What's worse is Jack the Idiot Dunce: "He's a fool/He's a ninny/He's a twit/He's a Jew." The lyric sheet says "chump." Er, no.
I hear an 'er' sound. I also think 'jerk' would make more sense in the context of the other relatively harmless insults preceding it and the light hearted tone of the song as a whole. Who knows: it's definitely NOT 'chump' though I agree!
It's also a different mix from the album version (there's actually four different mixes of this track!). The version on the Velvel CD reissue that says "Single Edit" is not this version issued on the US and Japanese 7"A-Sides or the UK B-side. That "Single Edit" on the CD is another mix/edit entirely. Here's the actual version/mix that's on this 7" (apologies Mark, I should have put this info and video in the PM I sent about Scrapheap City). Sound quality is not great as it's a vinyl transfer. Missing here are Dave's lead vocals and the harmonica is mixed differently, but Ray's 1st gear, 2nd gear, etc. vocals are already here. So neither side of this single has ever been reissued anywhere else officially. It matches the bigger box set, so the "Monitor Mix". There will be a few more single sides coming up through the rest of the 70s and the 80s that have never had an official release anywhere else and never on CD, including an actual title track of an album that appeared in a longer version on 7" and 12" single B-sides (and 2 different mixes yet). And others are not just different mixes, but different versions of tracks that were remade later such as this Scrapheap City. But we'll get to these in good time.
"Scraphead City" First time listening to this version. I would have preferred Ray singing over the album version. The music on the album has a light and comical style which would have been well suited to a great Ray vocal. It sounds like music out of Blazing Saddles. I never cared much for the female vocal on the album, but I am surprised to say I think I prefer it over this slowed down Ray version. It's too early to say as I have only heard this single version a couple times this morning, but it kind of drags. I guess it's fine for a B side, but they had much better tunes they could have chosen.
Scrapheap City (US Single version) When this was mentioned the other week, I thought, goodness, a track I don't have. Luckily having a rummage around, found the double boot LP Kollektable Kinks, and there it was! So, I have heard it before, but quite possibly not during this century. A slowed down bluesy sleazy version which I think I prefer to the 'Preservation' version. I do prefer either Ray or Dave providing the vocals for The Kinks generally, which may have something to do with it. What has peeved me somewhat is that it wasn't included on the Preservation CD reissues. And I can see no good reason why not.
Interesting! I bought Kink a couple months ago. I started to read it, but I wasn’t loving it. I put it down and read something else (Elton’s book Me which I thought was fantastic). Now I’m going back to give Kink another try. I still never read the second of Ray’s autobiographies.
Scrapheap City What a pretty musical beginning. and then starts the pumping beat which you wouldn't necessarily expect after that intro. I'm a bit acquainted with the album version but not enough to say with confidence if this here is a better version. But I do really like this! A lot. So it's a treat that this has been brought to my attention as I don't know how long it would have taken to hear it otherwise. Cool.
It certainly sounds like Jew to me, but then I always thought the well respected mother k new the best about the matter of all instincts. In any case, a Jew with a turned up nose is rather incongruous.
Preservation Act 1 Released 16 November 1973 (Act 1) Recorded March – July 1973 Studio Konk Studios, London Genre Rock Length 39:16 - 46:54 (1998 reissue) Label RCA (original) Rhino (1991 reissue) Velvel (1998 reissue) Producer Ray Davies Record label & catalog #: RCA Victor SF 8392 Country: UK Format: 12" vinyl LP (album), 33 1/3 RPM Release type: Regular release Side 1 1. Morning Song 2:00 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 2. Daylight 3:19 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 3. Sweet Lady Genevieve 3:26 stereo mix (3:23), recorded Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 4. There's A Change In The Weather 2:59 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 5. Where Are They Now? 3:28 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 6. One Of The Survivors 4:31 stereo mix (4:25), recorded Mar 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Side 2 1. Cricket 2:56 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 2. Money & Corruption / I Am Your Man 6:01 stereo mix (5:52), recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 3. Here Comes Flash 2:41 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 4. Sitting In The Midday Sun 3:47 stereo mix, recorded May 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London 5. Demolition 4:07 stereo mix, recorded May-Jul 1973 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Ray Davies – vocals, guitar, harmonica Dave Davies – guitar, vocals John Dalton – bass Mick Avory – drums John Gosling – keyboards Additional personnel Alan Holmes – brass Laurie Brown – brass John Beecham – brass Krysia Kocjan, Lee Pavey, Lewis Rich, Pamela Travis, Sue Brown – additional singers Technical