Autumn Almanac Coupled with Mr. Pleasant, this is probably the greatest single ever made. I might be persuaded to concede that honor to Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields, but the Kinks really struck gold with this one. And to follow up Waterloo Sunset too! It almost seems like even attempting to record something else would be some sort of sacrilege, but Ray doesn't disappoint. I'm glad to see that this song is so well received by Kinks fans. As a non-album track and a rather weird song, I would assume it wouldn't get the attention it deserves. And I see that just about everyone else has noted the songs bizarre song structure as well. Unlike Good Vibrations and all of the other pocket symphonies that were mentioned, Autumn Almanac feels incredibly cohesive. Even listening to it now, the wacky strcutre feels oddly natural. I think much of that is owed to the metronomic drum beat that anchors the song. I think if you want to do that sort of thing, you can change the chords/melody OR the rhythm, but not both, imo. The song absolutely feels like a transitionary single between Something Else and VGPS. The music hall/vaguely psychedelic atmosphere of Something Else are still there, but the lyrical themes and crunchy production of VGPS are starting to shine through for the first time. Probably my favorite Kinks track next to Waterloo Sunset and Shangri-La ... Ray's other pocket symphony.
Aside from the band, the songs and albums, another thing that is standing out to me on this thread, is what a thoughtful, predominantly humble bunch of folk Kinks fans are..... cheers
According to Doug Hinman's All Day and All of the Night book, "Autumn Almanac" was released as a single b/w "David Watts" on November 29, 1967. It didn't appear on an album until The Kink Kronkiles in 1972.
Take a look at what Ray's British contemporaries were up to at the time: Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus She's A Rainbow / 2000 Lightyears From Home* I Can See For Miles / Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands King Midas In Reverse / Everything Is Sunshine Wear Your Love Like Heaven / Oh Gosh* I cannot say this often enough: There will never be another 1967. "Autumn Almanac" begins with the most in-your-face non-rhyme in pop history (Caterpillar with Yellow), and then proceeds as unpredictably as it begins. Any song that starts on a chord other than the tonic (in this case, the supertonic) will always grab my attention, but this song also holds my attention with a whole lot more "I didn't hear that coming" moments, from beginning to end. One of the most sublime ones comes when he sings the words "Friday Evenings..." and it shifts from F#m to F# and manages to yank the whole song along with it into the key of F#. Ray doesn't bother to figure out how to squeeze an E7 chord in at the end of this section (like say, Brian Wilson would have) in order to yank it back into the original key of A. After he sings, "'Cause the summer's all gone" he takes us from a B♭ to a surprise Bm chord, when the ear is clearly expecting the next chord to be another E♭m. And then there's the "I like my football" section, which effectively utilizes two brass instruments, presumably a cornet and a trombone. I can't help but thinking that if this song had been presented to George Martin, there probably would've wound up being a full British brass band in there, not to mention some sort of overarching string arrangement during the "Tea, and toasted buttered currant buns" section. So instead of a fancy arrangement, it's the song itself that winds up being the star. Like I said, this sort of chordal complexity only seemed to have existed in 1967. Particularly late 1967, when this towering monument to astronomical amounts of unusual chord changes was in the American top 10: *Hit singles in the states, though only LP cuts in the UK.
Autumn Almanac I will leave the complexities of this song to others. I just hear a fantastic pop song. One thing that has always irritated me about this song is all the yeses (yesses?). this is one of my husband's favorite songs, but I always complain about the incessant "yes yes yes" stuff. It kind of grates on me. But with that exception, obviously this is musically and lyrically a gorgeous song.And I do like the few yesses sprinkle in at the fade. i can live with them. LOL.
Thanks for asking me to do it. I will post it a little later. Usually I am hesitant to post technical stuff so as not to gunk up a fine thread.
