The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Midnight Sun

I think I miss Mick's drumming. I think I miss a Ray backing vocal. Part of me wonders if he's saying "Will ya?" and not "Willie"? I think that might make more sense in context. Musically, I like the organ in the mix. The bridge/pre-chorus might be my favorite part. I like BOP BOP hit in that section on the "say well, well".

The Four Tops followed by Wilson/Asher chorus lyric is an odd choice. Musically, I don't hear any glimpses of This Man He Weeps Tonight, but this is a great lyric that could have been a lost verse from that song: The clock ticks eagerly as you sit and wait. As the sunshine clips your frame, the shadows soon will seal your fate...

 

Article on and interview with Ray about the Lola radio play in the new, February 2022(!) issue of Uncut!

“It starts in a leafy suburb in north London – and ends up going to hell and back! […] It’s about a songwriter who’s made a pact with the Devil, partly inspired by a 15th-century morality play called Everyman. It’s about his struggles with demons. I steered away from The Kinks’ story – I wanted to make it a story that everybody could relate to. It describes how I was having a slight mental breakdown at the time.”

 

Nicely said. I agree with all of this. It does start out pretty good and with a little more work could have been something. It does come off the rails with the "Baby I need your loving", but the more you listen to this song it starts to make some sense. Not bad for a demo and with the help of his Kinks family they could have turned it into a decent album track. That early Rod flavor is all over it. I'm not crazy about some of the guitar solos. They sound like he might have recently added them. Did he add music to some of these tracks before this was released? I at least like this more than the last song.

 

Yes, I believe there was some additions here and there. One track, I recall has new vocals added to a track previously bereft of them.

 

Ha. I was at that very race. One of the 10 times I attended during the 31 years I lived in that city. The skies opened up midway, if I recall, and it did not run the full 500 miles. My dad and I got soaking wet.

 

Avid Martyj, I used to watch the Indy 500, along w/drag racing, demolition derbies, stock car racing & every other form of auto racing on ABC'S Wide World of Sports when I was a kid. I probably saw you & your dad get wet back in 1975. Here's a radio show from Jean Shepherd, the creator of A Christmas Story, who was from Hammond, Indiana, on WOR NY from May, 1967, telling a tale on how he & his dad attended the Indy 500:



Well, just click on "Watch on You Tube" & it does pop up

 

This tune has it's moments, but the title sure is unoriginal. There's of course, the Lionel Hampton/Johnny Mercer standard, and this:



Badfinger / Midnight Sun

 

Midnight Sun
I think there's a good song in there somewhere. It grooves along well enough.
Again, there's a Rod Stewart feel which does him no favors in my eyes. If the lyrics are correct (and I know they're not often often accurate), then Dave isn't singing them clearly at times, so as Mark pointed out, it has a certain demo quality.
I like it better than yesterday's tune.

 

Midnight Sun

Once again a succinct and perceptive post from @Fortuleo & the beer light to guide us!

First time hear a moment ago and i too feel it starts out well and gradually goes down hill with the cliched chorus and strained vocals though I do like some of the guitar parts and find it more interesting than the opening track.
Fair enough saying he's partly reaching for his late 60's form but I don't hear "Weeps Tonight" or "Child Of Motherhood" but actually Lincoln County in some moments and one other I'm trying to put my finger on perhaps Dave's Susanah, is still alive?

 

Upon hearing that I would not default any driver starting before the flag was dropped!

 

That's one way of saying you would find the disc taxing.

 

Mystic Woman.

stereo mix (2:34), recorded 1973 (backing track)/2017 (vocals) at Konk Studios, North London

Mystic woman hear my call. Bring your Ju Ju.
Bring your Ju Ju. Help my plan. Help me through this time of pain.
She sits by her campfire, casting spells. Calling the spirits, mixing brews.
Herb types and rituals make it alright again.

Mystic Woman hear my call. Mystic Woman hear my call.
With the spirits by her side. Show me all the secrets that you hold.

All through the night, casting spells. Bring me your magic from mystic realms.
Herbs types and rituals make alright again.
Bring your Ju Ju, help my plan. Bring your Ju Ju, help my plan.
Aah aah make it alright again.

Bring me your fire, bring me your bell. Cast the demons back to hell.
Herb types and rituals make it alright again. Yeah...

What you know- what you show... Mystic Woman. What you know- what you show...

Written by: Dave Davies
Published by: Dave Davies

In some ways these tracks, at this stage, seem like slightly unfinished demos. I actually only bought this album after really enjoying Dave’s “lost” sixties album, so this is all quite new to me, and as we get to the fourth track from the album today, it seems like, particularly the three 1973 tracks, have a slightly unfinished, in studio kind of jam feel to them. The vocal issues, would also suggest that they weren’t really finished off, but merely put together as reference sketches…..
So with that in mind, I think it is important to think of these as what they are, unreleased outtakes, demos.

Having said that though, like If You Are Leaving, and I like this song quite a bit.

