Yes, agreed with our Ian Stewart enthusiast that Historikally and Historically, today's dialogue is perhaps the most effective/important of all because it elucidates the biggest mystery as far as I'm concerned: how the hell You Really Got Me could have been written on the piano ?? I’d read/heard it many times in interviews, I understood it intellectually but could never figure out how it would’ve sounded. But here, it’s made clear as day, at last! At last, yes, I can “hear” it in my head. And it’s rather illuminating regarding the respective impact and importance of both Davies brothers in the whole Kinks legend and genius, and, beyond their particular case, regarding what rock’n roll is made of. It’s not only the song, it’s the playing, it’s the sound. It’s the record.
Another entertaining monologue from Ray, although again it is probably something that would have limited repeat listening potential for me.
Ian Stewart would have been another musician Ray would have seen as an audience member. Stu was a purist to the point that he did not play minor chords. Jim Dickinson played piano on "Wild Horses" because Stu would not because it had minor chords. Later, when he played live with the Stones 1978-1982, if a minor chord was required he would lift his hands hence Ian Maclagan or Chuck Leavell were also on board. He once remarked about Nicky Hopkins that he could play some pretty intricate stuff and "I hate that about Nicky". In his new book The Modern Philosophy Of Song, Bob Dylan makes a similar observation saying (rough paraphrase) that some songs only come alive in the performance and if tape is rolling, then it can live forever.
“Writing the Song”/Mick Avory’s Audition”: Two more great stories from Ray about the beginnings of one of the most influential songs in rock history and how Mick Avory joined the Kinks. Although Ray definitely exaggerated that way Mick dressed to the audition, I believe that Mick did dress a bit straight laced to his audition. Dave has stated however, that although he was impressed w/Mick’s playing, he felt that he wasn’t a good fit for the Kinks.
I spent the weekend doing rush electricity and painting work day and night in a tiny apartment I own, the new tenant will be there on Thursday and she wants pictures of the flat that she's only seen in shambles. I had time to rush read the thread, but not to contribute. Yesterday I was so concentrated on the work that I forgot to put on some music. With one exception: Avid @Michael Streett 's memories urged me to re-listen to Drama, with great pleasure. This morning, walking along the park, taking my daughter to childcare, I gave it yet another digital spin. When Machine Messiah dropped down suddenly to a quiet acoustic guitar, I could swear I saw M. Streett senior standing in front of me with a stern look in his eyes. That's what not sleeping enough will do to you. Sorry for this free-form Monday. But then I'm the Late Man, ain't I.
"Writing the Song" to "Mick's Audition" The narrative in The Storyteller is building towards its climax, with Ray talking about how "You Really Got Me" was written and about Mick Avory's audition. I like the snippets of 1998 Ray imitating what it sounded like when young Ray sat by the piano writing "You Really Got Me" and the way he imitates Mick's speaking voice. When I saw the Storyteller show in Stockholm in 1998 there was a slight difference after Mick has proclaimed that he's straight. Instead of saying "We can soon change that, darling" as Ray does on the CD, Ray imitating the band's comment was "Yeah, right!" Either way, both of these monologues give a vivid portrayal of two pivotal moments in The Kinks' early history, very nice.
It is interesting Avory is on drums on this group of tracks. I mentioned this the other day, that the credits do not list him on the When Big Bill Speaks portion, but I think this is a mistake as there are drums there with no one else credited. But he is credited on Back In The Front Room and there are no drums there, so probably a mix up. It's also interesting Ray chose It's All Right for this section, a relatively obscure B-side, albeit one of my favorite B-sides of the era. B-side of the original You Really Got Me single and remember Mick was not on drums on either of these two original 1964 recordings. I bet Ray did not tell Mick what the dialogue was going to be over the When Big Bill Speaks / The Man Who Knew A Man, but that's just a hunch. Probably wanted it to be a surprise to him once it was released. And yes, 1998 and 1999 was an exciting time to be a fan in real time as I also knew of the original four getting together discussions, even though I was always skeptical and felt this was unrealistic for lots of reasons at that point in time. The reissues of the back catalog were also great as it gathered up a lot of stray tracks in a mostly cohesive way as well as some previously unreleased tracks, plus Storyteller, Dave's Unfinished Business Anthologies. Lots of activity at the time. There was still the expectation of the of the 90s band continuing on too, so at that moment everything seemed to be looking up for The Kinks. This was the exact time I joined that KPS mailing list so every day we had an email with folks around the world commenting on things much like we continue to do right here today.
