The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Misty Water

After VGPS, this seems a rather cursory presentation of a concept; as if Ray fad a pretty good idea, but couldn't quite fully flesh it out. It then seems he compensates for lack of material with repetition.

I suppose I might be a lot lighter on the negative analysis had I not recently been conditioned by a song by song review of an incredible 15 cut album with all 15 songs at a totally masterful level. That this doesn't quite sit with those doesn't mean its a bad song, but in the end I'm pretty ambivalent toward it. I can listen to it and enjoy it or I can skip it.

Interestingly, I would put a lot of songs from later in the bands catalog (primarily from Schoolboys forward) in this category of listenable but not necessarily brilliant. But I'm more inclined to listen to and really get into those. I'm guessing that's the sound that was of my time as I was solidifying my musical tasts; those late teens/early 20s that seem to be the years that most strongly musically imprint on most of our brains. Although those may not be the band's greatest years and are considered very second tier artistically, I'm definitely looking forward to raving madly about many of those songs.

 

I like Misty Water
I like the hopscotching ascending melody that ends with oooooooh ooh oowooh wooh 0ooooooh
I like the pounding drums in the chorus
I like the high hat punctuating the verse
I like the headbanging guitar break
I like the shouts during the headbanging guitar break
I like the boozy sexuality permeating the lyrics
I like the how the lyrics oscillate between I like and they like
I like the repetition
I like Misty Water

 

Always thought it was 'And Maria and' too. Definitely a Village Green song for me. In my mind the town of straight and narrow is the Village Green but Maria is brewing her own (misty water) illicit still. I would imagine that was quite a common occurrence at that time.
I might be on shaky ground here but it works for me.

 

Yes, I think this is key. All those tunes, Mr Songbird, Misty Water, Rosemary Rose, Till Death Us Do Part, Lavender Hill, Pictures in the Sand, some may not be totally fleshed out, but I find most of them just as stellar as anything on the Village Green LP… but only if listened to in their Great Lost Kinks Album context. There's something to them when you take them as a group of songs, you're completely blown away that there's such a treasure trove of spectacular melodies and infectious playfulness coming from that same period of surreal inspiration. But taken as outtakes and compared one by one to the songs that did make the cut, they can't really measure up with such a classic record, can they ? They're not better than what was released and/or they wouldn't make the LP any better if included, as great as they may be. Misty Water is a great example : yes, it could replace Wicked Annabella, but the LP would not be better for it. The big exception for me is Pictures in the Sand. I think its sentiment and its sublime minor-key singalong chorus is consistent with the very best of the Village Green LP, both thematically and musically. But that's for another day's discussion…

 

Misty water: Yep, I like this one a lot too. For me it does seem like it could fit thematically, I see it as the local drunks in the small town, of which there are always a few. Fortuleo articulates it well above, all of these outtakes seem like they could have fit on the album in place of one song or another, but while such swaps might not diminish it, they would not necessarily improve it either. As such, to me, this would have been the Kinks album to make a double. It could certainly be argued that the very high caliber of the songs on average might dip a little bit had there been a whole second disc with these various outtakes. … but then what great double album didn’t suffer from that. At the end of the day, for me it’s all irrelevant, whether I had discovered this batch of Kinksian kraziness through this thread as one great double album or as a legendary single album with a ton of fantastic outtakes, I get to digest it all in one time and place if I like due to modern technology. At the end of the day, I would just say I am all the richer musically by virtue of the fact that all of these songs were created even if they were not released at the time.

 

"Misty Water"

There seems to be a bit a mixed reaction to this song. I love it and think it's good enough to have been strongly considered for TKATVGPS. I never thought about it being about alcohol, but that certainly could be the case. I love singing along to the chorus so I never thought it overstayed its welcome. Excellent guitar and bass sound with a faint "96 Tears" sounding keyboard bouncing along with the drums adds up to one of my favorites of the bonus tunes. I have never heard Ray doing any sort of out of the ordinary accent, but he does sound like he could be singing another F word instead of "fog and". I think this song is fog'n fantastic!

 

This is perfect. Right on. Yes, I'm finding this as well. I made a chronological CD comp of all non-album Kinks songs stretching from 1966-1969, both singles and GLKA type extras. It's all fun, but i find myself impatient to hear the period albums after a while. Though I think GLKA is imperfect and makes some odd choices, it's still the best (existing/released) presentation of much of this material. It flows beautifully.

***

I do think there's an accent going on here, but i think it's that same semi-Caribbean voice we hear on "I'm on an island" and "Apeman.". Maybe it should bother me, but it doesn't. It feels like a part of Ray's personality.

(and) Maria and her daughters ... I think of them as sort of bootlegger shaman witches on the outskirts of town.

