You Shouldn’t Be Sad: every time I hear this, which has been just over the course of this album’s discussion, I visualize this as track sung by the teen band on a family-oriented, early 60s, television show (maybe Dobie Gillis or similar). It’s okay, I guess, but not particularly noteworthy.
You Shouldn't Be Sad -- This one doesn't really flutter my putter. There are many fine songs on this album, so he's entitled to a whiff now and then. The call and response is mildly interesting, but the tune is uninspired and the lyrics are cliched. Sorry Ray, you raised your own bar with the previous song. The weakest non-cover on Kinda Kinks. Something Better Beginning -- Much more memorable. Ray delivers his most dramatic vocal yet -- the buildup to "and I sighed" is exquisite. A lovely, haunting tune about the guarded hope that a new relationship will work out -- a universal theme, but Ray makes it personal with his emotive singing. And Dave's moody, chiming guitar paints the picture perfectly -- it almost sounds like Peter Buck in the early R.E.M. days. A great sendoff to a solid sophomore effort.
Hey guys, I’m really excited about this thread for three reasons: 1. This is the first time I’ve managed to catch an album by album thread (almost) right from the beginning. In the past, other than the Iron Maiden thread which I joined about 2/3 of the way through, I’ve always been chipping in comments years after the thread was completed. 2. I am a huge Kinks fan and I have never understood why they are not talked about in the same breath as the Beatles, the stones, who and Zepplin. 3. Despite being a big fan since I first discovered them at the age of 12 (1977 or thereabouts), and although I am typically a completist, I have many of their albums and compilations but the Kinks are a band I have never truly explored top to bottom, so here is my chance! Having read the first 60+ pages of this thread, it looks like it’s gonna be a great group of people that are true fans of this truly under-appreciated band. I look forward to reading everyone’s posts and learning more about this great band and maybe chipping in some of my own my thoughts here and there if they seem like they might be interesting.
Your thoughts are as valid as anyone else's... One of the things I have found with album threads .... Certainly there are some extremely well informed folks that give us excellent background and information, and it's a beautiful thing... Also though, sometimes an off the cuff comment by someone, can be just the right piece of info, or perspective, to help a song click for someone, or clarify something
It's a big Katalog .... I like it, but it is the surprise of it being lifted from mediocrity by the changes that makes me like it.... I guess that was more a clarifier ....aka this isn't going to be on my Kinks greatest hits, but I do like it .... top half of the album perhaps, but not top 3... Hope that makes sense
You Shouldn’t Be Sad I was initially ho-hum on this song, until I started loving it after hearing a cover version. I picked up a compilation LP about 25 years ago titled “Shangri-La: A Tribute to the Kinks” (It’s worth tracking down, although I think almost all the cuts on it have been compiled on other Kinks tribute LPs by this point) A band—otherwise unknown to me—called The Thanes, using a slightly more 1980’s new wave 60’s throw-back mix, brought out a quality in this song that had previously eluded my ears: that this is another variation on the bands signature stop-and-go bar chord riffing style a la “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All the Night.” It makes sense; the LP is otherwise missing that touch. But here the arrangement is much more ambitious in the way it breaks the riffing with softer parts and backing harmonies. In that way it anticipates a much better, later variation in the form of “Till the End of the Day.” I guess I had not initially noticed the power-riffing because it's overshadowed--to my ears, at least--by the vocals and percussions. It’s a good, largely overlooked song but modest in comparison to the many celebrated tracks the band would cut in 1965. Something Better Beginning A beautiful, beautiful song almost ruined by an awkward, ill-fitting middle-eight. In the pre-internet age I clipped and/or photocopied every review/article/interview/overview etc. about my favorite band. Among them I remember someone once saying the middle-eight of “Something Better Beginning” sounds like it was mailed in from a different zip-code. I couldn’t have put it better myself. It seems so perfunctory, as if Ray was of the mindset every ballad-type song has to have a contrasting middle-eight, and he wanted to just get it over with. It stands out all the more because it breaks up such a great melody. Now, about that beautiful melody. Easily Ray as his most melodious so far in his career. Someone—I think maybe Tom Petty, or maybe Elvis Costello, or whoever—once said the art of songwriting is to be a thieving magpie, taking bits of ideas from other songs you like and disguising it just enough to convince people it is your own. With this song Ray has taken The Drifter’s “Save the Last Dance For Me” and reshaped it, both musically and lyrically. That it is the launching point is evident in the first line (“….they said this was the last dance…”) The two songs do share enough similarities in overall ambience (if not sound) that I suspect the genesis of this was Ray simply thinking in terms of covering “Save The Last Dance” it without actually covering it. But it actually goes beyond that. Ray possibly pinched the exact melody line sub-consciously from an old movie. What movie? I wish I knew. My wife had the TV on in another room half paying attention to one of those 1930’s/40’s “sophisticated” movies—men in tuxes, ladies dressed to the nines, everyone smoking cigarettes—that one might find on TCM these days, but she was watching this well before TCM existed. Dick Powell was in it, so it may have been one from The Thin Man series. I overheard from another room a familiar melody played soft in the background under dialog. I started humming it to myself, thinking “now where do I know this from?” Then the penny dropped: It was the melody from “Something Better Beginning,” played at a slower tempo. Not the whole thing, mind you. Basically, everything leading up to where the lyrics go “….is this the start of another heartbreaker…” Did Ray purposely steal this? Or had he remembered it deep in the back of his mind and when he pulled it out he thought it was his own? Whose to say. We all know the man who wrote “Celluloid Heroes” is thoroughly familiar with Old Hollywood, so it’s quite possible. Anyway, unoriginal melody and awkward bridge aside, it’s not enough to sink this jewel of song. That it was included as a “greatest hit” on the band’s first hit compilation (10 tracks issued on the US Reprise LP one year later) is testament to its position among early Kinks standouts. A nice way to wrap up “Kinda Kinks.”
