The Good Life A simple yet satisfying song. And if the basic riff sounds familiar it's because it's basically the same one Ray used on Here Come the People in Grey on Muswell Hillbillies What a great line by Ray! I'm surprised he didn't slip it in another song during the seventies - I could see Starmaker in Soap Opera using it. Yes indeed, and it works a treat on the bigger sounding rock numbers.
It's likely been replaced with more recent fare like 50 Shades of Grey. To quote Jimmy Carr, what's the world coming to?
Good Life: Well, as you all know, I like me some rock ‘n’ roll and I think I’ve made it pretty obvious that I like the late 70s Kinks run from Misfits through at least State of Confusion, so I like this song quite a bit. Just as Anytime would have fit beautifully on Sleepwalker, as someone else has already noted above (man, y’all get up early!), the minute I heard this song, I thought it would have felt right at home on Low Budget. Thematically, both of these castoffs could have been squeezed onto Lola vs… and I don’t think they would have necessarily brought it down, but Lola vs… works fine just as it is. Both great songs though, really glad to have them. ….and yeah, those are some funny lyrics in Good Life! That Ray can make you laugh when he feels like it.
30,000CE ! If that's the case it will be 'Til death do us part" , either by natural ageing or a prearranged merciful strike from a high hat foot pedal whereby we would fall together like dominoes as we spell out a Kink lyric of @mark winstanley 's choice with an individual letter on each of our red riding jackets!
when i first "anytime" i thought it sounded beatlesque , especially the beginning and i sure ray thought the same thing, 50 years later it's a worthy outtake for sure.
This is it for the Lola album era, right? If so, my master playlist includes: Get Back In Line Lola Top of the Pops This Time Tomorrow Rats Apeman Powerman Lola (cherry cola) The Contenders Strangers The playlist is now 72 songs long (approximately 3 1/2 hours).
The Good Life Did I say "Anytime" was generic? Anyhow I can easily see this sounding like something from the Kinks later in the decade! As for the lyric at one point it reminded me of one from another prolific writer of the 60's era who also spoke of fortune and fame by stating neither of them are to be what they claim!
"The Good Life" is another Lola era outtake that, like "Anytime", I never heard before the 2014 reissue. It's pretty bluesy, w/not so much Shouty Ray as Growly Ray on the vocals. I do like the way the guitar stutters after the line "too much wine". It's so Ray to use the blues format to complain about an excessively wealthy lifestyle. It's a shame that he didn't use this song in a later album.
Three Golden Hours in total. From memory the first wasn't Vol 1, but there was a Vol 2. Plus there was the double Lola, Percy and the Apeman.... This wasn't given a Vol no either.
The Good Life Oh yes, I definitely hear this: Even some of those guitar licks Dave plays are similar to that of "Here Come the People in Grey"... I guess this was the prototype for that song, and they re-used elements since this one wasn't released. I can see why this was scrapped, it certainly is not the same quality as the other songs on Lola. And although you could certainly argue it fits in with the theme, it's almost covering both the before AND after getting big. Whereas it does seem like the songs pre-Lola focus on the "before", and the songs post-Lola focus on the "after". This would sorta cover both, and to me, that wouldn't really fit anywhere great on the album. But if I had to pick somewhere, I would guess around Rats/Apeman/Powerman as the first verses are in the past tense to remind folks how we started, and the later verses are in the present tense about where we are now. But, its not nearly as good as those other songs. Lyrically, the delivery/meter of this line is superb: "And if this is civilization, I'd rather be uncivilized" and certainly points in the direction of both Apeman and 20th Century Man. "I got so many problems that it's keeping me awake at night" makes me think of both "Yeah, you really got me now, you got me so I can't sleep at night" and "There's too much on my mind, and I can't sleep at night thinking about it." One thing this thread has taught me is that when Ray has an idea, he will use it over and over again...
At the end of the day I just need to know if they are the three. Whether they were specifically called1, 2 and 3 doesn't really bother me to be honest
I’ve been mulling over the age old question: who is my favorite band/artist right now? (Not all-time, which is another philosophical question meant for another day.) Last year it was Drive-by Truckers. With two album releases, the Truckers smacked me upside the head. So, this year? It’s gotta be The Kinks!
"The Good Life": What T. Rex would have sounded like if Marc Bolan's lyrics weren't a lot of mixed metaphors and non sequiturs? Better than some of the tunes that made the cut if only because it's more fun. 5/5. Edit: to be clear, I dig T. Rex too.
I’m not sure if it was ever officially released, I’m not quite sure where I found it, but I have an alternate version of Lola that I think might be interesting to discuss. Maybe we haven’t gotten to it yet? Maybe it doesn’t exist and it’s a figment of my imagination? Anyway, I don’t wanna jump the gun and talk about it now if it’s coming up in the future.
I couldn't tell you, as I have no idea what you're referencing lol There is only one Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround that I'm aware of.... excluding expanded editions and deluxe editions etc
There’s an alternate instrumental version on the Percy soundtrack… that’s not what you’re thinking of is it?
"The Good Life" This is another new one for me. Everyone has already hit upon all the thoughts that I had. We have perhaps the most Marc Bolan sounding song yet? Parts of it has Ray in his total T.Rex vocal. It also has a bit of Chuck Berry on top, which Marc also was very fond of. I agree that this song may not be good enough for the Lola album, but it does point the way to the late 70s records. Yesterday's song someone said it sounded like a preview of Sleepwalker, and today I think we have a song that hints at what was to come on Low Budget and even Give The People What They Want. I have to say I am not much of a fan of the shouty/growly Ray that pretty much dominates those late 70s albums. Maybe I will come around some more when we get there. "The Good Life" could have been a highlight if he saved it for one of the later albums. The growly vocal doesn't overstay its welcome here because it's mixed with that lovely T.Rex boogie.
The meter & tempo remind me a little of The Who's "Long Live Rock" and The Stones' "Jivin' Sister Fanny." While there's nothing particularly ingenious going on here, it certainly is easy to dance to.
Perhaps this one: It's definitely sub-par to the album version. The biggest difference is the full voice on "That's the way that I want to stay...." section. The quieter dynamic on the album version helps make that song...
I’ll have to see if I can figure out how to link it (sorry, I am technically proficient at best). There’s a completely different studio version of Lola (the song, not the album – sorry Mark, I’m sure that was unclear). It appears to be from the 2014 remaster (?). It starts with an acoustic intro and it’s clearly a completely different studio recording. The reason I thought it was interesting is that somewhere above when we were discussing Lola, I thought, but can’t now find where, someone commented about how Ray changed the original recording so that the intro is the very distinctive “clangy” sounding riff because he thought that riff was very catchy and he wanted to make sure that the song got peoples’ attention right away. Listening to the alternate version, which starts out slower with some acoustic guitar strumming, it’s still a great version but I can understand Ray’s point, it takes a lot longer to get hooked by the song. Anyway, thought you all might find the alternate version interesting. …and if this was already covered (or just is uninteresting!), sorry! I am just digging the thread and wanted to contribute
