Rock "n" Roll Cities I am glad to have the lyrics as aside from the stiff title hook i largely only made out some destinations and the girls getting younger every year. I like how Ray said he hated it before seeing the humour in it the next day! Sounds like a calculated rock radio hit but i don't know how well it did though for Dave getting the first single on a Kinks album must have seemed like a victory. I am neither here or there on Dave's vocal it kind of trys to stay in his limited (control) range for most of the time with limited returns. When i first heard this generic sounding tongue in cheek vocal/riff combination i thought of Kiss then heard a critic suggest it was more like Foreigner but either way that tells me it is not especially Kinky in nature. Hey am i dreaming or did i see Mick in the video on the phone soon before Mr Henrit had to abdicate from his kit? I enjoyed the video concept with its search for Ray and talent quest to replace him with potentially anyone (could that be an unspoken Dave fantasy?) of some talent. On that score here is a video from 1985 where Jeff Beck is "Ambitious" in looking for a lead singer amongst stars, has-been's and nobody's! https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JaGfW2Ifuts&ved=2ahUKEwj5x5KXpIL5AhUb7zgGHRo3BbgQ3yx6BAgTEAI&usg=AOvVaw0n47lhKUCx2SKg7gCplXHm
Yes it’s Mick. As he was still involved at Konk, he seemed to linger around in the videos post his exit like the proverbial ghost at the feast.. of course the irony is he DOES play drums on this track, and that they parted ways in small part because he wasn’t as consistent a rock drummer as Henrit, (and in larger part because of incompatibility with Dave) but then comes back to rescue Dave’s vision for arguably their most bombastic stadium RAWK song of all time. Ironies upon ironies….
Although Mick is on this track, is Ray? The impression I kinda get is that Dave presented it to Ray as a completed product. I could be wrong but I also wouldn’t be surprised if I was right.
Rock and Roll Cities: Of course it is a truly stupid song. Most great songs about r’n’r are stupid, aren’t they? Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night by Kiss, Rock Rock Till You Drop (one of about 20 with “rock” in the title) by Def Leppard, Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution (one of about 31 with “rock” in the title) by AC⚡️DC, and of course the incredibly stupid Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Dead by Lenny Kravitz (stupid because as Ray would have told him, “…but Rock n Roll is gonna live on forever!”). I mean, the list of great stupid rock songs about rock is absolutely endless. I would argue with anyone that wants to argue with me that the four I listed above are not great songs. So, should we damn this song because the Kinks shouldn’t do stupid because they are too smart? He11 no! I say if Ray and Dave want to have fun rocking out about life on the road, city to city, let them at it. It’s a fun rockin’ tune with Dave ripping the leads, traded vocals(? ...or not? I'll wait for the knowledgeable Avids here to correct me on this if need be) and silly lyrics like “Rock 'n' roll cities, look out for our bus, Does anybody know the way to Idaho?” Does anyone really want to argue that Ray wasn’t taking the piss with this song? Its just good clean dumb fun and I love it. Should it have been the lead single? ...under any circumstances? No. ...just no. ...but as an album track its good clean dumb fun. As an aside, I lived in Fresno for a few years fresh out of law school. They call it the West Coast armpit of America. The tag line to get someone to live there is always "...and we are just a few hour from LA, San Francisco and Yosemite!". Goodness gracious that was like living in an inferno there in the summer. I will almost assuredly be seen shortly by the likely either bemused or bewildered citizens of Miami Beach, driving along, windows down, screeching the words along with Dave, chanting along to the chorus, fist punching the air and generally acting exactly the fool that this silly song deserves as a fan.
I like Dave's high vocal in the chorus, but otherwise it's more an album track than potential hit single!
Rock 'n' Roll Cities I'm going to cut Dave more slack than I did Ray's Video Shop because I tolerate simple riff songs with Rock 'n' Roll in the title probably more than any other type of rock song. I can think of many such songs (some of which I really don't want to remember) and there's not really any point in critiquing any of them. They usually serve a simple purpose with head-banging pleasure: to warm up the crowd or the band in concert, slipping in the name of the town they were playing - and they offer the chance for a call-and-response sing-along with the audience. This song would do that just fine. In Kink, Dave answers a few of our questions about the song, including his apparent rapprochement with Mick : "Rock 'n' Roll Cities was the first single after a lot of debate and to-ing and fro-ing with Palmese, Ray and the promotion people. Although we all thought the beautiful song 'Lost and Found' was the obvious hit single, it was decided that 'Cities' would be a good primer to build the AOR base. It did get a great deal of air play in the beginning. 'Cities' was like a commercial for touring the album. While making a demo at Konk, I had my drum-kit set up but just couldn't lock into the thing. It was just a straight ahead rock backbeat. The Avory body was upstairs doing some business in the office, so I dragged him down to play on it. It worked really well. We ended up using the demo version with just a few overdubs."