Very possibly - the melody of Something Better Beginning is certainly familiar. Save The Last Dance For Me is a good call.
You Shouldn't Be Sad Mostly standard stuff spruced up nicely by some clever and creative rhythm guitar. A fine inclusion on the album Something Better Beginning Some fairly pedestrian lyrics,, but beautifully delivered in sweet melody and a captivating chord progression.
Interesting that you mention The Thanes cover version: I was trying to find their cover version on YouTube to post on this thread but it doesn’t seem to be on there. I put on a Kinks tribute night in Glasgow in 2007 and managed to get The Thanes to headline. And yes. they played ‘You Shouldn’t Be Sad’ that evening. My other memory of them is that the night so barely turned a profit that I was only able to pay them £30 for their performance, prob only just about enough to cover their petrol fare back to Edinburgh. :/
I really like "You Shouldn't Be Sad." It's just another beat number that could have been a great tune for a girl band. As I mentioned before, I really feel like Ray was writing songs for other people but the Kinks were doing them instead. There aren't too many Kinks songs with the band (maybe Rasa too) singing in response to the main lyric. There's quite a charm in this one. It's also a bit frantic. It feels like it may fall apart at the beginning but it never does. I assume Mick is on the drums since the performance sounds exactly like the live BBC version.
Lol... I'm surprised I even thought about it... but you know, I do try to be sensitive to folks feelings
I was kidding because, upthread, I had been reprimanded (chastised?! ) for not spelling with a “k.” (Yes, I do know that it wasn’t serious).
Optimism is not the sentiment I get from this track. The melody, arrangement, and Ray’s vocal all tend toward the melancholic. An optimist expects something better; our singer hopes for it but expects continued pain. What’s the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist is worried that might be true.
It's nice to know a bit more about The Thanes, so thanks. They also did a version of "Who'll Be the Next in Line" which shows up on that same compilation LP. To cover two such songs--as opposed to the obvious hits--show that they clearly drink from the same trough as the rest of us on this forum.
You Shouldn't Be Sad seems like an attempt to develop the sound that was established with the two well-known hits from '64. I can see why they didn't take it further, but it is an ok track. Something Better Beginning: let me just concur with you on this one, it is simply a great track, one of the top 3 Kinks songs from this year IMO, and a perfect closing track.
In his autobiography, Ray specifically sites this song as an example of Shel Talmy rushing them at a ridiculous pace to get things finished in the studio. It was done in one take, and to this day, he strongly feels that with a few more takes, they could've gotten things a lot more polished, particularly Mick Avory's drumming. That being said, I like the fact that for the first few measures, the melody revolves around a D6 chord, which wouldn't have been common in those days. The little sections in the bridge and towards the end, where the band suddenly gets quiet are also nice touches. Here, Ray goes full Brill Building. This could just as easily have been written by Goffin & King or Pomus & Shuman. Like "You Shouldn't Be Sad," It's in the key of D, and the switch from a C to an Em chord after the word "Floor" is the only hint that we're dealing with something British here. I don't think there's any question that he got the idea to go for the ♭Ⅵ chord (B♭) to begin the bridge from "I Count The Tears." The whole thing sounds a bit like a Drifters tune with an English twist.
"You Shouldn't Be Sad" I agree with most of the comments so far. Another song that would be perfectly suited to a girl group. This song falls in the middle of early Kinks material. It's not really a highlight, but it's also not a low point. A nice album track before we get to the brilliant last tune. "Something Better Beginning" A perfect closing tune and one of Ray's strongest songs so far. We can hear a lot of future Ray in this song. Nice observations by everyone! This ends an album that is Kinda underrated, in my opinion. Aside from a couple of weak songs like "Naggin' Woman", I count at least 7 songs that are early Kinks classics. The majority seem to be in agreement on almost every song. Two of my favorite songs "Look For Me Baby" and "Don't Ever Change" didn't get as much love as a few other top songs, but that was somewhat expected. There hasn't been many major disagreements so far. I am sure there will be some Kontroversy on the next album.
