Oh, I see the headmaster is getting impatient! OK, then, I’ll be the contrarian on one thing : I much much much prefer the studio Alcohol to its live rendition. I agree that it was meant for live performances, that it's a brilliant one and as I said in earlier posts, I do wish I’d seen the band during that tour, with that line-up and the Mike Cotton Sound in all its glory. But nothing can replace or re-capture the atmosphere and musicality of the original studio take for me. In general, as far as music is concerned, I like all the Muswell tracks better on the original record, because it’s a rock band performing, backed by an excellent brass section. On the live record, they sound like a more unified ensemble, which is great as well, but the rock part – the guitar sound(s) especially – gets a bit lost in the process. A key reason must be Ray is performing these numbers empty-handed (without a guitar, resonator or not), so it becomes something else, something good, even great, but something very different, himself stepping outside the band, in a way. The balance is different, the focus is different, it’s almost a different art form. I don’t mean this as a criticism, but it’s my heart’s choice : the Muswell Hillbillies sound, “muttered” as it may be, the Muswell Hillbillies tone and mood, “dreary” as they may seem to some, and the Muswell Hillbillies guitars, even on the “brass” comedy songs, all these elements just hit home with me every time. No live version, no covers, no acoustic takes, no demos, no nothing will ever beat that for me.
I was just YouTube cruising when I saw this, a TOTP version of that Arthur Daily song by the (funny) Firm that Avid All Down the Line first brought up, introduced by John Peel, no less. I didn't know that it was a UK hit:
Speechless. (Especially as I was anticipating seeing the Paul Rodgers fronted band. Same timeframe, isn’t it?)
Me, too. I started writing a couple of posts this a.m. but deleted before posting. Your sentence here is enough.
I confess to having not heard most of the live bonus tracks released post 1972. Edits aside i do agree that having much of the live discs focus largely on one album to be somewhat disingenuous, and would prefer selections to be more reflective of their grand and storied career.
The performances being discussed today are of interest to me because they are live versions of songs from Muswell Hillbillies which is the album of theirs I am most bonded with. I place none of these live versions above their studio counterpart especially "Alcohol"! Some Kinks live recordings have elements of "you had to be there" and while Ray balancing a bottle of Heineken on his head would be compelling in person, nothing compares to the refined studio take.
An interjection - and confession - about "Baby Face." I liked that silly track so much that I performed it solo on piano for my high school talent show, bewildering and alienating just about everybody. But I had a really great time doing it. Because, as you know... Everybody's in Show-Biz!
By the way, I received my copy of Muswell Hillbillies, a German 1972 pressing, and was very disappointed by the sound quality. I expected something brighter, it's all deafened and muddy. The CD and digital versions sound much better. Bad luck with the pressing, I guess ? I enjoy being one of the few supporters of this live album, it makes for a change
I barely ever listen to the live record. I doubt I have much to add, but I will give it a spin in its entirety later and see if anything stands out. I'm pretty sure I prefer all the studio tracks. I will report back!
Miles behind on posts , but apparently Ray tried to pull Dave Hill's wig off! Ray was banned from the BBC bar as a result.
Although the Muswell Hillbillies album is not my cuppa tea, in general its songs are more appealing to me in this live context...they sound like the “comedy” (Ray’s word) songs that were always designed for this loose, boozy live setting, and also the recording ambience is much more to my liking. I won’t comment on every live Muswell song presented here or as bonus tracks, and likely won’t listen to them often, but “Holiday” is my favorite of the bunch. Not my thing, but I can see how “Muswell Hillbilly” would have been a fun “Okie from Muskogee”-type singalong in a live setting back in the day. Despite being popular enough to make best-of compilations, the lengthy “Alcohol” camp-out leaves me with a feeling of “guess you had to be there, and preferably under the influence.” Anyhow, I find the Show-Biz live material is best visited in the bonus disc of the deluxe reissue (except for missing the excellent "Brainwashed"). Just an aside: I share some of @ARL ’s annoyance with Ray’s pronunciation of “schizophrenia” as “schizofreena” in “Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues.” It brings to mind my recent revisit to “Conquistador” on The Best of Procol Harum and wincing every time I heard “conKWISTador,” putting me off the song. It’s sort of like a laptop computer showing up in a movie that's set in the 1940s or something…come on, people, show me the respect of doing your homework!! At least Ray’s song is light-hearted enough to (mostly) go along with whatever he was trying to achieve with saying it that way. There, glad I got that off my chest!
In the UK 'conkwistador' is the correct pronunciation. Your pronunciation is North American. conquistador noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com 'Schizofreena' is Ray being idiosyncratic and rather silly.
Weeelllll.... as it is the English language, and England is the central country of the UK, it's really just the US being disagreeable isn't it Put the U's back in, get those Z's out, and put the S's back in, and get the Rosetta Stone English pronunciation video
Surely "conquistador" is a Spanish word, though, so England has no more authority to dictate its pronunciation than the US. Inasmuch as there is a correct pronunciation, it should be the Spanish pronunciation. Of course, this opens the can of worms that Spanish pronunciations are far from uniform across the Spanish-speaking world.
My pronunciation isn't just North American, it's the original Spanish! But duly noted for the UK. EDIT: I see @Bungo made this point.
In certain ways, American English is more similar to the 1600-1700's English from which it branched, than current English is. One noteworthy example is that both American English and 1700's English are rhotic (loosely speaking, this means that "r"s are pronounced), whereas modern English is not. So in that respect, it wasn't the Yanks who changed, it was the mother country. See e.g. Why Don’t Americans and Brits Have the Same Accents? "At first, English speakers in the colonies and England used a rhotic accent. But after the Revolutionary War, upper-class and upper-middle-class citizens in England began using non-rhotic speech as a way to show their social status. Eventually, this became standard for Received Pronunciation and spread throughout the country, affecting even the most popular British phrases. Americans kept their rhotic American accent—for the most part. Port cities on the East Coast, especially in New England, had a lot of contact with the R-less Brits. So if you always wondered why Boston natives pahk theyah cahs to pahty hahd with a glass of cabahnet, thank rhotacism."
LOL! I once had a very funny, acerbic Beefeater tour guide at the Tower of London tell a group of us Yanks: "We gave you a perfectly good language -- USE IT!"
Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues. Holiday Muswell Hillbilly Alcohol Still holding on to my belief that this live record is a good thing. It really brings Muswell Hillbillies songs to LIFE. If not for this recording, I would never appreciate Muswell Hillbillies as much as I do. It would've been much less obvious about how these songs were meant to be played live...and not be 'deadened' in a studio. I said recently about how much I would have LOVED to see the band during this time period. Ray was completely outrageous and flouncing about. I'd rather see this than any of their 60s shows. I am OBSESSED with the live version of Alcohol...this version is pretty good and frankly any crappy bootleg of this song is incredible. It changes from night to night (or year to year?) seemingly. What fun!
