The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Freeform Sunday: This week, I went to my first concert in over a year or so, I guess, if my memory serves me well (that's a big "if"). It was New York 70s revival band The Lemon Twigs, led by the brothers D'Addario, the eldest of whom is barely 24. I first saw them on stage almost 6 years and 3 or 4 albums ago. I can't believe the proficiency of these guys at such a young age (but then Genesis's golden creative years were almost over a that age, even if I like the rest too). The support act was a girl trio (two of which are the D'Addario's girlfriends, according to my friend who got us the tickets) named Tchotchke. All these young people compose and play 70s music as if the 70s never ended (which is basically how I'm living my life), and as if it were an established genre like blues, jazz or classical string quartet. Which it is, I believe. I spend an incredibly great evening anyway, even if the concerts were short and I missed the merch stand through too much talking to fellow nerds.

I don't remember if I posted a Lemon Twigs tune at the time of @Fortuleo 's Big Kinks-Influenced-Music-Through-The-Ages weekly compilations. They have a bombastic quality that does not really fit 60s Kinks music, but might echo some of the RCA catalog. They even had a Schoolboys-themed album, sort of (about a chimpanzee raised as a boy and sent to school).

Someone already put Thursday's concert online. Here the kid brother takes the drum, the elder the bass.

 

Freeform Sunday Special!

‘Do It Again’

Do It Again (film) - Wikipedia

#
Directed by Robert Patton-Spruill
Written by Geoff Edgers
Produced by Geoff Edgers
Josh Struzziery and Jeffrey Currie
(Executive producers)
Patricia Moreno
(co-producer)
Starring Geoff Edgers
Sting
Zooey Deschanel
Paul Weller
Clive Davis
Peter Buck
Robyn Hitchcock
Dave Davies
Mick Avory
Bob Henrit
Warren Zanes
Edited by Brad Allen Wilde
Music by The Kinks
Warren Zanes
Release date
2009
Country United States
Language English


First of all, isn't that a great poster? ^

This film is quite an oddity in Kinks history, as it’s essentially an unauthorized fan film that was specifically and (and frankly understandably) disowned by Ray, BUT it has some seriously big music names in it as well as contributions (well interviews, some rare footage and one song performance ) from the other 3 original Kinks, so it’s in a weird limbo. Too substantial to be entirely dismissed, too off brand (and some would say off-colour) to consider as a canonical item. But it’s a strange old thing and on balance I’m glad it exists. Perhaps I think that because I can (or could at the time the film was made) relate to Edgers premise so much.

I have to say (admit?) that in stating his case for attempting to force the hand of 4 60-something men he didn't know to reunite, Geoff Edgers gives righteous voice to a small but significant group of early 21st century Kinks fans that I count myself among when at the opening of Do It Again he expresses frustration about how The Kinks are so good, so influential, and (at the time) the original members are all still alive and yet no one seems to know or care, and that they’re not up where they belong on a world stage performing and being deservedly lauded. Now, I used to just post onto Web 1.0 messageboards about this, but Mr Edgers, an (at the time) late 30s music journalist carrying some degree of clout decided to take these abstracted fanatical feelings a step further and attempt to right this injustice in the real world. His first step is to chance his arm and reputation contacting a bunch of musicians and celebs who owe an artistic debt to The Kinks, in what depending on your point of view is either a noble tilt at showcasing/establishing how wide and high The Kinks influence extends, or a barely tangentially relevant excuse to get to hang and jam with an array of pop/rock A listers. Be it even the latter of these, I still think it’s kinda cool and unique in a way that Edgers got Sting, Weller, Deschanel, Buck etc to talk on camera in the 2000s at length about The Kinks, even if you do occasionally feel secondhand embarrassment for Edgers at a few points (like when Weller point blank refuses to cede to Edgers overtures to jam on David Watts) .. and Edgers aimed high.. Though a lot of others (Jack White, Green Day) didn’t respond, he did apparently bag Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney (!!) for the project, before their scenes were repressed due to I guess probably their respective managements saying ‘what the hell is this upstart production and how did he get an interview with our guy?? Shut it down!’ or words to that effect. There is definitely a guerrilla element to this film, where Edger presents us with what he was able to get away with through a little bit of industry influence and a whole lotta chutzpah.

