The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Ray solo on Jools Holland, NYE 2013. I remembered this seeming like a cringeingly weak performance at the time, but on reflection it’s not that bad. He is definitely showing his years here though imo.

 

I love "Skin And Bone". A lot of it has to do with the interlocking guitars (gee, why would that appeal to a Stones fan?) but also the way this seemingly silly song is actually addressing a pretty serious issue. I also love how the song incorporates something extremely English as the subject of the song weighs "just about sixteen stone" (for North Americans - a stone is 14 pounds. Don't ask me how or why this measurement was ever thought up). I guess you could say it's a bit flippant but I think Ray is not unsympathetic and he is really actually shining on a light on eating disorders. The Swinging Sixties saw the rise of the pencil-thin model (think Twiggy) and the constant media pressure that emphasized how women (who suffer from eating disorders more than men) should look. And though the narrator describes Annie as "flabby" and "fat", these are not necessarily negative attributes. The narrator pines for the way Annie used to be ("she used to be so cuddly") so I hear no body shaming. Plus anorexia nervosa is very unhealthy (Karen Carpenter suffered for years and it caused her death) so once again, Ray focuses on subjects most other writers would avoid. When I first heard it, I just liked it musically but when I started to understand what the song was really saying I liked it even more.

 

I audibly groan whenever Steph mentions her weight.... "you look great, how do you feel, ignore the damn scales!"

 

Skin & Bone
I can see how some people here find the studio version of this song to be dreary - it doesn't have enough propulsion. But it really comes alive when played live. I think Ray kept playing this song because he could see the audience getting into it - dancing, clapping etc: as demonstrated on the Jools Holland show by people who probably had never heard it before. It's a light-hearted fun song - and I don't care much for reassessing the lyrics with what we now know about eating disorders. So yes I like this song but prefer to hear it played live than the studio version. Also, I have a current soft spot for this song because I'm on my own mission to trim down from 105 kg to the mid-90s - adopting (by coincidence rather than as scripture) some elements of the regime in Skin & Bone!

 

Skin And Bone: another winner for me that immediately gets the ‘ol toes tapping. I love this rollicking, bluesy track and I can’t help singing aloud on the “she don’t eat no mashed potatoes.” As mentioned by Mark, the song touches on the “dem bones, dem bones” (so I’m always thinking ‘the leg bones connected to the thigh bone’ in my head).

I never thought about Twiggy but I bet those of you that have mentioned her are right. It could well be that the origin of the song is from barroom talk such as “have you seen that Twiggy? She’s all skin and bone.” I remember when she was everywhere (including Japan, too.)

 

Skin and Bone

I would say this is my least favorite on the album. I still enjoy it though. It seems like it was meant to be performed live. The instructions to the crowd (“bend your hips and touch your toes!”). But it overall seems like a derivative riff and song that I could imagine mid 1970s Queen doing almost note-for-note and tongue-in-cheek lyric-for-lyric. So maybe this song is a few years ahead of its time?

As for the theme, I see this fitting in nicely as an example of the structural or societal pressures that a 20th century (wo)man would face, and how it can really mess up your life. This is not a portrait of a healthy woman. She went to a fake dietician who gave her an eating disorder. When you say to someone “you look like skin and bones!” that is not a complement. But it is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way to say it looks like you are starving and you really need to put on a few pounds to be healthy.

Regarding the bass vocals on “them bones” (or whatever they are saying) do we know who is singing there? Dalton? This is a great observation:

In summary, a fun tune, would have been an upper tier mid-70s Queen song, but it’s bottom tier on this particular album when compared to the rest of the songs.

 

Skin and Bone: This song has a jaunty little pace and some incredibly funny lyrics. To top it off, it’s got a catchy chorus which has been stuck in my head for weeks now. I can understand some of the comments from the posters here saying that the album tends to be a bit downbeat, and I do feel that this rather humorous and fast paced song comes along at just the right time to give the album the quick kick in the pants that it needs to keep it interesting and fun like a good kinks record should be.

