The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

If you dig groovy late 60s French people dancing to an amazing mix of Anglo & French acts, then Surprise Partie, originally broadcast on December 31, 1968 is for you:

 

That's brilliant! I used to watch Simon Townshend's Wonderworld so I'm amazed I missed that episode. That was filmed during the Feb 1982 tour of Australia. That style of humour was typical of that show - quirky and good-natured. I'm surprised Ray went for the pies in the face, but at least he got a dollar note.

A fun fact about one of the DJ's Townshend introduces - Doug Mulray. About ten years after this Wonderworld segment, Mulray had a new TV show on air called Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos. The owner of the TV station, Kerry Packer (a colourful, astute and successful billionaire media mogul: not at all like you-know-who) turned on his TV during the broadcast of its first episode and was so unhappy he phoned the station with the instruction "get this sh_t off the air!" So half-way through that first episode viewers got a "technical issues" announcement followed by an episode of Cheers. It's still well-known here as the shortest TV show: one-half.

 

After 20 minutes I can tell this will be one of my favourite YouTube vids from now on. Even though the Who and Small Faces were miming they were still awesome. Then it switches to Booker T and the MGs playing live. And the dancers

 

Simon Townshend was not in this clip. The reporter/interviewer was Jonathan Coleman, the goofiest of the reporters featured on the show.

 

You know in my first draft I wrote that Simon Townshend went on to have a successful TV career in the UK and died only recently. When I checked the date of his death I saw that he was still alive!
I had of course transposed the serious Townshend with the goofy Coleman. But the show was still Simon Townshend's Wonder World.

 

You might be interested in this 2016 Wonder World perspective.

 

Wonder World was a kids show, and it leaned towards being a little goofy. Jonathon Coleman who starts the interview was a sort of special kind of goof, and at one point was very popular amongst the younger folks.
Doug Mulray was a dj known to lean towards the silly and humourous.
It looks to me that they were just having a bit of fun. Nobody is taking it too seriously, and Ray was just having a bit of fun.
Wonder World was rarely about being in depth or anything, just light entertainment for kids. Introduced by a guy named Simon Townsend and his bloodhound Woodrow. Simon was well known for stumbling in to giggling fits ... it was a silly, goofy, fun show at the time.

 

Ha Ha ha I forget about Mulray's show.... didn't he do a late night show later on?

 

A Long Way From Home

stereo mix (2:25), recorded 11 Sep 1970 at Morgan Studios (1), Willesden, London

You've come a long way from the runny-nosed and scruffy kid I knew
You had such good ways
I can remember the little things that always made you smile
They made you happy

Now you think you're wiser because you're older and you think
That money buys everything
And you think you need no one to guide you
But you're still a long way from home.

You've come a long way, you're self-assured and dressed in
funny clothes, but you don't know me.
I hope you find what you are looking for with your car and handmade overcoats
But your wealth will never make you stronger 'cos you're still a
long way from home
Yes, you're still a long way from home

Written by: Ray Davies
Published by: Noma Music, Inc. – BMI

I’m running out of superlatives, so I’m just going to repeat myself, I guess.

This is a beautiful song, and it manages to fit the narrative well, because we have just had the guys in an airplane on tour, and so the theme of a long way from home, and the idea that the wealth that the single brought isn’t out of the script, it fits beautifully…… but when I look at these lyrics, I see and hear Ray singing a sort of love song to his brother….
Ray takes the part of the wise older brother here and is singing about how far he sees that his brother has come, but he throws in a few warnings, as any loving family member would. I have no idea if Dave saw this that way. Or how he may have felt about it, or if it is just the way I am reading it, but that is what I see when I look at the lyrics here.

You’ve come a long way from the snotty nosed kid I grew up with, and you were always a good kid. I remember the things that made you smile, because they were important to me seems to be the inference, otherwise why would he remember that. They made you happy, and that’s cool, but now…
You think you’re wiser because you’re older, and you think that this money can get you everything, and you think you are beyond need of guidance, but you have a long way to go in life yet, so just remember that boy that you were. Remember what a good kid you were, and the things that made you happy, because they are different to the things you now pursue seems to be the inference here …. These are just the things I see here folks, feel free to correct me, but to my eyes, it seems pretty clear, and it is a beautiful showing of love, with risk. If you love someone, you will always risk telling them the truth. Comfortable lies aren’t love.