I was as confused by the "fog" in this song as I was by the "fogging up" in "Apeman".

This was considered good enough to send to Reprise for their planned/scrapped 1968 album.

The verse melody just isn't as interesting as most of what made the cut. But I enjoy it as a weird little rocker.

 

Misty Water
This one could have fit well on VGPS. It is very catchy and has several memorable aspects to it.
(3.5/5)

 

Misty Water
I like misty water. They like misty water. But notice they do not like fog and haze. Only I like fog and haze. Take of that what you will. I can see the interpretation of soberness and the haze of drunkenness. The place with the misty water is not in the straight and narrow town, it's by it, off to the side, at the outskirts. Near the forest where kids shouldn't go at night.

This is another new one to me. I have been listening to it the past few days, and until I just read the lyrics, I heard "I like fog and haze" as "I like pork and beans"

I again don't see this on a single VGPS LP, but I can see it on a double-album. But generally, I don't know how I'd feel about the whole thing being a double album! First world problems... Anyway, it seems a bit too much of a normal, straight-forward song for VGPS, and VGPS just doesn't have that many normal, straight-forward songs.

Yes, it's a bit repetitive. I think the song only needed one "ooooh" interlude, but that's about my only gripe. The guitar riff buildups are great. The chugging drums. The organ in the back of the mix. I dig misty water.

 

"and" makes more sense, as the song's protagonist proclaims he likes misty water, and is pointing out who else also likes it.

I'm willing to go on record as enjoying pork and beans more than I enjoy fog and haze. There. I said it.

For what it's worth, there are not enough rock songs about table manners, IMO.

 

Good point.

"For wanting things that can only be found, in the darkness on the edge of town"

 

Lord knows what that point is, but it's something!

 

I personally have always found a comfortable zone in fog and haze

I just think it's interesting that we get that change up.
It is certainly possible that it's just poetic license, but looking at the chorus from that perspective it seems quite deliberate.
They like a drink.
I get drunk.

 

Oh no! Not the fluffy pillows!

 

A great little ditty with some leftover Something Else vaudeville vibes. I've always put it into a scene with Lavender Hill and Wicked Annabella. Perhaps Ray had something more in mind for the witches story.

 

Misty Water
I think this is a great song. I have no reservations. Even more than the last few songs we've covered, this is most definitely album worthy.

 

MISTY WATER

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
- The Gospel According to Saint Matthew.

"Goodwill: Look before thee; dost thou see this narrow way? That is the way thou must go. It was cast up by the Patriarchs, Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, and it is as strait as a Rule can make it: This is the Way thou must go.

Christian: But are there no turnings nor windings, by which a Stranger may lose his way?

Goodwill: Yes, there are many ways ... and they are crooked and wide: But thus thou mayst distinguish the right from the wrong, the Right only being strait and narrow."

- The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan.


In this song Ray doesn't choose the straight and narrow. He chooses to find his "misty paradise" on a road that some fear but which leads to a dream world where everything is lovely.

Especially the women.

Are they sirens leading him astray? Temptresses? Maybe! Maria could be Maria Magdalena who was a prostitute before being converted by Christ. And in this song she has only daughters, not sons.

These daughters don't believe in accepted religion but they "believe in misty ways". Ray himself decides that "seeing is believing" and adds amusingly "I can't believe my eyes".

So what could this misty water be? Well, we're in the mid-sixties, so drugs would be a logical possibilty.

Musically, taking a sip of this water leads to the sublime 'Beach Boys break'. Followed the second time round by that great descending guitar sequence.

Slightly repetitive towards the end, but what enthusiasm from the chorus and the drums. It sounds like once you've tasted this misty water, you can't get enough of it.

An astounding piece of work.


But I think Ray should get his life back on course as soon as possible, as Nicky Hopkins does here, by getting in tune to the straight and narrow.

 

I guess I'm the only person here who never made the connection between this and booze. All these years, I've honestly thought that this song wasn't metaphoric at all, and that he was merely singing about a very slow moving creek, with an abundance of algae making the water a brownish green color. This is the one other tune off of "The Great Lost Kinks Album" besides "Mr. Songbird" that is very obviously a "Village Green" out-take both thematically and sonically. Not exactly a masterpiece, and it does go on for a bit too long at the end, but I've always liked it for what it is. The two wordless bridges that linger on that F chord with Rasa cooing the high C are a nice touch. I also like the chordless "Take A Sip Of Misty Water" that comes right before them.