If Rock ‘n’ Roll Cities pissed off a Rolling Stone critic, then that’s a job well done. BTW is KONK a real station?
Whether intentional or nor, the opening of this song has to be one of the funniest sounding moments in the katalogue. So obnoxiously dumb. This was definitely the Kinks song that endured in the possible future Mike Judge presented us with in ‘Idiocracy’. The title can’t help but call to mind (was subconsciously inspired by?) the full chorus lyric of Starships’s ‘We Built This City’ from the year before, another track made by a 60s originated group with an even more tenuous, Theseus’s ship level connection to what they were originally all about than The Kinks ‘86.
Oh dear I think I mentioned Starship a few days ago in relation to this and there you go bringing them up again. I am all for preserving every ounce of recorded tape for history and future generations so they can salute and try to understand all the hard work that went down in trying to create it even when it is misguided. I excersize an executive clause with this Starship track that all hard copies, mastertapes, mixes and demos must be atomized as it may be beyond some levels of human comprehension. Furthermore hearing it (or an explanation of it) makes one aware they are quickly ageing and may wish to do anything else than experience the song having now suddenly considered their own mortality!
‘Rock’n’Roll Cities’: This shouldn’t have been anywhere close to being allowed onto a Kinks album. And as a single? Who’s responsible? MCA! As Lynyrd Skynyrd says: Want you to sign your contract Want you to sign today Gonna give you lots of money Workin' For MCA Anyway, I’m stretching now but I still don’t see this fitting in with what we’ve heard on the rest of the album. If someone hears the single and , unlike me, actually finds it appealing, they’ll be in for a shock when they buy the album. Two thumbs down from me!
I like all of them well enough, but I'd argue Rock And Roll Ain't Noise pollution is a classic, and lyrics have nothing to do with it
Charlene - I've Never Been To Me..... It makes We Built This City sound like Close To The Edge Edit: I put a link there, if that isn't familiar.... It may be my least favourite song of all time, and I refuse to put the song on the thread lol
“Rock & Roll Cities”: No, it will never be regarded as a Kinks Klassic by any means. It has that pandering to the lowest common denominator aspect to it, kinda like that Starship song that I too don’t care much about. I do have to say that the video does improve the song a bit, although I did notice that even though it’s a Dave song, the focus is seemingly on Ray. Also, I wonder if Freddie Mercury ever saw that video doppelgänger of him that’s not too flattering. Anyway, a bad choice for a first single for a new label. P.S. : Did any other Avid notice the late Gilbert Gottfried in that MTV clip?
Riff is dumb but catchy, lyrics are dumb but catchy, the “here it comes” hook is dumb but super catchy and the band sounds like… a band. How gloriously ironic is it that we'd instinctively feel that way because Mick Avory’s on it, Dave's old nemesis… You can actually tell that it’s not Henrit, the song has more grit than anything Bob plays on on this record, less sanitized. I agree with @ARL that it's quite different (better) than most Dave screamers, just because it's more straightforward, less strident, catchier. Fascinating to see that they built the whole video about Ray’s absence, reminding everyone he was the real star, thus undermining their own choice to choose a Dave tune for a single in the first place. If I'm not mistaken, it's Dave’s own son, Russell, holding the "I love you Daddy" sign at the end, the same "Russ" he made the LP Open Road with, some… thirty years later.
I used to perceive "Rock'n'Roll Cities" as a slap on the face for a long time. It was such a nice album so far and here comes brother Dave to spoil the mood with his screaming and intentionally dumb statements. These days I have mellowed and I can actually laugh and enjoy Dave's sentiment and even make out some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy as the song seems to be self-aware that it won't make it, and of course it didn't. I actually enjoy the wole thing right down to those ridiculous synth brass stabs.
