Working at the Factory is an acceptable start to the album, and it's got a pleasant sound and performance, but it's title and lyric portends how Ray seems to approach this album and perhaps the band in general at this point in time. Our Headmaster I believe compared it to the song The Road, but I find that one to be a far more inviting track. Having track three entitled Repetition may have been enough right then and there for some perusing the album cover in a record shop to put it back down. Of course I bought it, but by memory Think Visual is my least favored Kinks album. I'm listening a song at a time now to give it a shot.
Working at the Factory Solid if unspectacular. There are various wiggle phrases for semi-fictional, semi-biographical movies & shows -- I'd call this song "inspired by a true story." It's a pretty classic little vignette -- factory guy would do anything to get out, becomes a rock star, would do anything to get out. Human condition stuff, can't get no satisfaction. R throws in his moneygoround theme, (they sold us a dream/I thought they were my friends), and some allusions to the fact that when music becomes an industry, musicians become industrial workers. But there's a new aspect of this familiar lament -- "there's so many like me sitting on the shelf." I picture Ray in a mega-store staring at row after row, pile after pile of albums, and thinking, god, for all I did, for all I tried, I actually am like everyone else. Just another piece of product on the shelf. It's actually kind of a sad song.
Working At The Factory This starts out good musically, but then becomes pretty generic. Not a particularly strong vocal. Lyrics sound like someone trying to write a Springsteen song. Average at best.
Working At A Factory starts off with promise but peters out when it becomes more assembly line product.
Haha! I know...I'm allllmost there. I'm going to be heading out on another trip on thursday, so I feel like I may fall behind again. But I AM heading to England...and London. And I do plan on going to Clissold Arms and the old family homestead...and maybe Konk. I may even lasso me a Davies boy! (kidding!! really. I'm too shy to do that). I'll be looking for some Kinks albums and memorabilia too. We'll see. Think Visual I gotta sit down and listen to Think Visual. Argh! I know 3 songs from it. One I know I don't love and it's is famously made fun of...and with good reason. But I will try to bring a more open mind to it. Anyway, I don't know what to expect. And the cover...I guess the font is pretty ok. I just don't like that person posing. I am no art expert, but it does nothing for me. Bless the Kinks for keeping the lousy cover art average very high. "predictable..."
Believe it or not but this phenomena also occurs with drum sets. Unknown schmuck before gig away from kit hears: “Get lost!” Same schmuck after gig (now “known”): “I didn’t know you played drums!” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “You don’t look like a drummer.” Truly bizarro stuff.
Well at the very least I hope you can post some pictures for us.... I was going to say Kinky pictures, but thought better of it Anyway, say g'day to the guys if you see them, and let them know we all love them, and all that kinda gear... Hopefully you can keep with us, but we aren't going anywhere in a big hurry
Yep, you could be up there with wooden blocks and it will draw them... It's some kind of strange stage thing. . I bet stage actors and comics have a similar scenario.
I'm tired, so I hope you don't mind if I piggyback on your post, Avid @fspringer, since you pretty much expressed my thoughts. This is probably my favorite track on the album. 5/5
Have fun! You should also try to go to The Flask. Maybe you will see Ray! It's a lovely pub, even if he isn't there. I also highly recommend The Spaniards Inn, which is a great historic pub that is fairly close to Clissold Arms and The Flask. Now I am curious which is the song that is famously made fun of!
Working At The Factory A solid, but unspectacular opening. The resonator guitar opening lifts the song to a higher level, and it drops a little to more standard fare after that. I'm quite happy with Ray pretty much complaining about the monotony of life as a rock star - I think he's covered it before occasionally - and the metaphor of comparing it to living a life working in a factory moves it one space away from from complaining about life on the road, or in the studio, or being ground down by the 'business'. Ray gives us a nice vocal, and it's a good tune to sing along with.
