Bonus Sunday Side Track Till The End Of The Day (1994 BBC Version) There is a cool slight deviation in the middle of this tried and trued classic here.
Since the remaining Jakko Jaksyk BBC tracks got posted today, we need to add Jakko’s story of his week in The Kinks. It’s quite something. (And yes it should be noted he mixed up ADAAOTN for TTEOTD). ‘Oh man, that's such a mad story. I got a phone call one Sunday afternoon from a guy saying he works for The Kinks and he asked me if I was available for the next 10 days or so. "I said, 'Yeah, feasibly - why?' He said, 'Ray Davies had asked me to call you.' I said, 'Ray Davies... from The Kinks?' He says, 'Yeah. Dave Davies isn't well and he is wondering if you could replace him.' I said, 'Are you sure he asked for me? I'm not that kind of guitar player.' "He says, 'No, he specifically asked for you.' I thought, 'Well that's mad.' But at the same time I remembered when I was a kid, I would watch The Kinks on the tele and I remember seeing Dave Davies playing a black Les Paul and getting all excited about it. "So I thought, 'Sod it, I'll do it.' I thought it would be a laugh. This was 1994, so I met him at a motorway service station and he gave me a cassette of new compositions and old compositions and I came home, stayed up that night, and wrote some notes. "The next day I was rehearsing with The Kinks and it was mad. Two days later, we were at Maida Vale, which is an old BBC Studio, and we set up to play live. So we were playing live in the middle of the day on Radio 1, which was the main pop station in England. "The DJ is miles away in a broadcasting house and they were communicating with each other through the tie lines. I knew the DJ a bit because I did a program with them about adoption - because I was adopted - and then I did another thing for another station about a band I had. So he kind of knew who I was. "So we played the opening number and then it goes to a live interview with Ray Davies. He [the DJ] says, 'I understand that Dave isn't well,' and Ray says, 'No, he's stuck in Los Angeles.' "Then the DJ asks who is playing guitar instead and Ray Davies said, '...It's... uhhh...' and this was live radio and I'm thinking, 'He has no idea who I am.' I got really pissed off. "In the end, he said, 'Uhhh... It's my granddad.' And I thought, '**** you!' The next number we did was an old Kinks number, I think it was 'All Day and All of the Night.' "And at the end of it there is this sort of a simple pentatonic little rock solo, but I was so angry I just went bonkers and played all over the place - a bunch of tasteless rubbish, really. "When I finished, the DJ, Johnnie Walker, bless him, he knew who I was, and he said, 'Great solo by Jakko, well done Jakko!' at which point Ray Davies goes, 'Yeah, Jakko! Well done, Jakko!' [Laughs] "Anyway, it was an odd experience and I later found out the following information... number one, Dave Davies wasn't ill. Number two - Ray and Dave kind of hate each other. "I don't think that's telling tales out of school, I think that's pretty common knowledge. Number three - Ray thought, 'What can I do to piss him off? I know... I won't tell him about these live broadcasts that were doing and I'll get another guitarist in.' "It just so happened that at the time, I was in a band called Level 42 and I had done a big 12-page feature in Guitarist Magazine. That edition of Guitarist Magazine was on the coffee table at Konk Studios - The Kinks' studio. "Ray picked it up and said, 'Let's get this guy. He can obviously play.' And he knew that Dave gets that magazine sent to him in LA and that would piss him off even more. So, that's how I ended up in The Kinks for a week. I wish them well." Read more: King Crimson Frontman Talks What
A bizarre example of "Kinks In The Wild" - on yesterday's edition of Ninja Warrior UK, one of the contestants introduced himself as a film maker, and the background music to his video intro was "Everybody's A Star (Starmaker)". Wonder how many other people watching this identified the song?
