The original soundtrack LP itself has a different version and mix of Sold Me Out from the version in the film itself so that’s why I ask. That LP mix is not on YouTube so I’ll hold off and save it for then as it’s more appropriate there than here.
Sold Me Out It is a really great punk track but it does belong on the film "Return To Waterloo" and nowhere else. On the album it has a cheapening effect for both the album and the song. I love the film version with Tim Roth and cast singing, it brings home the point rather obviously, even ham-fistedly. But it's the only way, and against all odds it's kind of liberating and refreshing. A companion piece to "Young Conservatives" in a way. Some things are too obvious to point out, but still it's always good if you address them anyway and what better way than with a catchy, toe tapping song. Again what really makes the song pop are the delays on "you...you...you sold me out". You can't go wrong with a well-measured delay. Still I don't understand who plays the guitars here. According to Ray, Dave wouldn't participate in the film, so it's only Ray on guitars? Or is it Dave, because it's on a Kinks album after all?
Dave didn't play on anything from Return To Waterloo .... to the best of my knowledge, from what I can find
Sold Me Out I love this one as well. I’m far from being a punk aficionado, (I probably only own the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones - maybe a couple of others that escape me at the moment) and, frankly couldn’t care less about genre labels, but if the Clash were punk, then this song sounds punk to me. I’m not sure the track stood out on first listen to the album, but the more I hear it, the more I like it. My enjoyment increased even more in the context of Return to Waterloo. I watched after @mark winstanley pointed out that it was on Tubi. Funny, not really, that “they” ended up getting Ray with a gun many years later. I would think most anyone could relate to the lyrics of this song. I remember being irate, years ago, at my bank making me jump through hoops and charging me for a bank check when I withdrew my money for a down payment on a car. We switched to a more consumer friendly bank, only to have it taken over by the bank we left!
I really enjoyed her review of Animals. She likes her Floyd that's for sure. I just read the esteemed Creem magazine's review of Animals from 1977 and its awful. She does a better job of it nearly half a century later. Oh and Sleepwalker is reviewed in the same issue. I'll post it tomorrow.
"Sold Me Out" I have never heard or seen Return To Waterloo, so I guess I should get on it! What's not to like about a straight ahead rock n roll tune? Ray delivers a good vocal and I like his guitar playing. I wasn't aware there was no Dave on it, but I think it benefits from him not adding some kind of flashier jam. The bare bones Chuck Berry style lead guitar is all that is needed on a tune like this. It is one of Ray's more successful tunes in this style. It doesn't really bring to mind any of the punk bands that have been mentioned, but it's certainly not far off from Damned, Clash, or Jam style rock n roll. I wish I could hear one of these bands do a cover of it. This might be the most consistent side of music from the Arista years. I wasn't expecting to say that, but here we are. A great tune to end the side. I don't know much about this band. They are from Chicago in the early 2000s. I was looking up to see if any punk bands covered this song, and this is all I could find. It's not great quality, but it gives you an idea how this might have sounded blasting out of CBGBs in 1978. The Returnables- Sold Me Out
Sold Me Out Written to suit the film where the 'punks' are partly singing this along with Ray, so naturally a punky song was required. Ray does a good job of this 'written to order' piece (albeit written for himself), but its a shame it wasn't exclusively saved for his solo album and we had different songs, rather than duplications. Ignoring that duplication though, it's been a very good side one for 'Word Of Mouth'.
Sold Me Out Don’t have much to add for this one. I haven’t watched Return to Waterloo yet, and probably won’t have time before next week…. so curious to see how how this sounds in context there. Here, it’s a pretty basic punk type rocker, that to my ears wouldn’t sound out of place on Give the People What They Want, almost like a sister song (at least in attitude) to Add It Up. I am not familiar with those other punk bands listed, but I would also say that this sounds like it could be a mid/late 90s Green Day song. And to me, that is not a bad thing. It really seems authentic to that Green Day sound and precursor to their garage-y riffy 90s numbers, like Nice Guys Finish Last. I might add that the quiz may include questions like which Kinks song did Green Day cover, and which Kinks song did they steal a riff from (multiple answers may be accepted). The other interesting thing about this song is that usually for this kind of energetic fast rocker, the khorus comes in much quicker, but here it doesn’t come in until 1:10 into the song. That seems like a long time into this song!
