The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

I find it interesting Ray’s specific choice to assign laziness as a quality to the sun, giving it a willfulness of its own. It takes it’s own, sweet time—if at all—to heed to the protagonists entreaties. And there is no guarantee that it will. The singer’s happiness or sadness is completely at the mercy of something he can’t control. Hence, the pleading quality to the lyric….but also the resignation to being without it if that turns out to be the case. I suspect that is why Ray chose to the embellish his lyric with the reminder of human powerlessness and insignificance (When I was young My world was three foot, seven inch tall; When you were young There was no world at all) in comparison to the eternal —a theme he’ll also address in “Big Sky.” Damn, is that Ray Davies an intelligent, clever songwriter or what? He’s not just throwing rhythms together.

By the way, the lyric is a variation on an old, turn of the century hit, “Lazy Moon,” (which Ray may or may not be aware of) which likewise is a singer pleading for a willfully hesitant celestial object to beam its good fortune down upon him. Lot of singers have covered the song, including Harry Nilsson. But I was first familiar with it in a Laurel and Hardy movie. (That’s right, the guy who has a Stan Laurel avatar is a Laurel and Hardy fanatic. I’ll let the shock of that revelation sink in.) Here’s the link if you can look past the offensive blackface introduced into the plot. But, hey, it was 1931…

 

The TV programme was ‘Colour Me Pop’, a mostly missing from the archives BBC2 show that I’m somewhat obsessed with due largely to the range of rarely seen late 60s pop acts it gave full colour exposure to (I wrote an article for Shindig! about it a few years back), and unfortunately The Kinks edition is one of the majority of shows for which the visuals are not known to that exist.

Here’s the thing though: even if the Kinks CMP edition did exist, ‘Lazy Old Sun’ still wouldn’t be viewable, as the pre mix made by Ray for inclusion on Colour Me Pop (as included on the VGPS box) ultimately wasn’t included in the finished show! (You can hear nearly the whole off air audio of the show as it went out on the earlier box set The Kinks At The BBC). I’ll try and write more about the Kinks edition (the only time the group were allotted their own dedicated TV show during the 60s, which is crazy to me seeing as they were so famed) when we get to the appropriate place in the chronology (July 1968).

Colour Me Pop - Wikipedia

 

Brand new photo of Ray enjoying wine, cakes and tea posted to The Kinks Twitter today:

https://twitter.com/thekinks/status/1407368774991425543?s=21

 

Absolutely correct, as in "Interstellar Overdrive", "Matilda Mother" and a few others. "Scream Thy Last Scream" might fit as well. Can't help but think Syd might've been pleased with the comparison.

 

That's the first verse. On the second and third I hear
|F |E7/G# |Eb/G |Gm D7 | Db half dim | C maj 7 | B7 | Em

 

Lazy Old Sun
An absolutely jaw-dropping song!

This almost messes with one's state of mind upon hearing it. The closest reference points that come to mind are Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles and, to a lesser extent, Till I Die by The Beach Boys. The unrelenting dreariness of the music and depressive effect of the lyrics. No safe harbor here.

 

I've been pointing this out to people for years. The first ten measures are musically identical.

 

LAZY OLD SUN

Nothing is real.

Like Alice in wonderland, Ray is small in a big, confusing universe. He's longing for the kiss of a sun's ray to give him a taste of eternity.

And time isn't a problem.

I don't sense any depression here. Quite the opposite.

A somewhat serene contentment I'd say.

Superb musically, sunny Ray shines all the way.

 

While it's true that there was nothing before this that sounded anything like it, there sure were a lot of concurrent tracks from this era that sounded like it by other acts that were considered to be more "Sunshine Pop" than "Overtly Psychedelic" (like Cream, Traffic or Pink Floyd). It can be argued that all of these recordings might've been the precursors of early 90s Seattle grunge. "Lazy Old Sun" definitely ranks right up there with the best of them. "Blue Jay Way" has already been mentioned. I'll list some other obvious examples from the period, in case anybody hasn't heard them. All of the songs listed below are clickable YouTube links:

THE EARNEST OF BEING GEORGE
LEMONS NEVER FORGET
DAILY NIGHTLY
TRY IT
THE LAST THING I REMEMBER
ROOMS

Hell, even Gary Lewis & The Playboys manged to cough up a token example with this song about a pool table filtered through the lens of L.S.D:



Bring The Whole Family

 

that is hilarious! it only just occurred to me as i was typing that yesterday..and not even when i heard the track!

great ears think alike

 

“Lazy Old Sun”

Yeah for all the praise! Sunny Ray is feeling groovy! So much has already been said and I’m in and out of internet connection, so I will just quickly say this is a phenomenal song and one of my favorites on the album.

 

Lazy Old Sun
A stunner. I have been obsessed with this song lately. The music alone puts you in a different frame of mind. It almost stops you in your tracks and demands that you take the trip.
I know I feel better when the sun is out, so though I don't hear depression in this song, I do feeling a yearning for the sun to shine, because life is just better when it does. To me this song is a lovely ode to the sun. It's done beautifully and without any sappiness that could come from such a thing.
Beside the utterly fantastic lyric of "kiss me with one ray of light...", my other favorite lyric in this song is:
When I was young
My world was three foot, seven inch tall
The lyrics make me laugh but also helps paint a picture in a clever way.
Rasa's vocals add so much to the song. Gorgeous.
I can't believe this isn't more well known.

 

Yeah, that’s a great line.

 

I've read enough of Mendelssohn's take on the Kinks. Yes, he sometimes gets them right, but when he's wrong, he's really wrong. I won't be buying his book anytime soon.

 

The stereo mix of this song like some of the other tracks on Something Else have some of the vocals recorded out-of-phase so that wben the track is summed to mono, they disappear. I suspect that may be the case here.

 

Lazy Old Sun is another great track. I never thought about it as proto-indie rock, but there certainly is a connection to the sound of those Elephant 6 bands.

I seem to recall an old standard with a similar title. I think I heard it on a Ray Charles record. I wonder if that was an inspiration for Davies?

 

Now that is, Something Else!

 

Love Me Till The Sun Shines-It’s probably the most traditional “rock” song on the album. Dave's ode to a one night stand with a garage rock twist. Notice Dave's style no longer feels forced. He can stand alone as a song writer.

Lazy Old Sun- To these ears this is psychedelic. And lyrically and musically I find it to be exquisite. The song is haunting. If that was the intended effect, it works for me. It definitely gives the album extra flavor. Beautiful horn parts, a slide bass, and maracas managing to sonically illustrate Ray's lyrics.

 

Boston's garage band Lyres gives Dave's "Love Me Till" a cover

 

I think we should have a poll to determine which is worse, the song or your punny response.

 

A fun twist on "Lazy Old Sun"

 

This was also posted up thread by @DISKOJOE .

 

Oops Thanks

 

Preserve it until then!

 

Fascinating!