Lots of variations, the song's a lot faster, the bad audio makes it sound grittier, a lot less harmony vocals, this version's very exciting and, yes, engaging (even though I enjoy the studio take as well). Engaging/engaged… We're still not halfway into Phobia but this first week of active thread listening's already shown that there's real consistency in this record. Like them or not (I like all of them – though I don't really love most of them), the songs are extremely well crafted, extremely well written, extremely ambitious… more so than about anything's Ray'd done in the previous 10-15 years except for his film and theater side (?) projects. On Phobia, despite the LP being made of songs recorded during a 2 years period (Only a Dream supposedly being the latest one here), they do seem fully engaged, Deve included. It's clear they envisioned it as a big record, a big statement. They toured it, they seriously promoted it… I don't think they approached it as "the last one". They probably thought "ok, let's give it our all one last time… if it works, great. And if not, well…." There's a band dynamic and a Davies & Davies fire here I mostly didn't hear in the latest three or four records.
So sorry to hear of your wife's mishap. caregiving can really take a toll. So glad you got a small break form your duties. Wish her well please, and welcome back to the conversation.
I wish I could hear Phobia as others do but so far it still largely sounds like a load of onerous bloat with some career low songs on it
I saw this on Twitter. I’m sure this movie will interest many here when it gets released. They’d better get the rights to the Kinks song for it, or I’ll be disappointed. THE SESSION MAN A documentary that shares the story of highly gifted pianist and unsung hero, Nicky Hopkins, who played with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and many more. Directed by Michael Treen United Kingdom, 2022 Coming Soon. Follow along for details!
@Martyj sorry to hear about your wife. My wife broke her arm last year. You and your wife’s situation sounds much worse. I hope she mends OK, and quickly, for both your sakes.
"Only A Dream" I'm bound to like this track, even though the production drives me mad every time. When I was in my twenties I used to have a crush on random girls all the time. Especially with cashiers and generally girls who worked in public. I read this song as an explanation that the whole phenomenon of putting some girl on a goddess pedestal is in reality us poor men trying to make sense in the big anonymous city, where otherwise you're just a screw in the machine. Waiting for the elevator, like thousands around you, suddenly a piece of humanity is awakened, and the pretty girl is just a trigger for that bottled up humanity. Intriguingly she looks like someone from a magazine - from the very same corner that dehumanizes and brainwashes us. Also isn't that the lesson in every 2nd Hollywood movie? The grey, bleak reality is determined to wear you out, but it's all suddenly okay the second a romance starts. Stylistically I consider this track the continuation of the theatric mode that was initiated during the title track, this time naturally more in the Soap Opera mode. I actually come more and more to the conclusion that this is a fully fledged concept album. Only A Dream is still tied to the world of phobias, alienation, and the longing to drift away. The character is as per usual gloomy and down. The short bursts of optimism are just an illusion. But most importantly and typically Ray Davies, even it's just a dream, it's good enough for him! I bet this is the same guy who finds solace just by "sitting in the midday sun". But as I said, I have a huge problem with the production. The DI'ed acoustic guitar. Sure Ray has a good strumming with reliable rhythm going on. I remember that interview where he boasted, how "they" use his rhythm guitar as a guide every time; this is a good example, but it's the only lively element in the arrangement. The drums and bass are playing the same pattern as is "Still Searching", but this time they're way back in the mix. It's the keyboards. Those most static, cold, plastic orchestra keyboards singlehandedly suffocate everything. They're way too high in the mix and cover the full frequency spectrum. They can be appropriate sometimes, but here they're just up the whole time. And they bury the rhythm, the pulse of the song. Only during the fadeout, where the compressor gets a chance to breathe we can hear this could have been a much more convincing beat. Otherwise, musically a total winner and the use of echo delays (on the vocal) is once again masterful.
