"Lonely Hearts" I like the song - it seems like another in the 50s doo-wop style like "Schooldays" etc, and as such belongs more to the RCA era than the Arista era. Claire Rayner was an actual agony aunt on TV and in newspapers - must have been quite a coup for Ray to get her to appear in this! I think we are back in the imagination of the traveller here - imagining what it would be like to have an encounter with the goth girl in the toilet, then imagining having an affair. He is presumably dropping enough hints about his imaginary affair for his wife to get worried. It seems that Norman is no longer imagining himself as a rock star - now he's just imagining himself as an all-round bad guy. The traveller seems to walk down a lot of corridors, juxtaposed with the train going through tunnels. What does this all mean?? I'll have a listen to the song in isolation later on to see if it holds up.
We've covered the three Word of Mouth tunes, so it’s nice to get on with numbers that are Return to Waterloo exclusives. This one is my favorite with the title song. Musically, it's wonderful, with almost Brian Wilsonesque reversed chords in the verse, and it's another case of the song being much better with the images, the dialogues, the pauses, the little piano interlude etc… Because it's the 80's and about a sad and lonely heart, I tend to picture the same disco ball as in Don’t Forget to Dance in an empty old dance hall. But stylistically, we're indeed back in RCA Kinks territory, doing their own version of a 50’s slow doo-wop-y number, like it’s "Schoolboys in a Soap Opera" all over again. On the LP version, there's an obvious McCartney/Wings vibe all around (especially the bass), with a lot of the playing and structure bringing Let Me Roll It to mind. Paul may not have the monopoly on lonely hearts (see what I did @The late man ?), but giving him a little nod when you call a song that way is quite elegant on Ray's part.
"Lonely Hearts" - this has a real American soul feel to it in the verses which was a real surprise to me. Watching the film segment and how the song was incorporated into it was also very interesting so I need to watch the entire thing (it is only an hour!). I like the piano and the organ on this track (really effective underneath the monologues in the film). It is not a very deep song lyrically but it doesn't have to be. It sort of reminds me of the Beatles' "Oh Darling!" and the lyrics seem to reference this song with the repetition of the term "darling".
Lonely Hearts A very nice melody by Ray but must state that @stewedandkeefed beat me to the Beatles "Oh Darling" musical and lyrical references plus the American Soul one too just for good measure! On that score there is a recurring 4 note lick which is from "Don't Pull Your Love Out On Me Baby" by Sam & Dave plus i also thought of the song It's Too Late introduced to me via Derek And The Dominos. Dial that back to the 1956 original by Chuck Willis & it betrays it's influences of Soul, R&B and Doo Wop which Ray in part seems to borrow from, pregnant pauses and all! If our traveller somehow isn't having an affair then has his long suffering wife been granted imagination, fantasy and mind thought visuals (by Ray) just like her husband? Despite this the agony aunt scene sure points to the couples own Waterloo! N.b. @ARL beat me to the Doo Wop too so like a later (disafected) generation i just rapped.
Hey, watch out, mister… Yep, the lyrics are confusing… The film makes them easier to understand : the verse is the wife (probably singing to her daughter at the beginning) and the chorus is that Claire person responding to the wife's letter. Now, is the film itself easy to understand ? That's another question. I'm in the "if it's even a tiny bit adventurous, then it's in the guy's mind" camp. Lest we forget this sequence starts just after the "dream encounter" with the goth girl. We're still in the toilet, we just saw the shots of the wife portrayed as the guy's guilty conscience, then the innocent daughter that would never doubt her father. This is excellent and it sets us out perfectly for the Lonely Hearts sequence, one of the best bits of the film for me. Note how Ray does the exact same trick as in Missing Persons : adding a plural "s" to the singular lyric, an idea that is beautifully illustrated by the shots of "lonely" people on the platforms. The wife's "hello" on the intercom is also fantastic. That whole moment when he gets off the train to make a phone call is really moving, well paced, well shot. And the story becomes clear : the daughter's departure has taken its toll on the parents' relationship, precipitating a mid-life crisis of sorts, a moment of reckoning, the guy examining everything about his life, his frustrations, all things he failed to become, all things (even very bad) he'll never do that would make him "stand out" in any way. If I was to choose one Ray obsession, this would be the one : the dialectic between blending in and standing out, and all that goes with both ends of that alternative. Lack of ambition (superego, anonymity, docility, betrayal of childhood dreams, submissiveness to the system's power) versus ambition (ego, delusions of grandeur, temper, betrayal of childhood friends, submissiveness to the system's values). And in both cases, the impossibility of contentment.
