Powerman As with many of the songs on this album, Dave's guitar really drives it. I think this is Dave's best guitar tone since the early Kinks rockers. Great song.
Rock was a good magazine--on newsprint, actually. Largely forgotten, I think. It stayed true to its mission as Rolling Stone grew ever more political.
So Lola was my first Kinks album. Bought in 1989, I think, something like that, the same day as Village Green, as part of the first CD reissue campaign. It was a good strategy on my part, or a stroke of luck, the best possible pick: the kinksiest Kinks album of them all, willingly “out of time”, and the most classically “classic rock”, probably the most “of its time” they ever did, but still quite “kinksian” itself. The Village Green CD proved a bit more difficult to tame as it was music I would’ve never expected from anyone… But I listened to Lola first and it was all I could ever dream from a rock LP of 1970 – and then some. There were hits, riffs, hooks, brotherhood, ballads, some Stones elements (which I needed back then), some country aspects (which I started to appreciate, probably because of the Stones), some heavy rock (always welcome), some sublime melodies and chord progressions (to this day, the biggest draw for me). I’m so glad I started by this one, because I’m convinced it’s the best gateway into the Kinks world. If you fall in love with this album, you can then follow them in every direction they ever took, before and after, and they will all make sense to you. The Money-go-round and Denmark Street introduce the vaudeville Kinks for you, Top of the Pops, Rats and Powerman are great glimpses of their harder side, Contenders/Got To Be Free give a first taste of their Muswell brand of amerikana, This Time Tomorrow and the ballads are fantastic examples of Ray as a melody and melancholy master, the hits are case studies in hit-making pop, and Dave’s songs, vocal presence and guitar-hero persona makes this album the best showcase of the brother’s dynamics, that is so central to their appeal. Add in the story and concept, and everything is there on display: the whole Kinks deal. If you start by this album, there’s a pretty big chance you’ll want more, and whatever direction you’ll take from there will bring you some satisfaction. @Vagabone ’s feeling and comments in recent weeks are a good indication that on the contrary, when you get to Lola from the previous records, it can be a whole different story… That’s why I feel so fortunate I started my Kinks journey with it. It was love on first listen, and it’s been love on every single listen ever since.
"Got to Be Free", the last song of the Kinks' next to last Pye album, is a pretty good closer for the album, stating the yearning of the protagonist to remain free in the face of numerous obstacles. I have always liked the Lola album myself since first hearing it in the late 1970s, although for me it kind of struggled in the shadow of VGPS & Something Else. The Kinks had come a long way since their beginnings in 1964 & they had the talent to transcend the "British Invasion" moniker, much like the Stones, the Who and dare I say it, the Beatles. Speaking of which, I noticed some of my fellow Avids bemoan the fact that the Kinks are not as "well respected" as the Beatles. Although the Kinks are my favorite band for 40+ years now, to me the Beatles, which I've listened to since I was a child, are on a different planet. Being on the SHF these past few months, I notice a certain disdain & dislike towards them in some of these threads. I'm not saying that everyone should love the Beatles, I think that there should be a bit of respect, especially since they basically started everything in popular music in the late 20th Century. No Beatles, no Kinks, no Stones, no Who, etc. Do I think that the Kinks should have more success than they had? Of course, but they had many problems, many frankly self-inflected, that it seems like a miracle that they succeeded in the first place. As long as YRGM, Sunny Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset and yes, Lola continue to be played, the Kinks will be remembered.
Got To Be Free Musically, the hillbilly intro threatens my appreciation of this song, but then it gets grooving and rocking and it actually makes for a rather satisfying contrast. Mark does a great job noting the paradox of how doing what you want invariably leads to some level of subjugation to some other power. The irony! What this song does is elevate above that. Now we all know both from the album and our own experience, that that elevation is an ideal and actually doing so is unlikely, but the song is delivered with such verve, that we can believe, if only for a few minutes and a little hope can brighten a day. In a way, this album is an antithesis to its predecessor. Whereas Arthur was about a period of hope and all the opportunities for a new and better life, but a life which ultimately failed to live up to its dreams, here in Lola we have a story of rats, corruption, oppression.... and we finish with the idea of rising above the noise. We've had three consecutive concept albums now, all with marvelous capstone closers and while this isn't quite my favorite individual song among the three, as a closer it may well be the most successful.
Agree 100% that Lola contains the whole Kink kaboodle (see what I did there?) It is also the album that made me fall in love with the band, early college. I had One for the Road in high school and the greatness was somewhat obscured by the volume and the bombast. Didn't help that a good older friend didn't get the camp and derided them as a "queer" band. Lola led me to Kronikles, and it was all over. Here I am, 35 years later . . .
