I really like the feel of this Ballad of Julie Finkle. I think it sounds better outside the album context, or even better, in the context of my reconstructed late 90s Ray & a bit of Dave LP. I still hesitate to make it the closer (I think it works great as a closer). For the time being I have it followed by Fortis Green (the 99 demo), which fits with the nostalgia-themed Storyteller. Isn't Sally Simpson a groupie song ? Maybe I never caught the lyrics right. If it is a groupie song, it would be my favorite. With Suzy Creamcheese maybe. I'm a bit defensive about Famous Groupies. It's the first song that stuck out from my discovery of London Town, and the better part of me loves it, while a tiny evil part laughs at the other calling it a failed and cringe-y attempt at emulating Frank Zappa. Now I can use Fortuleo's authority to have the evil part sent in exile. Still I wish Sir Paul had refrained from certain forced intonations.
‘Julie Finkle’: I’d never forget someone named Finkle, either. (Maybe common somewhere, but I’ve never heard it.) This has early 70s written all over it. Darkened stage, looking out over a sea of Bic lighters waving above the rapt audience, grasping a moment of respite after being pummeled by earlier power chords. I like it!
Julie Finkle Dialogue/ The Ballad Of Julie Finkle. Now from Larry's affectionate use of cock label for Ray to Ray's Ballad Of (an) Easy Rider. Was it in X-Ray that Ray went into detail about one early sexual partner that turned his head around and was truly A-N-I-M-A-L ? Anyways if Ray is being at times singularly specific he is also sure to mention composites of many people even if it is one he most expressly remembers with fondleness. Back in X-Ray there was competitive groupie girl talk of which Finkle could create the longest conquest's sprinkle! But i digress and must say Ray displays a genuine Finkle fondness for female fans. I did not attract any groupie's in band's though can fully understand an ageing rocker fondly recalling some old trysts even if he's long married and been in bed since half past ten! Like our Mark though i did glean girls & guitars gel, and in my case that was one on one serenades which may have once even included some Kink Kut? Oh yeah ironically the song as a whole is a bit of an anticlimax whereby lyric and backing merge to make not so beautiful music together which is a shame after the build up and promise Julie would provide, given her printed X-Ray(ted) entrance!
Missed the edit window but found this re: name: English: habitational name (reflecting the pronunciation of the placename) for someone from Finchale in Durham named from Old English finc 'finch' + halh 'nook or corner of land'. (from ancestry.com) So not unusual.
The Ballad Of Julie Finkle This track is some kind of hybrid live/studio creation as no drums or bass were used in concert, but they are here with no credits in the liner notes as to who is playing them. Count me on the side of liking this song a great deal. There's a sadness and wistfulness to this in the music and the lyrics as if Ray regrets not pursuing this "Julie" (composite character) at the outset or even now. Maybe things would have worked out better for him, but he projects it to hoping things work(ed) out for her. I think I mentioned some time ago about how girls in school would not look twice or give a rat's a** about me in the school band drum section (couldn't get any more uncool than this, right? Except maybe if you were in the ROTC military stuff). And how these same girls a few years later would be in the bars and shows around town where me and the groups I was in were playing rock and sure enough all of sudden they had changed their minds and now I am "cool". Strange stuff. Both of these aspects of this song ring true for me. It's funny London Town comes up as I too always think of Famous Groupies when Julie shows up. At the risk of being banished to the bottom of the sea with Davy Jones, I'll even admit to liking Morse Moose And The Grey Goose . With A Little Luck we'll have that album's long overdue Archive set next year. I've Had Enough of waiting.
“Julie Finkle”: Isn’t one of the reasons why guys get into music and form bands is to attract members of the opposite sex? Anyway, this song, as well as “Days” and other songs, show Ray’s tenderness and compassion towards women that really didn’t exist w/his contemporaries, probably because he was raised in a matriarchal family. “Julie Finkle” is another good song on this album that pushes the narrative forward, showing how it was like the first days of touring for the band and what fans they attracted. Also, Avid Fortuleo, it’s no sin to refer to the “Beatles”. I know about the weird relationship this Forum has w/them, but I got my start in music w/them and I still enjoy their music very much.
