A couple of its tracks were Arthur-era B-sides: "Mindless Child of Motherhood" and "This Man He Weeps Tonight." I'd vote we address them as part of Dave's album, as they were intended for it, and are among its strongest tracks. (Unless we are doing "Arthur" first?)
Interesting. I just factored that inconvenience into the fan experience. I wasn't about to ignore stray tracks from artists I loved.
Do you mean how I went to Cambridge when I went to college? Cambridge is right next to Boston so I would take the T (subway) or even walk to there. Another record/book store crawl that I used to do is to walk from North Station (from Salem) or my dorm (college days) and walk down Newbury Street in Boston then down Commonweath Avenue to Coolidge Corner, Brookline. There were a lot of places, including the original Newbury Comics, Tower Records & other places now long gone.
I guess I went about my musical discovery in an odd way.... I just went and bought albums that looked interesting, or I knew some songs off.... I was focused on writing my own music at the same time. I know it's silly, but I never realised until much later on, that there were songs that didn't come on albums, and it perplexed me to be honest .... When I was in a position where I could look at track listings for albums, I would be scratching my head, thinking "where is this song?" I think Blondie's Call Me may have been the first one to really get me.... I was looking through albums and not finding the song, and thinking well what album am I missing. Obviously later on I realised that not all songs come on albums, and I just thought that was irritating
I disagree. Albums were beginning to become important in the late sixties and early seventies but singles were still essential, especially for bands like the Kinks who were a well-known singles band. I think the strength of this thread is to go back and show how things were really released time-wise. And also sometimes how things were not released! (We're talking Pye here folks). We've got a gigantic hit coming up after Arthur. Are we supposed to pretend that Lola was released as just another album track? Whatever Mark decides to do is fine by me. He's doing a great job. But I prefer the chronological release approach adding things that we now know existed but were not released at the time even though they date from the same era.
I had a feeling you might say Emerson. I went to grad school there (undergrad was UMass Amherst). As my BC grad husband would say "it sucks to BU".
Maybe @DISKOJOE and I may have crossed paths back in the day, but I wouldn't have been known to him as a Kinks fan. I was exposed to the Kinks (as I've said earlier in this thread) back in the 70s as a kid and had some interest in the band in the 80s, but was too involved in alternative music of the day to focus on the Kinks(much to my everlasting sadness as I truly wish I saw them live even once. *Sob*). The real interest started in the 90s...which very gradually grew into a full blown obsession in the past year. Better late than never to discover one of the best bands of my lifetime! xo
Did you go to Emerson when most of the buildings/dorms were still on Beacon St., before they moved to the Theatre District? Did you go to the Ray solo gig in 1998 that was originally scheduled for a signing for his Storyteller album and was supposed be at the Borders (RIP) at Downtown Crossing, but so many people showed up that they moved it across the street to the Old North Church, where Ray played for about an hour. At one point he looked about the interior & said,"I shall reclaim this building for Britain!" There was one young woman there that I fancied, but was too shy to talk to.
By the time I finished up at Emerson (1994) they were just beginning the move to the Theater District. I did not go to the 1998 gig. that sounds vaguely familiar though. What a great comment though. Such the wit! I saw him once on Lansdowne St (1997...i think) and at the Wilbur (2011). Mind-blowing gigs.
I have a framed poster for the 1996 Lansdowne St. gigs in my room. I saw Ray in Portsmouth, NH instead around that time.I also saw him at the Orpheum in 2008. I went w/my friend Barrence & had great seats on the floor. The staff recognized Barrence (he worked there) & led us to even better seats in the second row. I'm very happy to see the Kinks play in Beverly, MA, one town over from Salem, in 1995, the last (?) of the 6 times that I saw them.
Been off line all weekend Did You See His Name Lyrically this reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel's "A Most Peculiar Man" being about the death of someone who was on the fringes of society. Musically, this reminds me a bit of the Beatles "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" in having such bright cheery music to accompany such a gruesome strory. A good song for a B side. (3.5/5)
Living in Australia I am plain jealous and would loved to have seen The Kinks or Ray, especially his Storyteller show!
Yeah, there's a superficial similarity since they both commit suicide. But S and G's character tried in no way to be a part of society whereas Ray's character wanted to be a well-respected man and failed.
Did You See His Name? Strangely, I remember being unfamiliar with this tune when I saw the title on the tracklist for the Anthology box set, despite owning the original BBC CD and the VGPS 3CD. It's a fun little tune (musically), and I remember when I finally gave it a proper listen I was bouncing around, and then taken aback by the end, a twist I enjoy (the twist to the contrast, not the twist to the lyric as much). I didn't however realise this was a re-track Kinks version, and not the original 11th Hour one, which makes a lot of sense. I guess this implies Ray was seriously considering fitting it into the VGPS narrative, as I don't really know why else he'd feel compelled to record it at Pye at this time. Maybe left out so the ending didn't clash with the similar style of ending on Picture Book? Essentially, this would make a fun little side closer on a double LP version.
Till Death Us Do Part mono mix (3:12), recorded Sep 1968 at probably Polydor Studios, London What can I do? How can I show you, And let you see, That I am someone, That you want me to be. I'm only me, Not someone better, Not someone good. I'd be a soldier, That's if I only could. If I were king, I'd tell my army, To change the world. Then I'd be someone, Like you want me to be. In my little life, I know that the world must keep on turning, Even though it leaves me far behind. Life is like a school, But I'm not prepared to keep on learning, Even though it treats me like a fool. This is our lot, To live together, Not live apart. Let's stay together, Until death us do part. Not just a day, But till forever, Just as the stars, Just as the ending, Until death us do part. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: ? This song has only appeared on The Great Lost Kinks Album, and I never had that, in fact I never even heard of it until this thread. I have only just got the Anthology, and the Village box, and so much to my disappointment this is the first time I have ever heard this song. I am instantly taken by the styling of the song. I guess this is a music hall track too, but it has a feel that is really old timey that reminds me of something.... not a song, a time ... I really like the lyric. We get a guy professing his strengths and shortcomings, but it goes a little deeper, as Ray was want to do. In the change we get some pointed little lines that I can completely relate to. "In my little life" is a pointed understanding of how small we all are in the big picture, and I see that everyday.... oddly today we did the song Against The Wind on the Seger thread, and it speaks to this in a different way.... The reality that the world will keep on turning no matter how we feel about it, and we race to keep up, but "... it leaves me far behind". Life is certainly like a school, and not just like a school, it is a school, and I can totally relate to the idea of just not wanting to anymore. Sometimes it just feels like no matter how far we move forward, we have more blind spots than are readily acceptable. The last couple of verses seem to speak to a longing to stay together in spite of adversity. Overall it seems like a confession of limitations, and a request to please stay with me in spite of myself .... and sometimes in relationships that is all we can ask. I once heard, something like "love isn't thinking your partner is perfect, but being able to love them for, or in spite of, their imperfections" ....something like that, it's early lol ... and part of that is realising our own imperfections. I love the instrumentation here. It gives the song a kind of old timey innocence and it rattles along with a gentle persuasion. I really do like this. It has a sweetness, and an openness that works for me. I don't really have any grand statements to make on this track, it is just too new to me. For a first listen it has made a very solid impact ..... and it will likely end up on my version of Village Green, if I am able to manage to process all these songs in such a way as to do so.
Perhaps the most old-timey sounding of all the VGPS-era tracks, and it's fantastic! I'm presuming that this was also written for a tv show? I can hear it appearing in a 60s UK sit com. I can see from Mark's post below that it was a film theme!
