The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Nothing crazy about liking the man lol

 

Even though this excerpt is about a story from the early 1970s where at the Tully Hall (in the Lincoln Center) Ray stumbled over backwards during "Apeman", I thought it would be interesting to add it here since I do think Ray spent a lot of time walking around at night...in NYC and elsewhere.

From a 2008 New Yorker interview with Ray:

 

Sorry the words are SO LARGE. LOL.

We're all not getting younger, so it's probably appreciated by some.

 

I like Sleepwalker a lot too. Life On The Road and Sleepwalker would both belong on a career wide boxs in my book (at least one more from this album would make the cut too).

 

I think it was the Mendelsohn book that may have mentioned this night? If I remember correctly, he also noted that when Ray went stumbling backwards, Dave was perfectly positioned to stop him and hold him up, but casually twirled away to let Ray vault backwards into a bank of amplifiers.

I'm going back and re-reading parts of Americana now. Not really coming up with much that isn't already put forth on this thread, save that Ray spends a lot of time describing the people from the record company and touring entourage around that time, and doing a great job of it. In particular, the Blanche Dubois southern belle from Arista who must have been a blast to hang around with on tour but came to a bitter end a few years down the road. I'm also stuck on the Warhol actress he mentions trying to seduce him. Mary Waronov? That's the only person I could think of who is still alive, as he noted in the book. This really was the beginning of his New York years, for better and worse.

 

Oh the story of Ray staggering backwards and Dave stepping aside is maybe my favorite Kinks story of all time. I've read so many descriptions of this night. It's legendary. Supposedly Ray got Micky Finn-ed. maybe. I gotta look it up - but I think there was a RI show a day or two after this one and I believe that show was pretty shambolic. I gotta find where I read that.

I finally found my Americana book after it got put in storage for awhile. I was thinking of giving it a re-read.

 

Yes, it was mentioned in Mendelsohn's book, as well as in the liner notes of The Kink Kronkiles.

 

Sleepwalker. The title track. I guess I’m in the minority here but something about it on this deeper dive just isn’t quite clicking. I’ve always liked it previously so this is one of the few tracks in this entire thread that has shrunk in my estimation of it. Not sure why. It’s got some fun lyrics. Nice guitar licks by Dave. But maybe the production lacks a bit of punch? Not sure what it is. I like it ok, but just wonder if there’s something that would bring it up to better than that. Sleepwalker so far is proving to be a challenging listen for me. Wasn’t really expecting that to be honest.

 

I mentioned upthread that I discovered The Kinks in 1981 by way of 'Destroyer' and their subsequent SNL appearance where they performed that and 'Art Lover'. This coincides with me switching to rock radio and being indoctrinated with much of their back catalog at the same time. What a discovery indeed and 'Sleepwalker' was a big part of it. Always loved the tune and once I was hired by that same station 5 years later, I would go out of my way yo play it. Still do in fact

 

Sleepwalker

Something Else was a decade in the rearview by this point. Such a bold and daring, yet incredibly understated musical statement. It's funny though because it's an album I admire and revere more than like (though as I write this both Harry Rag and Situation Vacant are fighting it out for my headspace at the moment).

If were a teen in the '67 listening to Something Else and shot 10 years into the future and the first thing I heard was Sleepwalker and told it was the Kinks. I'd probably be wtf has happened to music and the Kinks. Maybe David Watts became a night prowling insomniac. Fa fa fa to needing zzzz's.

And that's where Ray Davies found himself in 1977 writing a radio-friendly diddy about nightstalkin' and sleepwalkin' and unlike a decade earlier when he wrote a pop album for the ages this one sold and received airplay, lots of it in fact. Ten year earlier he wrote Waterloo Sunset and that song went nowhere. Go figure.

Sleepwalker is fun, if slight, little number oh yeab, oh yeah. It's a good song but when ten years earlier you were getting songs like Waterloo or Autumn Almanac I imagine as a fan you would've been disappointed. So I guess Sleepwalker the song and album is to the Kinks what It's Only Rock N Roll is to the Stones in a sense. I think the piano is the most interesting thing about the song. It's got a nice beat and you can dance to it I'll give it a 78.

Ray's only in his early 30's by this point and he's already both done enough already to be a legend and that his best work (for the most part) is behind him. It's no wonder he's an insomniac sleepwalker roaming the night. The weight of a past like that would keep anyone up nights. Doubly so because those 60's records despite the praise for the most part didn't sell and he was exiled from playing in America at the time. Ten years later Clive Davis wanted more Sunny Afternoons (which was a hit) and he got Sleepwalker instead. Fair enough.

 

Yes so think of All those multitudes of singles that sold more than it and were incomparable regards quality.
It is truly unfathomable.

 

Try the live version from the Old Grey Whistle Test concert posted earlier when discussion of this track began - it's punchier.

 

I know. It's like someone getting a choice of eating a steak or eating bugs and the person chooses bugs.

 

I will check it out again.
It is not like Mr Big is really similar to a Jeff Buckley song bait, line & sinker but there are moments that provide strong reminders!

 

Sounds uncomfortable!

 

Don't you fret, no one's like Superman!

 

Yes, I did always like Sleepwalker the song but the live version had more punch. This is a good example given by @croquetlawns, as is the SNL performance.

 

I couldn't understand what they built that city for?

 

Nothing to actually see?

 

I like some Jefferson Airplane - mostly Grace Slick's songs - but I've never been able to get into any of their albums.

 

For me that enterprise didn't spock!

 

Right now would be a Misfit!