Ju Ju
- A style of music popular among the Yoruba in Nigeria and characterized by the use of guitars and variable-pitch drums.
- A fetish, charm or amulet of West African people’s
- The magical power attributed to an object
I just wanted to touch on that, because the word comes up a few times, and I just wanted a clarifier. I have only known it as the last definition there, but I assume in the song we’re looking at the second.

Here we have Dave struggling with life, and the trials and tribulations that it contains, and seeking the help of the “mystic woman”, who is painted as a witch doctor of sorts.

I like the opening of the song, it has a sort of ethereal sound to it. Are they strings?
Anyway, we have this swelling sound, and Dave comes in with the vocal, and then we move into this really cool blues guitar type riff.
I know this kind of song well. You have this great riff in your head, but you aren’t quite sure what to do with it, so you do what you can with it.
Dave ends up setting it up as a kind of traditional blues framework, and it works well, but I think the riff and the feel deserve a song a little bit better…. Which often happens…. And it is so frustrating as a writer to have this great part that should be a part of a killer song, but the song ends up just being pretty good.

The arrangement of the lyrics is a little scattershot, and I am struggling to label a section…. But when the slide guitar comes in, it is also really effective, and adds a really nice feel to the song….

This is a really cool blues jam, that gets turned into a pretty good song. I also like the fact that Dave is a bit more laid back with the vocal.

For me, so far this track and If You Are Leaving make this worth having….. I kind of like when Dave leans into his interpretation of the blues.

 

Or maybe Wait Till the Summer Comes Along ?

Mystic Woman: very nice ! This one works quite well for me. Lyrically, it’s a direct follow up to the Kinks’ witches songs, Misty Annabella and Wicked Waters. The mix of funky-blues riff and swampy slide is excellent, it creates an excellent groove, something that could be described as a George Harrison jam (between Wah-Wah and the 1976’s version of Woman Don’t You Cry for Me) played by Manassas (for the Latin-meets-Voodoo sense of syncopation). Love the sudden stop mid-song, that's a nice touch. It’s quite an exciting little track, and it goes again one of my “theories” about Decade : I thought Dave and son had ruined some demos by re-working them for release but in this case, what appears to be a 2017 vocal is remarkably consistent and works organically with the backing track. The best of the 1973 Dave song so far, by far.

 

Mystic Woman has a nice groove going. The song reminds me a bit of Fleetwood Mac - Peter Green edition - but it does sound like a demo. Mark a 70s solo album from Dave down as another Kinks lost opportunity.

 

I'm pretty sure that Mystic Woman is one track on the Decade album that has had new 2018 era vocals by Dave added to complete it. Certainly sounds more like current Dave. (EDIT: already mentioned by Fortuleo above)

Have to admit I can't get over this one entirely lyrically and mostly musically sounding like a patchwork of the most hackneyed Hendrix poster hippie patchouli tarot reading in a dope encrusted crash pad cliches it's possible to assemble, sorry, exactly the kind of 60s off the peg signifier stuff I love The Kinks for not being. If you were writing a parody of late 60s/early 70s rock music, you might come out with something like this, and in subject and lyric it unfortunately puts me in mind of something like 'Voodoo Lady' by Creme Brulee from the UK comedy show League Of Gentlemen. (see below) I actually really love the Decade album but this ain't a highlight for me. About the only thing I like is that neat little chord change at 0.45, reminds me of a Dylan song I can't put my finger on just now.

 

Four years ago I was playing tennis competitions and my partner was a certain Mr Power, after 6 months on the same fixture team I learnt he was a very close relative of Indy Winner Will Power!

 

This is the best of the 70s Dave tracks so far IMO. I especially like the music on this. But so far, this album isn't going on my 'might buy' list.

 

Mystic Woman: best track so far and the only one that hasn’t sounded like a demo to me.

 

Best song on the album, imo.

 

"Mystic Woman": Unusual beginning, nice, bluesy groove, great vocals, especially after the previous song, like the sudden stop, hippy dippy lyrics.

 

Haha I don't think I've been more at odds with the other Avids over a song before! Didn't expect this one to be so warmly received. I'm clearly missing something!

 

I don’t particularly wish to hear it again but my expectations were pretty low after listening to the previous two tracks.

 

I didn't hear it that way. At first I thought he said "bring your tchou tchou", which in French is a child's word for a train, or a toy train. It's absurd, of course, there is no reason why these syllables should have the same meaning in English. Then I read the words and Mark's welcome explanations. I interpreted it as some kinky sex game, or more precisely as Dave mock-indulging into this woman's mystic mumbo jumbo to spend a night of fun with her.

 

Mystic Woman

Definitely a groove song where he had this riff/idea and just repeats it over and over. It sorta reminds me of a Zeppelin-ish riff/sound to it. Especially some of those lead guitar overdubs (actually were those added in 2017 as well?). But it's a bit more of a swampy sound to it, too. Not a bad track.

 

The English equivalent of tchou tchou is choo choo by the way!