"Lost and Found" Single by The Kinks from the album Think Visual B-side "Killing Time" Released 3 April 1987 Recorded January 1986 and June–August 1986 at Konk Studios, London Genre Rock Length 5:19 Label MCA Songwriter(s) Ray Davies Producer(s) Ray Davies stereo mix, album edit (5:19), recorded Jun-Jul 1986 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Waiting for the hurricane To hit New York City Somebody said it's hit the bay This is the nitty gritty And all the bag ladies Better put their acts together We're near the eye of the storm This is really heavy weather We were lost and found, in the nick of time While the ship was going down We were lost and found, just in time With the hurricane crossing the coast line We were lost and found, just in time Oh This thing is bigger than the both of us It's gonna put us in our place We were lost and found, just in time Now we've got no time to waste They're putting up the barricades Because the hurricane is heading up this way So won't you come in from the cold and the pouring rain And the old sea dog says shiver me timbers The sky's gone black And it's like the dead of winter We were lost and found in the pouring rain When the hurricane swept across the coast line This thing is bigger than the both of us It's gonna put us in our place We're gonna see what really matters When you see that storm stare us in the face We were lost and found And we beat the fear We came through the storm Now it all seems clear We were lost and found, standing here Looking at the new frontier Lost and found, just in time With the hurricane crossing the coast line Lost and found, just in time With the hurricane crossing the coast line Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. Essentially this is based around a story during Hurricane Gloria, which battered the North Eastern USA in Sept/Oct 1985. It was the first hurricane since 1960 to hit the New York, Long Island area and caused $900 million worth of damage and cost 14 lives. Gloria actually made her first landfall in North Carolina with 74-87 mph winds. As Gloria was off the coast of New Jersey it was producing 81-101 mph winds. It hit New York with a 6.9ft/2.1 metre storm surge. The storm also went on to batter New England and Canada. After the storm, President Ronald Reagan declared several counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts as federal disaster areas. Essentially, in a broad sense, this song is about events of this type causing re-evaluation of life and relationships. This was the second single in the UK and the third in the USA from the Think Visual album. In the US this song charted at 37 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart.... which for the record is essentially ranking the most played songs on mainstream rock radio. We open lyrically with a general overview of what is about to happen. There is a hurricane about to hit, and those people living on the street really need to get their stuff together, or it will really mess them up. We have the chorus/refrain of "we were lost and found, just in the nick of time" "This thing is bigger than the both of us It's gonna put us in our place We were lost and found, just in time Now we've got no time to waste" I get this feeling of context.... almost like a couple has been arguing over who has been doing the dishes the most, and whether that's right or fair, or whatever, and then they are left facing possible death.... possible severe injury ... so many possibilities open up when we get some serious aggression from nature.... and suddenly all those petty things, that we may have been bickering about, are given a real "big picture" context. "This thing is bigger than the both of us It's gonna put us in our place We're gonna see what really matters When you see that storm stare us in the face" Essentially this is merely backing up, and giving further context to what is going on. "We were lost and found And we beat the fear We came through the storm Now it all seems clear We were lost and found, standing here Looking at the new frontier" This sort of gives the idea a bit of a twist. We came through the storm, now it seems clear and we're looking at a new frontier... The size of this physical assault gave us reason to re-evaluate and we made it through, and in light of all that, we have a new horizon. We can put all the dreck behind us and move onto the next stage. In some ways this speaks to more than just the storm. Anyone who has been married knows that marriage can be a storm of its own. Sometimes you need to ride out the storm, and not run away at the first sign of rain. The idea that the couple have regrouped and strengthened in the face of adversity is obvious, but to me there is this subtle hint that it shouldn't take adversity to keep our house in order. There is this feeling that we didn't care for it enough until something threatened to take it away by force .... like that unity of spirit in the US after the 9/11 attacks.... the unity of spirit in England during the Battle Of Britain. As I think we have discussed on here before, there is this thing that happens in times of extreme testing, on a personal and community level, that frequently results in a unifying of those involved.... Anyway, that's the kind of feel I get from this song. In some ways I suppose certain sections may not be the smoothest Ray lyrics, but they work well in the context of the song, and the delivery adds a certain poignancy on top of that. We open with a steady beat, and an electric piano, and the guitars colouring the rhythm of the song. The short instrumental section following the verse has this very effective yet simple tonal percussion, which is likely a synth of some description and it works well. It is another steel drum kind of sound... anyway, I like it. We get a sort of hybrid bridge/chorus, and it works really well too. Dave comes in with a nice succinct rolling lead break and it modulates up and it works really well also. Then we get this dynamic drop.... and again, for me it is really effective. It is like a moment to take stock of where we are and what is going on. Then we punch in with a nice drum fill, and a return to Dave on the lead. We mellow out again, and then punch back in again. Ray goes for a couple of fake endings, but this second has Dave step up the lead just enough, and then a sax line comes in and we play out to the end. I guess this track could be shortened at the end, but it has a feel and style I enjoy, so I'm not overly concerned about it. It looks like the single is about 45 seconds shorter, and I can't help feeling that the version on my cd ends with the vocal, rather than the instrumental, but I don't have time to double check that at the moment, and I know @Michael Streett will fill in the blanks there for us. I really like this, and the album is shooting a pretty high 2 for 2 in my world.
"Lost And Found" - I always liked this song largely because I like the melody of the chorus when Ray sings "lost and found". It is interesting to learn that this was inspired by Hurricane Gloria (I have no remembrance - Katrina is burned into my memory but not Gloria). I always saw the song as being metaphorical but its real life inspiration is interesting to me. I really like the bridge (which shows up twice) and the guitar solo that follows its second appearance. A lot of repetition in this song but it works for me.
Unfortunately with ‘Lost And Found’ tho it’s clearly a song that offers a lot, I can’t get over the chorus’s fairly notable debt to Holland/Dozier/Holland’s ‘It’s The Same Old Song’ as performed by The Four Tops. This isn’t my original observation: I saw it mentioned all over those same Web 1.0 reviews I mentioned upthread, but I’m afraid I agree and find the similarity insurmountable. I can understand how other listeners mileage may vary tho and wish mine did too:
"Lost And Found" I think this is the lesser of the two big ballads on the album, but it's still pretty great. Some have pointed out the melodic similarity to "Same Old Song", but I hadn't noticed that over all these years. I really like the change we get at "they're putting up the barricades" with the additional acoustic licks - there's a nice warm feeling to it. And I like the "old sea dog" line. It possibly doesn't need a second instance of the dynamic drop near the end, but I've never really noticed this bit feeling too long. The track seems to me to earn its five minute duration. As is the case with most of this album, it's nothing spectacular or ground-breaking, but it doesn't need to be. It's Ray Davies singing a Ray Davies song, and sometimes that is enough in itself.
