Pedantic footnotes. Arthur and Boadicea were 'British', there was no such entity as England and the 'English' were still in Northern Germany. If Arthur ever existed, of course. Canute was Danish.
I've heard it a few times, but I don't really think I've still properly ingested this one. It's such an odd missing link in the Kinks Kronology, that no one even suspected before the 2016 EISB legacy edition. I find the Kinks work in the first half of 1973 fascinating, because they were working on a very different earlier version of the Preservation concept than the one that came to be immortalized to the disdain and bewilderment of many on the Act 1 and 2 albums: initially it was meant to be based around a restaging and expansion of the VGPS material with additional new songs filling out the themes: an early version of this show was performed at Drury Lane in January 1973, which I'll try and go into more depth on when we get to 'Time Song'. There are still remnants of earlier version of the concept on the issued Act 1 album, but already the more plot based Mr Flash/Mr Black stuff is coming stronger by the end of that LP. So it seems possible that 'History' was meant to fit somewhere into this earlier 'expanded VGPS' version of Preservation given it's recording date and themes, though if so and in what way is an untraceable mystery on what info we have, as indefinably mystiqueful as the historical figures who appear tantalisingly before the song's protagonist. I don't really feel I can comment at length on the song itself but it has a strong dream like atmosphere, the verse about Shakespeare in particular reminiscent of that kind of frustrating dream where you're trying to reach or look at something but never quite manage it.
What's it all about ? Ray clearly has something to say, he has to enunciate properly to move the story along and push his idea across. In many ways, this is less an economical fleshed-out "song" than most of what he'd ever written up to that point, more a feeling and a band arrangement. It's really one track where you can hear the lyrics came first, and the music is essentially there to "back" them. Come to think of it, he has rarely written in that style anyway, this kind of very long lyric that is not one simple image/idea but a wandering of the mind, with a pretty straightforward rock backing. At 5'22'', it's even longer than the original Shangri-la. As a 1972/1973 recording, it's a weird beast. Clearly no Show-biz material, no Preservation either, it's really an orphan song. Thematically, it could only be part of the Arthur concept, or find a home as a later Disgrace tune. But musically it's more in the Sleepwalker/Misfits territory. What’s not to like, then ? I can’t help but wonder if Ray's attempting this kind of subject because… well just because he’s Ray Davies, the great english pop auteur, and that’s what he should be writing about. But I like it and enjoy it a lot, for Dave’s great guitar commentaries, its overall seventies sound, its insistent groove. Musically, I agree the riff and verse may be the most Lou Reed Ray ever was. Some of the chord changes are pretty basic (by Ray's own standards), but it grooves along nicely. I think it might just be the perfect outtake : something different, so different that it could not really fit anywhere in the timeline, but becomes a fantastic addition, like a glimpse in an alternate Kinks universe. Anytime, The Good Life, Lavender Lane, Nobody's Fool, now History, soon Time Song, this seventies outtakes Kinks compilation of ours is starting to look pretty good…
I agree that the meaning and the intent of this song isn't obvious. Could it be a repudiation of the Great Man theory of history a la the Gang of Four's "Not Great Men"? The idea that 'ordinary people' are excluded from history?
I never noticed the class thing at the beginning before, with the soldier leveling with/warning Ray that what the Great People of history get up to in this legendary limbo isn't any of their (common peoples) business. (Although why is he a clockwork soldier? It definitely sets up a dream like quality to the song from the off: and instantly makes a Dr Who nerd like me picture a Clockwork Soldier from that show's comparably surreal/literature based 'Mind Robber' installment). It also kind of reminds me of Robert Burns 'Tam O Shanter' or even the stories of conspiracy theorists attempting to infiltrate Bohemian Grove, in that the protagonist is observing something uncanny and bacchanalian that's not meant for their eyes.
This is my first time hearing this - as one who studied British history at the educational institution where Lord Nelson once attended (actually for only two weeks but they named one of the school's six "houses" after him as he was seen as a Great Man), I find this song interesting. First of all, I loved Ray's pronunciation of the word "territory". Secondly, one cannot get much more Anglo-centric than a song about the various people who came from this tiny little island that ended up being a dominant cultural force in the world. I am always happy to hear the Bard praised in song - no other single person had as big an influence on the English language as William Shakespeare had (29.000 word vocabulary in his plays including 9,000 words that appeared in print for the first time in one of his plays).
