Did You See His Name Introduction makes me think of The Yardbirds Ha Ha Said The Clown. Interesting little song about the plight of a poor, anonymous and unnecessarily shamed person that Ray chronicles if not champions. Fantastic descending guitar rundown in the middle but i can't i decide if this deserves to be on the album or not, though with the subject matter iam feeling we have better fits already!
Yet another really cool tune, with excellent lyrics and an immediately catchy first-line-title-melody, the like of which Ray had clearly made a specialty for himself at that point. The minor key "He Lost His Little Job" bridge is also quite enjoyable, with its rhythmic change and chromatic descending bass. I find the return to the title-hook a bit awkward, despite Mick’s best efforts and his inventive drumming. Maybe because it's a live take ? For us Europeans not familiar with Kronikles, I think our first encounter with the song was the BBC compilation. In 2001 !!! Thirty odd years after Kronikles !!!!!!! Talk about transatlantic divide…
'Did You See His Name?' was from a batch of NINE original songs Ray wrote in late 1967/early 1968 for the topical BBC1 satire TV show 'At The Eleventh Hour?' which were performed on the show by jazz singer Jeannie Lamb. 'Did You See His Name?' is the only one The Kinks latterly recorded, so Ray must have thought particularly highly of it. The songs were all inspired by current news events of the time and written by Ray on a week by week basis in response. Ray has been quoted as saying he felt slightly bad about getting inspiration for this song from a tragic real life news story. (would be interesting to seen if the original news story that this song was based on could be tracked down!) I think this may be the earliest Kinks song to explicitly mention death, please correct me if I'm wrong! The only other song known to fans from this mysterious batch is 'Could Be You're Getting Old' of which Ray's home demo turned up on the 2018 VGPS mega box. The other 7 titles are complete mysteries to most of us! Off air audio recordings (and even a couple of full TV editions) of most of the shows apparently do survive but have not been made public so there is the hope that one day fans will get to hear more of these songs at least in the Jeannie Lamb versions. Anyway, read this list and salivate. Can you imagine, seven completely unknown RDD originals from this purple period? You Can't Give More Than What You Have (broadcast 30 Dec. 1967) If Christmas Day Could Last Forever" (broadcast 6 Jan. 1968) We're Backing Britain" (broadcast 13 Jan. 1968) Poor Old Intellectual Sadie" (broadcast 20 Jan. 1968) Could Be You're Getting Old" (broadcast 27 Jan. 1968) Just a Poor Country Girl" (broadcast 10 Feb. 1968) The Man Who Conned Dinner from the Ritz" (broadcast 17 Feb. 1968) Did You See His Name?" (broadcast 24 Feb. 1968) That Is What the World Is All About" (broadcast 2 Mar. 1968) Bonus photo of comedienne and actress Miriam Margoyles on 'At The Eleventh Hour':
The VG big box compilers made the decision to document all the songs recorded in a certain time frame. By doing so, they mixed up songs that share themes/lyrics/intentions with the finished record (Mr Songbird, Misty Water, Rosemary Rose) with songs belonging to the rumored project about London locations (Lavender Hill, Berkeley Mews) and tunes written for various films, TV shows or musicals (Where Did the Spring Go, When I Turned off the Living Room Light, Did You See His Name?, Till Death Us Do Part). Interestingly, I find it extremely easy to separate them from each other almost instinctively, based only on their musical flavor. Did You See His Name ? is the one big exception to that rule: historically, it has nothing to do with the Village Green concept, but the intro does sound like People Take Pictures of Each Other, the overall bouncy music-hall tongue in cheek lalala attitude too. Which gets me thinking the band must’ve arranged it with the LP in mind, probably because Ray liked it but also because some of the lyrics are like a Village Green dark humored spin-of : the little “maisonette” and the grocery store especially. Except this time, the poor guy won't own the grocery!
Did You See His Name? This is an absolute cracker of a song, both lyrically and musically. It’s a few seconds under two minutes, so doesn’t even come close to overstaying it’s welcome. And to think that Ray composed it under tight time pressure just blows my mind. I think this is a top shelf Kinks song - not just a top shelf obscurity.
I really appreciate the historical knowledge you bring to the thread mate. I didn't know anything about this
Thanks Mark: The Kinks work on TV is my area of unhealthy obsession so I'm always looking for an excuse to infodump at the appropriate points on this thread!
Not sure it's the legal system and the application of justice that's being criticised here? I think it's more about the newspaper that actually printed his name. If he had been caught and fined but the story had escaped publicity then perhaps he would have got through it. Anyway, another jaunty song with tragic lyrics - I've said that quite a few times now. A classic and a little gem that makes my VGPS playlist.
And just how many songs, by anyone, describing such a tragedy would contain jolly la la la's in the lyrics. Davies can get away with this, not sure many of his contemporaries could.
Did You See His Name? Yet another new song for me. This sounds like it could fit on Face to Face? It reminds me of Most Exclusive Residence For Sale, as a story about the bad things happen to the guy. In these songs, Ray doesn’t name his character. Unlike what we saw with Something Else and VGPS, where there were very specific names. So, no, Ray, we didn’t see his name. As for this song, another good use of organ to fill some gaps in the atmosphere. Ray’s vocal take sounds very 1966 to me also. A sad story for sure. If he didn’t gas himself already, I’d think that last beat would have meant he shot himself.
The song's tragic narrative aside, I've always thought of this as a newspaper song. By that I mean everything is told through the prism of the narrator only being able to relate what can be read "in the criminal section." In my mind I've always connected this with Face to Face's "Most Exclusive Residence For Sale" as a thematic companion, e.g. a song inspired by the kind of thing one sees in print. Jumping very far ahead, so too is "Missing Person" from Word of Mouth. Anyway, for various reasons I've fallen very far behind on following this thread. I check in every day but lately seldom have time to read much beyond Mark's initial post. I've been playing catch up almost the entire Village Green LP. I hope today to find the time to weed through the treasure trove of knowledge, insight, and opinion.
There's also "people are dying on dead end street", "I shall die if I should lose Monica" and "pretty soon she'll be pushing up the grass". All arguably either metaphorical or euphemistic. Did You See His Name is a new one to me, I like it but it will need some time to sink in. I don't think it would make my cut of VGPS. I read the lyrics first and as a result the music came across as much more happy-sounding than I expected. Maybe that would be the case with a lot of Ray's songs.
"Did You See His Name" Another one that's new to me, and yet another effortlessly great Ray song. I agree that it's maybe a bit too jolly and upbeat sounding compared with the lyrics (perhaps the opposite to some of the tracks on Kontroversy) but it kind of brings to mind a circus - the media circus? However, the galloping music makes that drop-dead ending even more effective. There is definitely another albums-worth of material between VGPS and Arthur that sadly got lost in the flurry of songs that Ray was coming out with.
Let’s not forget: And he hopes to grab his father's loot, When Pater passes on. And then there’s the whole “crossing the river” metaphor.
Not to mention 'well he got his job when drunken daddy tumbled down the stairs?' God I was miles off with that suggestion!