Dave Davies – engineer Roger Beale – engineer Pat Doyle – art direction Chris Hopper – photography One of the great things about going through a catalog like this, is that we get a feel of where the band was, and how they got there. We also get a chance to listen ahead if we want to, as we know what is coming up. So these next few albums are albums that I didn’t particularly dislike, but I wasn’t as close to them as some of the others ……….. they are, on the surface, a little bit different … but actually, as I have gone through them, they really aren’t that different to my ears at all. Sure, if you put Preservation next to Kinks Kontroversy it is a completely different sounding album, but in the context of having gone through the albums as we have, it is a smooth flow of stylistic introductions, and a growing interest in thematic albums, and different approaches to presenting them as such. One of the things that may not have washed well with long time Kinks fans is that Ray moved into a theatrical presentation at this point in time, and whether one likes it or not, it did the band’s future live shows an awful lot of good, because Ray learned how to be a performer on the stage, rather than just a musician/singer, and even though folks may not like the direction the band went in, at any given point, the early seventies created the Ray Davies live in concert personality that led the band really well through the seventies and eighties. He seemed to become comfortable with the idea of putting on a rock show, and that, to me at least, was a really good thing. Preservation is a cousin, or close relative to the Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. I am not sure if it stayed true to his original idea/s, but it ends up moving in a completely different direction than the parent album, and it seems to have a focus on political and socio-political themes, rather than the loose town as a family idea of the original album….. but we’ll see how we go with that. I have listened to the songs a lot over the last few months, and I am comfortable with the songs, but I haven’t dived deeply into the themes or lyrics …. Or at least not enough to start laying the foundations of what we have here. The SACD I have opens with the single Preservation, which we will look at after this album, because interestingly it was released between the two albums, and not on either…. And I reckon it’s a great song, but we’ll get there. So my introduction to the album was odd, because as an opening track it works very well, but then the real opening track starts, and it seems out of place, and of course when I first heard the album, I had no idea that Preservation wasn’t on it. Now it makes more sense. We get Johnny Thunder reintroduced here. He is older, and he has entered the political field, and frankly seems a bit of a scoundrel … as far as I can tell at this stage. He becomes Flash, and seems to be the main character here. We’ll get to all that stuff as we go along though, because as I say I haven’t delved too deeply into the theme, or lyrical content yet, so that is just an opening thought, based on what I have heard, and looked at so far. I have heard all sorts of things about this album over the years, and predominantly it seems to be an album that people don’t like. In fact this whole period seems to be like the Kinks Dark Ages, or something like that, in the mind of a lot of fans, but I really like this album, and I hope that as we go through folks can set aside their historical thoughts on the album, and listen with fresh ears, to give this a chance. It seems remarkable that Ray was even able to produce an album in the circumstances we have surrounding this one. As we have seen, Ray was not in a good place at the time. And just after the One Of The Survivors single, we have Ray almost succeed in killing himself after his wife left him. To some degree this also may explain why these Preservation albums take a bit of a dark turn. There are three main characters in this saga. We have Flash - A Capitalist Baron The Tramp – Who works somewhat as a narrator/outside commentator Mr Black – a Puritanical, utopian Socialist I am not familiar enough with the Tramp to have any opinion about him at this stage really, but Flash and Mr Black are both loathsome characters to my eyes and may well be part of the reason that people don’t like these albums. Anyway, we’ll dig deeper into the story and characters as we go along. Although this album has some political themes, lets try not to get involved in any futile arguments about politics please. I think it should be possible for us to discuss the album without any of us jumping on a soap box…. So, I have grown to really like this album, and somewhat surprisingly, its partner album, over the last few months, and am looking forward to going through these with you all. Please give us your thoughts on this album, for now. When did you first hear it? What did you think? Have you listened to it enough to know how you feel about it? Has your opinion of it changed over the years? You know, all that kind of thing. Share your hearts and minds and lets see where this album takes us. Cheers Mark
A1 Morning Song A2 Daylight A3/B1 Money & Corruption / I Am Your Man B2 Sitting In The Midday Sun B3 One Of The Survivors C1 Where Are They Now? C2 Sweet Lady Genevieve C3 There's A Change In The Weather D1 Demolition D2 Cricket D3 Here Comes Flash