You have come such a long way little brother, and you're self-assured and you wear clothes that are funny looking to me. I know you know who I am, but you don’t know me. This seems to infer that Ray knows full well how difficult he can be, and I get the feeling the line “but you don’t know me” is making the point that while we are working in this band together, there is a role I play, and it causes friction, and you get pissed off with me, and it isn’t the best environment for us to be brothers, because we’re both good at what we do, and we both take it seriously, and the business side of things and the creative clashes cause problems between us….. but you don’t know me, because I love you baby brother, and even now you’re a man, I still think of you as my baby brother, and I worry about the direction you’re going in.

I hope you find what you’re looking for with your “things”…. We all do it, when we are able. We all have this unfillable hole inside us, and we throw all sorts of stuff into it, to try and fill that empty space…. For some it’s food, for some it’s clothing, for some it’s cars, alcohol, drugs, parties…. For many of us here it’s music. Ray’s making the observation that the fancy car and the hand tailored clothes are fine, but they aren’t what you’re really looking for.

We all like the idea of having more money, because the idea that money will no longer be a problem seems to revolve around having more. I’m not wealthy, and I don’t know if anyone on here is, but it is just another thing. Sure, it can mean that we aren’t behind in the bills, or we have some nice stuff, but money always seems to be a problem, whether someone has a lot or a little…. And Ray states quite factually, that you think your wealth will make you stronger, but it won’t.

Because you’re still a long way from home…. And I don’t feel Ray is referring to the house here. I think this is an internalized home. At peace with oneself as much as that is possible down here.

There are so many angles to this lyric, and I can only see it as a love song, and a word of caution, and a hope of giving some direction to Dave…. I don’t know either of the guys well enough to get too deep into it here, but whether pop stars or plumbers, people tend to be similar at their core ….
In some ways it seems like it is the bookend to Death Of A Clown, perhaps a reply…. There are a lot of interesting places I could see my thoughts going in light of that idea, and it all comes from another concise lyric from Ray, that seems to place all the right words in there, with no fat or gristle.

Musically this is just as beautiful to my ears, even though it has a certain edge to it.
We open with just the piano rolling arpeggios, and the vocal from Ray. A really nice acoustic guitar plays an arpeggio that weaves itself in and out of the piano lines.
We move into the refrain, or chorus or whatever it is, and the drums come in, and they aren’t your regular 4 beat kick and snare drums. They are accents. We get this series of fill type drumming, that raises in intensity as we move along, and the guitar starts punching some chords. The intensity is rising.
We also have Dave coming in with a great harmony, and he’s pushing it. The way Dave falls off on the final home in that opening refrain is kind of heartbreaking in itself.

Someone stated that the drums in places have some Keith Moon influence, I think in the last song, and here I think that is somewhat amplified. With the fills pushing and pulling the vocals. Moon often played to the vocal, and that feels like what is happening here.
As @donstemple pointed out, we are in the present tense, and that was a great observation that helped flesh out the Lola connection for me, even though I think it fits into the story even if it wasn’t the “hit song”, but here that present tense is also quite poignant….. anyway …

We move into what I am going to call the second verse. The dynamic drops to give us a focus point, and the softening is another accent of love. Almost like, “I am not trying to be harsh here”. We build up, as it creates an emotional and dramatic feel that really helps the song.
Then we fall away to a gentle reflective finish.

Although I wouldn’t say the singing here is technically superb, in a classical sense. The emotive force of the guys blending their vocals here is sensational to me.

This track just really got very close to me. I have never really paid it that much attention to it before to be honest. Not that I disliked it … more a case of, “ok, this is the big ballad”… but having a closer look, this is so much more, and carries a depth I had missed previously.
So from the album perspective this works perfectly, because it fits the story, with the new pop star flying around on tour, and all the pitfalls that come with new found fame and wealth, but more so to me, this is seemingly a very personal and beautiful track that may give away more of the guys hearts than they possibly intended….