The real problem sets in for Edgers when his global Kinks celeb love-in hits the unromantic reality of the original Kinks as they are in the late 2000s, where things quickly go south: Quaife, effectively retired from public life by this point ,is only available on the end of the telephone, Mick is just Mick, authentically bluff and unsentimental in a way that punctures and sinks Edgers ship of dreams , and worst of all for Edgers at the fan meet up where Ray is present is where the drawbridge definitely comes up. So in seeking an more positive end to his quest, Edgers manages to get an audience with Dave, who despite being kinda shockingly frail (I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d seen him on camera since the stroke, I have to say his condition has improved markedly over the last 15 years) is warm and generous enough able to provide the philosophical thematic payoff Edgers needed, effectively, playing the role of the final wise Buddhist monk/Yoda at the end who says if not in so many words ‘perhaps journey you took along the way was real Kinks reunion in your heart’ or similar. And they jam together on that nascent millennial anthem ‘Strangers’, before Edgers returns home to his family to sing (perhaps appropriately) Weird Al’s ‘Yoda’ at his daughter's school.

So the pros: great poster, unique footage of celebs praising The Kinks, rare 60s home movie footage (I think I remember that Quaife contributed this), Dave Pete and Mick involved to varying degree. Edgers quest kind of captures a moment of what it was like to be a Kinks fan in the early 21st century.

The cons: Can be seen as a vanity project, secondhand cringe in the celeb interviews, when fanatical dreams hit reality it’s not pretty.

 

Trailer:

 

Extended trailer:

 

Edgers interview:

 

What a great list, Avid Streett, but you got to hear them said by the Master himself:

 

Watching both of these trailers, I noticed that’s there’s footage that didn’t make the final film, for example, the scene where Edgers is cleaning the gutters while bewailing the fact that lesser bands have reunited. Also, judging from the first trailer, it seems that the original title of the movie was to be Celluloid Hero.

 

This is an excellent review by Avid Ajsmith. He got the gist of the movie quite well. Points for including the poster, which is one of the best things about the movie and which I have, having plunked down $50.00 to help get it made, so I don’t feel one iota of guilt of owning a pirated DVD copy from its TV broadcast. I would like to add a couple of things to Avid Ajsmith’s review.

1. When Edgers talked about Paul Weller, he quoted him as saying that the only way that he would reunite the Jam would be if he “was laying in the gutter”. As Edgers said this, this piccy came on the screen from a drunken binge in Prague in 2008:

Shambolic Paul Weller is pictured lying in the gutter after drunken night out with young lover | Daily Mail Online

I have always considered that a dick move by Edgers in retaliation for Weller refusing to sing “David Watts” w/him after their interview.

2. In a touching scene, Edgers asks a young French woman why she’s a Kinks fan while waiting for the Kinks convention to open. She first says that she has to respond in French and then goes on to say that her father was a big fan himself and that he took her to see them and those memories made her a big fan.

3. There’s a scene where Edgers is in a room in London, either a hotel or a pub, hung over and moaning about the fact that he has never drank so much before. Then these words appear on screen in reply, “Welcome to England”.

 

Almost forgot, Happy Memorial Day weekend to my fellow American Avids, and a great weekend to the rest of the Avids.

 

Just for the record
I used to love watching Lost In Space lol

 

Love Will Change

It sounds New Age and in fact is (to clarify) Dave at his new age of 62!
Stroke or not who would have thought even with aid he would have Russell(ed) up something like this?

It's not my speed and that 6 note synth line is mixed way out front but it ain't bad for what it is if I'm booked into a flotation spa!

 

“You carrying me…”? What’s this song?

