So don't scroll, glumly or otherwise, through Facebook and/or Instagram in the first place. I don't. As my Polish father used to say, "I no give damm" to celebrities.
Well, that's what I did a moment ago. I have one of those weird stackers/changers versions with Side A/Side D on the first record and Side B/Side C on the second one, which is not that handy to work with. But I gave it a "wrap up" listen, and it was a joy. It has to be said most songs have hugely distinctive and hooky intros, giving the record a great flow. You get exited at the start of each song, and the announcements almost add something in that regard. I felt this flow was a bit damaged by the two epics Nobody Gives and Artificial Man (+ Flash's Dream), coming off as the main offenders as to why the record seems somehow hard to digest. Both songs are jam-packed with musical ideas, sections, voices, shifts, etc. and they're the two most ambitious (and longest) tracks on the set, whereas most of the rest is almost straightforwardly poppy and easy to listen to by contrast (even Shepherds and Spiv, because of their innocuous comedic/vaudeville style). Anyway, that's how this listen went. It may be very different next time. So most tracks came off extremely well. I have to admit I find it very hard to focus on the story whenever I listen to any concept albums you can think of. In this case it may be even worse, because a lot of things (announcements, various singers, various voices, art work, libretto) trick you into thinking it should stand alone as an opera or something, but too many artistic choices are inconsistent. First, lest we forget it could never stand on its own, as it's only a second act. The Tramp comes back, but he's a very different Tramp. Opposite characters share the same musical motif (Flash's theme being heard in When A Solution Comes, the Salvation Road anthem first appearing in Flash's Act 1 tune Demolition…) or lyrics (both the Tramp and Mr Black are heard "watching it all go wrong") or schemes (both Flash and Black like to demolish cities, or so it seems). The same character has different voices (Ray sings Belle in Mirror of Love, then he duets with her on Nothing Lasts Forever), Flash is always Ray but Ray's impersonations of Flash greatly vary from song to song. Sometimes the big Bowie voice is Flash and sometimes it's Black regardless of any sense of continuity. Some parts are sung by the wrong singer etc. I need to get me some Paracetamol just to think about it all… So yeah, better just enjoy the music than to try to make sense of it. One can't help but observe that this thing was never presented as an "original cast recording" nor was it supposed to be a normal rock record. So what is it, exactly ? Remember Ray's 1973 quote in the Melody Maker, about scrapping the first version, and "probably not having finished" the next ? I think he knew he didn't pull it off and never really "completed it". Neither the story nor the overall vision were ever fully realized. At least on record. Songs coming from the first concept were recast as songs for the re-written one, characters and singers were swapped, some changes were made with little to no rigor etc. But it doesn't prevent me from appreciating what Ray was tentatively shooting for, this groundbreaking pop theater hybrid. He didn't write a musical or a Broadway show, nor a concept album/rock opera (like the Townshend ones). He wrote a rock'n roll play, something that was designed to re-invent the concert experience for both bands and audiences, in a way that had never been fully achieved by anyone up to that time (and very rarely – if ever – since then). So I like it as an unfinished experiment, a megalomaniac move by someone so exposed and lost in his own contradictions (emotional, political, philosophical) that his work can't help but being a reflexion of them.
Avid Fortuleo said, "[Ray] wrote a rock 'n roll play, something that was designed to re-invent the concert experience for both bands and audiences, in a way that had never fully achieved by anyone up to that time (and very rarely-if ever-since then)..." I totally agree w/that & again the Preservation material really pops out in live performance, especially the visual aspect. It wasn't until I saw the Boston Rock Opera version live that I "got" what Ray was trying to do.
I am dumbfounded to hear you know of someone who went every weekend for a decade to see The Rocky Horror Show at one theatre. So no real holiday away & no significant other that would put up with them unless they both liked weekend Frankenfurter!
That was my friend Bob who did that. He had/has no significant other. I never went w/him either. The only time I saw Rocky Horror was in Newburyport, MA in a small theater in the afternoon. They did have the lines & the characters doing things.
Announcement 5: This is the track I kept kept coming back to during the last two years, because the current radio stations where I live sound more and more like it. A track that I once perceived as silly dystopian vision becomes more and more like a prophecy, a very dark and oppressive view. What with curfews, closing down of theaters and such, all in the name of national security, it all hits too close to home and indeed cynicism and sheer disbelief are my coping mechanisms. Otherwise I've always found it the best of the announcements, with that overstated enthusiasm in the announcer's voice. It sounds like a blooper out of Paul Verhoven's Robocop or Starship Troopers. Salvation Road: So this is the song where the Preservation radio logo comes from. I keep forgetting that melody was on "Demolition" as well. Somehow it's not quite the big ending song it pretends to be. Much like the ending of "Arthur", there were actually quite a few better songs than that. Speaking of Arthur, during the final repeatings of the fanfare melody it all sounds like an old Rick Wakeman record with all those bombastic trumpets.
The only innovative part of this album is that Ray tried to present what is musical theatre in a rock format, using a single performing rock band to present it. My problem with that is that idea doesn't excite or interest me very much. The elephant in the room is that Lloyd- Webber and Rice (et al) had already done musical theatre in a vaguely rock format and so having the poor old Kinks having to stand in for massed singers, musicians, dancers is the only real innovation.