Thank to @ajsmith and @Michael Streett for keeping us up with the BBC stuff from this era. I wasn't really in a position to do much about it. Cheers team
One line negates this theory: "She had to be a young executive ..." When I was in my 20s and 30s, I never referred to attractive women around my age as "young." I do that now when I see beautiful women in their 20s and 30s! Because the reality is they are young adults, and young compared to me. There's a brief vignette in the video of Ray in suit and tie, waiting for the elevator, when it opens to reveal the queen of his dreams, who then goes on to traipse around the video in a suitably sexy, corporate black ensemble. The song isn't about a rock star engaging in this (although, let's face it, it's not unusual to see actors/musicians in their 50s and 60s with women half their age!), but the video melds the "dreaming" concept to Ray and Dave vamping around the tourist sites of Paris with this stone fox. It must have been a blast to film that! This song video, also got me thinking of this:
I had this already to go for tomorrow’s track but think it might be better to post today, on free-form Sunday. This is how I segued from ‘Don’t’ (tomorrow’s song): If I want to listen to a song about suicide I’ll go with this one: Ann Lewis ‘Roppongi Shinju’ (Double Suicide in Roppongi); “big city is a lonely place…can’t live without you, babe.” (I posted the “wild version” so @markelis can break out the orange juice!) Note: the “wild version” adds a 2-minute extended intro. Also, while poking around I did find an all English-language version. Not happy with the “cheap gigolo” line, though, as I suppose it’s a literal translation (and maybe was necessary due to number of syllables) but “gigolo past his prime” is more accurate. English: https://youtu.be/SFCozhb59ro
I can't watch the video now, but isn't the title a reference to a famous 18th century play ? By Chikamatsu or someone like this ?
Could be! I just looked at his major works on wiki. I don’t see one taking place in Roppongi but double-suicides appear to be his favorite theme. Note: my wife pointed out to me that the lyrics actually never say anything about suicide. My response: “but “can’t live without you, babe”…implies that if he dies she’s going to follow. Maybe!”
I think I read that double suicide is a very popular scenario in Japanese culture, 18th century and later. But I drank too much yesterday and I barely remember my children's names at the moment, so I can't search my memory for too long.
Indulging the free-form format to the utmost, here’s a live-on-television performance. I saw this on tv in real-time (as I was living in Tokyo then). (Hit the ‘watch on YouTube’) Autumn 1984
If we are ok being a little silly today, let me add that over the past few months, my 8 and 10 year olds have come to really appreciate Holiday Romance. But initially they misunderstood the first line’s “booked my seat” and thought he was singing “p00ped my seat” instead. So now the lyrics to this go “I ate a lot this week, so I p00ped my seat” and the chorus ends with “or is this just a poop in my pants?” Overall, my 10 year old son likes many Kinks songs. My 8 year old daughter is not a fan, and would rather listen to either Taylor Swift or the B**tles. But at least I know she enjoys singing along with one Kinks song.
'Only A Dream' - As I mentioned before, I've been giving 'Phobia' a play in the car over the last few days, not having listened to it for a couple of decades or longer, and when I heard this track start I had it down as one of the lesser songs on the album. I suspect that I probably had the same reaction all those years ago, too. The thing is, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to! And maybe I always did... The theme is one which I'm sure most of us can relate to and perhaps I have always downplayed the music as being merely a backdrop to Ray's shaggy-dog story; however, it is very well realised in its own right and I'm making a conscious effort to insert a note in my memory not to dismiss the song when I hear its intro in the future. There is something slightly irritating about Ray saying 'elevator' rather than 'lift' but I suppose I should be used to it by this stage of the band's career and it could be justified by the fact that the song seems to be set in the US if the 'young executive' is depicted accurately in the quote "Hiya handsome, have a nice day", so maybe I'll let the old rascal off. (I believe 'sidewalk' crops up in a later track...yes, we are many miles from the pavements that may have been found outside 'Shangri-La'...)
This reminds me of about 15 years ago when a preteen son of one of my friend Bob’s listeners (he’s a college DJ for the past 40 hrs.) was actually into the Kinks. I even gave him a Preservation Act 1 T Shirt that my friend Jimmy gave me that no longer fit me.
