Hearing random Kinks songs. The supermarket I shop at was playing Come Dancing while I was shopping last week. And, I didn’t see this cover come up when we covered it (unless I missed it) - but I was surprised to hear a cover of Strange Effect while watching the last season of Killing Eve this week. I’m not sure, but it may be my favorite version.
Yes I like the psych & baroque trimmings, slow pace and breathless female voice. That said the strange effect is that it now reminds me of Lazy Old Sun.
Strange Effect is a great track. Just after we looked at it, it showed up as a theme song to some tv show Steph and I were watching. I didn't know it prior
Sorry about that, dude. We serve waaaay too much food. and it IS tasty, but a lot of calories. Maybe someday we'll learn!
Yuck! My husband and I had some nachos at a tavern last night. It basically had Velveeta-like cheese on it and it was horrendous. I think this may be like the 4th time I've eaten that orange horror.
I just happened to be reviewing some posts from Nov 2021 and we had a big discussion of Cheez Whiz and Velveeta. hot topic.
I managed to steal some working time this weekend to watch the end of Weird Nightmare (I had seen the beginning a few weeks ago). Really good. I like that Ray is totally absent from it. Once more I wonder what part he had in the editing, which really make this movie as it made the first one. And this morning (here) I read these sad news: https://twitter.com/Mingus/status/1574125356285657088?t=147_1VhFMXrph3xjgOisHw&s=19 That was on Saturday... What a weird coïncidence!
Oh, I know it's a bit late, and most of you found it anyway, but I watched the documentary in this 8-episode format on youtube, which has a much better sound and image quality:
Interesting Dave discussion on Twitter today. People were asking if he liked certain bands. I thought I should share some of them for everyone! Beach Boys- "Phenomenal influence on us. We loved them" Frank Zappa- "What bigger rock influence from America is there than Frank Zappa? Frank Zappa was a phenomenon" Box Tops- "Were killer, one of the best ever" Captain Beefheart- "I loved him" Lovin' Spoonful- "Both me and Ray adored Spoonful. John Sebastian's voice was great" Canned Heat- "I adored canned heat, I loved them" The Byrds- "Byrds were a big influence" Ramones- "Ramones were great. They virtually invented punk didn't they in America?" Sex Pistols- " I know a lot of hype and bulls***, but I liked them. They were needed at the time" Taking Heads- "I love the Talking Heads. They were great, good songs too" Devo- "Devo were pretty great. I loved them" Mountain- "I was also a big fan of the American band Mountain. They were great, Nantucket Sleighride, fabulous" Eddie Cochran- "I maybe would Never have picked up a guitar if it weren't for Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry" Little Richard- "Fantastic influence, absolutely, totally" Allman Brothers- "I loved them. Great band" Steely Dan- "Great band. Love them" Sly and the Family Stone- "They were very groovy" Flamin' Groovies- "I like them, they're good" Jefferson Airplane- "They weren't my cup of tea, but they were great" The Doors- "I like Doors, but "Hello I love you" is a Kinks rip off of "All Day and All of the Night". I thought Jim Morrison had an incredible voice, brilliant"
I doubt he likes everyone! They asked simple questions. I’m sure we already knew he would like most of these bands.
Phobia Studio album by the Kinks Released 29 March 1993 Recorded September 1990 - February 1992 Studio Konk Studios, London Genre Rock, hard rock Length 76:10 Language English Label Columbia[1] Producer Ray Davies, Dave Davies Ray Davies: Lead and Background Vocals, Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar Dave Davies: Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Background Vocals Jim Rodford: Bass, Background Vocals Bob Henrit: Drums Produced by R. Douglas Davies. Recorded by Richard Edwards. Assistant Engineers: Stan Loubieres, Kevin Paul Mixed by John Rollo except "Wall Of Fire," "Drift Away," "Still Searching," "Phobia," "Only A Dream," "Hatred (A Duet)" and "Scattered" Mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Recorded and Mixed at Konk Studios, London. Digital Assembly by Richard Dowling at Transformation Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, NYC. Art Direction: Nicky Lindeman, Christopher Austopchuk Photography: Kate Garner Illustration: Sue Coe Official Kinks Fan Club P.O. Box 42 Bolton BL5 3WW Greater Manchester England 1. Opening stereo mix, recorded late 1990 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 2. Wall Of Fire stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 3. Drift Away stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 4. Still Searching stereo mix, recorded late 1990 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 5. Phobia stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 6. Only A Dream stereo mix, album edit (5:04), recorded Feb 1992 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 7. Don't stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 8. Babies stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 9. Over The Edge stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 10. Surviving stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 11. It's Alright (Don't Think About It) stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 12. The Informer stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 13. Hatred (A Duet) stereo mix, recorded 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 14. Somebody Stole My Car stereo mix, recorded late 1990 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 15. Close to The Wire stereo mix, recorded late 1990/early 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 16. Scattered