 

Did that once... it was very cool... problem was, like always, I was too tired, and my 45 minute session became two hours until they came and woke me up lol

There's one down the road, I need to check it out

 

In googling The Aschere Project, I came across this brief interview with Dave, where he talks about it briefly, on a Danish speaker manufacturer’s web site. There appears to be some less than stellar translating, and it rehashes stories that we’ve heard a thousand times before, but there was some interesting stuff, especially Dave’s opinion regarding his and Ray’s writing style, and his few comments about the Aschere Project.


A ROCK LEGEND - MEET DAVE DAVIES OF THE KINKS.

We talked to the younger brother, Dave Davies, founder and lead guitarist of The Kinks, about his career and his new album.

You really got me
- If I feel good, I play well, Dave says and seems to nail his musical nature in one sentence. Over the phone, speaking from his UK home, Dave’s voice sounds surprisingly young and clear. He’s vivid, enthusiastic, and witty to talk to – and first of all curious, interested in the world of today.

Patiently and sincerely, he answers my questions though he must have heard most of them many times before. He’s eager to talk about his new record called “The Aschere Project: Two Worlds” and his passion for spirituality. Enthusiasm’s infectious, but first we dive into the days of rock and pop music’s childhood, which he became a very important part of.

The British Invasion
By 1964, the world was changing fast. The cold war was on, the Cuba-crisis almost caused a third world war, a 45 km long wall divided Berlin, and Kennedy had just been assassinated. Then into the middle of it all came a new, rebellious generation, emerging fast and transforming the world of pop culture forever.

Learning from American rhythm’n’blues icons like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis, British pop culture seriously started rearing its head in the beginning of the 1960s. The outcome was the British Invasion and especially the four “big ones”: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who. And then The Kinks. As founder/lead guitarist, and occasional songwriter of The Kinks, Dave Davies became a very central part of this Invasion. What was it like for a sensitive 17-year-old working class North Londoner to be hurled into this kind of stardom, when The Kinks had their major breakthrough in 1964 with the first of a string of hit singles, the pre-heavy metal rocker “You Really Got Me”?

- A contrast! It was. But there was an advantage: Being in a band, it was like an extension of the family, Davies explains.

Still, when asked about the highs and lows of his career with The Kinks for more than three decades, being in a band like The Kinks wasn’t always pure happiness, and the brothers’ almost lifelong feud is now legendary:

Ups and downs with The Kinks
- I feel I have been fortunate. There were amazing highs – and very low ones. Also personally, in the relationship between Ray and me. We started on top in the beginning of the 1960s. There was an explosion of creativity at the time with lots of fantastic bands. Then we went a little down towards the end of the 60s, got banned in the States. Then again a built-up, a comeback in the late 70s, and in the 80s we went big in the US with records as “Low Budget”, “Give the People What They Want”, “State of Confusion”, and “Word of Mouth”.

- Then in 1996, Ray decided he wanted to try out some solo material. So me and Ray decided to pause – I didn’t want to get in the way of that, Dave says, summing up the period that turned out to be the end of The Kinks so far, though they never formally split as a band.

Ray and Dave Davies - observation vs. feeling
Ray and Dave are known to have had a complicated, yet very creatively productive relationship. I suggest that his own songs have a slightly stronger vulnerability and sensitiveness than most of his brother’s many songs. Though Dave speaks highly of Ray’s unique songwriting and performing talents, he doesn’t disagree and reveals a little of the secret behind their success:

- Ray’s songs are very observational songs. He has a problem with expressing his feelings. He feels uncomfortable with feelings. While my own songs are inner feelings. That’s a part of the problem with me and Ray. His song style is a craft, he’s dealing with external elements, mine depend fully of how I feel inside. So when these things met and we worked together, some times magic would occur.

- Ray started working on his craft [songwriting, ed.] early on. A method. Mine was feelings, which I think is something I have from my mother. Like the interest in spirituality, astrology, the psyche, Dave continues.

The Journey
The journey into the unknown, the search for something else, was always encouraged in the Davies’ childhood home, which according to Dave is part of the explanation why the brothers became so creative.