Britain isn't really a 'tiny little island', by the way! There's not many bigger islands in the world!
Further nitpicking, sorry (please keep up the great work!) surely it's the more famous Thomas More 1478 - 1535, writer, philosopher, and Lord Chancellor beheaded by Henry VIII
That's what I thought too. I love that song. I agree that it's a very unusual song for Ray. Maybe more in the 90s vein. I put it on my alternate Showbiz album, in lieu of "Unreal reality". It's the only change I have made to the tracklist. I haven't tried it yet. It probably doesn't work very well, but when I'll be used to it I will take this dissonance for a feature. I don't know if I already made my iconoclastic and off-subject statement that Lou Reed's debut is my favorite album of his, but if not I repeat it now before we leave 1972 far behind. And the fact that nobody cares won't stop me.
History What a surprise it was to find a fully formed song, seemingly never previously known about. And it's a very good one, although I can see why it didn't make the album, due to not fitting the theme of this record, nor the next few. I really like this one, more than perhaps half of the tracks on the original studio album. I was going to add that it would most certainly be referring to Sir Thomas More, but see plenty of others have added that! And like poor Thomas (now a Saint I believe), he got the chop, as did this track from 'Everybody's In Showbiz'...
Apologies for the pedantry, but ‘History’ isn’t a ‘Showbiz’ outtake (even though it was confusingly included on the Legacy edition of that album) as it was recorded March 1973, six months after EISB’s release. I guess strictly speaking chronology wise it’s more like an outtake from early sessions for what became the Preservation Act 1 album.
It's a good job it was added where it was though, it looks like further re-issues have ground to a standstill.
History Never heard this one until moments ago but I will say it is one of the better Kinks outtakes amongst the plethora i/we have been introduced to in this thread. Ready Mark's typed lyrics first about the metal soldier and the historical figures had me thinking surreal Dylan circa 1965 before I had pressed play. Again like our headmaster this song definitely reminds me of another song (or is it two?) which I can't quite put my finger on and suspect as much that it's one not in my own collection.
"History" struck me as a great song from the very first time I heard it, being a history major myself & being an uncle of someone who possesses a doctorate in Medieval English History from Oxford. The lyrics are dreamy & surrealistic. They remind me of the plot of the movie A Night In the Museum, in which American historic figures come alive in a museum. The protagonist gets to see these historical figures as people instead as dry words and/or portraits. It's too bad that this song didn't make it on Preservation. As Avid Fortuleo noted, the quality of Ray's cast offs in the early 70s rival those of the late 60s.
History: I was delighted to discover this song immediately after Mark posted our study schedule awhile back. Naturally, it has found a place on my playlist. Lyrically, I enjoy this dreamlike walk through a museum of history. (And, as an aside, I imagine Ray did take time to visit museums and other places of historical interest.) I take the guards warning as, perhaps, a warning/heads up that it might not be a good idea to peel back the veneer or look too closely at these historical figures. Though it doesn’t seem as if the narrator’s tour was that unsettling. So I might be reading too much into it! I was the bad guy, in my senior year of high school, in a production of A Man For All Seasons so I agree the ‘More’ Ray sings of is Sir Thomas More. King Henry’s conscience. I played Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s right-hand man. More gets the chop and, while not a part of the play, Cromwell ends up getting his own head chopped off years later. Music/performance: Dave makes his presence known with both guitar and supporting vocal. Ray is a bit more restrained than normal though there’s a couple of spots where his trademark vocal breaks through.
And then, showing neither shame nor remorse, as an elephant nonchalantly trampling on a miserable stray rabbit, you destroy my newly born Showbiz alternate tracklist in a single sentence. History should go on Preservation Act 1, then. Trouble is, I like all tracks on Preservation Act 1. But then, I do have another problem : my trimmed-down Preservation Act 2 tracklist is 46 minutes long, while Act 1 is below 40. Maybe I will add History to Act 1. There is still hope. You have to be resilient in such merciless times.