I know we aren't on Return to Waterloo yet, but this album sort of ties into it, but it sort of seems like Ray couldn't hold it in any longer... From Sleepwalker through to State Of Confusion we have this series of partly thematic/concept-ish albums, and then we get to Word Of Mouth and we have an album with no discernible theme.... but Return To Waterloo was released in November 1984 (UK) May 1985 (US)... Word Of Mouth was also released in November 1984 ... So Ray got to release an album and a thematic album doubling as a movie. We'll get to it all in a couple of Mondays, but Return To Waterloo was supposed to be a Kinks project ... It wasn't supposed to be released as a Ray solo album/project, but with Dave refusing to participate, Ray felt he couldn't release it under the Kinks banner, even though Dave was the only member MIA
If you like Green Day, you would almost certainly like The Jam... I get the feeling that Green Day is essentially the b'stard offspring of The Jam, The Damned and many of those early UK punk bands. I am only familiar with Smash It Up and the cover of Elouise by the Damned. I have all The Clash albums and they were probably my favourite band from the UK punk scene.... The Jam to some degree are The Kinks illegitimate children... Weller obviously paid a lot of attention to Davies and Townshend and from their first album followed the very UK-centric writing of Davies as inspiration. Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton did a lot of harmony vocals that somewhat reflect Ray and Dave. Weller may have been one of the best lyricists of the punk era too, and again I think that is a direct reflection of his attention to Davies and Townshend Songs by the Jam to check out Eton Rifles, Going Underground, That's Entertainment, Start, A Town Called Malice .... The Jam were one of the biggest bands in the UK between 77 and 82 ... They gradually moved from their raw beginnings and into a smoother kind of sound.... Then probably at their height they broke up, and Weller went on to create the hugely successful Style Council to romp through the eighties. Edit: Note that Style Council is absolutely nothing like The Jam... the difference between the two is greater than any difference between Kinks periods
I am pretty sure Tired of Waiting for You is their only officially released Kinks cover, but I am sure they must have done other live covers. and I am sure they have ripped off a few others. Warning/Picture Book is the big one.
So Dave doesn't want to participate on RTW yet Ray still cobbles together a sort of odds and sods Kinks album when he really didn't need to and Dave gets not just two lead vocals but those lead vocals are on his songs. The first that ever happened. So he did all right for himself by refusing to help his brothet didn't he? Worked out well for us fans too! Ray sure seemed to be bending over backwards to appease his brother during this period. He could've just as easily only released RTW. Instead Dave got what he wanted and there would be at least two Dave-penned songs on the remaining albums.
Yeah I meant songs where they ripped off the riff. One in particular where they slowed the particular Kinks riff down.
I would count Death of a Clown and Funny Face from Something Else. I think technically Ray contributed the “la la las” for the co-write credit but the essence of that song is all Dave. Edit: also Love Me Till the Sun Shines! And I might argue that Susannah’s Still Alive should have been on that album too!
Green Days other two rips are both of opening tracks on 80s Kinks albums… I love 90s Green Day. Despite the brattish goofball, ‘pulling a chuckle headed face while wearing an obscene amount of hair product’ image that I’m sure put many off, musically they were very much more in that kind of melodic power pop end of punk that forget ‘tracing its lineage’ to The Kinks, is pretty much a direct continuation of their core basic sound. Not into anything from the 00s on though, when into their second decade they forsook pop conciseness for stadium bloat and did very well out of it: in that respect they remind me of The Who!
I liked Dookie for a little while, and they put out some good tracks.... but I just couldn't get into them enough to care about them... I don't get too concerned about music being derivative/somewhat derivative, but I just couldn't find a heart behind the facade
I have a backlog of bands and musicians that I want to do a deeper dive into. The Jam is one. I have a couple of Style Council lps that I haven’t listened to in decades as my vinyl is not easily accessible. I’d be going backwards as I really liked Paul Weller’s recent solo albums On Sunset and Fat Pop.