Julie Finkle The only other Finkle I heard of was the infamous Miami Dolphins place kicker Ray Finkle, who swears to this day that Dan Marino improperly held the football with the laces in, causing Ray (Finkle) to miss what would have been a game-winning field goal in the Super Bowl. As we all know, you need to hold the ball with the laces out so the place-kicker has the entire smooth backside of the ball to kick. But I digress... this is a pretty nice song, after having given it a few listens. Again, the intro is entertaining with Ray describing the rock and roll singer and "old" and "decrepit" all those years ago, but now still ready to play because, hey maybe Julie's in the audience tonight (wink, wink). Am I crazy or is there's a bit of a drone-type of guitar/bass backing here? It's a bit of an embracing accompaniment, with a pretty nice classic Ray (Davies) melody in the verses. The chorus is a bit of melodic letdown (to me), with the verses being more interesting to me. Pretty nice rhymes throughout (particularly how "she and him" flow into "pseudonym" ). I had never heard of Famous Groupies or the London Town album, but I will have to dive into that once this Kinks journey ends. Speaking of this Kinks journey, according to Spotify, I have spent 9,623 minutes listening to the Kinks (so far) in 2022. That equates to about 160 hours, or nearly 7 days. Now, note this is only Spotify. This does NOT include the time listening my CDs (or ripped mp3s), or the YouTube links, which covers all of 80 Days, UK Jive, The Road, and now Storyteller.
Quickly: I love, love, love the affectionate memories of various managers with just the right dash of irony. And generally loving the narrative/song fragment/narrative transitions throughout. As people have been saying, this LP is a meticulously-constructed, well-rehearsed, and masterfully performed musical/autobiographical piece. & so far, I'm not having the "oh I know this story and how it ends, let's just skip to the music" reaction. There are emotional/factual/tonal nuances in the monologues that bear at least a few repeat listens. As for Julie, it's a great new song & shows RD still coming up with memorable lyrics & characters set to evocative & unexpected melodies. I read somewhere once that the reason (female) groupies are so ardent is that the (male) rock star combines qualities that are deeply appealing but rarely co-existent -- emotional vulnerability and leadership/command. & I can see it. While your general sensitive guy is fading into the background nervously, your general commanding dude is yelling at his team to maul the other team and score another goal (or his unit to destroy the opposing army and take another hill). Mix the two, however, and you've got charisma. Hoo-boy, @Fortuleo opened a real can of forbidden fruit here (sorry to mix metaphors). Wild Life has moved up to become maybe my second or third best-loved McCartney/Wings LP. And though London Town sits a number of notches lower, you can still find me listening to it at a Cafe on the Left Bank in my heart.
Holy crap @donstemple, that’s a lot of minutes. I just checked my Spotify wrapped and it was only 2,146 Kinky minutes, and they called that in the top 0.5% of their listeners this year. I always feel like there are Kwerks in Spotify’s stats. The app has Guilty as my favorite song, which is clearly not the case for me, lol.
Guilty as charged (or, until proven innocent!)! I was the 0.001% of listeners... Who beat me? Apparently a decent chunk of those minutes were No More Looking Back, which logged 62 listens on Spotify (so far) in 2022. I've listened to Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace a lot, as I discovered those at the beginning of this year on the thread, and am making up for lost time.
I also like Wild Life. I'd say "Tomorrow" and "Some People Never Know" are top tier solo material. London Town is a weird album. I remember listening to it closely a few years ago and feeling embarrassed for Paul. Many of the lyrics are pretty much atrocious. Then I found myself downloading half of the album, and then I finally came around to downloading the entire album! There is something about it that starts to grow on you. It's like a mold that grows on an aged piece of cheese. At least there are plenty of moments where Paul sounds like he is having fun. I love the 50s styling of "Name and Address" and "Famous Groupies" showcases Paul going into character voices just like our beloved Ray does throughout his career. It may not be a great album, but it has an odd charm. "Julie Finkle" I had the same thoughts as @Fortuleo. It's not quite up to snuff. It sounds a bit like something he could have written in two minutes, but it is starting to reveal itself as a fine song after a couple of listens. It could belong on his upcoming solo albums. Yes. I believe there is. The 60s Kinks might have turned it into something a bit more far out sounding. It was starting to remind me of this obscure 60s classic with the similar drone and how Ray sings "Julie". He could very well be singing "Mazy". "Mazy"- The Peep Show
The Ballad Of Julie Finkle I'm thinking this is an entirely studio creation - there's no audience noise at the start, with just applause added to the track ending. I first heard this one on some of The Kinks 1994 UK Tour, as part of Ray's mini-set before 'The Kinks enter the building'. I enjoyed it then, and it improved further with the added context from reading 'X-Ray'. I think it's a good, but not great song, occasionally I add it to my Ray compile, but it's not a definite entry on the single CD compilation, so that must mean it's not in my top 17-18 Ray Davies solo songs. Possibly still better than anything on 'Our Country - Americana Act II' which I've been listening to this past few days. I hope that's not Ray's final album.
I didn’t know about this feature on Apple (especially on iPhone) but searched and…tada! Top Song: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman Top Artist: Wilco Top Album: Cruel Country Genres: and both ‘Life On the Road’ and’A Rock’n’roll Fantasy’ played
I just looked at the ‘Replay 2022’ Apple-generated 100-song playlist and counted 38 Kinks tunes. 38! And clearly…I must emphasize “clearly” (!) it’s based on something other than plays because it includes the one track that I have no interest in hearing again!
