Dear @ajsmith listened to your 30 minute podcast immediately and loved all the corners you visited in ironing out all the Kinks in their Katalogue, i like your short i want it!
I can't say that I am an expert on Sir Douglas Quintet by any means, but back when I was a free-lancing music journalist I did two separate phone interviews (the same evening) with Augie Meyers and Shawn Sahm (Doug Sahm's son). From memory they were on a European tour, with Shawn Sahm replacing his late father in the line-up. Both interviews were great - Augie Meyers could surely write an extensive autobiography about his long career in music and I'm sure it would be a book that no reader could put down until they had read it from start to finish in one go, while Shawn Sahm was like a living encyclopedia about Sir Douglas Quintet (partly because of his family relations obviously, partly because he also came across as a dedicated fan of both the band and also music in general).
0 from 2 I Go To Sleep Apparently i did and though i do feel there's some majestic moments it's still not a particular favourite of mine. Brilliant decision to $hop this around and make money from covers as it's a uniquely attractive choice especially for female pop singers. Father Christmas A very fun song (and video clip) that would very possibly sneak into my Top 100. As noted it's a fabulous Christmas song as is Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run.
Ahh how could your music journalism career have slipped my mind, no wonder you thoroughly know so many careers arc's!
It seems our Headmaster has taken the I Go to Sleep title to heart and is getting himself a well deserved rest this morning! I’m always surprised and almost worried when this happens, Mark not up as 4:30AM! It gives me a little window to answer the Sahm question with another slice of Thread serendipity: after years of seeing his name repeatedly in all my favorite americana artists interviews and covers lists, I finally started buying all Sir Douglas records a few weeks ago. Still haven’t gotten the Honkey Blues one but I’m in Berlin right now and I swear I bought The Return of Doug Saldana just yesterday (30€, not cheap!!!) in the superb POP little record store, probably just as you were posting about sharing the free form Sunday band fest with me! Those Thread coincidences are almost too many to believe…
If before your departure you were to pick up a 3rd Sir Douglas album between both of you would it complete a Berlin trilogy?
77 Big Black Smoke. 1966 b-side 207 points On10 lists 3 top 10 This came in at 74 on my big list, and so oddly didn't make my second forty. Clearly a great track, and clearly it is a song that probably should be on this list, and it just made it =75 Rainy Day In June. 1966 Face To Face 215 points On 9 lists 3 top 10 Rainy Day In June made it to 16 on my original list, which made it number 4 on this list. I've loved this from the first time I really looked at it on the thread. It was probably the song that made me realise there might be something special about this catalogue.... as much as I enjoyed what came prior, and even though See My Friends is a great song that was a little different for the time, when we got to Face To Face there was a definite change up from these guys make great songs, to, "ok, there might be something a little more special about this catalog". Rosy hinted at it, but Rainy Day In June drove the point home... and that's how it turned out. = 75 Moments . 1971 Percy 215 Ponts On 9 lists 3 top 10 The results sort of seem like a song isn't liked or something, but that is just what we keep coming back to, the catalog is just too good to be fair.... so for me Moments came in at 147. In a different way to Rainy Day, the Percy soundtrack made me very aware that there were hidden gems that I couldn't even be ready for. At least four tracks the drip with beauty from Ray, and they are somewhat hidden in this quirky little soundtrack, and it seems like a minor tragedy or sorts, but then you look at The Kinks, and it is like their whole catalog remains hidden to too many people, and inside the journey for those who dare, there are hidden nooks and crannies like Percy, and the unreleased tracks, that are hidden gems inside hidden gems... going through the catalog is like the ultimate treasure hunt, and the surprises just keep coming.
75) Moments (215) <73 75) Rainy Day In June (215) >90 77) Big Black Smoke (207) <62 We get three today. I had one, Rainy Day In June at #20, on my list. My best possible score out of this 40 will be 31 and that's a C+ This time around, there is no growing certainty of consensus as we head for the top!
I thought I had one of today's for a moment, but then I checked and it was a different Percy track that I listed. I don't think I'm dreaming though to imagine that one might appear later. Again, three great tracks today, but as ever 200-odd into 40 won't go...
