The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

As further evidence though to the supposition of 'Everybody's In Showbiz' being 'Lola Vs Powerman... Part Two' is evidenced by the use of 'Look A Little On The Sunny Side' as part of this new bellyache.

 

The Journey: repetitive to the point where I couldn’t get all the way through the song.

Shadows: I like this one. A bit of Dickie Betts and then, as Mark points out, just a tad of mellow Zeppelin (for the briefest of moments). It gets stuck at the very end, seemingly not knowing how to close…but then figures it out nicely.

 

^^With this wonderful encapsulation of the show, you can find it live online here: Radio 4 - Listen Live - BBC Sounds
It's less than 15 min away.

 

Well, it reminded me why I never listen to drama on Radio 4! I find there's something inherently clunky and inauthentic about radio drama (especially on Radio 4) and this didn't really do much to change that opinion, but it was an inoffensive way to pass 90 minutes and I'm glad Ray is still plugging away with his hare-brained schemes and notions.

 

"The Journey"- I also hear the Rod and Faces similarities even without Dave's vocal. This could have been a nice tune with a vocal added. As it is, it's an ok instrumental that I will probably never listen to again.

"Shadows"- This kind of lead guitar doesn't do much for me. It all sounds like music that would be on a guitar instruction CD. They provide the backing music and you fill in your tasty licks. Here is the demo to hear how rocking you will be in two weeks.

I must also mention Micheal Nesmith. I'm a huge fan of his work with The Monkees and all of his albums in the early 70s. He put out 6 classics between the years of 1970 and 1973 that don't get a whole lotta love. It was actually this year that I branched out from Magnetic South and started listening to the other five albums that followed it. A really sweet songwriter and one of a kind. He should get far more recognition for his talents. Excellent songs like "Nine Times Blue", "The Crippled Lion", and "Some Of Shelly's Blues" he recorded with The Monkees and The First National Band, so you get two superb versions to choose from. The Monkees would not have been anywhere near as good without him. He was ahead of his time and travelled to the beat of a different drum. Love ya Mike!

 

Same old story. Ray bellyaching. X-Ray - Storyteller - Sunny Afternoon The Musical... Almost fell asleep listening to it. Radio doesn't do it for me for this sort of thing obviously. Bring on the video production.

 

He does seem to have an endless supply of stuff to moan about, Ray does. Reminds me of that Billy Connolly crack about a well-balanced Scotsman: a chip on each shoulder. I was a bit surprised he left in the "And now you can earn some rrrrrreal money" line in "Top of the Pops".

 

I look forward to the Preservation project. I've not chimed in yet as in general I rarely comment on any forums. Muswell & especially Pres 1&2 are my wheelhouse. Is Preservation their best? I'd have to be batsheist crazy to think that, but it is hands down my favorite. I can sing badly just about all the lyrics. For me, I kinda thought, roughly, they went from being hard rock to prog back to hard rock. Obviously a generalization, but it's my party and I'll cry if I want to I love The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Tales From Typographic Errors, Thick as a Brick etc. So for me, Preservation is their last great chance taking statement. The final elbow.

 

The Journey/Shadows: Two instrumentals in the 70s Britrock style, pleasant but unimportant in the larger scheme o' things.

Has anyone noticed on the front cover of Decade that Dave didn't tuck in the side of his shirt, leaving a love handle exposed?

 

I thought the radio show was ok. I don't mind the complaining. If everything was hunky dory, then they'd be no story to tell. I've spent 1. 5 hours doing way worse things. LOL. I don't typically listening to things like this, but obviously knowing the songs and the story helped a lot. I wasn't quite sure what was going on while "Everyman" was in NYC. Is America/NYC supposed to represent the devil?

I'm pleased that Ray has an outlet and is healthy and with-it enough to do stuff like this. Now release video/film from the 1970s...while you still are able. C'mon, Ray! Pretty please.

 

I didn’t hear the show yet, but I’ll take a stab that NYC could represent Allen Klein.

 

Was he involved with the Kinks?

 

Absolutely. ABCKO wound up controlling publishing and masters for their sixties songs. If you look at the recent box sets, for instance, there is an ABCKO logo on each one.

 

OK, I reckon that was Allen Klein then!

 

Didn’t that already happen at the beginning of this year?
https://youtu.be/ijd3pf5ddjk

 

OK, what is that? It's like a one man show version of the radio play?

 

Yes, their managers used him to get more money from Pye & Reprise in 1966. That's why Face to Face was released so late. Also, Klein noticed "Dandy" & gave the song to Mickie Most for Herman's Hermits to record.

 

This almost sounds like a karaoke track for "Mandolin Wind."

Another obvious backing track that somebody forgot to put a vocal on to. I'm guessing that we're mostly hearing counter melody here, and that if he had gotten around to singing something, the actual melody would probably be something quite different.

 

That’s the original one man version of the Money Go Round play that premiered totally unexpectedly and out of the blue on the Kinks YouTube channel in January of this year. It was officially only available as a live broadcast and for two days after, but a fan appears to have saved it and uploaded it unofficially.

 

Mystic Woman
I find the music engaging. Another take on Wicked Annabella in regards to the lyrics? Us women are always stirring up a potent brew, dontcha know?!

 

The Journey
I'm not feeling anything about this one. Don't hate it, don't love it. just sort of meh.

Shadows
This song is begging for some lyrics. It's a good sound, but I want to be singing along to the fast bit in the middle with the insistent drums.

 

I think these Dave diversions are excellent for us. They offer a good respiration in between Kinks records and they’re a good reminder of Ray’s visionary genius. In the usual assessment about the Kinks “losing it” in the RCA years, there’s often the temptation to pretend that Ray became this tyrant forcing the band into his theater fantasies, leaving Dave in the backseat by refusing his songs and input, or not giving him enough consideration. Some sort of “Dave was the Kinks’ George Harrison” narrative, if you will. But after the last few days on the thread, I’ll argue this theory (to which I sort of subscribed myself until now, except I’ve always adored all the Kinks records from that period) doesn’t hold up. For Decade is hardly All Things Must Pass, is it? Dave was obviously still in a self-searching artistic quest, and having these songs and demos readily available for listen is proof he just wasn’t consistent enough in those years to challenge his big brother’s guidance and vision, self-indulgent and commercially suicidal as those may’ve been…

 

The theory that Dave might have had lots of great songs to contribute which Ray suppressed might not hold up but the rest of the theory does! Anyway, one or two songs every second album or so isn't much to ask for, it's not like Ray was churning out Waterloo Sunsets in this period

 

Very astute observation. This should be ‘stickied’ for the future!

An aside: a good part, for me, of this diversion is that it’s given me a lot of time to concentrate on 2021 releases!

 

This is a great conversation to have over this weekend, with where we are in the discography. There was some other thread at some point recently about how artists hit their peak by 27 years old, and I think there is some validity to that. Maybe not that specific age, but maybe the peak magic period is 8-10 years after starting writing songs. Of course there are exceptions, but for most artists, the quality of their material goes up and then down like a bell curve. I think Ray has had several peaks and valleys, but the highest peak seems to be 66-71 and compared to other writers, the periods immediately around that peak are still very high. Dave seems to have sharply improved as we got into 1967 and then to his peak (to me) in 69-70 (Mindless Child, This Man He Weeps Tonight, Strangers, Rats), and then the magic seems to fall off a bit of a cliff. Ray’s peak was obviously much higher than Dave’s.