The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Free helped him rhyme with the next line.
     
  2. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Indeed. Another reason why it’s a kinda awkward namedrop.
     
  3. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Mighty short lived band all the same!
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It also incorporates a sort of spectrum of bands with various measures of legend and success, who all lost members on the Road, the casualties and debris referenced in the next bit.
     
  5. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I think Ray should have gone 'the whole hog' and written it as:

    Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Led Zeppelin and Blodwyn Pig
    They took the road so they played lots of gigs
     
  6. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Just noticed while writing the above lame gag, but it's interesting how Ray calls them The Led Zeppelin like it's 1968 or something.
     
  7. Rockford & Roll

    Rockford & Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midway, KY
    The Road - This is a terrific song. I’m usually put off by 6+ minute songs but I don’t tire of this. It sounds like a band again and Ray’s lyrics are top notch. Mark did a superb write up!
     
  8. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Interesting that Discogs does not list a CD release of The Road for either UK or Europe, only for Germany. Was it released on CD in the UK?
     
  9. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    ‘The Road’: I guess I did listen to this several months ago when this album was first mentioned. Very nice.

    I’m partial to these songs that wind down memory lane and this is one where all the bases are checked; the individual band members, references to hit songs, influences, the ‘ol motorway, name dropping other bands…and, of course, the song is elevated by immortalizing the band Free* (as it should be).

    I’ve mentioned my big-hearted friend who encouraged young (and all) musicians. When he had to close his venue (Mahalo) he staged a general sayonara concert with all the various alumni performing; one final bash. And, bless his heart, he, too, performed, singing an absolutely godawful Dylanesque , self-penned song similar in theme to The Road (describing the various bands/artists at Mahalo). Anyway, that’s what this Kinks song reminded me of! :D

    *all four of these bands/artists were favorites of my youth with three (The Who/Zeppelin/Free) still getting airplay in my world. The only one that’s long since faded away (again, in my narrow world) is Hendrix. I used to play the hell outta ‘Smash Hits’ but I’d bet I haven’t even played that in 50 years. ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ is the only track I find myself occasionally wanting to hear.
     
  10. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    No kidding!
     
  11. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    My Fiancé feels the same way. she keeps telling me i should "go save country music" (Saving Country Music - another website I frequent) even though she loves the kinks and knows the kinks are rock not country. ..but at least she supports me in my obsession with this thread!
     
  12. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    According to Doug Hinman in his book You Really Got Me, The Road was indeed released on CD in the UK on May 23, 1988.
     
  13. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    Wrote this up a few nights ago. Posting without looking at others thoughts:

    The Road:

    I think this one is just great. The Kinks of old, playing a multi-part song that keeps popping out new parts that sound like a different song and yet still the same song. I love me a good long multi-part winding epic so this one is a big hit with me!

    Great beginning, simple strumming of the acoustic by Ray, then add in some slow, bubbling bass and synth, and then the brotherly harmonies kick in and build and build in intensity as the pace accelerates, and then, bam, ¼ of the way in, chiming acoustic guitars and the drums kick it up yet another a notch. Ray’s vocals coming in harder and faster, more desperate, keeping pace with the music (or leading it). At 3:45 the music drops back and Ray and Dave trade, respectively, vocals and acoustic guitar leads, backed by even more otherworldly harmonies, and then even more really great harmonies, and then at 4:25 a great guitar duel between (presumably ) Dave and himself on acoustic and electric, trading leads back and forth (my favorite part of a song with too many parts to count)!

    I like the lyrics, some of Ray’s best in a while. Ray’s not whining about the road, no, he is just sitting and contemplating, well into his career, on those he left behind (because he was always, and still is, on The Road), drifting further back to the humble beginnings of the band and how tight they all were, name checking Quaife, Avery and Dave, and even himself (strumming' with limp wrist). I laugh each time I listen to the song and he name checks “The” Led Zepplin (I had a friend that would refer to Led Zeppelin as him [he insisted Jimmy Page was Led Zeppelin, but then he also insisted Led Zeppelin played the lead on YRGM, so his thoughts were clearly not rational]). The lyrics then shift into a quick nod to the fact they have seen and played in, nay invented, so many different rock genres and scenes. ...and to close, acceptance of the fact that the road still lies ahead. Great lyric writing by Ray.

