I liked the “I did it two years ago” remark. And then, “and now we’re doing what they did two years ago.” Paraphrased. Very humorous. Witty.
@mark winstanley Is this it, Mark, for this chapter or are we discussing the I Go To Sleep demo, too, on Monday?
It was really well stated. He managed to make sure folks know they did it two years ago, and then humbly draws back with the quip about them doing that also. I don't know much about Ray's media interaction, but so far he seems to hold himself pretty well.
The Jam channel The Kinks ( and The Who ) every which way but loose. And I love 'em for it. Too bad they never caught on in North America. They should have.
We'll be running through the extra tracks from Monday.... I love I Go Sleep .... it may actually be my favourite thing on the disc actually
"A Well Respected Man" The Kinks are coming into clear view. This is the type of song that separated them from everyone else. We will come to love and know this side of Ray throughout the rest of their career. A lovely song and another huge breakthrough in the evolution of The Kinks! "Don't You Fret" There are not many Kinks songs I am not very familiar with, but this is one of them. It's on my Kinks-Size Kinkdom compilation, but I can't say I have heard it more than a few times. The first time I played it through I wasn't very impressed, however on the second listen I put on headphones and I loved it. I was ready to write it off, but now I will heap high praise on it. It starts out almost like a Pogues song. I can hear Shane singing along. I love the way the fast rhythm guitar comes in and the drums speed up. This is what makes these threads so great. Finding that classic song that somehow was overlooked in the past. This is absolutely fantastic and I have now played it 5 times in a row. I have a feeling it will be twice that many times before the day is through!
Like many others have already stated, A Well Respected Man is where the Kinks defined themselves. As great as some of the earlier material was, and one could argue that You Really Got Me is the best rock song ever, for me this is where things start to cook.
Among other things that make this stand out, is that it's in the key of C, which Ray hardly ever wrote in. I had just turned eight years old when it was peaking on the charts, had no understanding or comprehension of any of the lyrics, but distinctly remember humming it a lot when it was new. I'll always associate this with all the programs that were on television at the time (among them, the first airing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas") and of course, all the other hits that were peaking on the charts: "Day Tripper," "As Tears Go By," "Uptight," "My Love" (the Petula Clark hit, not the McCartney hit), "Turn Turn Turn" and especially "Flowers On The Wall," which I thought it sounded kind of similar to. I like the fact that the melody of the first few measures of the chorus is pretty much exactly the same as the verses, only with Dave adding an upper harmony. Of course, Fine with Mind is not a perfect rhyme, but it doesn't matter. It rolls off the tongue easily. I'm glad you brought that up, and it leads me to talk about the history of this single, originally released in the summer of 1965 on the small GNP Crescendo label: Considered extremely weird for it's time, it initially only got some local airplay (The Seeds were a Los Angeles based group), and only charted nationally a couple of years later when it was re-released, after the group had a couple of other hits that broke out nationally. Could Ray have possibly heard it while he and the guys were in town performing at The Hollywood Bowl in the summer of '65? Could it have had a subliminal effect on him? We'll never know. The main difference between the two tunes is that the main chords for "Well Respected Man" are C Em Am, and the chords for "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" are C G Am. The melodies are pretty much the same, although their meters are quite different. Whereas, "I Go To Sleep" is more or less a Viennese waltz, this is just a plain old waltz. It is sort of similar to "Rock Of Ages," but the first thing that pops into my head is "Little Boxes" (click HERE), which come to think of it, is also a bit similar to "Rock Of Ages." You can also pretty much throw the verses of "Silver Bells" on to that pile. The fact that it's in the key of C# would lead me to believe that Ray is actually strumming a C chord with a capo on the first fret. There are indeed some interesting musical elements in this, particularly the change from C#m To C# at 1:04, but unfortunately, they then proceed to pound on that C# chord for way too long. It just drags everything down. As I've said before, there's nothing really "Kwyet" about this at all, and "This I Know" and/or "Tell Me Now, So I'll Know" would both have been much better choices for this EP.
A Well-Respected Man must definitely be the first song of its kind, (Martyj called it something... sketch of character in top 40 format?), and it makes me think of Britpop more than anything else (except the Kinks of course), but similar songs was of course common in the late '60s (the Julian Kirsch' Funny Little Man and Winston's Fumbs' Snow White are a couple of nice ones). Anyway, I think that there is a possible direct influence on Well-respected man, or if not, at least a kind of equivalent. It's not British, so in many ways it is totally different, but it is detached, contemptuous and focused on a particular character. The song I think of is Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, that was released just a few days or weeks before the recording of A Well-respected man. (Now someone's going to inform me that Ray wrote A Well-respected man well before the 20th July '65, but anyway, it is kind of a beautiful coincidence.)
