Damn! I always thought he was English!!! How wrong can you be!! Too much listen to Arthur, maybe ?? Oh well… To me this version makes another strong case for reappraising the genius of the Muswell Hillbillies album in general: its sound quality, its melancholic concept, its overall atmosphere is key to the song's power and achievement. I really like both the Americana and Our Country albums (I'm a Jayhawks obsessive), but this remake transforms Oklahoma USA into a mundane country-rock tune, good and nice, but nothing too special either. Whereas on Muswell Hillbillies, sequenced after the extraordinary Holloway Jail, it's a heart wrenching visionary creation, a rare case of a song that manages to effortlessly create different levels of conscience and invite the listener to lose himself in them.
"Oklahoma USA" When I was first listening to (and being underwhelmed by) this album, this is one of the tracks which stood out as different, in that it could have come from a previous album. It would sit nicely against the star tracks from Percy, and maybe even sit musically on Lola. It's a very nice track which would undoubtedly be higher up my list if it were on one of those albums, but being stuck towards the end of an album I struggle with, it's not got the credit or attention it's deserved so far. For the record I did get the connection to the movie, even thought I've never seen it. I had vague recollection of "Surrey With A Fringe On Top" being some kind of show tune. I've never looked it up, but I (correctly) assumed that the first two actors named were in it.
This is where Ray's lyric falls down, because a Surrey is a type of horse drawn carriage, so I'm not sure how you can walk on it, if he'd changed it to 'riding' it would have worked perfectly.
Good catch: “She's walkin' on the surrey with the fringe on top,” could become “ridin’ in the surrey”
Hi Mark reading this between sets at tennis. I have not heard the song yet but as ever you paint a vivid picture and bring it to relateable life. Loved your very human and sad story and it is I feel quite revealing of your sensitivity and the man you are so I just want to thank you for sharing and give praise for what a great communal gift this thread his mushroomed into as it's become far bigger than all of us.
He was despite some cruel souls not counting our map of Tasmania he regularly resided in and explored!
Oklahoma USA: I am sure many here will have insightful thoughts as to how all these songs tie together lyrically in to the theme. For my part, I just love the melody. What sounds at first upon a casual listen like an aimless little ditty with no real chorus just falls perfectly into place with an attentive listen or two. Another favorite.
This is a greatest Kinks song no one knows about (“no one” = “general public’). Such beauty in the sparseness of its arrangement. I rank the lyrics as powerful as “Waterloo Sunset.” Is there a writer in rock more adept than Ray at writing great songs that feature either a narrator/protagonist looking upon something from a distance and ruminating in ways that touch universal longings? See Me Friends, Waterloo Sunset, this one…” Oklahoma USA’s protagonist is basically Eleanor Rigby: life goes by while wishing it were something else. Who can’t relate to that?
Oklahoma USA Well folks, I would like to thank you all for pointing out how clueless I've been. Not only was Muswell never a fave among the Katalog, this song was a bottom tier track relative to the rest of this album. I thank you all for helping to open my ears. (Just so there's no mistake, this is not sarcasm; I mean this in all sincerity)
This thread, up to here at least, has been remarkable in so many ways... Great participants, interesting perspectives, great insight ..... and it's all underpinned by one of the most remarkable songwriters of our era...... and as much as I loved the band before we started, I had no idea how remarkable the writing was.... I have never written such long, or deep intros to songs before.... normally it is just a case of I really like a song, or it has a great lead break or whatever. Here there is this remarkably understated brilliance, that I had somehow missed.... and a knack for drawing out thoughts and memories that have been long buried
It will probably be a while, but I suspect that the next time I play Muswell Hillbillies I will enjoy it more, having taken on board many of the comments so far. Who's going to be the lucky poster to open up page 500?
Oklahoma USA This is a song I had virtually been unaware of before joining this thread. It is a beautiful song. Possibly as beautiful as Ray ever wrote. I have lived in Oklahoma since late 1994. This song is unlike the Oklahoma I know. It is better. Of course, I do understand that Oklahoma being referred to is the one found in the movie (or play). Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. That wind very much does exist!
"Oklahoma USA" is a very beautiful song, even though the beginning couplet of lyrics is profoundly depressing "All life we work, but work is a bore/If life's worth living, than what's living for?" It's also such a sad song, the dullness of the girl's life only relieved from watching the movies. I can only think about those houses built on the hills in the industrial towns in England, which are so ugly. There's also a sadness in our Headmaster's tale of being in the real Oklahoma USA. It could have made for a sequel song. Another great song from Muswell Hillbillies
Oklahoma USA New song for me and just played it 5 times back to back to get some sort of feel and grip of it. We have a plaintive & delicate vocal & instrumentation which is achingly deliberate & confident. Somehow i get a Celtic or Irish feeling of some type of folk song. Whether it's from Ray's ennounciation of the first words, the panoramic audiovisual piano, the acoustic instrumentation or the evocative accordion swells it doesn't matter as the whole becomes perhaps more than it's parts. As mentioned we have some yearning here but the introspection chimes loudest as the memory of Rene is commemorated and for the songs duration frozen in time. I think I said before that this is like a true folk song and taking it further it sounds like an old standard with a deeply meditative & moving reality that just is. High praise but has Ray composed his own Danny Boy?
I just had to pop up to Archway for a bit - it's 15-20 minutes walk from my flat - so I thought I'd take a photo of the Archway Tavern to show everyone how it looks now:
Thanks! Wiki says there’s been a pub there since the 1700s. Fantastic. Edit: I wonder if Kinks fans have photos taken as they try and reenact the cover? Probably. Edit again: but I guess that just means standing at the bar drinking!