    A great song in every way. Its epic in length but feels short (maybe even too short). It has no real identifiable chorus, but like all great Kinks songs, the whole song is really just one long set of different choruses strung beautifully and inconspicuously together. Too long and winding to ever really know by heart (maybe in a few years, with repeated listens, which this song will likely get from me), but soooo much fun to sing along with. Ray gets plenty of time to spit out lots of fun and funny lyrics. …and my goodness, the harmonies, lots and lots of harmonies, supplied by, I assume, mainly Dave and Ray. …and last but not least, lots of Dave! Inventive and creative and energized Dave!

    I really like this one. If this was a new song, all I can say is that I wished when they recorded The Road that they had stayed in the studio to harness that energy they had recording this track to record some more new songs. I would have welcomed an album of songs with this kind of youthful urgent music and vocal delivery mixed with Ray’s lyrics of accumulated wisdom coupled with fond recollections. A set of songs with this kind of creativity and inventiveness while still sounding so much just like the kinks we all know and love would have been fantastic. Great stuff!
     
  14. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    The Road (Album)

    This album marked a first for me because it was the first Kinks release I didn't bother with. Not ever been a fan live albums to be fair so this was an easy pass. Never felt the need to pick it up in the intervening years either so look forward to hearing the tracks and reading the comments.

    The Road (Single)

    Despite never owning the album I picked this up on the later Lost And Found compilation. Another Kinks classic full of the usual nostalgic sentiments. No one has ever done this type of nostalgia/storytelling better or more convincing than Davies and he succeeds, again, in wrapping a wonderful lyric in a great tune. If McCartney or Dylan had done this it would be hailed as a masterpiece.
     
  15. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    The Road
    I'm with all the other Avids who like this one. Sure it's a shaggy dog of a song which feels better than it sounds (to borrow from others' comments). But shaggy mongrels usually have more personality than expensive pure-breds: not unlike the Kinks themselves. And I love the name-checking of the other artists and bands. I don't know why Ray used The Led Zeppelin though - he didn't need the extra syllable. Musically, I hear a hint of the Pretenders, which to me shows Ray liked Chrissie's music (and why not).
     
  16. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    And wasn't it a Free single that prevented Lola from topping the charts?
     
  17. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    UK Catalog number London LONCD 828 081-2 (same cover as the US release)
    So yes, this is missing from Discogs.

    And also wrong on Discogs:
    There are two Germany CDs listed on Discogs, but one of those (London 828 078-2, no prefix - slightly different from the UK number above) is actually the Netherlands (or rest of Europe) release. The German ones were all released, not on London Records, but on the Metronome label, and all German releases should have that alternate cover variation I posted yesterday.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2022
  18. Brian Kelly

    Brian Kelly 1964-73 rock's best decade

    The Road
    I've never heard this before. It is pretty good. the beginning seemed kind of reminiscent of several Kinks songs both musically and lytically, but that switch to the uptempo part was a really nice touch. The little almost Spanish guitar part later on was also an unexpected plus.
    In short, this is a quality late career song. Nostalgic, but not just a retread of old ideas!
     
  19. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    My Phase III Kinks playlist is now at 19 songs, begins with ‘Life On The Road’ and ends with ‘The Road.’ I count two others as rock-band-on-the-road themed: ‘Long Distance’ and ‘Do It Again’.

    (I’m not counting earlier playlist material).
     
  20. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    The Road The Song

    Count me as another who likes this track. I like how the two acoustics are mixed at the start with one on the left, the other in the center, and then Dave's electric on the right. The bridge section at around the 2:40 mark is a musical highlight for me and I do like how the song has multiple sections (some in fast four beat, others in a half time groove).

