Thirded ! Long time no see, @pyrrhicvictory, we've missed you. Not kidding. You're back at the right time, too as we expect the Thread to reach the 1500 pages mark by this week-end, our own thanksgiving day. Is there any kind of celebration plans in the works ?
It's interesting but when he goes into shouty/barky Ray on his third "I'm not like everybody else," & through his quick quasi-native-American chant before the guitar solo, there's a new kind of underlying growl-strain in his voice (highly technical musical terminology here)... & it doesn't feel like he's singing to the back of a concrete arena (like some of his earlier live barking) or trying to nudge the audience onto their feet, but more like the energy & passion of the lyric is propelling his voice into that register. No idea if that makes any sense, but at any rate it feels liberated and authentic. Very in-the-moment. Unforced. Weirdly, it reminds me of Dave's live rendition of Young and Innocent Days. Like in taking solo possession of the song, maybe in compensation for the missing other brother, RD invests a bit more of himself in INLEE here. I won't have the time today to give the other live tracks a proper listen but RD sure kicks off this show with a bang.
I go back to a comment I made a few weeks ago, where I said I thought I could hear the decline in Ray's voice on OPL. I take it back. Look at this After the Fall. It's clear on the album he made a stylistic choice to sing differently, but hearing it live, sung straight, disavows me of the notion that he'd slipped. This version sounds great, much better than the album version IMO (and I don't hate that version, I just think the vocal is weird) and it makes me wonder what made him decide to experiment vocally on several of the album tracks. On a related note, I've had a similar epiphany with Bob Dylan and Time out of Mind re: Fragments. It doesn't surprise me that vocal tone is such a big deal to how you perceive a song, but I think I'm surprised by just how much it can change a perception.
Austin City Limits I'm Not Like Everybody Else Where Have All The Good Times Gone? After The Fall Next Door Neighbour Two Kink Classics, I prefer the 'To The Bone' live version of 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else', but this was quite often the opening song of the concerts of this period, and performed in this style. Ray owns this one. And so does Dave when he does it. Just a great song. 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?' Just a short reminder for the show. Nothing wrong with Ray's vocals here. I like some of the vocal inflections. 'After The Fall' and 'Next Door Neighbour' both shine here in their live versions. sounding more vital perhaps with their studio counterparts. Both are great here. If the setlist @mark winstanley posted at the start is correct, please, PLEASE, PLEASE release this as a full concert. I can live without the live versions of 'You Really Got Me' and even 'Celluloid Heroes' but to be missing 'Oklahoma USA' and 'Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)' is almost too much to know they're there, somewhere, but not there too. With the missing tracks it'd be a fantastic live album and DVD/BluRay.
I probably will not have much to add to any of these live tunes, but I'm glad we have video of the performance. Ray looks great and the new songs come across even better in the live setting. "After The Fall" started to remind me of the World Party song "When the Rainbow Comes" towards the end. When he sings "The sun will shine again" I started singing "When the rainbow comes" in my head. I believe they both have similar chords. I really enjoyed "Next Door Neighbor". The Kinks Kwality comes through even more when I watched this performance. I would have loved to hear it with more of a 60s style production. It could have made an excellent Kinks single with "Fortis Green" on the flip side. Here is the World Party song. I can hear Ray in it.
Trash and treasures with 50 cent records. Working full time in the bank at 15... It's been an odd life journey
I was living in Austin at the time and caught Ray's great Paramount show! Really cool setlist and to see him in such an intimate setting was incredible. It was great to hear rarites like Oklahoma U.S.A. and Long Way From Home at the concert.
Thank you, gentlemen, for your every kindness. Don’t worry about me, as I’m fine; apart from a diagnosis of cyclists palsy in my left pinkie finger. Which is a minor ailment compared to other people’s woes, but as Philip Larkin once quipped, ‘Mine is happening to me.’ Mine was a self-imposed exile. Too much headspace being occupied by this fantastic (and addictive) thread; stealing time from years-deep projects that were suddenly not receiving their rightful attention. In other words, I was watering the wrong plants. The thread had subsumed my creative life. So, I decided to orbit. I’ve never been away, though. Every day, like clockwork, I check in and read every post. There is nowhere better to find Kinks opinion and analysis. It is The Gray Lady, the paper of record in all news Kinks. Finally, an epiphany of sorts. Maybe, just maybe, I could post when I see fit, as time permits, if a missing piece of the puzzle could be added. My obsessive nature and self-discipline demanded I post daily, and there was great comfort and security in that routine, but now the discipline must come in the form of restraint. It just might work (and other famous last words). So I’ve decided to dip a toe; now what? Re-entry would be a problem, surely. Leaving a party early, then sheepishly slipping back in is tres awkward. But that’s me in a nutshell; showing up late and leaving early. There were a few occasions that nearly roused me from my spider hole to chime in, and it was never Kinks related. No, it was the personal ordeals of many of you wonderful kinky kultists. Other people’s lives, not songs, are what made me consider re-enlisting. And to think, one of us is gone. RIP @pablo fanques I do have a stack of printed materials put aside to post, from the UK Jive era on. I’ll find a way to sprinkle these in on our way to page 1,500 and beyond. Cheers
I understand completely mate. Happy for you to post when you feel like it, wander through, or get on with other things. However it pans out, you're welcome anytime
Over My Head. This is one of my favourite tracks off the album, and this is a fine live version also. I'm not sure who the pretty lady singing back-up vocals is, but she does a very good job.