Lol Yea, apologies. A friend of Steph's was having a crisis of sorts, and so the bed only got my attention at about 11, so at 2:30 the body said no lol
Well, a great B side, an overlooked album track from Face to Face and a highlight from the Percy soundtrack and I got nuthin’ to show for it since none of them are on my list. Well, at least my Valentine’s card reached my dear friend in Germany. Mark, you don’t have to apologize to us. Family things are a higher priority than this thread, however great and wonderful it is.
Well I’m an 0-fer today. I’ll have some good re-listening to do. It will be interesting to see which album picks up the most entries. Probably not the one I’d guess.
I had Big Black Smoke and the other two were under consideration and possibly would have made it if I wasn’t conscious of making my list too Pye heavy!
Two for three for me. ‘Big Black Smoke’ was #26 on this second list while ‘Rainy Day In June’ was #25. I’ll have to revisit ‘Moments’ as I see it isn’t on my Pye-era playlist (so was never considered).
Son Volt’s 2023 album is all Doug Sahm so Sahm has been on my radar this past year (via Son Volt). ‘Day of the Doug.’ Awful album title but cool album cover. I just read a Jerry Wexler interview on the Dylan thread where Wexler says Dylan was a big Doug Sahm fan.
Interesting! The timeline that Wexler was discussing was 1971, iirc. So just at/or before the album you link to. (See edit below edit: Dylan, 1971, at Doug Sahm record session, to Wexler: “I’ve done the word thing, now I want to do the music thing.” Wexler: “He (Dylan) loved Willie Nelson. He loved Doug Sahm.”
I didn’t list Rainy Day in June, but I wholeheartedly agree with our sleepless Headmaster that it’s some kind of a game changer in the Kinks career. Up until then you can hear Ray expanding his palette, adding new styles to the original riffin’ one. The motown romps, the vaudeville vignettes, the sea shantys singalongs etc. but this one (and Fancy from the same record) are proofs that even though he’s good at finding winning formulas for his band (that will follow him all through his career), his talent goes far deeper than any formula (as he’ll soon make even clearer). He can do impressionistic gospel if he wants to, and he’ll sing it brilliantly, too. Í still can’t decide whether it’s the thunder, in the beginning of the track, or the atomic bomb… There’s a sense of dread and doom in this song that makes me find the latter interpretation more likely.
Just was checking them out on itunes. I love the song She's About a Mover. Never heard his version, which is, i presume, the original, but i am a huge Steve Earle fan and he does a great version on his live album Die Like an Aviator. I will be downloading some thing now to get the ball rolling on this discovery! Thanks!
Big Black Smoke (strike one!)/Rainy Day In June (strike two!)/Moments (strike three!): yer' out! 0 for 3 today! Superb songs, all three. Big Black Smoke is always overshadowed for me by Dead End Street, but again, this one is well loved too. #39 in my own playlist for this era out of 121 songs, its obviously one i want to hear at the head of the pack. Dead End street comes it at #14 on that same list, so that might explain why that got the nod from me and BBS didn't. Rainy Day drifted pretty low on my playlist for the earliest era, #93 out of 121, its placement probably suggestive of why it missed my top 80 (well 62, but who is counting). Since i love that whole playlist right thru, it is not a suggestion that i don't like the song, I guess i just like the short sharp rockers a bit more during this period. Moments is a beautiful song and my favorite of the three, but still was not included. Moments sits at #26 out of 74 on my TKATVGPS thru Muswell Hillbillies playlist, so my appreciation level is high, but not quite high enough it appears. (PS Animals in the Zoo came on after Moments as I am listening now, and that reminds me how much I (and I almost alone, I think) appreciated that song. Animals made my top 40 both times and sits at #12 on my playlist for this era, so that one made a big impact on me, and yet I am guessing it won't make the collective 100, again going to show the diversity of songs by the kinks and diversity of taste amongst our group!) Great choices today. I am spending some time again with these song right now as I type and like ("must like all posts equally! must like all posts equally! must like all posts equally!"), and it reminds me of their charms. With this many incredible songs to pick from, it has become easy to forget how great some of these dark horse songs are without a fresh listen. Fortunately it is fun and rewarding to revisit these old friends!