love these bits. what a great way to tell the band's story. @DISKOJOE , yes, I was in Japan when Paul was busted. Having been warned repeatedly that -- even under my dad's diplomatic immunity -- being caught with a joint could keep me out of Japan for the rest of my life, Paul's slip-up seemed incredibly stupid & entitled.
Writing the Song / Mick Avory’s Audition This was really neat. The “flashback” audio of the riff on the piano and the formation of this klassic song from the primordial ooze… the magic. Some of this with the spoken word and the throwback background music reminds me of Starmaker’s intro in Ordinary People. You can really tell the affection Ray has for Mick as he tells the story. “Very commendable.”
Kommendable says i as i Kurrently Konsume a Krummy Kake Konfection Kloseby the Kerb of a Konvenience Kiosk Korrecting Kurtly! For Absolute Accuracy An Apple Krumble Slice!
Writing The Song Dialogue/When Big Bill Speaks / The Man Who Knew A Man (Mick Avory's Audition - Dialogue). No feigned fan fascination here as Ray shares the crucial stories of meeting future tub thumping pal Mick Avory and more particularly of writing You Really Got Me as Ray also demonstrates how it was actually written! Revisiting the Marquee was cool with suitable band in tow & when Sonny Boy Williamson was mentioned the harp playing was a doppelganger with the late maestros hard clipped-note phrasing. The man who new a man seems to be acutely part of tonight's song/s and as a title sounds Pythonesque to me or am I just putting things on top of other things? https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...wqsBegQIDBAF&usg=AOvVaw0lhr1FBQqLYvKKLW2DMN-a
It's All Right (Managers - Dialogue)/It's All Right (Havana Version - The Kinks Name - Dialogue)/It's All Right (Up Tempo, On The Road - Dialogue). It's All Right. There was still a problem. We had to get management. You're nothing without management, are you? We were discovered playing in a pub by two very well respected gentlemen. They were both about 6 foot 6 tall or there about, aristocratic types. And they wore these classic blue pin-striped suits. Their names were Robert and Grenville. And Robert and Grenville thought it would be a very good idea to manage a pop group. "What do you think, Grenville?". "Oh, what a good idea, Robert". I thought "Blimey, I've never never met anybody like this before". I said to Robert "Robert, have you ever managed anything in your life before?". "Never!". Perfect, they got the job. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We open up with a really good snippet of the You Really Got Me b-side It's Alright. The first verse and chorus to be precise, and to me it sounds great here. Ray tells the story of the way their management came together, and again, I personally find it very entertaining and enjoyable. The Band Name. They were soon joined by a third manager. This guy was almost as tall as they were. His name was Larry. And Larry spoke in a very slow deliberate way. And Larry always smokes his long Havana cigar. He always had one lit. And he always referred to me as cock. No no. Cock is a London expression for mate, chum. "Hello cock. How are you cock? How's your cock, cock, alright?". But Larry was crucial. Larry was very important. Because he knew people in the music industry. Robert and Grenville had failed to get us a recording contract. But Larry knew a man who knew a man. Larry said "Now we gotta be opportunistic. We gotta find you a name". One evening we were having a drink in pub with Larry and somebody commented on the fake leather caps that Dave and Pete were wearing. Someone else said that we were wearing kinky boots. A few days later Larry showed us the mock-up of the artwork for the advertisement. And there we were. We were called: The Kinks. And I hated it. But Larry's eyes were glowing with excitement. "Kinks, cock, Kinks. "Kinks, cock, Kinks. It's short, five letters. You'll be bottom of the bill, but you need something that will stand out and Kinks will stand out. I can see it. The curiosity value will be incredible. That's a gimmick, me old cocker. We'll all dress in leather with whips and riding boots, very kinky. We'll put the pictures in the trades, they'll love it. Maybe we got to get a new stage gear, my boys, lots of buckles and leather strips". I hated the name Kinks, but what did I know. But Larry knew a man who knew a man, and this man got