Lost and found Someone has to be the smartass condescending negative critic, and as a Parisian I guess this is my part, almost my Natural Gift. This song is absolutely everything I hate about 80s pop. The airy sound, in which instruments are floating apart on a sea of bland synth organ, the syncopated piano that destroys all musicality, the overlong and meandering structure conceived to occupy as much radio time as decently possible, the overclean and generic "oh oh"s, the FM guitar solo... I should mention the sax too, but at least they had the (square bad taste =) good taste of using a synthesizer to fake it, which makes it a little bit less awful. When a band is building a song on electric and electronic devices and chooses to add, of all available real orchestra instruments, the demon saxophone, it deserves the most severe of punishments. It's a pity because there are some good melodies in the song, though I don't like the 3-note lame hook of the chorus and the clumsy way in which it segues into the next line. It's probably my main problem with this song, actually. I just discovered the promo video, and it's really good. Except for the haircuts of course. Congrats to @Fortuleo for the Woody Allen reference. The Purple Rose of Cairo was actually released in 1985, so the reference is clear. I don't know what the 80s did to me, apart for making a teenager of me, which might be more than enough. I have come to terms with some of those year's productions, and I can muster enough indulgence nowadays to go through this song without hitting for the "skip" button, and I can even appreciate its relaxing effect (as in "relaxation music"). I have an app that reminds me of every anniversary of my 80s phobia rehab process and every new step I make on the way to full health. I expect some "congratulations, The late man" from the group. Finally, the words are OK, but it seems to me that Ray covered the subject better in the past. The lyrics actually remind me of a Tony Banks song I absolutely love. Totally 80s sounding. See ? I'm getting better all the time.
...and that seems to be one of the reasons we all love about him! They may try to lock him down but Ray is often sneaky and sometimes even outrightly overt in his disregard for their directions. That said, that is at least in part why over his career he has needed to keep getting new gigs at a different factories.
I was carefully considering what to say in as tactful, yet forthright, manner but your post saves me further angst. Put simply, I agree.
Bunghole Package Store Just for @Zeki As he asked for it Sounds like something two friendly chaps could buy from an Adult store and then neither be seen for a week!
In Lost and Found, there’s a key change at the start of Dave’s solo, right after the storm has passed (and we beat the fear/we came through the storm). So structurally there is one key while bracing for the storm, then a different key after the storm passes (and it never changes from there - from A to C, I believe). I think that’s pretty neat. Another interesting feature is the staccato phrasing in the lines just before the chorus which adds some intensity and a sense of anticipation to balance the generally mellow and relaxed feel of the song as the storm rolls in (e.g this is real-ly hea-vy weath-er we were lost …. And it’s like the dead of win-ter we were lost …)
Interesting. Blackwell, of course, is not going to put that in his own memoir (though, actually, he does say straight out if someone didn’t like him). The ‘Free’ section was too short for me as I’m a big fan. But I found it interesting that Andy Fraser, the youngest of the teenagers, was the leader. And that the label, not Blackwell specifically, wanted them to be called Heavy Metal Kids. The unsigned teenagers refused.
I like your post but have very little real idea of what you are talking about! Edit; Re: Your 2nd to last paragraph.
I forgot to mention the cheesy key change in my prosecution. But you're making a convincing case for it, so I'll let it pass.
It means my smartass condescending Parisian number is a success! That's how it's supposed to sound like!
Oh good as I was going to quietly ask @mark winstanley & @Fortuleo if they could arrange for a well meaning friend to remove that app-alling reminder app from your phone!
I'm sorry sir.... I'll never forget being in the Virginia mountains-type region, being asked if I wanted to play cornhole, and having fearful Deliverance flashbacks
It’s OK, no problem at all. EDIT: Mark, were you at the Blue Ridge Mountains? My nephew attended the Virginia Military Institute, which is nearby. Very beautiful area.
Lost And Found I must say aside from enjoying the song over the years I had never bothered to concentrate at all on what the lyrics where about, perhaps just a sign of the Kinks times for me? I never knew of the video until tonight so had certainly never seen it before. Congrats to both Avids that mentioned Ray's acting as I had fancifully imagined no one would.......fancy that! There is a close up of Ray in particular where the slow and minute movement (of I think head and mouth) are extraordinary. Aside from that when watching the silent footage I at times thought I was watching a Dave Allen skit! Nice chorus melody with suitably sparse (or thin) support and an unfailingly empathetic and appealing Ray delivery. Unusually there's moments where I think about a subdued instrumental portion of I'm Not Like Everybody Else from To The Bone. Finally Dave's soloing is incisive and I note it opening with a twice repeated 6 note cascade which was similar to what Dave did with a higher energy level on Do It Again but be assured this is good too, he is not in the middle of nowhere!
