The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Just listened to Mr. Reporter yet again.
    “Hey, Mr. Reporter,
    How 'bout talking about yourself?
    Do you like what you're doing,
    Or is it that you can do nothing else?

    Hey, Mr. Reporter,
    Don't you twist my words around.
    I'll kill you, rather than let you,
    Distort my simple sound.

    Did your daddy stop you playing
    With your friends when you were young?
    And is that why you run down
    All the young folks having fun.”

    Pretty vicious. I like it! I woke up really early (I have cats) and first listened to the song off of my phone, volume turned way down. At first I thought I heard a banjo (!) but now realize it’s the piano buried way down in the mix. (I’m an alt-country guy. I hear banjos everywhere).

    Anyway, yes, indeed, this is a play-lister.
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The results

    Kelvin Hall, when we get there, will be side A day 1, side B day 2
    As per popular preference.

    Track posting will remain the same, as per popular preference.
    I will say though, that there may well be instances where there will be one track per day on occasion.
    I won't say definitely, because it is always hard to gauge, but I believe there may well be instances where a song might tell me it needs more time and space... or it may take longer to get down thoughts and information, but that remains to be seen.
    I hope if/when that happens folks will be cool with that. Something Else, Village Green and Arthur seem to be the most likely albums where that seems possible, in the short term.

    Thanks for participating and helping to keep this a respectful, in depth, and coordinated look at this great band.

    Cheers
    Mark
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is a great song... I can only assume they thought it was too cutting for their image. We haven't seen anything vicious from the band yet, and don't really get close to that til the Preservation albums, but this is brutal, and deservedly so.
    This morning was the first time I had heard it, but it won't be the last
     
  4. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    No man.. we always talk bonus tracks first.
     
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  5. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "Mr. Reporter"

    I am only familiar with the version sung by Dave. This is great! It's certainly a bit vicious and must be the reason they held it back. Both versions of this song are good enough to make an album. This sounds like a demo compared to the Dave version which adds some horns and a more prominent bass line. Ray's vocal is excellent on this. It would have been a welcome addition to Face To Face.

    "Time Will Tell"

    I have heard this before, but was surprised that I don't have it. Were these only released on Anthology and Picture Book box? Sounds like a killer track for Kontroversy or Kinda Kinks. I was curious if any current garage bands covered it. Holly Golightly was the only cover I could find. Anton from The Brian Jonestown Massacre needs to add this to the setlist! This would fit right in on Nuggets and be a standout. I love the fuzz and the groove of this song. Like someone else mentioned, most bands of the time would have loved to have a song this good. We must be entering a fantastic period if these two songs didn't make the cut!
     
  6. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I know. But when everything is a clean slate...I have no idea what those are. Anyway, I was just kidding around. Bonus tracks, hidden gems, list tapes, album tracks...everything is new to me.
     
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  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It's on the 2cd Kontroversy, which I subsequently ordered for Mr Reporter at the very least :) .... My attempt to save money has gone to pot with this thread, thanks guys lol .... oh yea it's my fault, I started this didn't I lol
     
  8. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: D C G F over and over and over again. No chorus like "Well Respected Man" or refrain like "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion." Just verse verse verse ad nauseam. What monotony. If ever there was a tune that needed a bloody bridge, it's this one!
    :kilroy: Now we're talkin'! It's absolute lunacy that they chose "Til The End Of The Day" over this as a single. Had this been released at the time, it would've gone down in history as a record with one of the greatest opening single-note riffs, in the era of great opening single-note riffs. "Satisfaction," "Day Tripper," "Dirty Water," "I Can Only Give You Everything..." and Time Will Tell. That single note riff is what differentiates it from all their other "Dave's Fart-Box" records, which consist only of chorded riffs (which this also has in abundance). When it finally modulates up from the key of D to the key of E for that final chorus, I am in Kinks nirvana.

    :kilroy: This ranks right up there with Phil Ochs' "Song Of My Returning," in the pantheon of songs that might've gone on to become standards had they been released shortly after they were recorded instead of several decades later.
     
  9. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Finally heard "Mr Reporter" now. It's an unusually long track for this stage in the Kinks career, and on first listen it felt like it. Would probably take a few more listens to absorb and come up with any meaningful comments on it. Has there ever been a thread on "Hey Mister" songs, e.g. "Hey Mr Reporter", "Hey Mr Spaceman", "Hey Mr Tambourine Man" etc?

    Not about today's songs, but...there are four Kinks albums I don't own - they are the four from Everybody's In Showbiz to Soap Opera. Heard them all once back in the mid-80s, and didn't like them, at least not enough to want to tape them at the time or buy them later. Browsing through second-hand records on a market stall this afternoon, they had Showbiz and Soap Opera. Each of them £19. They looked in good enough condition, and I was sorely tempted, but did not purchase (remembering "quack quack, ducks on the wall" didn't help). Looking at Discogs later, seems they were priced at the high end of the spectrum anyway. £19 would be the most I've ever paid for a second-hand record, and I don't think these are the albums I want to break my record on. Perhaps I might like them more these days, but I guess I'll find out when we get that stage in a few months. If I do find I like them then, I rather suspect those two albums will still be sitting there on that market stall for me.
     