I would be curious what my list would be, but I only listen to music on the old iTunes, my iPod classic, vinyl, CD, and YouTube. I do know that The Kinks would likely be my top artist for the last two years. XTC would be neck and neck with The Kinks, since I also participated in their song by song thread, and bought nearly every one of their albums this year. Lately, Neil Young is moving up the list.
This was some year-in-review show and tell. Little snippets from each of the above, so maybe a minute in total? There’s probably more information I can access if I used a laptop but I’m a phone guy so I don’t know. But, yeah, Neil has moved up big time for me, too.
The Third Single/ You Really Got Me. The Third Single. The phone rang, it was a call from Larry. "Hello, cock. Cock, it's time for the third single". If this is a flop, if the third single doesn't make it, our career would be over. I'd written another song that we played on stage quite a lot. It was called You really got me. And the audiences loved it, no, the audiences loved it. They liked it because they could dance to it. But the record company hated it. They said "You can't record that piece of rubbish. And we don't like the sound of that terrible distorted green amplifier. No, no. You can't record it, that's final". But Robert and Grenville thought it was marvelous. "Don't you think so, Grenville?". "Oh, every time they play 'You really got me' I get shivers up my spine". "I think it's a hit, cock, I gotta tell ya, I'll state my reputation on it". Now, with management like that, how could we fail? But the record company said "Look, we don't believe in it. We're very sorry, we don't believe in it. If you wanna make the record, fine, but you have to pay for the recording yourselves". And that was really cruel, because they knew we were broke. But Robert knew a man. "Here, Ray, here's 200 quid. Go in the bloody studio and make that record. And make sure it's a bloody hit, what?". You see, Mick Avory hadn't signed the recording contract, and they said he couldn't play on the record. We'd have to get a session drummer in, he's a guy that'd come in and play for hire. And they said this thinking that we'd be loyal to Mick and cancel the session. But we weren't gonna do that. But at the last minute we snug Mick into the studio. He can only play tambourine, but at least he was on the record. I'd written 'You really got me' as tribute to all those great blues people I love: Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy. And Dave was playing the song in the studio that day, but he was playing it in the style I'd written it. But then Dave plugged the guitar into the green amp, and he plugged the green amp into a Vox AC30, and it sounded hugh. And when Dave played the opening chords to 'You really got me' they were so loud that the session drummer forgot the complicated little patern he was gonna play at the beginning and just hit one beat on the snare drum as loud as he could, pow, as if to say to Dave "You noisy little bleeder. I can play just as loud as you can. And I've got a big stick". But that's exactly what we wanted, you see, we wanted to sound loud. Now we sounded like a group. Halfway through the song it was time for Dave's guitar solo. This moment had to be right. So I shouted across the studio to Dave, give him encouragement. But I seemed to spoil his concentration. He looked at me with a dazed expression. "**** off". If you doubt me, if you doubt what I'm saying, I challenge you to listen to the original Kinks recording of 'You really got me'. Halfway through the song, after the second chorus, before the guitar solo, there's a drum break. Boo ka, boo boo ka, boo ka, boo boo. And in the background you can hear "****off". You can, you can. When I did the vocal I tried to cover it up by going "Oh no", but in the background you still hear it "****off". And it's even clearer on CD, it's really embarrassing. Well then Dave looked like you'd done something wrong, his mouth relaxed and his jaw dropped. But it was halfway through the most important track we'd ever do. And if it wasn't a hit, it would be the last track we'd ever do. And the lead guitarist stops playing before the solo. But then Dave's eyes squinted and his face broke into that arrogant sideways grin I've learnt to love and hate over the years. You see, he hadn't heard me shout at all. He just thought of looking at me at the same time as I looked at him, a kind of telepathic way of saying "This is it, remember, the front room". Then he gritted his teeth and sneered at me one more time and cocked an attitude before turning away into the corner of the studio to play himself into rock 'n' roll history. _________________________________________________ This story and song are the cornerstone of this idea, and really, doing this now, it brings home why Ray was always happy to play this song, and why he had such a connection to it. Without this song, there's every chance that Ray and Dave would have been working at the local mill or something.... Ray tells this story with humour and an obvious joy, and frankly it's just a great story, and gives a certain gravity to the song, and the way that life can work out sometimes. You Really Got Me. Here we get a predominantly acoustic version that is driven by a slower blues that has a bit of a swing to it. To some degree, even though this track has been featured on a lot of live albums across the course of this thread, this version has its place in the history of the band, and the retelling of that history here. 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)
