"Living on a Thin Line" - Add my name to all those who have superlatives to say about it. ("epic," "powerful arrangement," "atmospheric," "classic," et. al.). The 1st bridge particularly gets me. Most of the song is descriptive yet unspecific about the "current day" (burned castles, etc.), leaving the listener some space for interpretation. Then in the bridge, Dave is passionately direct: "What are we gonna leave for the young? What we couldn't do or what we wouldn't do It's a crime but does it matter... Does it ever really matter? Yes, it really, really matters" Direct, strident lyrics sometimes put me off, but these deliver such moral clarity that it's almost jolting. In the 1987 Chicago live version that I was first familiar with, Dave spits out "or what we wouldn't do" angrily and accusingly. Sadly, those words are just as applicable 38 years down the road. There are so many problems that could be solved or mitigated - I won't list them, to avoid political talk - but there hasn't been the political will to do so, and that blame ultimately goes back to the citizens that elect - and usually re-elect - their officials. Currently it's my favorite Dave Kinks song (we have a few albums to go) and the only one in my Top 10. Both the studio and live versions are quite powerful. 5/5 "Good Day" - This is one where I appreciate the melancholy and almost desperate lyrics fighting despair juxtaposed with the "Good Day" title more than the music. A good album track. 3/5 "Sold Me Out" - I haven't decided where I land on this one. A good rocker reminiscent of "Add It Up," which I like a lot, but this strikes me as a bit repetitious. 3.5/5 Again, I wish I had more time to explore all the musical side trips you all have offered. I keep hoping I'll be able to backtrack and explore some of them.
Nice post... And there's no time limit on talking about stuff, so whenever you're ready, we'll be ready to have a read
Thanks! Creem reviewers really liked those three 80s Arista albums. I have the '81 interview sequencing fixed with GTPWTW review at the end.
Hold the presses guy's as just walked into a shop and found this, just in time for the thread....... Never heard of it but Ray even let Dave do promo work for Think Visual on MCA. Buying it now for $15.
Wow, you got to direct Gena Rowlands! How depressing and angering to see one's work taken from your hands.
That's dreadful and too bad because its an impressive cast. This experience is giving me thought for pause for my series idea.
Great find! Pretty sure I caught this when it aired or it was sent to our college radio station and I listened to it there. I was scheduled to interview Ray about a year later but alas it wasn't to be.
Oh when I found out I'd lost control of it I went into a long, long depression. I considered leaving the business completely like @wayneklein. I tried to discourage my friends from even watching it and started pitching TV shows. But the pain eased over time, and yeah, for ****'s sake, I got to direct Gena Rowands!
Seems a nice humble guy that could play anyone off the stage but I don't know if he is known for any particular songwriting or creativity to the masses.
Massive Reductions . stereo mix, Word Of Mouth version, recorded Aug-Sep 1984 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London I've been sacrificed in the name of the company, I've been victimized for the sake of economy. I had a big house, a big car, Expense account and credit cards, But now look what they've done to me. They're making massive reductions, It's all mass production and assembly lines. They're making massive reductions, Massive reductions. They're laying me off all because of inflation, I'm losing my job and my reputation. Good-bye my big house, my big car. Now it's all up to welfare, I hear that everybody's going there. They're making massive reductions, Massive reductions to stay alive. Whoa, they're making massive reductions. Good-bye my big house, my big car, Now it's all up to welfare, I hear that everybody's going there. They're making massive reductions, Massive reductions to stay alive. Whoa, they're making massive reductions. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music, Ltd. We looked at the b-side version from the Better Things single here The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song) The song in and of itself doesn't change too much, it is just rerecorded, and it looks like a fairly late decision to rerecord this track for the album. I actually don't think that it's a bad decision actually. We get a key change, and on this version we also have a nice intro that works as a good atmosphere builder. We still have a Summertime Blues feel in the verse vocals, but it seems a little less in your face. I think the new version is slightly slower, and it seems to groove a little better perhaps.... but the sound is a lot better than the version we had for the b-side, and that can influence how something sounds to us also. I didn't dislike this at all when we first looked at it, but I feel like the song itself may have grown on me somewhat? I am enjoying this version of the song, even though it is a little more smooth than the other version.... it feels like a more complete song. We open with the piano pulsing away and a sax rolling out some nice lines, and then a nice snare crack leads us into the song ... Hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I am enjoying this version quite a lot.
yes, that’s a nice touch. I like that they always take care of their own legacy, and how Dave knows how to reclaim his part of it. MassiVe Reductions is better produced than the original b-side. The synths are excellent, a throwback to some Low Budget ones and also to some Who (are you) big sounds. There’s a hint at Van Halen’s Jump that I didn’t think of last month, but maybe it was already mentioned. And when the chorus starts, I hear Bono going “don’t you / forget about me”, don’t ask me why, it’s probably just in my head (edit: not Bono but JIM KERR, of course, thanks @ajsmith. I swear I didn't even make the connection…). In both versions, it’s one of those tunes that keep making you think of dozens of other songs/artists but it dissipates too fast for my brain to process it. I think it’s frightening to realize that the three years between the two versions only made it more relevant lyrics-wise. Its presence on Word of Mouth definitely adds to the odds and sods quality of the record. We get two Dave songs, three from Return to Waterloo, one old B-side re-recorded, that’s six out of 11 tracks that come from everywhere save from whatever Ray had in mind for a new late 1984 Kinks album. The fact is that all the songs stand their ground nonetheless and for that (for that too), our day-by-day exercise is very eye opening, because it establishes a consistency in quality that’s otherwise overshadowed by the diversity in style, sound and provenance. Now, I said it’s better produced because it’s more finished, more assured and “competent” and I think Ray’s singing is better here. But I’ll say it once more: as a case of comparing the two drummers, there’s no match at all, Mick’s stumbling fills and brink of a disaster feel destroys the steady eighties Henrit style as far as I’m concerned. Nevertheless, good lyrics, real punch, good version.