Run Away From Time. A pretty straight rendition of the studio version here that also comes over well.
20th Century Man. Here we get one of my favourite Kinks tracks, and this is the arrangement with the bridge at the start. I really like his sort of freetime embellishments in the opening section, and then we roll into the main track. Ray has arranged the main body of the song slightly differently, and the band seems well drilled in how to play along with him on this, with the extra pauses and such that he has put in here. It is a very cool slight variation from the other versions we have seen across the course of the thread. I like the added little descending slide guitar lines too, with Ray's pauses. Another good version of a great song.
sure it was mentioned earlier in the thread (but can't remember by who) that she was Ray's partner at the time.
20th Century Man's still one of the greats, no matter the version. This one has the same structure as the last time we covered it (Storyteller version), but not the same groove, it's more boogie rock (with boogie piano), but super nice. The studio take will forever be definitive for me (with the bridge at its rightful bridge place). But I enjoy them all. Over My Head's nice but doesn't have the bright soaring power of the studio cut when the chorus comes in, except the "winner takes all" line that Ray revels in delivering. The backup singer is doing her best to be an agreeable presence but her vocals doesn't fit the song too well in my opinion. Run Away from Time fares better (maybe because it's a song I like less ?). At some points, Ray sings in the high smiling voice of the poppier tunes from the Misfits LP. 28 years later, it's still there !!
Her name is Karin Forsman - Ray's girlfriend at the time. from Johnny Rogan's biography: "Among the backing musicians (for Working Man's Cafe) was Swedish singer, Karin Forsman, who had already joined Davies' touring troupe and would emerge as his steady girlfriend over the next few years. With her striking blonde hair, Forsman was already well known in Scandinavia, singing alongside her identical twin Maria in the Pilgrim Sisters. Davies would later produce an album for Karin at Konk titled Harbour Girl, credited to Pilgrim."
"Over My Head" / "Run Away From Time" / 20th Century Man" I really like the sound of Ray and his fine band. All of the versions of these songs sound good but of these three, I enjoyed hearing "20th Century Man" the most because it is a signature song of Ray's played really well (great piano). I have some DVDs of various performers appearing on ACL (Lucinda, Johnny, Waylon, Steve Earle) and if Ray's appearance were available for sale I would definitely consider buying it. The solo material is strong and Ray is not afraid to feature Kinks songs as well.
Yea, it's funny but the only Austin City Limits dvd/bluray concert I have is Stevie Ray Vaughn, but yea, I would get this, particularly if it was the full show
I'm really enjoying this Austin City Limits show. I love the high-energy version of 20th Century Man even though Ray goes into shouty mode a few times. It's such a great song that I struggle to imagine how he could make it sound bad. That wasn't meant as a backhanded criticism - this version will do it for me. The two new songs that preceded it are also great to watch. Over My Head was one of the highlights of Other people's Lives and while I didn't much like Run Away From Time on the album, it really comes to life (no pun intended) when played in concert.
I like his vocal style much better here than on the album version. The Jaggerisms are gone and he sounds more like Ray.
"Over My Head"/"Run Away From Time" It's nice to hear these tracks take on a life away from the production values of the album - as I said yesterday, there is a looser and more spontaneous feel. Ray is living in the songs, taking them where he wants to take them, and the band is following. "20th Century Man" A rocking, boogieing version that works well - again the band is well in tune with where Ray is going as he directs operations from the centre of the song. This doesn't feel overextended at seven minutes.
‘20th Century Man’: “And this is the punchline…(big smile) but I don’t want to die here.” Starts out slow-paced, pauses…(has he forgotten the words? Nope) and it’s brilliant. Ray’s vocals, by turns thoughtful and snarling…the band in fine form; bass, drums, piano, slide guitar…later an organ…This performance sure drew me in. By mid-point I’d flung the cat off my lap in my excitement and considered getting up from my recliner. Does he have a prompter to help him with the lyrics? Shakespeare etc etc just rolling off his tongue. I know Ray’s sung the song hundreds of times but still… Fantastic.
