either. The copies I have all sound quite awful.

    "Sittin' on my Sofa" is not a song I've ever given much attention to. I don't get the love of this track one bit. Super repetitive and boring. Maybe I'm not having a great day. For a 'singles band,' they've issued some really weak b-sides in their time.
     
  25. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    It's "Sippin' at my soda"!
     

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