 

Yea, it is definitely leaning towards songs about mental health, and more directly, how the modern world seems to create these mental health issues.

 

Holiday

A very interesting track. Very much sounds like something that could have been released on a 78 back in the 1920's (though at a much diminished sound quality).

 

On a little side note, I'm at my mother in law's right now, in the countryside not too far from Paris and we did a little forest hike earlier this morning, under a nice sun and surrounded by the beautiful fall colors. And I had a flash of the last time I was in the same forest a little more than six months ago, in late April, reading and writing posts about the All Day and All of the Night / I Gotta Move single on this very thread, during a little picnic with my kids. I found it really moving that the forest itself would trigger a reminiscence of the time spent on this thread, proving that it (and its participants) has paced my day to day life in the last months in quite an agreeable, peaceful way. It's also fitting that in spring, we would be discussing the raw All Day and All of the Night and in early November, we're well into Muswell Hillbillies, a record some call "dreary" but I like to call "autumnal" (especially since it was released in November, exactly half a century ago – the only time we'll get to be in synch with such an anniversary during the threads's course).

 

Comedian John Astin upon seeing a leggy blonde in a bikini walk past him in a long forgotten TV show from 1967 called Malibu U: "That was Twiggy before taxes!"

"Skin and Bones" to me is Ray's version of "Dem Bones", w/updated lyrics that reflected the growing obsession w/weight that women were having, often to their determent, as the sad story of Karen Carpenter showed. As w/much of Ray's songs, it's a bit of a jolly song that doesn't seem as jolly when you look at the lyrics. As the other Avids have pointed out, this song really lights up when performed live like several other songs from this album.

 

It's from here on that I get less and less interested in The Kinks. Not to say that there was any drop in quality or anything but I get the feeling that they are still in late 60s mode. It all feels a little Mungo Jerry by this point I feel.

 

You got it the first time.

 

?

 

I'd spotted the "Dem Bones" connection as well - and that could be part of the problem for me. There is a current song called "Dry Bones" which also references "Dem Bones", and it's being played a lot on Radio 2 to the extent of driving me up the wall. Of course, this is none of the Kinks' fault, but it's not going to help in making me any more amenable to "Skin And Bone".

 

This statement basically describes my take on every flavor of ice cream.

 

Ok @DISKOJOE this US 5 track promo jukebox EP may be right up your alley?



What's on side A you ask?
She's A Rainbow & 2000 Light Years From Home

 

Hey @The late man sorry about We Love You however you can squeeze in Dandelion into SMR surroundings if you obtain a Mexican Satanic Majesties Request EP.

 

I was playing on your predilection for puns. That’s boyscott, not boycott.

 

Everytime I see this, I just think of Geoffrey Boycott, the Yorkshire cricket legend

 

Exactly!

 

Ok, I would have recognised boyscout.

 

I always do a preliminary placement of songs onto to my (infamous) playlist and am scratching my head because I just noticed that a couple of songs were missing. So I just inserted it again and took a look to confirm it made it. No. In fact, another song disappeared! Crazy.

 

Skin And Bone

The studio version is new for me and I enjoy the guitar tones and laid back vibe.
I agree with the two songs Mark mentioned Dem Bones/Dry Bones & the Shortnin' Bread song my mum used to sing to me as a wee lad.
I get the T-Rex comment another Avid made but the opening intro vibe itself reminds me of another 1971 release called Eagle Rock by Australian group Daddy Cool.
I guess a fun (though seriously topical) song to help fill the album but it feels pretty slight and i am surprised how much live mileage the band got out of this live, perhaps it was their preferred horny arrangement?
Either way if I heard it start in a concert i was at i would be thinking hey guys you can play something/anything else for 5 minutes!
Ok a bit of fun but simple and not remotely a high point for a writer like Ray Davies, i think I'll go back and have a Harry Rag instead and I don't even smoke!

 

Ray Davies did write a song about cricket after all. At least one, he might have written more.