Larry is still with us btw (and still not Ray's biggest fan, as this interview from 5 years ago attests!) I dunno why he's so grumpy: he surely must be doing pretty well financially these days after co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. 'All they wanted to do was fight' ' Larry during his second bout with the Davies bros in the mid 80s:
“ Despite such a bad experience in the 1960s, and a subsequent legal stoush between Page and the band, he returned to the fold to manage them in the 1980s. “I thought, I wonder if he’s [Ray Davies] changed? if I could do this again? I kept telling everyone, it’s going to be a nightmare !” Page’s misgivings proved correct. “I was the Richard Burton of the music industry!” Ray Davies testified in court that he hated Page, but The Kinks, he says, did well on his watch. “The deals that I set up the stayed in place, the record deal stayed in place and they earned millions out of it.” Hmm. Why a second time of managing?
I have wondered about that for a long time. Testified in court where he said he hated Page, believes he and the band were ripped off by him and, yet, hires him again as the Kinks manager. Muddled up mixed world it surely is.
The two things about The Moneygoround that are amazing: 1. That Rodger & Grenville were still the Kinks' managers when the song came out, although they were both gone by 1971; and 2. Larry Page actually came back to manage them in the 1980s. As for the song itself, another little ditty like "Denmark Street" where Ray cries until he laughs about the legal situation he got himself into. I showed my brother the video for this song & I told him that it's basically how Ray got screwed & he laughed.
I've run out of time this evening (Oz time) so I'll discuss the tune in the morning. I'd love to weave in an example of management 'racketeering' (his word) from David Lee Roth's autobiography. The creaming of artists' incomes for managers, lawyers, accountants and publicists was still a huge industry when Van Halen was at their peak. Music acts were cash cows. I doubt the Kinks ever escaped it fully.
Serious question: if Ray was so unhappy with Larry Page...why did he (and The Kinks) sign a second management contract with him? Sub-question: I would think established agents/managers would be knocking on the Kinksian door to get a piece of The Kinks/Ray’s income stream. Did this not happen? If it didn’t, was it because of Ray’s reputation? These guys are playing in concert bills with other bands, rubbing shoulders/drinking with other industry types. Surely, x tells Ray “T is my manager. Is treating me well. I’ll introduce you.” Or something like that.
Lola: What am I going to say that you guys won’t already have said better about the song itself. Instead I’ll focus on two or three things from own experiences that involve the song. First off, how fascinating that this song has risen in popularity three times during my lifetime. Having been born in 1965 and having my grandmother introduce the kinks to me probably by the time I was 10 or 11, Lola had already been a hit once but was still a radio staple as I discovered rock. As was discussed previously, I grew up in Connecticut and for whatever reason, New England seem to be a hotbed of kinks activity on the radio and during the late 70s and early 80s so that when One from the Road came out, the live version of Lola (“sorry, we’re not going to play that one tonight“) was all over the radio yet again. Once again, in 1996, the To the Bone live version caught fire on classic rock stations. Guess we loved the Kinks in New England, didn’t we! I never got bored of it. As others have noted, if it pops up on the radio I typically skip it to attempt to avoid total burnout but when I choose to play the kinks, it’s certainly one of their greatest songs. I would look at it this way: if I was to assemble my top 10 favorite Kinks songs, it might not make it at this point but if I was going to assemble a top 10 kinks songs for a newbie who I was trying to introduce to their genius, it would absolutely be in the top 10 and most likely very close to the top spot. Just because this was one of those rare occasions when the masses actually got it right is not a reason to penalize the song itself, which borders on damn near perfect.
I’m going to answer my own question: per the Larry Page interview linked above, it must be because he made them money. (I think Page said, “millions.”)
While Robert Wace and Grenville Collins are back on topic today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to correct/add a couple of tit bits regarding these two gentlemen that I should've done back when we were in 1967. 1) it's actually Grenville Collins, not Robert Wace, miming the piano on the Mr Pleasant Beat Club clip. I claimed the reverse way back when. Mea culpa. 2) semi-famously the pre-Kinks group The Boll Weevils were fronted for a time circa 1963 by Robert Wace as a featured vocalist, where he'd get up and sing a few Buddy Holly numbers to impress his well to do chums and debs. This ended after the group did a more down heel gig and the cockney audience were unable to take Wace seriously. But did you know he had another go at pop stardom 4 years later? In 1967 he teamed up with Mike Leander (arranger/songwriter of many famed UK hits and acts, although prob most discussed on this forum as the man Paul McCartney snubbed George Martin for to do 'She's Leaving Home') to form the duo The Marquis Of Kensington, who released 3 singles, debuting with this brilliant slice of Kinks pastichery, 'The Changing Of The Guard', which is incredibly Kinks circa Face To Face in sound and subject matter, and that thus surely many on this thread will enjoy should it be new to them. Wace sings on this but Leander is miming it here on Beat Club (looking very Roger Daltrey esque) as Wace wanted to remain incognito (was he still smarting from being laughed off stage in '63?).
