Hey at least it wasn't One for the Road II. ...or Two for the Road! Edit: Agree with Marty J that One More for the Road would have been the better, obvious title for this release. In fact, I have two live playlists going and the first one is obviously, One for the Road, and the second is "One More for the Road". Thus, proof positive that Marty is right! As a true (art) lover of One for the Road, this should have been right up my alley upon release. It wasn't, I ignored it. I did hear hear the live version of Living on a Thin Line on the radio a lot, and it made me love that song (I had kind of ignored it before), but still, nope, didn't buy it. I don't know why. I do know that it wasn't the cover. Its not "bad", but compared to OftR, it is bland and uninspiring. The Kinks excelled at bland and uninspiring covers, as we have all noted, so its actually good that they were able to continue that trend here or we would all be complaining about their inconsistency! On a general level, I like a live album to be a true (as much as possible, considering label intervention) live album. it should have no break in the crowd noise between songs, should track a live show mostly in the order of the song presentation at the show and, I am sorry, but how many "CLASSIC" live albums are there that have been single live albums (fine, I am sure we can all name a few, I would throw in Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East for one). Really, aren't the best ones all double live sets of (mostly) the whole show? I have been playing it a bit and I do enjoy some of the songs from it now, but not in the way that One for the Road blew my socks off beginning to end. Nonetheless, good live takes on a bunch of the tracks and the lead off track/title song is phenomenal (but more on that tomorrow). As Sir Winstanley noted, also nice that they didn't repeat songs. I like having the live versions of the songs from GTPWTW in particular, although I am not sure they better the studio versions much here. In fact, while good, I don't see them changing or improving any of the songs (except maybe Apeman, shortened but acoustic, nice touch), whereas I would argue most of the stuff from OftR was either reworked or just played with such wild abandon yet so live that almost all the songs on OftR warranted listening just because they were played so darn well and often so differently that they needed to be heard. Anyway, live Kinks are almost always good Kinks, so a song by song run through will be fun. ...and we can discuss Art Lover again!
‘Live: The Road’: I’m not familiar with this at all and so, as far as I know, have never heard the title song. I look forward to hearing it. Album cover: horrible (though the back cover is okay).
We’ve been traveling and it’s been nice to just check in with you folks. Always some good talk and I have fallen behind a bit. My overall view of Think Visual is it’s another I’d be fine to pick up on the cheap. I’m looking forward to catching some of The Road. It’s a good tie-in with talk of a Kinks reunion I saw on another thread. What would the Kinks sound like nowadays?
So that yellow diamond is actually part of the cover and not a sticker on the shrink wrap? Thus it says "The Kinks" twice on the front cover for no particular reason?
That review of The Road and the contest appeared in the June 1988 issue of CREEM, page 29 if the following link doesn’t work: CREEM — June 1988
The Road The Album Once again Ray had ambitious plans for this project, originally conceiving and presenting this release as a double LP to be accompanied by a concert video. On June 27, 1987, Ray (and maybe Dave) met with MCA president Irving Azoff and other label honchos in New York City where they were told The Kinks needed to present more saleable product in the future. Ray's double album plan was dismissed and the label refused to provide any financial backing for a video. The Kinks played Pier Harbor in New York that night where reportedly Ray was in a visibly sour mood and can barely contain his anger after that meeting and at one point shouting to the crowd: "C'mon MCA...Beverly Hills Cop, Starlight Express...Suck it! **** you!!!" Despite this, MCA still had an after-show party for the band at The Tunnel Club. The two shows recorded (and filmed) for The Road took place the next day (29th Columbia, MD) and the July 1 Philadelphia, PA. Mark posted the setlists earlier showing what other songs were performed around this time that would have filled out that original conceived 2 LP set. Only "You Really Got Me" (single B-side) and "I Gotta Move" (Did Ya EP) have since been released. _________________________________________________________________ My first copy of this album was the vinyl in the late 80s but this is one of those random instances where I also remember where and when I picked up the CD eventually. My job at my previous employer had me flying at least once a month in and out of Bentonville, AR for a couple of days each trip for business meetings (why Bentonville you ask? Home office of Wal-Mart headquarters). Doing this for more than 10 years I got to know the area very well including restaurants, bars, good hotels, awful hotels, etc. I learned where the used record and CD stores were too of course, one of which was called Hastings (now closed) in Springdale, AR (city next door to Bentonville). I found a used copy of The Road CD in this shop in October 1998. I probably remember this since it was an out of my town/home city (Columbia, SC at the time) purchase and it was bought with me being on the road as it were, but just one of those random things that goes with the memories of this music collecting passion we all share.