Yeah "Massive Reductions" is one I had more or less forgotten about. I certainly hear Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" referenced in this song. It is also another song that just sounds of its time with big Eighties production values. Before joining this thread, I kind of assumed the band that absorbed lots of current trends out of the Old Guard were the Stones (Mick Jagger always listening to whatever is current and incorporating it) but it is striking how much this is true of the Kinks. I mean what else did I expect? All bands do this (The Who's It's Hard and a song like "Eminence Front") but somehow the Kinks, I thought, were somewhat immune to that but songs like "Massive Reductions" show this not to be the case. And here Ray focuses on the early 1980s economic conditions. Bob Dylan tackled the advent of the world economy on Infidels's "Union Sundown" but here Ray personalizes it with the story of any typical 1980s person - living the lifestyle with the aid of a credit card until the shifts in the economy bring about a crisis. Certainly, in North America, the early 1980s were a time of economic uncertainty (Bruce's Nebraska is an album inhabited by characters affected by it). "Massive Reductions" is a decent song. I like the intro a lot - definitely un-Kinks like - but I find the Eighties keyboard a bit dated but the song is still well written. I like hearing Ray and Dave on the chorus vocals. But it is so Eighties in its sound; it was surprising to me. People always rave about David Bowie as a chameleon (rightly so) but it is interesting to hear the Kinks in that mode as the late seventies punky/new wavey sound gives way to the Eighties sheen.
Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, not Bono surely? (unless I'm missing a U2 song with a similar lyric) Ironically of course, Jim was someone who Ray was likely very eager to forget about in the 1984/5 timeframe ... Mustn't have been pleasant for Ray when the Minds Breakfast Club affiliated smash and eventual signature song was inescapable in '85...
"Massive Reductions" It's no wonder there are no outtakes from Word of Mouth - if they are digging up three year old b-sides to fill out the album it's unlikely that anything would be rejected! This is an OK song, but as simple as Ray gets with no middle-eight or bridge, just a short guitar solo than back for a repeat of the chorus. The production sounds very 80s FM stadium rock - more so than the rest of the album, and it doesn't help the coherence of the album to have such a mish-mash of styles. I think I preferred this track when I thought it was the last track on Side One, as it was suitably throwaway - I don't think it necessarily has the stuff of great Side Two openers.
I've often wondered if while producing the Turtles a dozen years earlier Ray researched the band to prep for the job. He liked the opening to "The Story of Rock and Roll," filed the idea in the back of his head, and either knowingly or unknowingly revived it as the opening for "Massive Reductions." It's not exact, but similar:
Massive Reductions Not much to say second time around but i do like the ambient intro with maybe a hint of lounge jazz to (re) boot. I note Ray's lyric of Rep-U-Tay-Shun is made to measure with U-Nited-Nay-Shun from Cochran. Though the tempos may differ and the Pretenders are more sparse with their accents i am reminded a little of Message Of Love which may well be as both chordal riffs seem to focus on the upper midrange.
Many thanks @ThereOnceWasANote for that Creem interview, which is amazing. Ray's character assessment of Jimmy Page was something to behold. Some of it is him sticking up for his younger brother, which we haven't seen a lot of, but he doesn't hold back. And the Hendrix anecdote - "what was the question again?" A highlight for me: both the interviewer and Ray highlight Shepherds of the Nation as a great song. My gut instinct on that was right. And the advertising: The Rocky Horror Audience Participation Manual Book!
‘Massive Reductions’: No change in opinion from me. This is the first miss of the album, a sanitized remake of Summertime Blues with the highlight being the jazzy intro. 5 for 6 on the album count.
Massive Reductions This is a crisp rocker with lyrics that, like old clothes, will always come back into fashion. Ray went to a bit of effort to get the harmonies working which lifts the song in my estimation. I don't get the same U2/Simple Minds 80s vibe that others have picked up - if someone could just dig up a video clip of Ray sporting a mullet....I loved this song when it came out, though my memory of it is that of a heavier rocker than it sounds now. That could be an eighties effect: there were so many "rock" songs dominated by synths in the mid eighties that anything guitar-driven sounded heavy by comparison.
Massive Reductions This one does nothing for me. I think @Fortuleo may be on to something with the drumming. The song needs something other than the rock steady beat to keep my interest. I got to see The Who, only once, but it was a Moon-less Who, and I always feel like I never really got to see The Who. Lyrically there is no there there for me either. There's an economic downturn and a guy is unemployed and loses his house and car and is reduced to being on welfare, which is horrible, of course, but the song does not make me feel that. I sympathize more with the protagonist of Sunny Afternoon not being able to sail his yacht, lol. Obviously I love Ray, but I don't think he was trying too hard on this one.
