The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Fortuleo has perfectly summed up the reason why I'm not too fond of this song, especially as a finale. I tend to prefer the "climaxing" type of last tracks to the "end credits" kind. I can appreciate the latter sometimes, provided that the penultimate song is the climax. Which Uncle Son clearly is not.

    What I find interesting in the lyrics is, you never know where the guy comes from. He's not fighting for a geographical identity, he's not grounded in a particular area ; it's the new lifestyle he rejects, not really the new place. Because his inner self is already somewhere else. Or, he does mourn the past, and in a sulk decides to take refuge in his imaginary United States. He's moving from his old house to a Rock'n'Roll fantasy.
     
  2. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    The title song and the last song but it sounds like a closer no matter what, if you ask me. I love the organ - it sounds pure gospel amidst the country twang. Exile is the most gospel influenced Stones album so it is no surprise that Muswell Hillbillies would resonate with me. The song "Muswell Hillbillies is a nice companion to Exile's "Torn And Frayed" which is certainly twangy but also has a very gospel organ.

    I love this album - I came to the Kinks relatively late for a person of British origin so I was in my twenties before I started really checking them out. This album just spoke to me in a variety of ways - musically first but also Ray's very idiosyncratic personas.
     
  3. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Mark, you’ve outdone yourself. A simply wonderful introductory piece…and I’m not gonna believe you whipped this up immediately after tumbling out of bed!

    I’ll write more later after I’ve had some coffee but I’ve often wondered if the other guys in the band bantered with Ray about his lyrics at all. Or if that was a no-no? “West Virginia? Ray, where do you come up with this stuff?! Ha ha.” In this case, the “I ain’t never seen” aspect brings it back to reality.

    I wondered about this as they became working musicians at such a young age. So this indicates that he was a voracious reader or a self-taught educational sponge. Obviously, as observant as hell. Should be awarded an honorary sociology degree or two.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Lol I had to alter my way of doing things a little while ago.
    I kept running out of time. So each morning I'm posting today's song, and writing tomorrow's.... and if I don't get it finished, at 5pm, I can tie up the loose ends....
    It's a really weird way of doing this, because every day you guys are talking about yesterday, and I'm excited for tomorrow LOL
     
  5. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I really think you should be keeping/saving your introductions (separately from this forum). As a music journal, if nothing else.
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I have the threads.... well, until they kick me off lol
     
  7. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    “Well I said goodbye to Rosie Rooke this morning,
    I'm gonna miss her bloodshot alcoholic eyes,
    She wore her Sunday hat so she'd impress me,
    I'm gonna carry her memory 'til the day I die.”

    What an opening line and verse. Amazing. A late 1971 release and this fits right in with The Byrds, The Stones, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. At 13 years of age, I would have been all over this (as I was with The Byrds Untitled and Let It Bleed, etc) if I had gotten even a whiff of it. But The Kinks were nowhere in sight in my early-teen orbit.

    I can’t narrow down my absolute favorite from this album, an album that is 12 for 12, but the song Muswell Hillbillies is in the top tier. I don’t see it as a single, though (I still haven’t wavered from my conviction that ‘Complicated Life’ woulda soared up the charts. And, at least in the UK, ‘Have A Cuppa Tea’ should have been given a chance.)

    I wonder if Ray (I guess by this time the other guys in the band aren’t much of a consideration? I’m a ‘band’ guy so don’t like to say this) was upset by the lack of a successful single from the album? I mean, it was just a short time ago that he/they were wringing their hands over needing a hit (thus the legendary ‘Lola’).
     
  8. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    As far as I know I haven’t studied these extras. Don’t know what they are at all so looking forward to it.
     