 

That's nothing i know of a lady that in the 70's slept with her window open and a ladder next to the house!

 

Yeah I thought it had to be Mary Woronov too when I read the book. Interestingly in the book he gives her the pseudonym ‘Ramona’ which I meant to note when we covered The Hard Way, although since this incident (apparently) happened two years after that song was written, it probably couldn’t have been the reason this name was used in the song, and indeed this reference was explained with the pinball story upthread.

 

Brother.

stereo mix, recorded 1-9 Jul, 1976 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London

The world's goin' crazy and
Nobody gives a damn anymore.
And they're breakin' off relationships and
Leavin' on sailin' ships for far and distant shores.
For them it's all over,
But I'm gonna stay.
I wouldn't leave anyway.
I know that someday we'll find a way.
We'll be O.K.

'Cause I'm your brother,
Though I don't even know your name.
I've discovered that,
Deep down inside, you feel the same.
Our friends are leavin'.
Now they seem so far away.
But we shouldn't feel afraid.
There's so much that we can say.
You're my brother,
Though I didn't know you yesterday.
I'm your brother.
Together we can find a way.

The world's goin' crazy and
Nobody gives a damn anymore.
And they're breakin' off relationships and
Leavin' on sailin' ships for far and distant shores.
The old world's fadin'.
Now it seems so far away.
Well, I'm not goin' anywhere.
There's so much that we can share.
I'm your brother.

The world's goin' crazy and
Nobody gives a damn anymore.
And they're breakin' off relationships and
Leavin' on sailin' ships for far and distant shores.
You're my brother,
Though I didn't know you yesterday.
I'm your brother.
Together we can find a way.

Written by: Ray Davies
Published by: Davray Music Ltd.

This one is an interesting one.... Initially I leaned towards this being the song I referred to as a bit boring earlier in the thread.... but as I have listened to it more over the last few weeks, I have come to like it quite a bit.....

I think part of the issue was that initially, I assumed it was going to be a beautiful song by Ray about Dave, or perhaps just about the intricacy of brotherly relationships..... but then I was somewhat disappointed that it is one of those brothers of the world type songs, not that there is anything at all wrong with that theme, but I wasn't expecting that.
As I have gone along I have accepted the theme, and I particularly enjoy the music. It's not that it is amazingly technical or anything, but that it really works on the melodic structure, and I think the arrangement works really well.

Ray covers a very Ray theme at the start in that the world is going crazier each day, and nobody gives a damn anymore.... again being somewhat a Preservation II sort of reprise.
Then he moves into the fact that people are breaking up and sailing far away from each other, and he could mean this literally or figuratively.
They are going but Ray is going to stay .... I wonder if he is referring to the many English folks taking up the offer of assistance to fly to Australia?
He closes out the first verse by suggesting that someday we'll find a way and we'll be ok, but I'm not exactly sure of his context here.

The chorus lyric leaves me somewhat bewildered, and hopefully someone can break it down.
You're my brother, but I don't know you - and somehow, even not knowing you I have discovered that you feel the same - our friends are leaving, and seem far away, but we shouldn't be afraid - he restates that you're my brother, but I didn't know you yesterday, and together we can find a way .....
The sentiment is obviously beautiful in the uniting of folks through the common bond of humanity, but when I look at the lyric closely, it has no point of contact for me, and I am not sure what he is talking about, and that is rare for me with Ray.

Essentially that appears to be the sum total of the lyrical make-up here, and like I say, I love the sentiment, it is about time we all acted like we were brothers and sisters, and treated each other with common respect and love. The way we are all so easily divided is criminal, and used against us every single day, but in context with the way the words are actually put down here, it seems like Ray is talking about something specific, and I have no idea what that is, so it is somewhat lyrically frustrating for me, and I have a hard time connecting to it.
It's probably something very straight forward that I am missing, and someone will point it out, and I will slap my forehead, and feel like a fool, but that's where I am at with it at the moment.

Musically though, this is a beautiful dreamy ride.
We open with a soft mallet cymbal crescendo. At the peak of the crescendo we get the piano come in. In the background there is another keyboard, that has a beautiful sound that works like a ghostly reflection of the piano, and Ray comes in with a direct and sincere vocal.
We get an excellent couple of accented three tone runs, that give nice musical emphasis points.
Dave is underneath with some really nice chordal work, that has a sort of gentle jazz leaning.

We also have the synth strings that some folks were unhappy with on one of the other songs, but to me they fit here nicely.... and I personally have no problem with synths, as long as they are used in context, and I see no reason why older bands shouldn't try newer instruments.... it is just something musicians do, when they can afford to check out new toys.

I think one of the things that really attracts me to this track is the really nice melodic flow, that is made even more absorbing with the use of some subtle chord changes that aren't completely ordinary.

There is a nice dynamic flow through the song, and when we get towards the end, we get, what to me is, a quite moving instrumental break.
Around the 4:20 mark of the song we enter a musical coda, and it contains some beautiful melodic playing by Dave that is accented by backing vocals singing the basic melody of the guitar, and for me it all comes together as a quite rousing instrumental lift that takes the song out in grand style....

This is an interesting song from my perspective.... it doesn't quite reach the heights it should for me, because of the lyrical ambiguity, at least from the way I'm reading it, but the music through the song is very nice .... it has a warm blanket kind of sound and feel, but the instrumental coda is worth the price of admission for me ... so I am somewhat left in two minds over how I feel about the song as a whole.

Anyway, hopefully someone may be able to dot the I's and cross the T's for me, because this is so close to being a song I love .....