    We've been over the fact that this is a studio recording that has live crowd noise added to the end to segue it into the actual live album itself and that's OK on the album. I do wish there was an alternate clean mix without this crowd noise at the end, but there is no such mix. There is only the one mix of this track and where it was released on compilations noted above in @DISKOJOE and @mark winstanley posts, the crowd noise is still there and faded before that "You Really Got Me" riff tease on the album that is the start of "Destroyer".

    Then there is the fact that no actual live version of this song has ever been released. This song is always listed as "The Road (Live)" or "The Road - live" or some such variation on all these releases and digital platforms it's available on, but it's the same full length studio version with the crowd noise still at the end, so you can ignore the descriptions on these releases.

    The UK got a 7" single edit that was also released in the US on a promo 12" single (no commercial 7" single was issued in the US). This is an edit on the album version, but it's not a straight edit like a normal edit by leaving the song's arrangement intact and then just removing sections (confession - I have the promo 12" but not the UK 7" so I am assuming this alternate edit is the same. Curiosity got the better of me though, so I have the 7" on the road coming to me just to confirm).
    Here they have cut the Hendrix, Who, etc lyrics from where they occur in the album version and placed them in a different spot at the very end while also removing other sections/lyrics. I think these name-drop lyrics work better earlier in the song as they are on the album than they do here, but they wanted to do this for some reason.

    The official video is partially live performance footage from the Dec 20, 1987 show in London along with archival footage but they use the studio version of the song up until the last note where it's spliced with (I am assuming) the actual live last note from that concert. It's a longer rave-up ending than the studio version with Ray giving that slightly limp wrist a longer workout. This official video uses that edit described above up until that last note, but the mix is all centered in the video. It's an old video and who knows how many generations we are removed from a good copy with a good mix if it was the same initially.

    I normally don't count edits as alternates if they are the same mix, but in this case I do since it's been rearranged. So I went ahead and ripped my promo for purposes here as alternate version.

     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2022
  21. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    I am curious though for anyone that caught a show where they performed "The Road" in concert. Surely they played the full length 6 minute song and not this abbreviated version, right? And at what point was it performed in the set (early, middle, late)? I assume they wouldn't dare open a show with a new song no one had heard yet. I don't always trust the setlists and the order of songs I see sometimes on the various setlist sites.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2022
  22. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "The Road"

    @LX200GPS mentioned that if Dylan recorded this song, it would be hailed as masterpiece. I agree with this statement, and think Dylan should do a cover of it. The lyrics pertain to all the old rock n rollers who have been on the road their entire life. The 81 year old Dylan could probably do a heartfelt and poignant rendition. This would have been a good end of the road for The Kinks. An epic song that sums up the journey of a rock band. We end the song with "And there's gas in my tank and I've still got a way to go", but he could have also ended the song by singing "The gas tank is finally empty." It would have been a sweet send off.

    I like the multiple voices that Ray delivers. He touches on vocal styles from the previous 20 years. My favorite line is the little Preservation era warble when he sings "I took a trip down Charing Cross Road". I hope I like the rest of the album, but this opener is already worth the price of admission. I guess I have another album to track down!
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2022
  23. pyrrhicvictory

    pyrrhicvictory Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manhattan
    Both The Road and It (You Want It) were generally performed mid to late set. It carried on into the UK Jive tour while The Road was abandoned, and possibly extinct, after 1988. At the Beacon in ‘88, The Road went down well; It not as much, though I enjoyed Dave’s playing. I do remember, as I type this, that in ‘89 at Garden State Arts Center, newcomer Mark Haley was temporarily relieved of his duties for the keyboard/organ solo. Ray stepped in and Mark retreated into the shadows. Guess that one wasn’t rehearsed enough.
     