Salvation Road We get some ideas of preservation or sorry salvation here from Ray....... An opening flute has me think of Jethro Tull before the descending baseline makes me think All You Need Is Love may start to be vocalised & some of Ray's phrasing reminds me of the verses from David Bowie's John, I'm Only Dancing. We also get some short clipped keyboard or harmonica notes that recall Dave's own Susannas Still Alive. The second half is pretty jolly but I am not overly convinced it's national anthem material though I am certain the people will come around to it as it all seems pretty Black & white!
Preservation Act 2 suffers from it's length, especially in the CD/Streaming age where it can't be naturally broken up and consumed in smaller chunks. This thread is the first time I really focused on the side 4 songs, so I think at last I have the story straight: We had a nice little village (town, nation, whatever), then Flash comes along and takes advantage, short-shortsightedly destroying the unique identity of the place or his own profit and power. He goes too far, upsetting the fragile equilibrium of the peaceful village. This creates the opportunity for Black to rise up, dispatch Flash, raze whatever is left standing, and wipe out all individuality to provide peace and security (and rationing and curfews) for all in perpetuity. This rivals The Final Cut's mushroom cloud for pessimistic endings, though at least Ray dresses it up with irony so we can have a chuckle at the/our end. It's similar to the upcoming Soap Opera in a way: joyful music full matched to lyrics of despair. I very much enjoy the middle stretch of songs, from When A Solution Comes through Nothing Lasts Forever. As Miss Anne Elk theorized of the Brontosaurus, I find Preservation Act 2 to be thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle, then thin again at the far end .
I tend to agree, this brings to mind a line from Americana's Poetry which always give me a chuckle: In a shopping mall somewhere you'll be down on your knees / saying where is the poetry?
In a way, much like Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Gabriel, much to the band's chagrin, never finished the lyrics, and their schedule, or the schedule imposed upon them by the record company, had them release the album by a particular point. So the last part of the album is sort of rushed, and not wrapped up properly... or at least not the way it was initially intended.
Salvation Road: Another one where, I dunno, it just doesn't grab me. We've heard this anthem theme once on the previous anthem, several times previously on this album, and here on this track, and it's a great, rousing melody but enough of it already! It's also a problem to me that it feels like that chorus is the only thing the song has to offer; I can't remember the verse melody at all really. Like some of the other tracks I'm not a huge fan of on Act II, I can appreciate the lyrics here in the context of the story but it doesn't save the song, IMO. Though on the note of the lyrics, the Headmaster really did make a great point about "marking time" being marching in place while the world keeps turning; that's astute, and very much a "be careful what you wish for" line from Ray that's relevant to so many of his "Preservation-type" songs. I'd never picked that up before. Preservation Act II: It's funny that after that downer of a review I just provided, I am ready to enthusiastically laud this album as a whole. The plot is... mixed, there are a couple songs that don't resonate, but taken as a whole, it just works. It's incredibly diverse, very funny in places, surprisingly touching, and maybe not wise but thought-provoking; as somebody said, Ray's definitely got the sledgehammer out in terms of the plot but what else could you expect from him during this time period? I haven't done a re-listen of Soap Opera or Schoolboys yet, and I like both of those albums, but in my gut this still feels like Ray at the peak of his "theatre". It's not perfect, and there are albums of his that work better both as albums and have better average song quality, but he never did anything grander than this one. Yes, he's done some dabbling in stage productions/concept albums/etc. etc. since, but this one really feels like 100% his, whereas some of those other projects feel a little diluted by collaborators. There's nothing wrong with that, and I appreciate pretty much every phase of his career, but this was just a special time. Never again did he go his own way in such a spectacular fashion.
That’s a cute one! I consider myself fairly skilled technically, but uploading the picture thus far eludes me. Stay tuned!
"Salvation Road" I love Ray's vocal on this song. Everyone hit the nail on the head with it sounding like Mott The Hoople. I knew there was something familiar about the sound of this song. I'm late to the discussion and everything has been well articulated already. I find this to be a perfect ending to a masterpiece of an album. Preservation Act 2 I think I am more enthusiastic about this entire album than most. I rated nearly every song with high praise. Both Preservation albums are among the most impressive albums in The Kinks career. I use to think this album could be paired down into one album, but these days I say it's perfect as it is. Whether or not the entire story works doesn't matter much to me because the songs are there. It's only rock n roll, and the loose concept is all that is necessary to bring it to fruition. Ray is coming off an incredible string of albums and songwriting. The fact that he managed to pull this together is amazing to me. Now we get two more stage production concept albums coming up. The amount of energy and talent he had during this period is impressive. I would possibly even call this album the end of peak Kinks. I love the two albums coming up, but they feel more like The Kinks loosening up and having fun. It's kind of the way I feel about them going from Muswell Hillbillies to Everybody's In Showbiz. Both are great, but Muswell Hillbillies was the main act and appears to be the more important album that they spent more time crafting. You can tell that Ray put his heart into these Preservation albums. I see the next two albums as him not being too serious and taking a more lighthearted approach. I don't want to say too much because I need something to say when we start Soap Opera! This album comes alive on vinyl for me. Someone mentioned that it's better in the CD format because you can cut it down and skip songs if you like. I found that when I listened to it on vinyl it made more sense. It challenges you to follow along and you get immersed into the story and the entire world that Ray has created. It's probably not an album for the masses. Most people don't have the attention span or the interest to follow along to a double album that has so much going on both musically and lyrically. It's an exciting album for me, and I put it up there with any other double album or concept record of the 70s. Things may change after we dive deeper into some of these upcoming albums, but for me, this is the point where we start descending the mountain. Thankfully, it's not a drastic descent.