us a three single deal with Pye Records. The first record was a cover of Little Richard's Long tall Sally, but it died a death. The follow-up was significant in that it was the first song I had composed for The Kinks, a very naive optimistic song called You still want me. Unfortunately nobody did. The third record had to be hit, otherwise we'd get kicked off the label. ______________________________________________________ Here we get the story of Larry, who Ray has a great fun playing with the character of. How the band's name came about, and the general set up of the first three singles. On The Road. But we didn't care. We were on the road. Robert and Grenville gave us some money to buy a second-hand door mobil, a little van. And we put our little bits of equipment in the back and started driving around the north circular. And then Robert got us some gigs in the north. We drove up to Manchester, Birmingham, all over the country at tiny little clubs. Our records hadn't been hits, but we were enjoying the groovy scene, man. And it was on these tours that we picked up lots of fans, lots of young fans. And it was Through our appearance on Ready Steady Go, with one of our failed singles, that they started to recognize us. And that's when we first encountered the phenomenon known as groupies. ________________________________________________________ Here we rock into the second part of the It Alright b-side, and Ray runs through a bit of the touring in the early days and uses it to set up the idea of groupies and hence the next track. This stretch of tracks isn't really too based in songs, it's the story of the early days of the band, but like the rest of this album, it manages to stay really nicely balanced. The It's Alright song theme running through here keeps it interesting and maintains that balanced flow of music to dialogue ratio going on, as Ray expounds on the story and fills in the blanks. It leads very smoothly into the last new song of the set really well. 0:00 Storyteller 2:57 Introduction 4:08 Victoria 6:22 My Name (Dialogue) 7:25 20th Century Man 11:14 London Song 14:52 My Big Sister (Dialogue) 16:57 That Old Black Magic 19:14 Tired Of Waiting For You 20:42 Set Me Free (Instrumental) 21:29 Dad And The Green Amp (Dialogue) 25:15 Set Me Free 26:17 The Front Room (Dialogue) 28:26 See My Friends 31:04 Autumn Almanac 32:49 Hunchback (Dialogue) 34:41 X-Ray 38:50 Art School (Dialogue) 41:16 Art School Babe 44:38 Back In The Front Room 47:40 Writing The Song (Dialogue) 48:49 When Big Bill Speaks / The Man Who Knew A Man (Mick Avory's Audition - Dialogue) 51:58 It's All Right (Managers - Dialogue) 53:31 It's All Right (Havana Version - The Kinks Name - Dialogue) 56:16 It's All Right (Up Tempo, On The Road - Dialogue) 57:17 Julie Finkle (Dialogue) 58:02 The Ballad Of Julie Finkle 1:01:52 The Third Single (Dialogue) 1:06:55 You Really Got Me 1:09:48 London Song (Studio Version)
"It's All Right" etc. By this point in the album, I would say the storyteller aspect of it is dominant. The music is almost incidental. "It's All Right" is part of the audio because it provides an example of the kind of music the bands coming out of England in the 1960s were making - blues-based music. At points of today's segment, it sounds like an audio documentary of the early days of the Kinks. Which is something of interest to me! In terms of the pace of the album, I feel it picking up. Ray has his eureka moment at the piano and now, the Kinks become a reality and hit the road.
Of course, it's pythonesque !!! Almost everything here is ! And today, we get another Flying Cirkus sketch, with Ray making silly Michael Palin voices for the Kinks’ managers. I appreciate the fact he’s not going the easy route, not ridiculing them but making affectionate fun of them, which is so much better (and funnier). At this point in the “show”, hearing an early B-side from when the Kinks didn’t even sound like the Kinks yet, more like the young Stones trying to write another I Wanna Be Your Man for themselves, is a wonderful touch. It has a time capsule quality to it that not too many Kinks songs from the sixties could convey, because they’ve all more or less become “timeless”, whereas this one sounds like a perfect summary of what enthusiastic blues based “Front Room Rock” was all about (garage rock is for Americans, the Brits did front room rock, as Ray taught us). A great storytelling device.