Thanks. I dig your avatar. If there was a race between James Garner driving a 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 and Steve McQueen driving a 1970 Porsche 911, who would win?
I can't even imagine.... I just can't see it happening.... Perhaps a special live in a studio type thing? It's really hard to imagine them doing a big rock concert tour
With that spaced out lettering and the purplish tint, the front cover is the closest a Kinks LP sleeve would come to anticipating the Vaporwave aesthetic. If only they’d ditched the big yellow sign…
I have the CD - bought not long ago - but I’m also not familiar with it. The song selection looks mostly positive so I’m up for the appraisal.
Yes, a live in studio deal could be really neat. A big tour seems daunting but maybe select dates? I wonder if either brother has some songs to get a project going?
With no real full concert videos of the band, it would be cool if they put something together. It seems there is all this live concert film of the band laying around rotting... The Showbiz stuff, late seventies stuff, these concerts... With the somewhat disappointing lack of too much extra on the new SDE, it seems like a concert box, ala Genesis Movie Box would be a more marketable product.... I sure hope that bluray is more than just 15 minutes of twaddle, when it seems like they could have given us a concert....
If that Blu-ray is only the “15 minutes of twaddle”, I’m not getting that box set. I prefer your idea of a concert box set. I could go for that.
Is $48 too much? I found a (web) shop selling it for that. Ha ha, I have no idea. I guess he was mad at all the big corporations and the big combines funding these movies, but not his projects. I don't know the corporate connections to these movies and MCA back in the 80s. Anyway, that's a quote from one of Hinman's books. I didn't make it up.
As many on this thread will now be aware, Russell Smith just mentioned on the new box thread that the Blu Ray represents what is 'salvageable' from The Colossal Shirt stuff.. . whether that means additional reels went missing, decayed in storage, or just weren't that interesting on review 50 years later I dunno, but from that description it looks like this 15 minutes (I still pray that's a misprint for 50! ) represents all that could be made from this stuff half a century on. I do now wonder if much actual performance footage was shot in the first place for TCS or if it was just candid glimpses. I like Marks' idea of a Genesis Movie Box style release or all known concert footage.. will never happen so neatly (esp with physical releases of DVD/Blu Ray stuff becoming rarer) but here's what stuff we know in terms of pro shot concert/live footage there is that could be included on a such a set. The DVD that came with the BBC box is the closest there was to this fantasy set I guess, containing 4 of the following items. Any additions welcomed: 1965 Paris concert 1965 Beat Beat Beat concert 1972 Kinks At The Rainbow 1972 Beat Club special 1973 Kinks In Concert 1974 Starmaker (I know this is maybe kinda borderline being barely a Kinks show) 1975 abbreviated Preservation and full Soap Opera show (if higher res originals could be found) 1977 OGWT Sleepwalker special 1977 Christmas Concert 1979/80 One For The Road stuff (There's got to be more filmed than was included in the VHS, right?) 1987 shows as mentioned by @Michael Streett above (wasn't the Dec 1987 London show also filmed?) 1994 To The Bone live at Konk (would round off the set nicely)
It meant that MCA was a giant conglomerate and if they funded those big budget movies, then they could have funded his projects.