- As a kid, I was lucky. I was always interested in unusual things – and we were encouraged to. Like learning guitar – my mom lend me a few pounds. I didn’t like school as a kid and I had a problem with authorities. I think I learned more from my mom and sisters – my family was a matriarchy. So I always felt comfortable with women, talking to them, picking them up, Dave laughs. I was interested in painting as well. But I found that the teacher new nothing at all about painting, Dave explains. This kind of square truth was not his cup of tea.

- Who’s to say….the imagination could be more important than the “real” world. Maybe some times 2 + 2 equals to 5? Perhaps this is why the creative, open-minded world of spirituality and music suited him better.

The razor blade incident
So let’s go back into music history to that crucial day, when it all began and “You Really Got Me” found its form in 1964. Ray had written it as a bluesy, slower tune, and Dave wasn’t satisfied with the sound coming from the small amplifier, which was rather “sort of a radio without the radio”, according to Dave. The 17-year-old had just started shaving, and he got hold on sharp razor blades, stuck them into the speaker cone and sliced it, leaving the material/cone intact, but with scratches and holes. And that’s how the distorted, “ugly” guitar sound on “You Really Got Me” came about. Of course this song is one of The Kinks’ most well known singles. But what were the finest moments of his career besides the obvious ones?

- God, that’s a tough one. But the mid to late 70s were good, Dave says. I suggest that his work on an album as “Schoolboys in Disgrace” from 1975 is under-valued and that he sounds inspired.

- You’re quite right. That was a period when I felt good – I was also producing and engineering at the time. I felt inspired. And if I feel good, I play well. And me and Ray we were a well-suited team with Ray’s writing crafts and my writing and playing from the heart.

What are his personal all time favourite Kinks- and Dave Davies songs?

- Oh, there are so many. Shangri-La is one of them, and Dead End Street, Waterloo Sunset. Of my own songs, I’ve always liked Visionary Dreamer [from Davies’ first solo album, ed.]. Dave also had a big Kinks hit with "Death of a Clown" (1967).

New album and DVD
During this solo career, Dave’s been more and more occupied with spiritual matters. At age 63, having suffered a stroke in 2004, he is now back and is releasing a new album, a co-work with his son Russ Davies (from the band Cinnamon Chasers), called “The Aschere Project: Two Worlds”.

- It’s basically a love story, Dave explains. A science fiction-like love story about two souls, about multidimensional existence between a man and a woman and about getting access to spirituality and the deeper understanding of mankind. Breaking the codes. Two souls attracted to each other across the galaxy. The story is rooted in ancient myths from Persia and Eastern India and then he and his son have placed “something new” in it, as Dave puts it.

The music is spherical and dreamlike, yet still very melodic. And the CD comes with an 8-page booklet – telling the story along with the music. Dave is very into soundtracks reflecting the inner world these days and has high hopes for this project, which he plans to turn it into a stage musical and eventually a movie in the future. Furthermore, he has recently released the DVD “Mystical Journey”, a documentary on his life with music and spirituality.

The beginning of a new world
We’re coming to an end of the interview. Dave sounds fresh and is still quite optimistic when it comes to the future:

- We’re just seeing the beginning of a new understanding and communication. Just think of the Internet. Now I can talk to like-minded people whenever I want. It’s fascinating now; there are so many sources of information. It’s different now…we’re a part of the change going on.

- Spirituality and spiritual matters cross over everything. A song like She Love You – it’s foundation is spiritual, says Dave who’s not afraid of the future itself.

- What scares me is fanaticism. I don’t believe in dooms day. It’s just an excuse. If it’s ending anyway, then why do anything at all? On the other hand, when we’re scared that’s where we really learn and develop, says Dave and defines spirituality as an energy behind all things, thoughts, and minds. A powerful, non-visual inner world, Dave concludes over the phone.

Probably the same world that helped to create modern world's rock history that he was a part of during the British Invasion, Swinging London, and The Summer of Love. Thanks to Dave and The Kinks, it’s been a long journey. Living on a Thin Line on a Sunny Afternoon.

