The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

It's all subjective, after all. I'm going to laud large sections of the 'rock theatre' albums, and expect to be in the minority then too! (Although I'm hoping this thread prompts a positive reevaluation of the Kinks' RCA years )

 

JOHNNY THUNDER


A little bit plodding this one. And a bit too much la-la-ing.

It's fine as an album track of course, but I'm not hearing all the single material that others are hearing. It's short and it's sweet but pretty limited lyric-wise.

The one intriguing part is the nature of Helena Dulaine/Duran.

The fascination of a motorbike bad boy to a rather posh-sounding girl?

Does she have a secret crush on this biker of almost religious proportions?

She prays for him. She asks God to bless him.

Has the thunder and lightning struck through directly to her inner soul?

Beware, Helena, it may all end in tears.

To misquote a phrase:

"She knew from the start
Deep down in her heart
That she and Johnny were worlds apart"

 

Definitely all subjective...agreed.
And I'm looking forward to the rock theater as well. And will keep an open mind. I've been listening to some of it, but have not taken the deep dive yet. This thread will prompt me to do so.

 

In my mind, and I have no proof to back it up, I saw Helena as the prostitute with a heart of gold. Kind of like in the old westerns, but here, on the edges of the Village Green. Though she has her lifestyle, even she is concerned about Johnny and prays for him.
It's funny how much you can conjure with just a few lines in a song.

 

Because no one else has done it - in these precise words - I think it’s worth noting that Johnny Thunder makes another appearance in a Kinks Song - One of the Survivors on Preservation Act 1. Maybe those lyrics explain why his character fits on VGPS:

See Johnny Thunder sitting on his motorbike
Riding along the highway
Rock and Roll songs from the nineteen-fifties
Buzzing around in his brain
Johnny Thunder he's one of the original bebop generation
And he's got no time for complicated music or too much sophistication
He's one of the survivors,
The motorbike riders.
You ought to see Johnny Thunder
Riding down the highway
One of the rock and roll survivors,
Twelve bars flowing through his brain.
He digs Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and The Belmonts,
And Johnny and The Hurricanes.

(wonderful song, but we’ll get there)

 

It was mentioned, but that's cool.

 

I

It’s a long thread and I’ve only had one double-shot so far.

 

Lol, I think I need a triple shot

Actually, I have a couple of nice double chocolate stouts in the fridge... I think they're calling my name

 

First they develop vaccines against COVID-19 and now I discover someone has blended beer and chocolate! I love science.

 

My husband got me some of these thinking I might like them. I don't hate them, but if I'm going to consume calories, I'm going with real chocolate.

 

There are a few. Several are not that great.
This one tastes like dark chocolate, made by Rogue... it is 9% though

 

I think I've seen other Rogue beers in my local specialty shoppe.

 

Johnny Thunder-This vivid character sketch is the local bad boy. This portrait is, depicting the alienated youth of the virtual village, “Johnny Thunder” is the village sociopath, or misfit, or loner. One that apparently lives with his Mum, who considers him a darn good boy. The song is so commanding, with the punchiness of its main riff accentuating each verse. The first couple times I listened to this cut I interpreted it as part of the idyllic rural story. I literally beleived it to be natures thunder "lives on water, feeds on lightning". Does make some sense, right? Not the first time I was wrong. won't be the last.

 

Really like this version. The chorus choir really gives the lalalas an extra thump.

 

I suspect the simpler song structures but with more interesting arrangements of VGPS were a lot to do with (according to Pete Quaife anyway) Ray being more open to the rest of the group for musical input during the summer of 1968. PQ claimed this made VGPS ‘the only real group record we ever made’ (even though it was all RDD originals).

 

One question, and apologies if it has been covered in the last few pages and I missed it - why is Johnny Thunder riding down the highway when the UK has motorways?

 

The Last Of The Steam Powered Trains.

stereo mix (4:03), recorded Oct 1968 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London

Like the last of the good ol' puffer trains,
I'm the last of the blood and sweat brigade,
And I don't know where I'm going, or why I came.
I'm the last of the good old fashioned steam-powered trains.

I'm the last of the good old renegades.
All my friends are all middle class and grey,
But I live in a museum, so I'm okay.
I'm the last of the good old fashioned steam-powered trains.

Like the last of the good ol' choo-choo trains,
Huff and puff 'till I blow this world away,
And I'm gonna keep on rollin' till my dying day.
I'm the last of the good old fashioned steam-powered trains.

Like the last of the good ol' puffer trains,
I'm the last of the soot and scum[?] brigade,
And all this peaceful living is drivin' me insane.
I'm the last of the good old fashioned steam-powered trains.
I'm the last of the good old fashioned steam-powered trains.