And now I've lost several minutes looking for a photo of Giscard with Paul McCartney, but I could not find one. This is my look now.
This is how I see it, the point of view changes to the Traveller’s wife in this section, and she imagines he is having an affair. What’s interesting is, from his perspective we’ve seen no evidence of this at all, just some stray glances at attractive strangers. Clearly he is distracted and troubled by something, but he has kept the source well hidden from his wife. I like the way the sound was done in this section- we hear the wife say hello, then it blends into the train station announcers voice, then the wife saying there have been secrets between us, then Ray singing - then the agony aunt speaks and her words converge with Ray’s singing briefly, then diverge again. It’s all seamless and effective on top of this fantastic song. There’s a couple of nice shots here - another split of thirds when the Traveller is leaving his wife for work- three windows, the wife, who is just a dark silhouette, looking out the first; a center window that divides the two of them, then the Traveller in bright contrast in the third, exposed in the daylight - then Ray sings “love is driftin’ away” - perfect. Another is when the Traveller is looking out the train window at the woman with the pram- the perspective switches from inside the train to outside, so we first see the woman through the window, and then her reflection in the window - then the image reverses as we’re back in the train which starts moving away from her … her image flashes momentarily, then is hidden by the interior of the car, then she reappears in the next car window - her image is flickering, we get the dark, light contrast again … and the finally she disappears without a trace, and we see only the empty train platform, and hear that dramatic bass line playing- this is all well constructed and excellently done in my opinion.
First off, Happy 4th to my fellow American Avids, w/a bow towards our French Avids Fortuleo and The late man for the French contribution to the American Revolution. Heck, Happy 4th to everybody, may your Monday be a bit less oppressive . As for “Dear Lonely Hearts”, it’s a simple but effective song about the break up of a long term relationship such as a marriage. It was also used quite well in the movie, w/the surrealist use of the actual Agony Aunt answering the wife’s inquiry through the station PA system.
Lonely Hearts Ray never lost the ability to write really good songs. And here's a great example. It's a good sing-along lyric, the music fits the message perfectly, and Ray provides what I think is one of his best vocal performances. I don't know whether it's good or bad that the scene in the movie makes clear exactly what the song is about, so there's none of the ambiguity we've seen in other songs. And as @Luckless Pedestrian notes, the song is brilliantly interwoven into the movie. My overall sense is that this is a highlight.
Let me be the first to note that this song's title was taken from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Yes, Happy 4th of July to all the US crowd ! I live quite near the Avenue Lafayette, I'll have a thought for you when crossing it today. I was listening to Pacific Ocean Blue yesterday, which leads me to what "4th of July" brings to my mind.
‘Lonely Hearts’: this is a highlight, a song I can imagine playing on country radio (a long time ago). As everyone has already described it in detail I’ll just add that the two both don’t really know what’s happened to them and that there is a mutual sadness. Graffiti on the pay phone wall: Bowie
“A letter written by Alexander Hamilton, one of America's founding fathers, thought lost for decades is finally going on display at the Commonwealth Museum in Massachusetts. Written by Hamilton in 1780 to the Marquis de Lafayette, the letter is believed to have been stolen from the Massachusetts State Archive during World War II, according to a news release from William Francis Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth. Hamilton, who was then the captain of a New York artillery company, sent the letter during the end of the Revolutionary War. Lafayette, a French aristocrat, was aiding Americans in the fight against the British. In the letter, Hamilton warned Lafayette of "enemy" forces coming to Rhode Island and endangering French troops.” A long-lost letter from Alexander Hamilton will be on display at Massachusetts museum on July 4th I just read about this last night.
Lonely Hearts: I loved this song the minute I heard it. To me it has kinks written all over it. This would have been a standout on word-of-mouth. I would love to have heard the colors that Dave would have painted within this song had he been on it. I get it, ray is a star and wants to do his own thing under his own name, but gosh darn it, this would have been a tremendous kink song. I haven’t heard the song in conjunction with the movie because I just haven’t had time to sit down and piece that together (I was hoping to do that this weekend but so far this weekend is almost over and I haven’t ).