Another small point, as @Fortuleo pointed out in the last track, there is no character singing or acting in Ray’s vocal here, this seems to be a straight from the heart vocal to me, and that sort of reinforces my thoughts about the content.

I don’t know, just thoughts.
I have to say I love this track too, now particularly.

This is turning out to be a much better album than I initially thought, and again the story is really quite tight for a concept album….. I will be interested to see how we hold together til the end.

 

The musical companion piece to Get Back in Line, only with piano in lieu of the electric guitar backing. It’s another bona fide duet between the two brothers. This time (unlike yesterday), Dave is screaming his harmony at the top of his lungs, – and he should, as he’s the subject matter of the song ! It's essentially Dandy part 2, only Ray's being less satirical and more openly critical towards the whole fame & money game this time around. But in such an affectionate, loving way, as our team captain just underlined in his opening post with beautiful emotion…
In any case, Dave also chronicled some of his own behavior in a few songs himself, so from record to record, this whole thing is mostly a dialogue between two brothers who both experienced the same seismic life-altering changes and reacted to them differently. The sequencing here is wonderful with this song sandwiched between This Time Tomorrow and Rats. In the former, Ray expresses his own take on his rock star status: “the world below doesn’t matter much” to him but he still feels the pressure of said world “looking up” at him… In the latter, Dave is right in the middle of this “below” world, reacting to it in a manic alienated way. And in-between, you get this cautionary address from the bigger brother to the younger one, on which they sing their hearts out together, probably because, as expressed earlier, on this road they’re on, they’re not two, they are one.

 

A Long Way From Home
A beautiful beautiful ballad with heartfelt lyrics. Mark has done an excellent job of breaking down the words and music. I'm just enjoying basking in the song's glow. As I think someone said yesterday, this has been a wonderful one-two to start the second side of the album.

 

The Kinks did this one live for a wee bit in the early 70s, though it didn’t last long.

 

And then 40 years later, Ray revived this one as a regular in his solo set. Unlike a lot of deep cuts that he brought back in the 21st century, I think this one was a personal selection rather than a response to fan popularly, and I suspect it may have been chosen as a message to his by now somewhat estranged brother.

 

I'm glad you posted that one. I watched it yesterday, and figured you probably would

 

"A Long Way From Home"

I wish I could write a long piece about how great this track is, but a) I don't have the vocabulary, b) I don't need to, as others have already done a much better job than I could.

Even if you look at the most superficial level, this is an incredibly beautiful ballad, and once you start looking at the depths beneath it, it's overwhelming.

Musically and lyrically superb, sung with genuine emotion by both brothers - and amazingly it's over in two and half minutes. Not a single second, word or beat wasted.

 

Everything Mark said. What an excellent album this is. God save the Kinks!

 

This Time Tomorrow
A Long Way From Home
Two very pretty songs, particularly the former.

 

Ditto to all you said Steve!

 

That's just what I was thinking. Looks like it's going on the "To buy" list.

A Long Way From Home
A great little ballad.

 

Goodness me I have never seen this before with a young Johnathon Coleman, what a Wonderworld this thread is!

 

Sorry I've been very sloppy about this! I might try and catch up, but I wanted to day that there was always a sense of these two sings being bundled together for me as Ray spoke about them in pairing at the Mastertapes discussion, and they have just about no pause between them on the LP. Two gorgeous tracks, especially TTT, that are definitely the high point of the album combined, and part of the reason Side 2 is stronger than Side 1 for me.

 

Once again, you've saved me a whole lotta' keystrokes. Very thoughtful post and I concur on every paragraph.

 

Thanks never seen so much of this happening 53 years time ago!
Checkout the Hendrix inspired guitar freak out from about 37:30 to 39:00.

 

Yes that broadcast (at least what little was shown) passed into local television infamy which was sustained over years because i believe there was actually so many people that didn't see it at the time so it became a bit legendary.
Fast forward many years and post Mr Packer' s passing and the tv station decide to air the show in full feeling it will be a ratings winner.
I saw it this time and i was actually completely nonplussed at what utter garbage it was and the tragedy was that his son James Packer didn't call up and pull it of air for all Australians!

 

Townshend had a good doctor so got better!