I posted it somewhere near the beginning of this thread. "Misty Water" has an entirely different set of chords, that although descending, bear no resemblance whatsoever to the "Walk Don't Run/Hit The Road Jack" progression:

One Fine Day: Cm B♭ A♭ G7 (i ♭VII ♭VI V7)
Misty Water: C B B♭ F (V ♭V IV I)

I've always speculated that the reason it was left off the album was because the descending chord progression was slightly similar to the one in "Starstruck."

 

Misty Water
I love this song! I have NO idea what it's about. sure, maybe about alcohol. probably about alcohol. but just from my own experience, I thought it was more about going to a spa that had curative waters. hahahaha. I went to a spa in the Netherlands and had natural springs and it was hot and 'misty'. It's amazing what you can read into lyrics from your own personal perspective , huh?

I love the Dave guitar bit in the middle. growing up as a new wave sort of gal, it reminded me of , say, the Buzzcocks and such. A gritty bit of guitar but with melody. to me that is everything. and the drums. I mean, BRAVO! this song is all about the music and less about the lyrics.

 

I like Misty Water myself. Whatever interpretation one might give to this song. Whatever might bring you a respite from life's struggles. Fog and Haze is alright with me.

 

Misty Water

I always thought this song would have been one of their more popular songs if it had a proper release. I also first heard this song on the Dead End Street compilation.

 

Did You See His Name.

2018 stereo mix with session chat (2:08), recorded March or May 1968 at Pye Studios No. 2, Marble Arch, London

Did you see his name in the local paper,
Stole a tin of beans,
From a cut-priced grocery store.
The judge said he must pay,
So he put him on probation,
And the paper gave his name.

Did you see his name in the criminal section,
And the center page.
Gave his name and his address,
They stopped him doing it again,
So they put him to dishonour,
And put the man to shame.

He lost his little job,
His employer was absolved of blame.
His world just crumbled down,
Incidently, did you see his name,
In the obiturary column,
Letters edged in black.
Life was much too hard to live,
So he brought it to an end,
In his gas-filled maisonette.
Because he couldn't stand the strain.

La-la-la-la-la
Life was much too hard to live,
So he brought it to an end,
In his gas-filled maisonette.
Because he couldn't stand the strain.

Did you see his name?
Did you see his name?
Did you see his name?

Written by: Ray Davies
Published by: ?

This is an excellent track, and will almost certainly appear on my attempt at a double album tracklist. Though I must say that I love the album just how it is, and it will just be a fun exercise for me.

This is a tragedy and to some degree when looking at these lyrics, it feels like there is a serious questioning of the legal system and application of justice. When we consider all the high class, rich (somewhat) criminal types that Ray has written about ... or at least very shady anti-social folks.

We have the story of this guy who stole a tin of beans from a cut-priced grocer, and is charged, put on probation and publicly shamed for it. He goes on to commit suicide due to the shame and the fact that life was just too hard for him to live.
In many ways this is closely related to Dead End Street in my mind. We have an odd sort of Ray protest song, that kind of questions out priorities as a community. Certainly we can't have people randomly stealing anything they may want, but the balance is askew.
For those unaware, and I had to look it up .....
Maisonette -

1. a set of rooms for living in, typically on two stories of a larger building and with its own entrance from outside.

Essentially we are looking at a small apartment, on top of a bigger building, with a separate entry. I guess a sort of very low end loft apartment.
We get an idea of how small this apartment is, by the fact that he gassed himself in this likely one room home. So we get a very direct picture of who this guy is, and the fact that this wasn't some rich guy who was tight with money, this was, to some degree and for the purposes of the song "a nobody", and I think that's why we are asked did we see his name, but we are never told his name.
I can't help hearing "all the criminals in their coats and their ties are free to drink martini's and watch the sung rise" and " the ladder of law has no top and no bottom" (used sarcastically in The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll)

So we have a tragedy, and it is a very sad story of desperation resulting in a full and total punishment and shaming that leads to a suicide......

Musically we again have Ray juxtaposing this tragedy with a bouncy piece of music. In this instance, to me at least, it comes across as the complete indifference the world has to those less fortunate who struggle through life, and occasionally fall through the cracks in tragic ways that most never really see.

We get a little organ intro that is followed by chordal stabs that work as punctuation.
Interestingly the song has a sort of Ska feel to it. In some spots it is undeniably Ska. I don't know the history of Ska, except that it was a fifties style of music that came before Rocksteady and Reggae, and had a big explosion in the late seventies and early eighties when young English bands took to the style and had a lot of success.

The verses come across as almost folk style, but we have this bouncy reggae feel and music that works as a beautiful contrast.
We get this brilliant bridge that seems to give us a key change, and we certainly get a feel change in the beat. It starts off double time and shifts back into the regular beat, and does so beautifully.