I do think he deliberately sings "Armagnac." It wasn't until this thread that I noticed the dark turn the song's lyrics take in one of the later sections. "This is my street, and I'm never gonna leave it, and I'm always gonna stay here, if I live to be ninety-nine." Well, that sounds like a guy who is saying "This is where I belong...." But then the next line: "Cause all the people I meet, seem to come from my street." Suddenly there's a hint that he's noticing, for just a second, that his world has gotten very small. (Maybe he's even saying that if he moved from the street to another one, he'd somehow still be on it. It wouldn't make a difference.) "And I can't get away...." OK, the guy sounds trapped. Happily or otherwise, or both. It's ambivalent in wording, even if the delivery is jovial. (Though I hear a little wistfulness.) "Because it's calling me, (come on home) Hear it calling me, (come on home)" Suddenly the street is a spirit that has sort of hypnotized him, and is controlling him. He feels he has no free will. I don't want to stress this too hard, because the sentiment is more multifaceted than that. The song ends with a lot of "la la la's" and the narrator exclaiming "Yes!" over and over, so if he's trapped or resigned to his fate, he's also more or less content with his lot. In the same way that any number of classic love songs have a resigned, but winking "sigh, you grabbed my heart and I can't leave you" sort of message. Still, if you listen to this and 1969's "Shangri La" back to back, there is an indication that Ray's sense of "belonging somewhere" is developing a two-sidedness: Put on your slippers and sit by the fire You've reached your top and you just can't get any higher You're in your place and you know where you are In your Shangri-la Sit back in your old rocking chair You need not worry, you need not care You can't go anywhere Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la
I don't think it is any chance if gunking up the thread lol I working on the premise "eat the meat and spit out the bones"... if a post irks me, or doesn't interest me, I can move along... Personally I am really interested in the whole thing, but particularly the section that seems to modulate through all the keys the song has used.... my theory has never been great, and I am too out of practice, and have too little time, to break it down properly.
I am having a tough time what to call some of the sections. Still working on it. I never gave it any thought before today and just listened to the song.
It is unusual in that regard.... I find myself not knowing what to call any of the sections.... I think I just used the first line as a pointer lol
I’m calling a consensus of Steves on the lyrical interpretation of the My Street section I had been thinking of the best way of expressing this but Steve E has already done the hard work. Ray isn’t mocking the people who are always going to live in their street. Instead, he’s expressing a fact of life. This is exactly where many people stayed - more so when higher education and international travel were inaccessible for working class families. To twist an old phrase, familiarity breeds contentment. Yet there is another side to that coin, which Ray will directly address the following year in Shanghai-La. In Autumn Almanac there’s a hint the person feels trapped ‘and I can’t get away’. I think this reflects the knowledge that people had the opportunity to emigrate to countries like Canada and Australia and many families in the 60s had younger relatives who had done so (including two of Ray’s sisters). Note: this was different to discretionary international travel - for example, in the 60s the Australian Government, desperate for more workers, charged just 10 pounds for so-called ‘assisted passage’ to emigrate to Australia. Those people were dubbed ‘ten pound poms’. While she never regretted emigrating to Australia I remember my mother always being homesick for the small town where her mother and sisters lived. It was a contradiction which was also reflected in the England-based side of the family. Happiness tinged with sadness and vice versa.
In this case, however, he can’t get away not because he hasn’t got the money, power or position to do so, but because his home turf keeps calling him back. He is too emotionally attached to leave. He sincerely believes this is where he belongs and is happy that he has somewhere to go where he knows he belongs. He is not the brightest bulb on the block, not seeming to understand that the reason that all the people he meets are from nearby is because he never goes anywhere else where he might meet outsiders. He is more akin to Uncle Son than to Arthur. Consider also Ray himself, who had the wherewithal to live anywhere he chose and did so only to find that he was, indeed, constantly called back to his home territory. PS People of a certain age often mistakenly call me Steve because there was a time when that name was far more common than Scott. Lately, Steve has become extremely rare among American children.