See more on www.davedavies.com and www.kindakinks.net.

- Rune H. Jensen, rhj@dali.dk.

 

I wanted to see this documentary so bad back in the day, from afar it looked fantastic... And so I looked, and looked and looked for it, never found it but found a lot of dismissive hostile reviews and reactions. 'Vanity project', “who does he think he is" etc.was what I read everywhere, so I stopped looking and kind of forgot everything about it until… today.
And now that I’ve read @ajsmith’s superb post and seen the trailers, I'm back to where I started and I want to watch it, again. If only because you want to root for a guy who got talented artists on board and even managed to get McCartney on camera before being chastened by his management… From what I read and see, I sense two problems : the guy was too influenced by the vogue of "a hero on a quest/mission" documentaries and TV shows, that were so hyped from the nineties on, guys like Nick Broomfield, Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, who put themselves on the spot like stuntmen. It feels different here. The guy doesn't know if he's a journalist, a fan, a musician, a "buddy". And fans (we) usually don't like fellow fans who don't know their place and want to stand out too much. Frankly, seeing this trailer footage, there's something a bit off from the onset. The idea that the Kinks "should" reunite and that they "should" reunite as the original foursome is almost distasteful, because ok, the Kinks are certainly part of our lives, but it's their lives, too… first and foremost. It's like kids claiming their parents "should" sleep together fifteen years after their divorce, even for one night only, because it'd make them happy. Reading the reviews back then, I thought this documentary looked like a good idea done badly, I now think it might've been the other way around : a bad idea done fairly well.

 

Great Dave Interview!
As far as he and Ray were concerned early on Dave thought that; "I believe that you and me last forever!!!!"

 

I learned about the Do It Again film project on the Kinks email list, which is still around …and I think I even chipped in a few bucks…. and then never heard about it again, after it apparently had a limited showing. Reminds me to see whatever happened with the crowdfunded Alex Chilton film!

 

Thankfully (?), I’ve never run into this subset!

Re: Do It Again film: I’d love to see this. Just checked Amazon to see if it’s available on dvd (it’s not). I’m curious about the usage of Kinks music sound bites. Normally, this could cost a fortune…unless it’s used as an illustration of a point and is no longer than 8 (I’m pretty sure) seconds. (Per the co-director of ‘Where Are You, Jay Bennett?’ This project was crowdfunded and he explains how he was part of the case that took this issue all the way to the Supreme Court. (Earlier…not for the Jay project.))

I only watched the extended trailer (while walking the dog. Didn’t hit a street sign…good news!) and didn’t get out a stopwatch but there was at least one track that I thought was well over the time limit.

 

I have no dog in this fight, just a messenger.

 

Just a bunch of colored bars and a high-pitched emergency signal sound. Woke up the cat!

 

that's how it starts, but the film proper does follow! (or at least it did for me).

 

Oh!

 

Finally got to see this, thank you for the link! I thought it was pretty good, if a bit long. The interviews were cool, especially with Dave, bless him!

Geoff is a forum member, yes?

 

That is the reason it is not commercially available and never really was. Ray even objected to some of the pictures and lyric used in Savage's official biography. There is no way he would allow the use of his music in such a film, that I can only imagine hated from the moment he heard about the prospect of it. Just another example of Edgers lack of judgement and emotional intelligence. I got given a DVD of it an epoch ago I got 10 mins in before I took the disc out of the player and I have had no compunction to put it back in gain since.

 

Remember Me.

Again an opening soundscape, that has a sort of heartbeat feel come in, and some sounds that could well be processed guitar sounds.

Then we get a slight change in direction that has an interesting keyboard, bass and drums sound.
We get more spoken vocals and more soundscape type material that has less of a structure, yet it has a feel that hints at a structure.

Lots of delays and such adding to the feel of drifting along in the world.

Then we get some form out of the soundscape. It takes the form of a bass and drum kind of groove, with Dave muttering something or other underneath.... and that may not sound appealing, but, frankly, I'm kind of enjoying it.