Yes, Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, French president between 1974 and 1981. Avid @Fortuleo was referencing a famous moment in French political history, the debate between Giscard and Mitterrand before the 1974 presidential election. Giscard famously told Mitterrand "vous n'avez pas le monopole du coeur", ie "you don't have a monopoly of the heart", meaning something like, you on the left are not the only nice guys in town. This sentence was considered a pivotal moment of the campaign, that ended up in Giscard's narrow victory. Then, in 1981, Mitterrand won, also by a narrow margin (slightly wider though). French presidential elections have 2 rounds. The best 2 scores on the first round meet for the 2nd round. I have a revolutionary political theory about presidential 2nd rounds. I believe the baldest candidate wins. In 1974, Mitterrand had slightly more hair than Giscard. In 1981 it was the opposite. It was really close, but this only goes to explain the narrow margin. In 2002, old Le Pen, though older, still clung to some of his hair, and was no match for Chirac. Of course his daughter, Marine Le Pen, never stood a chance, even with young Macron. I hope they find a balder candidate in 2027. Part of me regrets the time of these polite debates, part of me wants to slap their faces.
Lonely Hearts: A fantastic song that would have greatly helped the cause on Word of Mouth. I don't think Ray's ego would have allowed him picking the three best songs from the film project and using them on that album. I also guess the solo album was part of the film deal. As it is, I'm a bit angry now that this song has been buried. I don't know how I blanked on buying the Return to Waterloo CD when Velvel issued it along with all the other Arista albums (that I do have). Then again, all those Velvel bonus trucks are now buried, too (save for a few on the Picture Book box), alongside this. Snippets of dialogue here establish that the daughter ran away a month ago and has only been heard from that one time she called from what appeared to be a phone on the highway or truck stop, and we've only seen her as either an imaginary or real corpse or possibly squatting in an abandoned house with the boombox punk from the train. I'm not sure how old she's supposed to be? She was living at home, appeared to be a teenager. Maybe not old enough to drive? Clearly left with no real money, most likely no bank account to draw from, the clothes on her back and a suitcase filled with whatever she could fit in. In America, the parents would have contacted the police, reported her as missing, and that process would have started. Her face would have been the one on posters - and milk cartons.
Lonely Hearts No doubt, a top-tier Ray Davies song with a lovely guitar figure for openers and a great ‘slap back’ vocal throughout. The only thing I would drop in this affectionate song is the somewhat obtrusive synthesizer. I don’t know if Ray was listening to Billy Joel around the time of this song’s creation, but Joel’s homage to ‘50’s soul and do-wop, An Innocent Man, was a huge success, spawning many singles. Maybe Ray thought he’d have a go. Lyrically, I like how Ray asks for advice in the verse and the answers come in the chorus. In contrast to ‘Days,’ where the night is dark, it just brings sorrow, here our man can get through the night, but I can’t face the day. Also, the poignant endnote will you please come home echoes Face to Face’s Rosy. I never quite understood turning to advice columnists like Dear Abby for help. @DISKOJOE, you may remember Uncle Floyd’s send-up of her, Dear Blabby, where ‘she’ once dispensed this gem: ‘Love begins when you sink into his arms, and ends with your arms in the sink.’
P.S. I hadn't realized it, but you can buy a streaming version of this (SD quality) on Amazon video for $2.99. I think it's 7 pounds in the U.K.: Amazon.com: Return To Waterloo : Ken Colley, Tim Roth, Ray Davies, Ray Davies, Ray Davies, Dennis Woolf: Movies & TV
Quick aside to let folks know about this upcoming vinyl reissue: The Kinks - Kinda Kinks: 2022 Reissue (Vinyl LP) * * *
The cinematographer Roger Deakins actually has his own discussion forum that he participates in, rogerdeakins.com. I only found one reference to RtW, he writes in response to a question about longest/shortest shooting times he was involved in: I think the shortest schedule I have ever had for a full length feature was 31 days. I did shoot a musical for television, that was directed by Ray Davies of the Kinks, on a schedule of around 20 days but that was on 16mm and semi documentary in the way we worked. In response to someone posting a link to RtW he responds: Thanks for posting that link. The complexity of shooting that film all came back to me. But unfortunately he does not elaborate further.
It's the opposite in the UK, baldness is the kiss of death for party leaders - even Churchill got trounced in the 1945 election. He did (just about) win the 1951 election but we've never had a party led by a baldy win an election since.