Another interesting thing I hear here. We get this excellent kind of Duane Eddy kind of guitar lead in here..... and for the life of me, listening to it now, it sounds like the inspiration for Marco Pirroni and his work with Adam Ant.

Another thing about this song is the three repeats of Did you see his name? followed by the devastating dead stop.....

Anyway, form my perspective this is a fantastic song that easily could, and perhaps should have found its way onto the album.... Perhaps thematically it is a stretch, but we have other people in the Village Green that aren't exactly the most popular characters in the village.... but I suppose it somewhat detracts from the idea that the Village Green is an idyllic paradise .... though of course this could be part of the realization that the Village Green is gone and just a memory.

 

Mono version

 

Reference guide

Oct 1963 - Nov 1966

1967

Apr 1967 Mr Pleasant - Alt version - Beat Club - live - beat club - instr (whistling)
This Is Where I Belong - Ray live - Ray with Francis Black

May 1967 Mr Pleasant EP
Mr Pleasant
This Is Where I Belong
Two Sisters - Ray live (with chat)
Village Green - Instrumental - Ray

My 1967 Waterloo Sunset - instr. - live 73 - Ray live 78 - live 94 - Ray and Damon Albarn - doco excerpt - Ray and Bowie - Ray live (Peter dedication)
Art Nice and Gentle

May 1967 Waterloo Sunset EP

Documentary

Jul 1967 Death Of A Clown - Dave Live - Dave live 2002

Sept 1967 Something Else By
David Watts - Live 84 - Dave live 97 - Ray live 2010 - Alt mono - alt version
Death Of A Clown
Two Sisters
No Return
Harry Rag - BBC - Ray 2010 - alt version
Tin Soldier Man - Sand On My Shoes (original) - Alt backing track
Situation Vacant - mono
Love Me Till The Sun Shines - BBC - live 69 - Dave 97 - stereo
Lazy Old Sun - alt version
Afternoon Tea - German Stereo - Alt stereo - Canadian Mono
Funny Face
End Of The Season
Waterloo Sunset

Little Women backing track

Dave And Ray interview sixties

Echoes Of The World - The Making Of Village Green Preservation Society

Oct 1967 Autumn Almanac - stereo - Top Of The Pops - live fan jam - Ray - breakdown

Nov 1967 Sunny Afternoon LP

Nov 1967 Susannah's Still Alive - stereo - video

1967 BBC sessions - Sunny Afternoon
Autumn Almanac
Mr Pleasant
Susannah's Still Alive
David Watts
Death Of A Clown
Good Luck Charm

Jan 1968 Live at Kelvin Hall
Part 1
Part 2

Jan 1968 Wonderboy - video - Top Of The Pops - stereo mix
Polly - stereo mix

April 1968 The Kinks EP

June 1968 Days - stereo mix - Glastonbury 2010 - live 1969 - video edit - Basil Brush - Alt stereo - Acoustic - 1991 EP version

Aug 1968 Lincoln County - stereo mix - Dave live
There Is No Life Without Love

Colour Me Pop Medley

She's Got Everything Promo film

July 1968 Colour Me Pop - Dedicated Follower Of Fashion A Well Respected Man Death Of A Clown Sunny Afternoon Two Sisters Sitting By The Riverside Lincoln County Picture Book Days

Nov 1968 The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society - the gold disc award
The Village Green Preservation Society - Alt mix with studio banter - Live 73
Do You Remember Walter - Euro Stereo - Backing Track - live 94
Picture Book - real stereo - live 69 - live 73 - Ray 2011
Johnny Thunder - alt mix - stereo - original stereo - Ray (+VGPS) 2008 - Ray 2010 - Crouch End Chorus
Last Of The Steam Powered Trains - alt ending - live 69 - live 70 - Dave live
Big Sky - alt stereo - live 69 - Crouch End Chorus
Sitting By The Riverside - Stereo
Animal Farm - alt stereo - Ray 2004 - stereo
Village Green - alt vocal - backing vocal
Starstruck - alt vocal - video - stereo - Ray 2008
Phenomenal Cat - alt mix - stereo - stereo US link
All Of My Friends Were There - stereo
Wicked Annabella - stereo - Dave 97
Monica - stereo
People Take Picture Of Each Other - Euro stereo (big band) - stereo - live 73
extra tracks
Mr Songbird - stereo
Berkley Mews - stereo - single mix
Rosemary Rose - mono
Misty Water - stereo - alt stereo
Did You See His Name? - mono

Preservation Live

Starmaker Tv Play

 

Another brilliant track, and certainly one that was worthy of being released at the time. A cautionary tale about the unfairness of life - it reminds me of the the stories of young people, or characters in Dickens novels, being transported to Australia or prison for stealing some trifling stuff.