  24. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    The Road (song)

    Lyrically, this is well-worn territory for RD. But going back to a familiar subject a number of times over the course of many years can reveal a lot about a guy's evolution.

    We start out with RD in a hotel room, alone, looking in the mirror, thinking about the friends he's left behind. You can almost see the cross-fade from late-20s Sitting in My Hotel RD, dressed in his stage suit, wondering what the hell he's doing, to mid-40s Ray, in the same room, in the same hotel, with thousands of identical hotel room mirrors and lonely, exhausted nights in between --

    But yes, @Fortuleo, starting with *friends.* & this song shares a lot with other RD stories of friends long gone and friends left behind -- of the trials and tribulations of people who abandon the places where they belong for the bright lights and the big black smoke -- songs like Life on the Road, Polly, & No More Looking Back -- that don't specifically call out the rock & roll life -- & the songs on Everybody's in Showbiz etc that do --

    And of course RD is still dealing with critics & naysayers like he was in Sunnyside, and with huge faceless corporations like he was in Moneygoround and Working at the Factory -- with demands for more violence, more hate, more rape --

    But there's a change in tone -- an acceptance underlying the regret, nostalgia, frustration, and anger --

    It's almost like he's saying, the grocer boy made his choice, the office drone made his, the corporate executives made theirs, and I made mine. I don't look for my old friends' faces in the street anymore -- I don't wonder what they would think of me -- we all went our separate ways --

    Making music was Ray's life, which meant a life on the road, which led to regret and loss, just like any other life choice.

    I've never been too sensitive to the "complaining rock star" thing, but I'm agreed w/ those above who've said that The Road can't be put in that category -- it doesn't feel like a whine (whinge) or a reproach, or even a self-reproach --

    And then, without the humor of Life Goes On, he just almost casually brings up the fact that yeah, I've thought about killing myself. And it feels like, extrapolated, he might be saying "but I'd probably be thinking about suicide no matter what I'd done with my life."

    It's not like he's "grown up" and is just trying to soldier on and paper over his regrets. He acknowledges the price he's paid for doing what he loves. But he's going to keep doing it anyway, not until the road gets too rough, not until the road ends --

    He'll know it's time to quit when the road gets too smooth. If he loses the ability to both regret and accept the only life he knows.

    Musically you guys have said it all, but ultimately:

    But yes:

    Altogether this is an epic Ray song. Was it written to order to be an epic song? I assume so, in the same way Give the People What They Want was written to order to be played in huge arenas. But the execution is 100% Ray. Vulnerable, honest, brave, & with a new, mature stoicism that befits his age.

    Just love it. Want to find Ray and thank him for giving so much of himself.

    It's very hard to please the people every single time, but look a little on the sunny side
    .
     
  25. Boom Operator

    Boom Operator Shake hands with yesterday's tomorrow

    Location:
    Sherman Oaks, CA
    My acquaintance* at KNAC was finally let go a full two years after the station’s format change to heavy metal but not before sending one last (double-sided) promo single my way.

    My friends and I sat down to listen to the 12” single around Christmas of ’87 and, well, let’s just say we all agreed embarrassing summed things up best. And that crossfade to a cheering crowd? That was just sad. Even in the ’80s we knew that basketball snare sound was dated.

    Personally, I really wish Ray had repeated the words “the road” a few million more times as I’m still not entirely certain what message he was trying to impart. Yikes.

    I’m super happy everyone here loves the track and finds it a fine return to form… but I just don’t hear it.

    I don’t think anyone can blame MCA for the self-sinking of the HMS Kinks as the company continued attempts to gain promotional traction by all means possible despite the unsaleable material. Unlike Mr. Streett’s promo record, this copy features the full album version/mix of the song.

    *This same fellow handed me the station’s promo copy of The Road LP a couple of weeks later in early ’88 on his drive out of Long Beach to a new gig somewhere up in Northern California.

    That’s right, he went out on the road. ;)


    ~Huck

    [​IMG]
     

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