This is hilarious. It really is just like “Mr. Wells” Spewing venom and resentment, yet clearly beneficial to both parties
Interestingly, Ray says he bought his Bentley when Lola went to number one. And of course he didn't have a driving license so couldn't drive it. Very much a rock star old Ray.
Being from New England, J Geils band was always on the radio and I love them. Their version is fantastic. I am embarrassed to admit that even before I knew the J Geils version, my favorite version was and still remains Ted Nugent‘s version from “Intensities in Ten Cities” (great title to an album (needless to say, it’s a live offering), great guitar work as always from Ted, though his need to babble his political viewpoints often make him seem like he’s come a bit unhinged) (Well, OK, totally unhinged, as Frank Zappa would say, just shut up and play yer guitar).
Top of the pops: clearly I’m going to like this one. I don’t care if the riff is a throwback, dumb and delivered with cynicism by Ray, it’s still a great riff, and the album needed a good dumb riff rocker right about now. On top of that, as others have quite nicely noted, the use of this style of song at this point in the story appears quite intentional and subversive and thus is pure Kinks! I love it and think it keeps the album moving along exactly as it should. Oh yeah, and… Dave!
The Moneyground I always thought this song should have had the chorus one additional time, because its so good. That's my only gripe, it's too short! It's only 1:49, and the last 10 seconds are silent! But wow, again it's incredible what Ray can pack into under 1:40 on the clock. It starts out with that carnival intro to set the stage that the band is being taken for a ride! Even the title itself is an obvious play on "Merry-go-round". Round and round it goes, the money dwindles until the end of the ride when the band is left with the scraps. Yet another perfect marriage of music and lyrics together. Yes! I agree, Ray's rhythm, meter and patterns are so fun. I also love these: "They don't know the tune and they don't know the words But they don't give a damn" I love how the use of "they don't" changes completely by the 3rd time it is used. It also refers back to similar lines from Denmark Street. Although then, they knew the tune but hated the tune and they hated the word, but they still didn't give a damn, they'll sign you up anyway. Also agree here! Back with that song, I wrote the following: ...and I'll continue to stand behind that statement! The ending of this song seems unresolved to me, in perhaps multiple senses of the word. I know musically, chords can be "unresolved." Is that the case here, from a technical musical sense? But literally, the final lyrics are "I only hope that I'll survive...". That seems unresolved to me! We don't know how it will resolve...
I love that "Do they all deserve, money from a song that they never heard? They don't know the tune and they don't know the words and they don't give a damn." A perfect encapsulation of Ray's point. And the plaintive way he sings "I thought they were my friends" is priceless. Brilliant track.
Everybody else is spouting their political biases so no reason Ted shouldn't.... and Frank probably expressed more political opinions than anyone, even threatening to run for president in the late eighties lol
Completely unrelated to the Kinks but this reminds me of a forestry-related project I did with a writer and photographer in tow. We visited a vast forestry operation on a mountainside, sloppy wet, debris strewn...and the photographer was wearing a pair of white pants and pink tennis shoes. Every single guy on site looked incredulous while looking him up and down! Okay, back to The Kinks.
The Moneygoround When i first heard this years ago it seemed a bit unusual so i didn't mind it but didn't quite embrace it with open arms either until i saw the fish eye lense video clip & was: A) Amazed that this oddball song had the band bother to film it & B) I was won over, i got the song & it's beauty & loved Ray's acting out of it so theatrically whilst betraying many emotions! He sounds hurt, green, emotional, fragile, annoyed, aggrieved & touchingly close to losing his mind which is accentuated by the camera angle and position to Ray's countenance. The film clip was included on this Australian discount shop 1994 VHS video alongside also Lola & Apeman from the LP. (N.b. The artwork has been trimmed to fit a DVD case & houses a DVD-R copy.) In the 80's (I think) interviews the money issues & inparticular song lyrics were put to both Wace & Page which I found proved to be illuminating. Now i have not watched it in a while but IIRC Mr Wace said they (he & Grenville i presume) ignored them and chose to not pay attention to them wanting them to go away & added what a great song Lola was. Mr Page who was highly likely re-managing the Kinks at this moment in time mentioned Ray's opening lyric's and cited that may well be what happened before adding that in music publishing "that" is standard business practice!