Got To Be Free For the third album in a row, we have a great album closer that really captures the theme of the album and wraps things up pretty darn well. This one literally brings the story around full circle as it reprises the intro of the album. I guess, technically a reprise is just a short motif that refers back to a previous song or movement (think of that part on Abbey Road's "Carry that Weight"). So, more accurately, the beginning of the album prepises this song? I don't think that's a word, but I'm gonna use it anyway. Lyrically, I have a few thoughts: "Hush little baby don't you cry" - a slightly different lyric than the prepise™ at beginning of the album. In the opening, the protagonist is singing to their "mammy" about breaking free from their childhood and leaving the nest to start the band. Here, they are singing to their partner/significant about breaking free from the music publishers/executives. "Soon the sun is going to shine" - just another reference to the sun as a metaphor for good things to come "And it won't be long 'cos we are right, and they are wrong" - I just love this lyric so much. Us against the world. It seems like a direct callback to Arthur's closing track too: "Arthur, could be that the world was wrong... Arthur, could be you were right all along" "Got to be free to do what I want, say what I want and swear if I like" - I assume this is a reference to the "coca-cola" from Lola and "foggin' up my eyes" lyric in Apeman? Any coincidence that those are the two tracks we identified as potentially the fictional bands' hits in the story? and of course, as @Fortuleo mentioned: Musically, I'm a sucker for the Americana/countryish folk rock sound. I love their baroque 60s stuff immensely, but I am 100% on board with the shift here that they made in 1970-71. The blend of guitar sounds just works so well. And yet again, with that foundational sound of the piano underneath. John Dalton's bass doing it's thing. And Mick's changeups from the hi-hat in the verse, leading into the fill, and then the groove of the chorus. And then just after 2:00, the way Mick and John almost play off each other with the piano run and drum fill there. And yet again, Ray/Dave singing together brings me to my happy place.
If you look on it from another perspective, they had specialised in American-style music from the start. Rock 'n' roll and R & B are every bit as American as country music (in fact, country music has more roots in the British Isles than those other genres do) and they were a rock band from the start, and stayed a rock band for all their dabbling in English styles and subject matter. From that angle, country influences are not such a big leap. Both the Beatles and Stones had done C&W-styled songs by this point, so I imagine it was part of the expected stylistic range of the British rock group.
Hmm, maybe. But a good number of us did get to Lola through a different route. And then it’s all up to individual taste/preferences. I’ve mentioned that, prior to this year, my quasi-encyclopedic ( ) knowledge consisted solely of Village Green and Muswell Hillbillies. Of course, I received these albums from my rock buddy who knew my deep love for alt-country. So he was most certainly targeting that when he gave those two to me. (I was the one who got him hooked on Wilco...before Wilco was available in the stores in Japan. He immediately created an email account with ‘Wilco’ in it. No conflict as no one else had heard of ‘em!)
It always reminds me of the coda of "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel, which was out around the same time.
Love the Beatles, I just think they get a little overblown by some of the fans.... Important point though. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly set the bus in motion. The Beatles, Stones, Who and even the Kinks were the flow on from there. I think certainly The Beatles had the success, in large part due to Epstein managing them and their image so well. I just don't see them as the launching pad, more the second wave. Obviously prior to the original rockers we had the undiluted blues and country music that were married into the roots of rock and roll. I think on the forum there are two sides with some middle ground. There are a wealth of Beatles fanatics that will suggest the Beatles invented every form of music there is. Then there are those that knee jerk react against that, due to the delusional posts of the untouchable magnificence of the fabs. Like I say, I love the Beatles, I'm looking forward to hearing the Let It Be 5.1 this weekend, but the endless adoration gets tiresome.
Yes, that's true, there are overblown Beatles fans, like there are overblown Elvis fans & I've seen it in other threads here. It's also true about the 50s rockers setting things in motion. However, I do think that the Beatles put rock & roll in a different place, considering that it was almost considered passé by 1963 (folk music was popular here in the States), transcending the "teenage fad" label that it had until then & turning it to a major industry, both in the recorded & the performing senses. Anyway, I bet you rather hear Lola or Muswell Hillbillies on 5.1, don't you?
I was terribly disappointed when I bought all the sacd's to find that the albums marked as multichannel weren't ... It isn't particularly a case of preferring or not for me really. If I'm in the mood for Muswell, that's what I want to hear, if Revolver, or Architecture And Morality, or Farewell To Kings, or whatever, then that's what I want to hear. I find grading songs and albums very difficult. The days of me having favourites is pretty much gone.... I try to on the forum, but it ends up being somewhat arbitrary, or whatever.... grading bands.... it's a futile exercise for me lol... I have probably forty bands at number one. A few hundred albums at number one. and probably a few thousand songs at number one lol
I was only making a funny about that last comment. Also, re-reading my post, I do admit I was overblown & wrong when I said that the Beatles started everything in late 20th Century popular music. As Duke Ellington said, there's only two types of music, good & bad.
"Got to be Free": What stands out most to me on this song, indeed for most if not all of the Lola LP, is (1) how good Dave Davies' guitar parts are and (2) how much better his singing has gotten over time. The song feels kind of generic in its sentiments and the structure is pretty run-of-the-mill but it's still good, just not as good as the rest of Side 2. Wouldn't ever skip it, though. 5/5.
Not that it really matters, as the two songs are not much alike at all, but "The Boxer" was released as a single way back in March 1969, nearly a year before it appeared on Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The following two videos help explain. Warning: Watch at your own risk as you may lose both your ignorance and your bliss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjQc0dM4H4&feature=youtu.be