stereo mix (4:13), recorded late 1990 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 17. Did Ya stereo mix, recorded Mar-Jun 1991 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Leftover tracks I've Got Your Number Eternity The post Arista years have been quite interesting. I had been led to believe over the years that the band suddenly failed to be any good, but that isn't really what I hear across these albums, even though likely my least favourite original Kinks song is on one of them. Obviously I am still getting fully acquainted with this album and the songs on it, because like the 2 MCA albums, I had never heard them before the thread had started, but for the most part I have enjoyed them. I actually like this one as well..... it does seem a little different, and after all these years we have other people mixing Kinks tracks, and Ray has let the reins of the horse go a little. Did Ya was obviously on the EP released a couple of years before and some copies of the album had it on there as an extra track. Also we have the two song to go through that weren't put on the album. This is quite a long album, and I know that this is in the era of super long albums for seemingly little reason but to fill up a cd, and I have never really liked that concept. I would much prefer an album that is 25 minutes of what the artists wanted exactly, than 79.55 of songs to fill a disc, but it is what it is. Although I may not think every song on here is a 5/5 shot of fire into the music world, I think it is an album that seems to bear up well to repeated listens, and I also think it seems to have some very good songs on here. I think the song Hatred rates an early mention, because it is so interesting that on the last Kinks album, we have a duet between Ray and Dave singing about hating each other.... and I haven't gone through the lyrics yet, so I don't have a complete context for it, but it just seems like a really interesting thing to have on here. Anyway, at this stage I like this album, but I am not sure how much, and won't be able to really break that down until I have had a closer look at the songs.... so I probably don't have too much more to add at this point. Mark Haley seems to have had the most fleeting position in the band. He played on one song on UK Jive as far as I can tell and the perhaps the tour, but on this album the band revert to the same four piece that released the Did Ya EP.... Which kind of takes us back to the sixties somewhat, with the band having a full time keyboard player from the Percy Soundtrack all the way up to recent years.... I guess if we count Nicky Hopkins as being a part recording member in the sixties, it is a return to the Kinda Kinks era in some ways, with a y keyboards being done by Ray on here.... Anyway, that's the best I have for ponderances at this stage, so..... What did you guys think of this album? When did you first hear it/get it? What did you think about it up to this point in time? and I'll look forward to seeing where we end up at the end of our journey through this album.
Yes and I brought it up again as apparently still scarred by my sampling in Hawaii back in 1992. Could it have become a ..........Phobia?
Phobia I don't know if I was at all aware of the impending release of Phobia. I think the first I heard of it was when Danny Baker mentioned it on his morning radio show. When I say "mentioned it", what he said was something like "I've just heard the new Kinks album and it's absolutely terrible". Now, as much as I enjoyed Danny's radio shows, his music taste didn't often coincide with mine, so I had a suspicion that this may actually turn out to be a reverse recommendation. Looking at the release date of the album, I think this may have happened on a bank holiday, possibly Good Friday (April 9th) because I went out and bought the CD that morning, and took it home and listened to it around midday, so I obviously wasn't at work. Unusually the first play was through speakers rather than headphones. I sat there not knowing what to expect, and listened to the whole thing, and ended up really enjoying it. There was no bad first impression with this one, as there was with UK Jive, and that good first impression has carried through the years. There is one absolutely heart-stopping moment on Phobia which almost knocked me out of my seat on first listen, and still hits hard today. Compared to UK Jive, the hard rocking songs rock harder and more convincingly, and the softer songs are more warm and involving. So the question is, why don't I listen to this one as often as I listen to Think Visual? Which brings us to the elephant in the room - it's really long, like full-length CD long, like longer than Preservation Act 2 long. It's not helped by a number of the songs outstaying their welcome by anything up to a minute with unnecessary extra choruses or solos ("Babies" is the ultimate example of this). It's not as if there are any particularly weaker songs that should have been cut to make it a more reasonable length - more that it should have been two albums. The main reason why this album has gone relatively unheard in recent years is simply that I don't often have a big enough window to devote to listening to all of it. Quality-wise I think it's fine. Even the most unpromising sounding tracks have an unexpected curveball in there somewhere. So yes, a thumbs up for Phobia.
I got rid of my Phobia cd a couple of years ago but saved it to a cdr and hard drive. It’s not awful but there were too many tracks that I regularly skipped, so when it came to the next time looking for CDs to purge to make space for new ones, it was an easy choice. I’ve listened to the cdr again this year and I have no regrets! But it may fare better in a track by track approach as bloated CD fatigue won’t be an issue!