Autumn Almanac The song intro kicks off with a blues progression starting on F#. A skiffle like rhythm gives it a bouncy feel. The verse starts off with a B Minor chord and then at :13 the A chord establishes the key of the verse. The refrain is heard at :19. The chords repeat and then at :33 the F# intro is reset into the verse. At :45 a D# minor chord enters and is given the commonly used chromatic line rundown. Fits fine though to give the song a contemplative sound. At :55 the verse turns around on a B flat chord but then immediately following is a B Minor chord and the verse chords follow however, the verse and refrain have been subtly reset into a section that more resembles a chorus. The chorus repeats. At, 1:21 the E chord is held and then the verse returns however, now the verse begins firmly on an A chord and the key is firmly established right off. At 1:40 (This is my street), the song shifts to an A minor chord and the key of C is established at 1:49 at “Stay here”. The chords quickly descend chromatically down to an A chord and the song briefly shifts to A Major…the verse key. Then at the line “I Can’t get away” the song’s intro is partially reprised but instead of an F# major chord used in the intro, Ray uses a F# minor chord to add a somber tone to the “Come on home” line. At 2:17 the verse turns around on a B major chord. The chorus follows starting with the B Minor chord. At 2:38 a retransition line ascends landing on the D chord with an E chord and then home at last to the A chord. The song ends with the three chords used as a codetta of sorts. First off, there are many tabs that show all kinds of different ways to play the song. Some show regular tuning and others show capo at second fret. I watched a clip of The Kinks playing the song on the BBC and Dave’s chords show him tuned down a half step. I am fairly sure this is what was used in the studio. As far as the sections go, they are up to interpretation. Here are the sections taken from above- Intro in F Sharp :09-:33 Verse in A Major with refrain :33-:45 Intro is reset into the verse with key change to F# :45-:56 Verse remains in F# :57-1:24 Chorus in A Major which is a reset of the verse. 1:25-1:40 Verse returns in A Major but is changed slightly in the chord progression. 1:40-1:49 Verse Shifts key to C Major 1:50-2:19 Verse does a sort of recapitulation of A Major and F# Major heard in other parts of the song. However, it does not modulate but instead uses tonicization. 2:20-2:40 Final chorus in A Major 2:40-3:05 Coda in A Major I did not realize how complicated the song was until today. However, Ray uses repetition to tie the song together, so it has some flow to it. And of course, the refrain of the song is the highlight that really brings it home. The resetting of the sections is petty amazing. Almost prog rock like.
I barely looked at the lyrics this morning really. I can certainly see this perspective on the interpretation.... I guess it all depends on how we interpret "and I can't get away, because it's calling me....." I guess it all comes down to whether this feels like he is a prisoner of circumstance, or just too connected to want to leave. Possibly the delicate sensitivity, describing the place - in the poetic caterpillar and the wind blowing the leaves - is the clue The people that get together and share food together (a currant bun lol, I haven't heard that since I was a pup), where the warmth of their friendship/companionship fights off the cold of winter.... The steady and solid schedule.... the comfort that you know when and where you will be (no alarms and no surprises) It all comes down to that one section.... This is my street and I'm never going to leave it... and I'm always going to stay, even if I live to 99.... but why? Because all the people I meet, seem to come from my street.... again it is a comfort.... ..... it would be nice to be settled, comfortable, around people you know, and have known.... their strengths and weaknesses, the good and the bad... I think I understand this guy.... People always speak of wanting to be happy, or being happy, but the greatest thing is that contentedness, where even in tough times we can look around us and smile at the comfort...... It is a really interesting lyric, but it could go either way.... I think there's too much tenderness for him to be unhappy about it, but it's possible.
It's crazy isn't it. I generally just try and give a bit of an overview and my feelings, but when I started listening deeper this morning... it was like "hang on? What did he do there?" and I was lost in a wormhole of this wonderful (to me) piece of music... It had been sitting there all along, and I was just gliding with the hook lol
I guess some of the sections could be considered as pre chorus or interlude. 1:40 section has an interlude sound to it.