Written by: Ray Davies
Published by: Noma Music, Inc./Hi-Count Music, Inc. BMI

So first up, yes, the riff here is a slight modification of Smokestack Lightening by Howlin' Wolf .... it isn't a straight rip, but it is pretty close, but Smokestack Lightening itself used blues themes that had existed before it..... this is the nature of folk and blues..... and the thing is, it is perfect for the song we are looking at. Also Smokestack Lightening itself is essentially about a steam powered train, hence the title.
"Ah oh, smokestack lightnin'
Shinin' just like gold
Why don't ya hear me cryin'?
A whoo hoo, whoo hoo, whoo"

Perhaps early on in their career the Kinks weren't very convincing as a blues band, but here they nail it perfectly.
This song wasn't knew to me when I first heard the album, and it was a nice surprise to find out it was a Kinks song. the first version I heard was Ed Kuepper, who was the guitarist from Australian punk? band The Saints, and I'll post it afterwards for anyone interested.

I love the lyric here, and it can be taken from the perspective of the train singing its tale, that is essentially about its cultural demise, or we can also look at this as the person singing of themselves as being like the last of the steam powered trains. Either way makes perfect sense, even though contextually, we have reason to believe that we have Ray singing of himself.

We have had the opening overture, a character song, reminiscing looking through a picture book, and another character song, and now we have the writer thinking about their place in life and how they fit, and that they are somewhat of a relic compared to the people they know around them..... So although not exactly a concept album, in the rock opera sense, we still have a certain thematic tie in, that drags us along on this journey and keeps on putting little pieces of information into the script to open us up to where the writers head is at.

Lyrically we get this idea that the steam train is a dying thing, and its noisy dirty existence is sliding away.... "I don't know where I'm going or why I came" "but I live in a museum, so I'm ok" " and I'm going to keep on going til my dying day" " and all this peaceful living, is driving me insane" .... these seem like the points of focus here. Outside of these we have the reminder of what we are, and then a variation, for example "I'm the last of the soot and scum brigade"

I can totally relate to this song. I am fairly old fashioned in many ways, and the way things have gone in our steam roller culture, I feel disconnected from the world.

Musically this is a great track, and one of the draws for me is the ever changing tempo. Normally it is the mark of a great band to stay dogmatically on the metronome, but here we have this flowing live track, that is changing pace fairly constantly through the song, not even including the rev up section. For me it gives the song a life that may be otherwise missing. Generally I want a consistent rhythm, but this is a steam train, not an electric train, and it functions in a manner whereby it speeds up as the steam pressure builds, and the song captures this beautifully.

This is certainly one of my favourites on the album ... but aren't they all .... This song brings this raw propulsive energy to the album, and it brings a bit of the dirt and grime that makes the pure and clean stuff stand out more. This is an essential part of the album and for me it stands up well .... damn it does a Cossack dance while its there.

All the elements here add to the feel of the track. Dave nails the guitar, I assume Ray adds some nice harmonica to give it a bit of colour, and Mick and Pete are locked into the groove..... and it actually shows a lot of talent to gradually speed this up and stay locked in the box together.

This is a wonderful track, and would make it onto any long form compile I made of the band.

 

The Last Of The Steam Powered Trains alternate mix .... but also labelled alternate ending?

Well this is an alternate ending... It works very well too.

 

Ed Kuepper is an excellent Aussie artist and with The Saints he made a certain amount of noise that was noticed by many. Between 85 and 2015 Ed released many solo albums and I think the one that got the most traction and is regarded as a bit of an Aussie classic is Honey Steals Gold.... I suppose he has an unusual voice, but its a voice I like.

I really like the reworking that he did of this song, although I wouldn't rate it above the Kinks version.

 

The other brilliant colour clip for ‘Steam Powered Trains’ (although it also has ‘Picture Book’ on the end too) from the Once More With Felix BBC2 show from early 1969. Once again, live vocals over the record. And proof that it’s Ray reprising his harmonica bit from the early days.

 

For those unfamiliar
Smokestack Lightening- Howlin Wolf



For anyone interested I highly recommend The Howlin Wolf Chess box.... I love his vocals

 

Some 30+ years ago, I got onboard this album from the whimsy side, looking for sweet poppy or slightly baroque tunes, so this unabashed homage to blues music clearly wasn’t why I signed up for initially. And as it's also the longest song on the LP, I was not sold at first. But boy, does this stick with you. The groove is great, and I agree with @mark’s opening post, the beauty of it is that the “train” (the song) gains power and speed (and confidence) as it goes. It starts slow, because the boiler is not hot enough, but the engine goes stronger and stronger as the… track proceeds. Obviously it HAS to be longer for this superb idea to fully develop and settle in. This starts like an old rusty thing but ends triumphant and unstoppable.

 

‘Steam Powered Trains’ was a regular in the Kinks set list in the late 60s and early 70s, before they dropped it forever thereafter. As a chance to do a blues workout to appeal to the post Woodstock set accustomed to interminable stoned jamming, it was a no brainer, and they took the opportunity to extend it out so it got to be double then triple the length of the studio version. There are quite a few versions on YouTube: here’s the longest I I could find: a near 10 minuter from Nov 1970:

 

Dave live solo version, sometime in the 21st century:

 

This was discussed earlier as part of the general VGPS discussion.