I am behind the game jumping back in here, but I was away for a few days to see Nick Cave (twice/both excellent). I find these dialogue-heavy pieces hugely entertaining. The audience knows what happened, but only broadly, so Ray takes great delight in bringing together the different pieces of the jigsaw that was the birth of the Kinks. It's so well calibrated, suggesting Ray worked at this a long time to ensure the dialogue was tight and entertaining. It's not 100% necessarily factually correct though - as the Pete Quaife encounter uncovered by @ajsmith indicated. That's OK because Ray reading a Ken Burns-like history of the Kinks wouldn't have been the same. I said much the same after my first re-listen to this album but I've enjoyed every re-listen since. It may become my CD equivalent of Casablanca, Harry Potter and Life of Brian - offering limitless repeating potential for me.
It's All Right (Managers - Dialogue)/It's All Right (Havana Version - The Kinks Name - Dialogue)/It's All Right (Up Tempo, On The Road - Dialogue). Always dug this '64 B side and it fits in extremely well here adding to the background excitement because it's all right. Love Larry's linguistics but sure hope he never referred to Ray as a "Sucker" immediately after uttering his favoured Ray moniker or he may have been Hollywood Bowled over! In tomorrow's installment Ray discovers and tours other people's front room's.
OK, fine, you caught me. There were three people that worked at the resort that were hiding out in a little shack, plating and preparing the food. And yes, of course they were visible occasionally. I didn’t go there to SERVE myself dinner. I went there to HAVE dinner! …Fortunately, all three of those guys were super nice. Actually, everybody that worked on the island was extremely nice and it made for a really amazing vacation. It’s on the other side of the world for us in the US, but if you’re in Asia (or Australia) it’s not that bad a trip, and if you owe your wife, or significant other a fantastic getaway, it’s to be pretty hard to beat. It would’ve been a lot more fun if I wasn’t alone, but frankly, I did some pretty deep thinking, read a lot of books (and listen to a lot of audiobooks , and made friends with several couples there that turned out to be some pretty good sounding boards. I think I came back with a much more positive view on life and a lot more excitement regarding the direction I am moving all aspects of my life. Enough about me, I know I falling behind , I will endeavor to get caught up today or tomorrow because, of course, the kinks rule.
I must’ve missed out on parts of this and will need to go back and see what happened, but no matter what’s going on, best wishes to you and the wife Mark. Seems like we’ve all seen a lot of drama and health issues during this thread. That’s what happens I guess when thread stretches out over almost 2 years. Anyway, I hope everything works out in the best possible way.
Just downloaded this. I have high expectations. Can’t even hope to be in to tackle it right now, what with all the kinks music I’m listening to, as well as some super cool reggae bands that I’ve been enjoying while I was on vacation.
‘It’s Allright’ etc: Wonderful storytelling. I’m enjoying this very much. The voices, the mannerisms…yeah, I’m hanging on every word.
Another entertaining bit of storytelling from Ray, and what sounds like the start of a great version of "It's All Right". I see Ray has dropped the comedy Jewish voice he used for Larry on "Top Of The Pops". (as I type this "Waterloo Sunset" is playing on Radio 2 in the office....)
“It’s All Right”: This has to be one of the funniest stories that Ray has told on this album, how the Kinks ended up w/two Bertie Woosters and Larry “the former Teenage Rage” Page as their managers, as well as their name. I loved the way Ray did their voices, especially Larry’s, humorous, stereotypical, but not nasty. The use of “It’s All Right” as the song to set up and enhance the story was appropriate, to show how the Kinks started to swing in Swinging London. Speaking of voices, a bit off topic, but I found this last night on YouTube, an appearance of the man of many voices, Mel Blanc, on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show w/another master of comedy, Jack Benny:
