The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    No accusation from me- I'm sure you did fine. Anyway, everything's political really.
     
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  2. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Thank you. Yep, we gotta follow the plot.
     
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  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I thought I had posted them, but I couldn't find them... so for the record

    All Songs Written by Ray Davies
    Tracks Arranged by The Kinks
    Brass and Strings Conducted by Lew Warburton
    Engineer: Andrew Hendriksen except Brian Humphries on "Drivin'"
    Recorded at Pye Studios, London
    Artwork: Bob Lawrie
    Art Direction: The Kinks
    Original Story of Arthur Written by Julian Mitchell and
    Ray Davies, Commissioned by Granada Television Ltd., London



    Arthur? Oh, of course--England and knights and round tables, Excalibur, Camelot, "So all day long the noise of battle roll'd among the mountains by the winter sea." Sorry, no. This is Arthur Morgan, who lives in a London suburb in a house called Shangri-La, with a garden and a car and a wife called Rose and a son called Derek who's married to Liz, and they have these two very nice kids, Terry and Manlyn. Derek and Liz and Terry and Marilyn are emigrating to Australia. Arthur did have another son, called Eddie. He was named for Arthurs brother, who was killed in the battle of the Somme. Arthur's Eddie was killed, too--in Korea. His son, Ronnie, is a student and he thinks the world's got to change one hell of a lot before it's going to be good enough for him. Derek thinks it's changed a bloody sight too much--he can't stick England any more, all these bloody bureaucrats everywhere, bloody hell, he's getting out. Ronnie and Derek don't exactly get on.

    Arthur wasn't named for Arthur of Camelot and all that; he was called after Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st Duke of Connaught and Stratheam and Earl of Sussex, because Arthurs parents knew their place, and children ought to be named in honour of Queen Victona's children, and Prince Arthur, you know, he was her third and married...

    Arthur has spent most of his life on his knees, laying carpets. Oh, he had his plans; he was thinking very seriously indeed about setting up on his own, only he hadn't much in the way of savings and there was this Hitler and... it all seemed a bit risky. There were the children to think of, weren't there? Arthur doesn't like risks, never has. He bought a car instead, and took the kids out on Sundays. Things aren't exactly easy now he's retired, but he owns his own house, and most of his car. You've got to be careful. But you don't want to worry too much about the worid, the way Ronnie does, or complain all the tlme like Derek; you're not going to get anywhere like that, you know. You want to take things as they come.

    Things have been coming at Arthur all his life.

    Arthur's life (and the lives of millions of English people like him) is shown through the songs Ray Davies has written. The Granada TV story in which they're set all takes place on Derek and Liz's last day in England. Nothing happens very much--everyone has Sunday dinner together, then Ronnie turns up and the men go to the pub where Ronnie gets all worked up about The System, while Liz and Rose talk about the past, and then Arthur takes them all to the boat, and they have a picnic on the way, and all the time Arthur's remembering his life and... It's a sad day for Arthur, seeing them off. People haven't been nearly as nice to Arthur as he's been to them, and... what's it all about, then? Is this what he's lived for? He's got the house, hasn't he? And the car? It's been a good life, hasn't it? Well, hasn't it?

    JULIAN MITCHELL

    In the words of an otherwise very dear friend, I am "almost annoyingly partial to the Kinks..."

    Which all started ages ago when I first heard "You Really Got Me" on my car radio and, feeling almost as if I'd been slugged in the chest (rather powerful stuff that), very nearly went off Sunset Blvd. Later there was "I Need You," which to this day I consider one of Rock-and-Roll's-with-capital-R's genuine masterpieces. Two summers ago there was "Waterloo Sunset," one summer ago "Days," both of which I've played and been almost inappropriately moved by nearly every day since their respective appearances. And since the release of The Village Green Preservation Society I've been blowing my newly-acquired critic's trumpet for the Kinks far less abashedly than at least one friend would prefer. With this Arthur, though, I've become convinced that I'll need a critics sousaphone if I'm to continue blowing as loud as I feel affection for the music of the Kinks. Arthur, as Mr. Mitchell's notes next door explain, is the score for a television drama that he co-authored with the group's leader, Ray Davies. Which is fine by me, but what I'd like to put in two unsolicited cents' worth about is not the album's dramatic inspiration (rest assured that there are many here among us who will soon be making all the necessary favorable comparisons to Hair! and Tommy for us), but about its brilliance as a corpus of rock and roll. Like I'm even more convinced than ever that Davies ranks right up there with Townshend and McCartney and all the usual others as a composer of rock and roll, right up there with Jagger and Dylan as a singer of same.

    "His voice (Ray's) is flat and awkward, quavering along like some pop George Formby. The whole thing is lopsided, crablike, one step from chaos, but somehow it balances out, it makes sense," wrote Nik Cohn. Indeed, perfectly wonderful sense! I just can't get over Ray's exuberant, almost drunken-sounding singing on the beginnings of "Victoria" and "Nothing To Say" and all through "Yes Sir, No Sir" ("I think this life is affecting my brain..."), its quietly intense, quietly enraged quality in "Some Mother's Son," the lovely falsetto sha-la-la's that Dave has always done so artfully all over the place. And I'm utterly delighted with the arrangements, with things like that absurd kazoo on the absurd part of "Princess Marina" and the horns that add so much to the exhilarating power of the "Australia" and "Shangri-la" and "Victoria" choruses.

    And the songs themselves! "He writes about nothing much: streets and houses and pubs, days at the seaside, little bits of love, drabness and things that don't change--stuff like that. Mostly he writes about small lives, small pleasures..." (N. Cohn again.) Yes, the small lives and pleasures are certainly dealt with here in the characteristically brilliant Davies fashion in "Nothing To Say" and "Princess Marina" and 'Shangri-la" ("All the houses in the street have got a name/' Cos all the houses in the street they look the same..."--I love that). But can the subject of "Some Mother's Son," the most potent, the most moving condemnation of the its-your-duty-to-fight morality I've ever heard in a rock and roll song, possibly be considered the "nothing much" that Ray has always chronicled with such wit?

    And finally, to my further delight, there's not a song in the lot, start they with harpsichords or slow military drums, that ends up anything less than great bopping rock.

    Do pardon me. I've gone off a bit long-windedly about things you need only put Arthur on your turntable to discover yourself. But I'm passionate about rock and roll, and this album is pretty nearly as passion-inspiring a rock and roll work as I've ever heard. I'm confident we'll get along magnificently.

    JOHN MENDELSOHN
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Nah that's cool, just making sure. I'm not fifteen anymore, I don't try to annoy people :)
    Bob Dylan "We live in a political world" lol
     
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  5. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Thank you, Mark! (and oops, yes, you did post them before.)

    There is a lot of verbiage here, because we are seeing both Julian Mitchell's synopsis and John Mendelsohn's laudatory notes. Mitchell's are the ones one really needs to put the songs in context. If anyone is overwhelmed, read those, at least.

     
  6. jethrotoe

    jethrotoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    When Moon did drive he drove into a swimming pool, he drove into a pond, and he drove over his friend and killed him.
     
  7. jethrotoe

    jethrotoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    "Brainwashed" is a brilliant tune. One of my favorites from Arthur. It's basically a proto-punk song (but with horns)--move over Stooges. That guitar break is HEAVY. I wonder what Dave used to get that tone? The main riff reminds me a bit of "I'm Free" by The Who, which came out around the same time.

    Lyrically, this song is PUNK. I mean, think about these opening lyrics..."Looks like a real human being but you don't have a mind of your own/Yeah, you can talk, you can breathe, you can work, you can stitch you can sew/but you're brainwashed, yes you are, yes you are, boy/get down on your knees."

    "Get down on your knees" "All those aristocrats and bureaucrats are dirty rats for making you what you are/there up there and you're down here/you're on the ground but they're up there with the stars/all your life they've kicked you around and pushed you around till you can't take it anymore/to them you're just a speck of dirt till you don't want to get up off the floor." Isn't Arthur a carpet layer? Some sort of blue collar (not sure if that's a term in the UK, it is here in the US) working man like that? These lines seems to have a double meaning--submit, know your place, but also seem to have a relation to carpet laying. Being on the ground. Being on your knees. Speck of dirt (the natural enemy of a carpet layer?) If you don't bother getting up or speaking up, and just do your job are satisfied (or don't realize you're unsatisfied) then you're brainwashed.

    The "Yeah, you can talk, you can breathe, you can work, you can stitch, you can sew" opening lines calls back "Yes Sir, No Sir"...in the military, you are a mindless drone, according to that song. In "Brainwashed," you're brainwashed for being a little man who allows the aristocrats and bureaucrats to walk all over you.

    Oh wait...I just used the phrase "little man"? Sounds like "Shangri-La"! That little man had a mortgage hanging over his head but he was too scared to complain, cos he was conditioned that way (more on that in a couple of days). Sounds a bit like he's brainwashed, right?
     
  8. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Julian sets up Ronnie as the character who "worries too much about the world," while Derek is the character who "complains all the time.".

    Now I'm wondering if "Brainwashed" is all Derek. "Nothing to Say" is Derek, and the songs share an ungrateful rudeness and a character voice. If so, Ronnie could be the poet, the singer of the more compassionate and measured "Some Mother's Son" and at least parts of "Shangri La" (a person I'd like to think of as Ray -- though they may all be contradictory aspects of Ray, really). "Shangri La" shifts into a different voice at the fast and loud bridge -- a similar voice to the one we are hearing on "Brainwashed."

    The trouble is, there aren't enough different voices deployed to account for all the characters, at least such that I can tell them apart. We also hear this sort of voice at the start of "Yes Sir No Sir," presumably sung by Arthur's brother Eddie, and on "Victoria", throughout.

    I wish Ray could confirm what was intended!
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
  9. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    I listened again to Arthur yesterday, decided that the plot landed strangely at the end....and then rethought it.

    I decided that the album is a sweet piece of ancestor worship, elder worship. Completely out of keeping with its time, Ray may be saying this:

    Respect your elders. These older people made incredible sacrifices for you and their country. They may have done it from a misplaced sense of loyalty to a government that didn't respect them enough, if at all. Their rewards of some material security and "status", partially for the benefit of their children, may feel empty. Their children may be ungrateful -- they may even abandon them and leave them alone in old age. There is tragedy in all this.

    So -- look beyond their mundane small talk and seemingly small lives. There is love there. Love them back. There is heroism and sacrifice there, and you have benefited greatly from it. Honor them. Witness their humility, courage and dignity.

    I know I'm getting ahead of things by posting this. But I figure it can't hurt for us to be in ongoing debate about the message of the album (if there is one) as we work our way through it. I may disagree with myself tomorrow, and I invite the same from anyone else.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That seems like a very likely subtext.
     
  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    For other opinions and info on Arthur.

    This article says that the producer had squandered all the money set aside for the project, and Ray and the screenwriter were taken completely by surprise
    How the Kinks' Heady Ambitions Drove 'Arthur'
     
  12. seanw

    seanw Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Same thoughts here.
     
  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

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  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Oh well, I was looking for some kind of definitive layout of which character sang what.... but I turned up nothing. I hoped I might find the screenplay
     
  15. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Brainwashed

    This has long been one of my favorite songs on the album. What I keep going back to is how this song only 2 1/2 minutes? There are so many words crammed into this song and a couple of those riff breaks, I could have sworn it was at least 3'15". What a great rocker. Those low horns in the back of the intro. Dave's guitar following the melody. The harmonies. That riff break at 1:30 is so dirty and heavy, I love it. And then how the horns come in with those double-hits. Mick's drumming is great and driving.

    Regarding the lyrics, I don't think Ray is saying *everybody* is brainwashed. There's a qualifier near the end with this incredible line that I wish I could've told some people in my past:

    "To them you're just a speck of dirt
    But you don't want to get up off the floor"

    If you don't rise up, then you're brainwashed.

    In the last verse, I hear:

    "Yeah, you're content to be
    What they want you to be
    And to do what they want you to"

    Which has a slightly different meaning than "you're conditioned to be" (as it is in the 2nd verse).

    It's not your fault you are trapped. You are conditioned that way. But if you're ok with it, then you are brainwashed.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It's remarkable how frequently Ray manages to get 5 minutes worth of music into 2 minutes.
    To some degree, I generally lean towards longer songs, but Ray's tracks always leave me fulfilled...
     
  17. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: A song that sounds like it was custom-designed to be performed live. It's alright, but there's nothing musically very original going on here. To me, the first half of the tune has always sounded like the 1965 Boston regional hit "Why Do I Cry" by Barry & The Remains:



    Then in the bridge, we get that boilerplate chord progression (I ♭III IV V) that hundreds of others have already used, including The Kinks themselves five years earlier in You Still Want Me.

    I will say this much. That combination of trumpet, trombone and sax in the left speaker certainly anticipated The Rolling Stones' "Bitch" a couple of years later.
     
  18. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I was reminded of The Who, as well, though specifically The Seeker.
    I like the song, and certainly think it propels the story line, but won’t put it on my playlist.
     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  20. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    What happened in the latter was that Keith & his friend/bodyguard went to an opening of a nightclub in early 1970 & his car was surrounded by a mob of skinheads. The friend was out of the car to deal w/the mob & fell to the ground when Keith, in a moment of panic, drove over & killed him. Keith got off legally for this, but it haunted him for the rest of his life.
     
  21. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Unfortunately, while it still exists, the screenplay has never been made public, other than one page reproduced in the book included with the Arthur box set.
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That's a shame....
    Although it's a shame the tv movie didn't get done, I'm glad we have Ray singing these. Not sure it would work for me with a cast of characters. Ray gives it the Kinks stamp of approval for me
     
  23. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I think it would have been nice if Arthur the TV movie was produced. I think it would have got the Kinks a leg up on the Who in that it would have been a muti media thing a lot sooner than Tommy. Instead there was all this talk that the Kinks (and also the Pretty Things w/S.F. Sorrow) were merely following the Who which wasn't the case.
     
  24. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I’m not 100 per cent sure, but as I understood it I always thought the TV show would have used the original Kinks recordings rather than having the cast sing the tracks musical style.
     
  25. jethrotoe

    jethrotoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Yeah, and, to be fair, I think the bodyguard's daughter thinks it is possible Keith was not the one behind the wheel, but rather that he took the fall for somebody else.
     
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