In more than just the wedding... country girl goes to the city and gets eaten alive seems quite apt sadly ....
DEAD END STREET It's almost as if the rich guy has had to sell his stately home and been made to see how second class citizens live. A couple of outrageous rhymes in this song: "ceiling/leaking" to start with, but then the even more incredible "frozen/toast on". And yet, as with everything else here, they just seem to work. Even when Ray uses "apartment" instead of the English "flat" he somehow gets away with it. The greatness of this track is that the Kinks manage to incorporate a lugubrious Coronaton Street vibe into a kind of joyous graveyard knees-up . BIG BLACK SMOKE The gullible Ma and Pa make a comeback here ready, as always, to defend their supposedly innocent little girl. But this time the cat is out of the bag and the girl is most definitely the master of her own doom. I see the wedding bells as suggesting the settled married life the girl was destined for. They come back at the end with the town-crier warning everyone in the country village of what may happen if you run away to the big city looking for a better life. The whole thing is great musically, but particularly the controlled chaos at the end. Incidentally, the purple hearts this inncocent girl takes were most definitely a drug. When in 1964 Harold Wilson presented the Beatles with the Siver Heart awards at the Variety Club of Great Britain, John Lennon jokingly thanked him for the "purple hearts". If you want a laugh you can see it here (around 3'40):
Thanks for that great footage of the Beatles. It sounds from the laughter that the press knew what purple hearts were.
In 1964? Doubtful. People back then weren't as ignorant as they are today. They were much closer to WW2 than we are to the creation of the Internet. Those geezers didn't think John was talking about drugs.
If I take out three of my least favorites and replace them with three gems, this becomes my ultimate Face to Face. Sequence can always be tweaked. The album is all over the place as it is, like Revolver. Adding songs with heavier subject matter like "Dead End Street" and "Big Black Smoke" make it a little harder to see these productions, plus "Sunny Afternoon," "Little Miss Queen of Darkness," and "Rainy Day in June" sharing an album with the likes of "Party Line" and "Session Man." But share space they shall. Side 1 -- (19:11) Party Line Rosy Won't You Please Come Home Dandy Dead End Street A House in the Country Rainy Day in June Session Man Side 2 -- (19:44) Too Much on My Mind Holiday in Waikiki Fancy Big Black Smoke Little Miss Queen of Darkness Sunny Afternoon This Is Where I Belong
Seven songs in 19 minutes on both sides. That’s comfortably less than three minutes per song. Not only were the songwriters better in the sixties - on average - they also didn’t stretch good ideas too thinly.
Dead End Street-This one really rivals the best songs on the actual album, again, it fits perfectly well with the concept. The song, like many others on Face To Face, deals with poverty and misery found in the lower classes of English society. The title which seems to symbolize a one way street, implying the difficulty for many of getting away from the desperate situation they find themselves in. Big Black Smoke-Yet, another track that would have fit perfectly with the concept and would have greatly benefited the actual album. The song is about a young, pure girl who runs away and gets caught up in the dark side of London. (Purple hearts = drugs)
Thanks for this, as close as we'll get on this thread to being there in the studio with them. Really informative
The Big Smoke is slang for London. I always assumed that the bells were referencing Bow Bells. That is - if you are born within hearing distance of Bow Bells you can consider yourself a real Londoner/Cockney.
These queries have probably been answered elsewhere - Purple Hearts are pills. An Amphetamine based substance of some sort.
Not much to add about Dead End Street/Big Black Smoke that's not been said up there. But I've said all along that The Kinks were a singles band!! Where is the improved sounding version of Dead End Street? Did I miss something? I've always noticed it sounds a little under-whelming production-wise, but regardless, it's an over-whelmingly great song. One of their best and most defining moments. I've only been trying to figure out the chords in the chorus for about 20 years! Big Black Smoke I only came across through the CD re-issues. What magic do we find here?! It's one of my favourite songs by them. I love the weird backing vocal effect that comes in, I think, on the second verse. Compellingly strange. The whole concoction is a heady mix of atmosphere, Kinks' groove and smart narration. A masterpiece confined to a B side!
Recorded at the same session at Waterloo Sunset, so one could put it in the chronology next to that - but I can understand leaving it in the VGPS extended area - it's all a real mess in Kinks land!
Yes indeed. I think you're right about the Bow Bells. And Lennon knew exactly what he was doing when he mentioned purple hearts (as when he sniffed the bottle of coke in A Hard Day's Night). They were the fashionable drug of the day and often in the newspaper. The original purple hearts were an American military medal, so the name was also slightly deviant. Here's more info about the Bow Bells:
Reading this it becomes much clearer the source of those production kinks (no pun intended) in The Kinks' recordings that I've made comment on previously. Self-financed recordings, Shel Talmy not wanting to hang around too long in the studio, Pye being a relatively small record company etc etc. All makes more sense after looking at this interview.
She's Got Everything . mono mix (3:08), recorded 7 Feb, 1966 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London I've got a girl who's oh, so good, She's got everything. I've got a girl and she is mine, She's got everything. Pretty ringlets in her hair, Pretty clothes that she can wear, What's she got? Everything, Everything. All other guys just stand and stare, She's got everything. I ain't got a dime but she don't care, I got everything. I don't need money 'cause I got Everything that I could want, What I've got? Everything, Everything. I've got a girl who's oh, so good, She's got everything. She's got everything. She's got everything. And I can't live without her love, And I can't live without her kisses. She is mine forever, now, She's got everything. She's got everything. She's got everything. She's got everything. I've got a girl who's oh, so good, She's got everything. I've got a girl who's oh, so fine, She's got everything. She's got everything. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music/Carlin Music Corp. I know this is old school Kinks by this stage, but I love this song. This is like some long lost classic early sixties rock and roll song. I like the hesitating riff, the doot dah doot's, the vocal melody, the stop start nature of the song. This is just a really fun song that rolls along beautifully. I understand why it didn't make the album but it could have been a b-side to something I guess. The lead break is a scorcher, and tears the paint off the wall. After that we move into a slow chordal build up, and then a kind of jam section. I guess there isn't that much more to say about this track, but I reckon it is a real gem of a song.
