Ah another lazy and misinformed critic, who are unfortunately a dime a dozen. Thanks, I won't waste my time!
Dave is going soft on the government, it's not even mentioned ! I like this one, about as much as Living on a Thin Line. It sounds like a John Entwistle tune.
I'd say Burks is actually fairly even handed and thoughtful across the board in his Kinks reviews, in comparison to Prindle and Starosin who had the 'everything after 72 SUCKS or is at best majorly flawed and this must be reiterated constantly' thing. The quote re; Word Of Mouth is a bit glib but they're short capsule reviews, he does seem to have actually paid attention to the record and picked out what he liked. Anyway, I'm not saying his page is a seminal must read or anything, more a kind of curiosity from a time when online criticism of the group at any length was hard to find and these pioneers set the tone to an extent.
The interest is reviewers always interests me. When I was a pup I looked at reviews, mainly to see what the new releases were... For the most part I ignored them.... some were written with a certain flare, but most always seemed like they were listening to a different album to me... There always seemed to be a sort of attempt to intellectualize in these reviews... it didn't really seem relevant from my perspective.... and reviewers always seem to be one paced on who and what they liked. I didn't get on the internet until 2009, so I missed most of that stuff lol
“Guilty”: This was one of the songs that I enjoyed from the first time I heard Word of Mouth and I still do, screechy Dave voice and all. I especially like the end of the guitar solo where it goes “whoop” before it goes back to the chorus. Avid Ajsmith is correct that this song could have been done by the Damned/Captain Sensible. As another Avid has previously suggested, “Guilty” is the solid ground rule double to “Living On A Thin Line”’s home run. Speaking of sports, Avid Pyrrhicvictory’s mention of the 1980s New York football Giants reminds me of Mark Bavaro, who is from Danvers, MA, which is near me and where my brother lives, who was one of its star players. I think Avid Pyrrhicvictory has many fond memories of his career.
It's stupid, but back in that early 00s era on Georgiy's board (and the wider world reviewing community abbreviated at the time as the WRC) there was a kind of hero worship for Prindle and Starosin especially. I definitely looked up to them as wise sage figures whose album ratings demanded deference. Prindle seemed like some gonzo Bukowski man of the world and Starostin like some Old Testament prog patriarch emerging from the heavens. The reality was they were just guys about half a decade older than me who'd taken the initiative to start early music review sites, but such was the mystique of Web 1.0 where contact with people was mainly limited to walls of text on static pages
Guilty Dave's up to his old tricks again, which really isn't a bad thing. A solid album tune here. Not essential playlist material, but not a skip either.
I wrote several reviews for Ugly Things magazine, which was an interesting exercise. I always reviewed things that I liked and I never had the urge to put anything down. I always tried to imagine myself at a social gathering being asked my opinion of an album or DVD. I think that a good review should always give reasons why someone should or should not get a certain item. I haven’t done any reviews in a while for various reasons, like discovering this thread. Here’s the best example that I could find on my writing on the Web: Ugly Things: Another UT Writers' Playlist
That would be my friend Jimmy, who I’ve mentioned here a few times before. He has a copy of “And I Will Love You”, an unreleased track which he got a long time ago. Via Doug Hinman, he was asked if he could lend his copy by Andrew Sandoval, which he did. It appears on the deluxe edition of the Kink Kontroversy and he was thanked in the liners.
Guilty OK, Guilty as charged. I too like the guitar work here especially the solo as it's a little unhinged even for Dave. Ditto. _________________________________________________________________ Football Sidebar There is a New York Giants connection down here from that era. Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson is from right here in my hometown and I think he's still here. He visited the local schools on a regular basis during the spring offseasons during that era when I was kid and I remember seeing him several times.
Whatever. You’re missing out: “Ray pares down his lyrics and the music to absolute, enchanting simplicity, giving the songs a timeless quality. An unheard of rarity at the time, this was rock not as raise-the-roof teenage dance music, but rather a children's storybook set to music. Nostalgia for young and innocent days - "Do You Remember Walter", playing cricket in the rain, is my favorite - coexist with cartoon characters like "Johnny Thunder", "Wicked Annabella", "Phenomenal Cat" (straight out of Alice-in-Wonderland), and oh, yes, "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains". ”
I'm no kind of writer really... though I loved doing it when I had the time, and some good 'erb lol I wrote tons of songs over the years... some good, some bad some indifferent. I tried writing a novel a couple of times, but was essentially too immature, and too lacking in focus to be of much value lol The attempted books always make me laugh now... I read them back sometime in my thirties when I needed to throw out a ton a paper with millions of words scrawled onto paper in various forms... poems, songs, the aforementioned books lol I would essentially just start writing something.... but I came to the conclusion that unless I could start and finish the book in one sitting, it wouldn't happen. I scratched out some stupid fantasy novel when I was probably 19... it was about 150 pages of scrawling that was essentially just another redo of Lord Of The Rings/The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant- The Unbeliever, but of course that was just a ridiculous intro ... that I never returned to.... it must have been some particularly good 'erb that night lol With reviews, I was never interested in what the reviewer thought of it.... I wanted to know what it was, not what they thought about it. To me it was a case of, I wanted to read something like - "This album is a meandering collage of thoughts, that is atmospheric in nature. The music uses a rock format, but leans towards orchestral type arrangements with odd time signatures and plenty of key changes/modulations .... blah blah blah" Not really so much - " This artist is a pretentious twat that rambles on rubbish, and I think it's crap. They should probably stick to selling hotdogs" You know what I mean? In a proper review, from my perspective, it should lay out what we are actually looking at/hearing, and then perhaps wrap it up with the writers personal perspective of whether they like it or not. Most reviews I ever read seemed more interested in sounding like they should have been the ones in the studio, because the actual musician just isn't up to their standard.... and unless I bought the album, I had no idea what it actually was they were reviewing lol
It should be noted on this thread (and apologies to my fellow Avids if it already has been) that today is Ray's 78th Birthday!
Nice one.... Happy Birthday Sir Ray Davies. Thanks for your great music over the years, that has individually, and now collectively, entertained us for so many years....
Kind of cool that three musical geniuses (McCartney, Wilson and Davies— that sound’s like a law firm) all were born within the same week, even if the years are different. Add in Prince on June 7th and even if I don’t take astrology seriously, there’s a case to be made for Gemini’s being musical powerhouses!
Happy Rayday to all my fellow Avids. As Mick Avory once suggested, I’m going to work twice as long today!
Massive Reductions Interesting intro, but the song is a huge annoyance with that super loud snare and Ray's desperate shouting. Guilty At least that's a proper toe-tapping rocker with a thought provoking message, especially in our times. There is something refreshing about the playing, I guess it's down to the acoustic strumming in the chorus. Still this track and the last one make it clear, this album is doing itself in.
My mom and I met Mr. Carson at a bank back in his playing days. He shook my ten-year-old hand and it was enveloped by his. A class act, and off the field, a gentle giant.
You got that right, DJ. As you know, Parcells’ Giants teams were built on defense, but we also had a competent offense. When we needed a big play, though, it was Simms to Bavaro. I have vivid memories of him carrying three defenders on his back as he charged downfield.