London Song. This is a very different version of the song. In the live set we have this lovely folk blues track, with a really cool little riff. Here we have this pounding blues/rock base, with a sort of alt rock twist in the arrangement. For the most part this is a completely different song, and I get the impression @markelis is probably going to love this one. We have this pulsing, driving, dirty rock that suits the grime of the streets that Ray is singing about. When you hear this, it ends up being understandable why the album has two versions of this track, because this is pretty much a completely different song. Probably the only reservation I have about this version is the phrasing of the lyric passages struggles a little at times to get the names in, in a manner that doesn't sound a little shoehorned. On the whole though it's a cool track and I have no issue with its inclusion... though from an album perspective it seems like this is slightly tacked on. I suppose it does raise an interesting contrast though of the Kinks career itself in the way the album is laid out. We open with the somewhat mellow, melodic Storyteller, and close with this explosive piece of grinding rock. The breadth of the Kinks alluded to in the opening and closing tracks, yet impossible to capture in two songs. 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)
Storyteller. So this is, what I believe at the time was, a rather unique idea. We have the story of the Kinks as told in a series of songs and dialogues, that covers the lads growing up, how the band got together, some of the adventures they had, and the whole thing is sort of pinned together on one track that saved them from disappearing into the great abyss of the music world's unknowns... Just that thought causes pause to reflect .... after spending (what is quickly moving along to) two years going through the band's catalog .... how tragic would it have been for that Third Single to have disappeared without a trace.... We can talk about how game changing You Really Got Me was in terms of the broader musical world, and it was seriously game changing, but on another level it is essentially that only reason any of us even know who they are.... without it, there's none of the albums, none of those Klassik sixties singles, none of the crazy concerts, none of the legends and stories.... it all hinged on that third single... I love the way this is laid out, and to some degree again, it seems like this is what To The Bone could probably have been. Ray has done some great work over the years, and he has come up with a lot of original and unique ideas that have shone a bright light on how good the Kinks are/were, and influenced the musical world around him, probably a lot more than is even recognised, but here we have him doing it yet again, with a format that captured the heart of the artist and their career, while also being something completely new and entertaining. So much so, that it was sought out and became a template for a tv show to encourage other artists to do the same, and as we saw earlier, a stack of people did, and to the best of my knowledge, most of those artists Storyteller sets received a lot of praise, and delivered a lot of entertainment to their fans. Aside from all that, I really enjoy it as an album. I think it is entertaining, musical and funny ... It is terribly disappointing that VH1, or Ray, or licensing people or whoever, never got around to giving us a dvd of the original Storyteller
The Third single is a Ray Davies feast, all the voices and funny moments from the whole show coming together for a last round of comedic pleasure. I’ve tried to hear the “fakov” moment in You Really Got Me, never could, I hope @Michael Streett can help out with this ? We don’t really get the full story here (the fact that the song was recorded twice), but the whole slow-motion bit of Dave’s attitudes, grin, gritted teeth, looks and all (“that grin I’ve learnt to love and hate over the years ”), before the solo is worth the price of admission. The semi-unplugged performance is just an afterthought, not a serious contender, but it wraps up the show in good spirits. Fakov!
So Ray gets Mick back to play on the tracks about Mick's audition.. but he gets Bobby Graham to play on the tracks about the recording of 'You Really Got Me'.. very neat.
The studio version of 'London Song' features the rhythm section of young Britrock band Reef, best known in the UK for their signature hit 'Place Your Hands'.. Ray had met and been impressed by the contemporary bluespop stylings of Reef when they both appeared on the 14th Dec 1996 edition of 'Later.. With Jools Holland'. the Reef and Ray Davies segments of which have been compiled by someone in the below video. At the time I remember thinking that Ray it would have been much more astute if Ray had collabed with a younger band whose reference points were more sympathetic to classic Kinks, like say Blur (Reef were Britpop adjacent but were essentially a pure RAWK band bordering on Chilli Peppers territory) but years later such petty preferences pale into insignificance.. I mean tbh the song itself is far from a favourite of mine but that's noting to do with the Reef guys who serve the track such as it is well, end of: so Ray didn't pick 'cooler' collaborators as seen from the perspective of one 17 year old in 1998, boo hoo.
"The Third Single" Here the concept of this album really comes together. The story is in the telling and here Ray really delivers. I mean we know the outcome but it's the way Ray brings in all of the different characters involved (each with their own voice) to tell the story of the recording of a stone kold klassic rock n roll record. It is dramatic and funny and entertaining. "You Really Got Me" Of course we get another take on this song, this time echoing its blues roots sounding more like Big Bill Broonzy than the Kinks. It fits with what has gone on before on this album. "London Town" I prefer the song in its earlier version where it is part of the entire storytelling concept. Here I can appreciate Ray's effort to create something more contemporary (thanks to @ajsmith for the info on how this came to be) but it isn't something I would return to often.