  10. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Mr. Reporter - I've had this one since I bought the Face to Face CD, and I never realized they put the later Dave version on, instead of the original from this period. As others have said, it's less social observation, and just a straight out attack on the tabloids. It does get repetitive just verse, verse, verse, verse. It's kinda like in the style of "This Land is Your Land" folk songs that just repeat and hammering the theme home verse after verse. I agree it was a bit too edgy for inclusion on these albums, but perhaps it could have fit into the theme of Lola/Powerman.

    Time Will Tell - First time hearing this today, and wow is it great. I wish I could have listened to this for the past 20 years like I have "I Need You" and their other harder songs. This song should absolutely be covered, and it sounds like it could have come out in the 90s or early 2000s and been an alternative rock hit. I could picture the White Stripes playing this!
     
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  11. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Here's another cover of Time Will Tell that I found. By the Chesterfield Kings

     
  12. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    Time Will Tell first appeared legally on a bonus 10” record that was part of a 1983 PRT UK greatest hits comp called Dead End Street.
    Ray tried to block release of that bonus 10” due to it having 6 rare or at-that-time unreleased tracks he didn’t want out there, similar to the US Great Lost Kinks Album a decade earlier.
     
  13. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I was just going to post this and you beat me to it. I remember finding an import copy of this one shortly after it came out, and absolutely loving the rarities EP (though I didn't know they were unreleased rarities at the time).
    The Kinks Greatest Hits - Dead End Street
     
  14. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Mr Reporter
    I like the guitar and riff. The music engages me, but the extreme nature of these lyrics are just so bold and filled with hate. I like a bit more subtlety from Ray. It's ok but not a favorite.

    Time Will Tell
    Another ok one. Nothing terrible about it, but just leaves me feeling a bit flat. Would likely be a skip for me if I was listening to Kinks tunes.
     
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  15. FJFP

    FJFP Host for the 'Mixology' Mix Differences Podcast

    Always bugged me that Pictures in the Sand was the stereo backing track, but still a lot of fun. Time Will Tell is indeed a highlight of this disc, but I wish Ray had tried to fix that voice crack! I figure that’s why he canned it.

    As for Mr Reporter, I’ve always loved the direct and brutal lyrics, but I do agree a bridge would have been an elevating addition.
     
  16. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Mr Reporter (and quite a few other upcoming lyric based Kinks songs of this period) having no bridge/variation never bothered me. It’s clear that Ray was inspired/freed up to write in that manner through the influence of Dylan, and nobody ever gives him grief about writing 27 verse songs that never go to another bit. In fact he’s considered a bit of a genius I hear.

    In tracks of this kind, it’s the power and delivery of the lyric that keeps me engaged, and Ray certainly has the writing chops to compete using this style.
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Agree with every word.
     
  18. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    At the time I first heard it I thought it was an instrumental or unfinished track. When I got GLKA a couple years later, I thought "cool, now I have two versions."
     
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  19. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    My favorite part is the voice crack! (Though I doubt it was good for his vocal cords).
     
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  20. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    The issue with Mr. Reporter, as compared to something like Desolation Row, is that verses don’t end with anything that drives the song along. Combined with the unchanging instrumentals (until the very end) the song becomes musically monotonous.
     
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  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is really interesting to me with the reactions to Mr Reporter.

    I get the impression that for a lot of folks, they have gotten used to Ray as a melody weaver, and Mr Reporter is a very different kind of song... there's certainly not anything wrong with disliking it, I just wonder if it had come from the pen of someone else, and wasn't Kink related, if it would stand more chance of connecting with them.
    I enjoy tons of folk, blues and such, and Dylan is a favourite of mine, so from my perspective, this is Ray using a traditional word based track, in the folk blues tradition.... and for me doing it really well.
    I guess it is really going to come down to whether someone is words oriented, and if the words connect with them at all..
    They connect very directly for me, because an album reviewer/reporter tore strips off me once, but everything he said was untrue lol.... I wrote him a song too, but it is not for social human consumption :)

    Anyway i just find it interesting...
    It's also interesting that just as I was typing this, listening to the magnificent Arthur 2cd, that Dave comes in with his version.... :)
     
  22. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I think this is a very real thing. A valid point. I’m dealing with that with ‘Time Will Tell.’ I like song a lot but it’s in the gray zone. As The Kinks. (I guess in this particular case it’s a different than your point because it has connected with me. But I know exactly what you mean.)
     
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  23. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    FWIW despite having said what I said in the post you quoted, I admit I do prefer to listen to the Dave fronted 1969 remake of this song, which while sharing the same overall structure throws in adornments like an extra passing chord, a guitar solo and a key change to provide some more variety.
     
  24. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Today in Kinks history

    On this day back in 1970, The Kinks become a 5 piece touring band, performing for the first time with John Gosling on Keyboards
     
  25. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Little Man In A Little Box (Barry Fantoni / May 1966)

    :kilroy: I might as well get this out of the way, just to be chronologically correct. We're coming up on "All Night Stand," and this...whatever it is, came out a few months before it.

    :kilroy: I have no idea what the story is behind this, but it is the absolute worst of Ray's give-away songs. As a matter of fact, it just might be a contender for worst any song by anybody. Why anyone thought this would work as an A-side is a mystery. It's almost completely tuneless, and the narrow "melody" is barked over two monotonous chords, with little relief. Notice that Ray's name is spelled wrong on the label. The B-side, "Fatman" is just as bad, if not worse:

     

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