  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It seems really strange that all we had was a sort of promo single in 20th Century Man.....
    I looked at Muswell Hillbilly, because there was apparently this Japanese single, but I couldn't even find the Japanese single.
    There was a 3 track ep though, with the three minute version of 20th Century Man, Have a cuppa tea and a three minute Muswell Hillbilly I believe......
    Let me look.
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Kinks – Muswell Hillbilly

    Label: RCA – K1
    Format:
    Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, EP, Promo, Stereo
    Country: UK
    Released: Dec 1971
    Genre: Rock
    Style:

    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]

    A Muswell Hillbilly 3:22
    B1 Have A Cuppa Tea 2:41
    B2 20th Century Man 3:52

    There is a remix of Muswell Hillbilly for the Celluloid Heroes Greatest Hits album, but I can't find this single mix listed here
     
  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Japanese single came out late 72 from what I can tell

    [​IMG]


    The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies
    Label: RCA – SS-2182
    Format:
    Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
    Country: Japan
    Released: 1972
    Genre: Rock
    Style:
    Tracklist
    A Muswell Hillbillies
    B Oklahoma U.S.A.
     
  12. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    So yeah, Muswell Hillbillies is my favorite Kinks record. Song for song, it’s not better than Lola, Arthur, Village Green or Something Else. It may not even be that much better than Everybody’s in Showbiz (which has some GREAT tunes). But a few things put it above all else for me : it has my most cherished Kinks song ever (Oklahoma USA), three other stellar highlights (Holloway Jail, Alcohol and 20th Century Man) and I do enjoy its bottom ones more than my least favorites on the other records. Call it consistency, perhaps ? This record’s about something, the concept lies as much in the music as it does in the lyrics. It’s about being displaced, feeling misplaced, it’s about being constrained somewhere, and about the spirit of escapism. This time, it’s not an abstract notion or a creation of the mind (like Village Green could be) but something very real, grounded in experience, real places, real people, real stones, real contradictions, real paradoxes (I don't like the 20th century and I don't want to move from Muswell Hill, but all the while daydreaming about the USA???? Come on!) and I find it all the more touching and poetic for it. As I said in a previous post, it’s all about these people on the cover, having a pint in their hands and those songs in their minds. It's about them, but at the same time, we can all relate. I enjoy learning that uncle Son or Rosie Rooke are real characters or Holloway jail a real place, or Shirley Jones a real actress, but I don’t need all this insight/intel to understand, relate, and dream away with the emotions and tableaus their names and stories ingrain in my imagination. Such is the conceptual genius of this record and the magic of Ray’s writing, it’s both specific and universal, both small and big, both literal and metaphorical. Yep, my favorite.
     
  13. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    In an act of supreme restraint and self-control…I only put nine of the twelve songs onto my playlist.
     
  14. StevenTounsand

    StevenTounsand Waxidermy Refugee

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    It might have been a stretch to hear a bit of Harper Valley PTA in “Acute Schizophrenia” but the country song structure of “Muswell Hillbilly” is exactly like “Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother”!
    I wonder which came first of if they both mimic an earlier country song…
     
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  15. StevenTounsand

    StevenTounsand Waxidermy Refugee

    Location:
    Austin, TX
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I'm guessing Skin and Bone and Uncle Son missed the cut?
    Come on, give us the deal :)
     
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  17. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    “He’s 34 and drinking in a honkytonk…”
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Apparently it came out a couple of years later in 1973.... but aside from the country style, I don't really hear much similarity
     
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  19. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    And ‘Holiday.’ I had Skin and Bone on initially but, alas (!), decided against extravagance.
     
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  20. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    You guys make me feel like I loved this album as much as you do.
     
  21. StevenTounsand

    StevenTounsand Waxidermy Refugee

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    After a walk with my dog and thinking of other songs like it - I suppose Merle’s “Okie From Muskogee” would be the most logical touchstone. A song that celebrates one’s humble honor…
     
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  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That linked article uses a lot of themes the songs share....
    Different song, but a similar mentality behind it..... it's worth a read
     
  23. StevenTounsand

    StevenTounsand Waxidermy Refugee

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Oklahoma also is mentioned in all three situations which I find striking due to its being one of the last states to become part of USA in the early 20th century.
     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    You do, you adore this album.... he says making hypnotic hand gesticulations :)
     
  25. StevenTounsand

    StevenTounsand Waxidermy Refugee

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    I need to go back and finish reading it - I just glanced again and saw that Muswell was released on my birthday November 24th! I’m taking a solo road trip across Texas to see my mom in California in a few weeks and I’ll be sure to have MH on my playlist…
     

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