A modern stereo mix? The youtube link has this written underneath it..... and I am going to post it to save folks having to follow links. the kinks " till death us do part " mono to stereo mix. "The Great Lost Kinks Album is a 1973 LP of mostly unreleased material issued by Reprise Records after the Kinks had moved to RCA. The tracks were recorded between 1966 and 1970 and master tapes were shipped to the US Reprise Label in the early 1970s to fulfil contractual obligations with that label. Kinks leader and songwriter, Ray Davies, intended most of the songs to remain unreleased "collateral" tracks for Reprise. Several other songs from these "collateral" recordings had been released on the 1972 Reprise compilation The Kink Kronikles. Davies and the Kinks management first learned of the album's existence from the US Billboard record chart. Davies instituted legal action against Reprise, which resulted in Reprise discontinuing the album in 1975. It became an immediate collector's item as most of the songs remained officially unreleased until the 1998 reissue of Kinks albums with bonus tracks. All of the tracks received legitimate release as bonus tracks on these UK Sanctuary reissue CDs: the 2001 BBC Sessions 1964–1977, the 2004 three-CD deluxe edition of Village Green, and 2014's The Anthology 1964–1971. The name is a reference to an album that was set to be released by Reprise in 1969 but was held back, eventually morphing into The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The songs include a number of unused album tracks, a British single ("Plastic Man"), a B-side ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else"), a film theme ("Till Death Do Us Part"), songs written exclusively for British television ("Where Did the Spring Go?", "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light"). The Great Lost Kinks Album also included several Dave Davies recordings intended for his ill-fated solo album ("Groovy Movies", "There Is No Life Without Love", "This Man He Weeps Tonight"). The liner notes for the album were written by John Mendelsohn." Quoted from youtube post
Till Death Us Do Part is a sensational song. I may be biased because of its status as the opening track on the Great Lost Kinks Album, the exact moment my mouth and eyes went wide because I couldn’t believe such beauty had eluded me all those years ! I love everything about this tune, the lyrics are not only adorable but strangely profound (“Life is like a school, But I'm not prepared to keep on learning”), the major to minor chord sequence is continuingly graceful, surprising and comforting at the same time (which is key to the best melodic pop music), Ray’s delivery is beyond sweet and Rasa’s lalalas are among the best she ever did. The jug band / New Orleans /parade backing is fabulous and groundbreaking for the Kinks. Ray is charting a whole new territory for his music-hall typed songs, with trombones, mandolins (I think?) and fanfare drums, a style he’ll often come back to for some of his best songs in the early seventies. The “In My Little Life” bridge is as enchanting as the best soothing parts of Sitting by the Riverside, which is no small compliment. And I just love how the chord sequence is slightly altered in the last two verses, making them more assertive and “steady” than the first three, because after expressing his self doubts, the singer is now declaring that despite all his shortcomings, he’ll be there, with her, until the end. That's remarkable. Below is a sweet Jeff Tweedy rendition from last year. He mixes up the lyrics I quoted, but does get the chords of the last two verses perfectly right !
It was written as the closing theme for the 1968 film adaptation of the UK sitcom ‘Til Death Us Do Part’ which ran in the UK in various iterations from the mid 60s to the early 90s. It starred Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett, a right wing little Englander bigot at odds with both his own family and the modern world. He was kind of an antihero as though he was the butt of most of the jokes on the show, he was also its lead character and was taken by many whose politics aligned with his as an identificatory figure. The show was later famousiy adapted for US audiences as ‘All In The Family’ and the character Archie Bunker. Another point of interest is that the title of Monkees song ‘Randy Scouse Git’ was derived from a ‘Til Death’ episode, as it was an insulting phrase used by Garnett to describe his son in law (played by Tony Blair’s eventual father in law!) on a 1967 episode that Mickey Dolenz happened to view while in the UK (Talk about a web of holistic connections!) On the soundtrack version, session singer Chas Mills sings over the Kinks backing track:
As much as I love it, I would never want this little masterpiece on the Village Green LP, because I like it just as it is, a one-off film tune and the opening song to my favorite rarities compilation by anyone in the pop universe. Just a stunning, stunning pop song. Yes, but you were still right : as @ajsmith just noted, the film was a spin-off version of the sitcom of the same name. The Chad Mills version is lovely, but what about the original take by Tony Blair’s father in law, actor Anthony Booth, as heard in the film ? Well… let’s just say he’s not exactly Ray Davies. But even like that, I still find it enjoyable !