@mark winstanley - Absolutely loving this thread! Great analysis and commentary from all; obviously some weak tracks have some posting their opinions, but the winner tracks have all been rightfully praised! I'd like to point out (at this point in the thread) the US releases of the Kinks albums and their presentation. The front covers are all pretty eye-catching and have a "mod" aesthetic appeal. The back covers are littered with the goofy liner notes typical of the British Invasion era hype - clearly Reprise were out to "milk" the teen market for all it was worth. Sometimes I get the feeling that the back covers were written by "teen beat" magazine writers! As we're up to this point I'd like to draw attention to the US album "Kinkdom", which has two different cover designs, one of which gives A Well Respected Man almost a co-title for the LP. However, the choice to make this album out of the Kwyet Kinks EP and the See My Friends single necessitated some padding - including leftovers from Kinda Kinks (Naggin' Woman and a REPEAT of Louie Louie, which had already been released on Kinks-Size! Unforgivable.), and the rockin' B-side It's All Right. I am not able to post pictures - can someone post a picture of the Kinkdom cover? And I'd also like to point out (again) the really weird reprocessed fake stereo with added reverb that Reprise chose to apply for the stereo US LP's. Though it's heresy to some, I really like it, and it makes some of the weaker tracks sound more exciting! Not Naggin' Woman though. The US albums up to Greatest Hits all have the weird reverb-y stereo, and I have endeavored to collect all of the US albums in stereo and mono. Of course, the recent box set of The Mono Collection has the ultimate best sound I've heard. I do not have original UK pressings but have several of the German PRT releases and they certainly sound wonderful! Karry on!
We'll be listing the US releases also... I think that is after the outtakes and BBC material that we'll cover next week
"A Well Respected Man" Another Ray Davies penned Kinks Klassic. Shows more growth in both songwriting and lyrics. Very tongue in cheek humor. Rightfully sits in their kanon of Klassic tunes. "Don't You Fret" I agree with Mark that it starts out very hymn-like. It shows growth in Ray's songwriting too but not as successfully as "A Well Respected Man". Still, it's a good song and a stepping stone to songs like "Sweet Lady Genevieve"
That's an interesting image for a tour of Englishmen to Hawaii - canons (the old way) and pop music (the new)! Apologies, just been reading about the culture wars and Napoleon...
A WELL RESPECTED MAN After the riff revolution and the mystic revolution, here comes the social revolution. Too much to take for the so conservative Pye label in the UK. (But it didn't stop them putting this song on future UK greatest hits albums) Actually, this well-respected man is a victim of his acceptance of his parents' upward aspirations. He wants to get at the girl next door but his sexual desire is subservient to his mother's approval based on the girl's financial and social desirability. He can't wait to receive his father's inheritance as if he was a bank-robber, but he knows that if he gets the money it will be to invest it in the stock exchange. He has thus accepted to put a veneer of respectability over his true feelings, just as his parents have done with the maid and the suave young men. And what makes him really insufferable is his feeling of superiority. He thinks he's superior going to work on time very day, but in fact this makes him a slave to habit and a bore. He thinks he's superior because he buys the best cigarettes and the best deodorant, but in fact he's a slave and a fool to TV advertising. The musical accompaniment is suitably restrained and conservative, as is the song structure with verse refrain repeated four times. An eminently respectable structure if you ask me. DON'T YOU FRET That pillar of society, Ray Davies, reliably promising to come home to his girl so long as she fulfils her role as provider of tea, toast and sympathy. Musically frantic at times, as if to bely the supposedly calming nature of the song. Given the previous song, we now know a social comment may be lurking in there somewhere.
“A Well Respected Man” This is when the Kinks really step out and do something that no one has heard of before, and no one else would come close to matching. Other bands would have power chord riffs. Other bands would explore Indian raga and eastern influences. But no other band would go where the Kinks start going with A Well Respected Man. I think this is the first time we really got to hear Ray’s personality in a song. He is playing a character and singing in a way that brings so much more to the listener than just the words and the melody. The way he sings “punctuality, it never fails” as a staccato 2-line stanza with the first being “punk-choo-a-la-“ and then the second being “tee, it never fails”. It’s so unique and puts you into the character he is satirizing. The repetition of the verse and chorus 4x just works, and adds to the monotonousness of the characters daily life. No need for a bridge. No need for a solo. Just takes the same train, smokes the same fags, waits for his father to die for the inheritance, just like every other day. It all just works so well as a perfect social commentary performance. “Don’t You Fret” I also first heard this today. Definitely a sea shanty vibe. The build-up is a bit odd to me, the bass seems a bit off? Overall I liked it though after a few listens.
Yeah, the original track list for Kinkdom is a bit of an oddity, but the one on the 1988 re-release by Rhino is actually pretty useful—by replacing "Naggin' Woman" and "Louie Louie" with "Sittin' on My Sofa," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," it ends up being a 12-track album that doesn't repeat anything from any of the regular US or UK albums. Sort of a convenient mopup of single and EP tracks from the era that works well for iTunes and the like, I've found: Side one "A Well Respected Man" 2:38 "Wait Till the Summer Comes Along" 2:06 "Such a Shame" 2:16 "See My Friends" 2:50 "Never Met a Girl Like You Before" 2:05 "Sittin' On My Sofa" 3:03 Side two "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" 2:58 "Who'll Be the Next in Line" 1:56 "Don't You Fret" 2:42 "I Need You" 3:30 "It's Alright" 2:38 "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" 3:25
Thanks man, for pointing this out! Those Rhino LP's are really great sounding pressings, and the track listings are well-thought out. It appears the compilers and mastering team that worked on those Rhino releases really cared about the sonics. Highly recommended vinyl versions!