The official video matches the edit on the 7" singles, by cutting one of the false endings and the longer of the two guitar solos. Second single in both the US and the UK. Supposedly copyright filings indicated this US 7" to be a different mix, but it is not. That edit in the official video actually does seem to be a different mix. I'd never listened to it there until today and there the drums have more of the gated reverb and the acoustic guitar present in the right channel at the start of the song and throughout on the album and single versions is gone. This mix may have actually been intended for the 7" singles, hence the copyright filing, but it didn't happen.
It's one of my favorites. At the time of release I felt that Ray was finding himself again in the sense of diversity and getting back to tuneful songs, as well as playing with larger concept ideas. I really liked Word of Mouth but I felt Ray really upped his game here even from that. To me at the time GTPWTW was the nadir they were climbling out of. Repetition has always been a favorite off here. I used to play it regularly on my college radio show...on cassette! Cueing a cassette was a fine art!! Lol
This story may be downer so apologies in advance if it is. "Lost And Found" has a far different meaning for me over the last 6 years, than it did the first 29 years I knew it. My location shows you where I am at geographically so I have first hand experience with several hurricanes a few of which have affected me and my family directly. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew hit the coast of SC to the south of my location and proceeded to slowly move NE along the coast. It passed Myrtle Beach and hovered around the border of SC/NC (straight east of me) for awhile in which time the rain had stopped where we were, power had only flickered a few times and we thought we were in the clear. This was early on the Saturday morning. By midday Saturday the winds started picking up again as the storm crept away and we ended up getting straight line winds out of the North of around 50 mph sustained with gusts of 80 for several hours. This is what devastated my yard, the neighborhood, the city and actually the entire NE of SC into SE NC. Power was knocked out at that point and trees in our yard and the yards behind me toppled like dominoes into our yard and destroyed an outdoor shed full of all things you store in outdoor sheds. Insurance covered all of that and all of that is replaceable. The power loss proved to be the worst part of it. I had chosen to move back into this house, my now-late Mother's house, the house I grew up in, to be her caregiver as she was 86 years old and could no longer live alone and I could not bear to see her go into a nursing home or assisted living. I had moved back 2 years earlier after 20 years in Columbia, SC (center of the state) when I explained my situation to my employer and we agreed I could do my job just as well by being a remote worker from home as easy as going to an office each day so the decision was made. Best decision of my life, by the way. Immeasurable in hindsight. We ended up losing power for a full seven days, Saturday to Saturday. The out of state power companies that had been brought together and staged were all in Florida as that was predicted to get the brunt of this storm so it took a while to get those trucks and people up here. I have a generator that we were able to run small appliances and the refrigerator in short increments, but no outdoor connection to run the whole house, so no air conditioning or heat. Lost tons of food, also covered by insurance after the fact. Luckily it was October so the temperatures did not go too bad in either direction. But imagine being without power for seven days in a house and then add in taking care of an elderly person (or a small child/baby) in such a situation. Hurricane Florence (imagine that) hit our area in Sept of 2018 right as my Mom was in the hospital waiting on a procedure to be done. I lived and worked from there during this multi-week stay. The hospital went into lockdown for a few days as the worst of that storm came through, so no one could leave and no one could come in. The employees that were there had to stay there as no outside employees were coming in for obvious safety reasons. My Mom's procedure got delayed several days. As it happened, she never went home. Neither the storm nor the delay was really the reason. Hurricane Michael (imagine that) then hit in early October 2018. "Lost And Found" brings all of this back every time I hear it now. Suffice to say hurricanes bring back terrible memories for me I'll never again underestimate the power that these and other natural disasters can have physically and mentally in terms of anguish on all people around the world when they are suffering after being personally affected by one. Other folks have experienced far worse from hurricanes or other natural disasters than we did, loss of life, loss of home, etc. but this is my story such as it is. On a lighter positive note, I still work from home for the same company (Sales in a company that manufactures several well-known fishing equipment brands in the US and Europe). My commute is my bedroom to my computer each day so that is a good situation to be in compared to other folks, but the reasons it got to this point are unique and I'm grateful things worked out in this regard and I don't take it for granted even though it was basically planned 8 years ago. With that I guess I better get back to work since that's what I'm supposed to be doing while typing all of this .
