The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

I like this idea! I would prefer one day each for all three albums, but I know that's not happening. I feel I will not have many positive things to say for any of these. I would still like to participate every day, but my posts will be very brief surrounding these albums. I thought I might even sit out on these discussions, but I will try and power through!

 

Ray Stevens?

 

Kinks by Fred Schruers

https://www.amazon.com/Kinks-Fred-Schruers/dp/0140070451

Turns out I actually have a copy!

 

I can probably do that for Dave's solo albums, I have no issue with that at all....
To be honest with One For The Road, I'm not even sure I would be able to... the video and album tracks are quite different from each other, and it will be somewhat two songs a day anyhow. I have slotted two a day where it seems feasible.... but the only way i could do that, will be with no heads up about where we are going each day, and just do what I can.

So......
This is what I'll do, because the double Dave albums have been a minor concern anyway, from a thread flow perspective.....

This is how we'll roll
Forget about the schedule, so far as dates go....
Dave's solo albums, we'll do two songs a day.
One For The Road, we'll just have to see how it pans out....
Firstly, I'm not sure at this stage where I'll be going with it, or how much I'll have to say about the songs.
Secondly, I don't want to schedule the short shrift for it, as it is one of the band's most important modern era albums, and works as a centre point, of sorts, in the solidification of their career in these later stages.
I know some folks don't like it, but if we did two a day for albums some folks don't like, we'd have been doing two a day since Village Green

So Dave - two per day
One for the road - we'll just have to see how it pans out

 

Are you certain it’s by F. Schruers? The author himself is on record telling how Penguin pulled the plug on this book and it only exists in one of his desk drawers.

 

It doesn't look like Ray.... I know the face though

 

You’re right, and I don’t have it (I was thinking of the Jon Savage book). My mistake, and so apologies to all.

 

Oh geez, completely different Ray Davies. As you were...

 

Thank you for finding and posting this!

 

That’s ok, I just thought you might have the white whale of Kinks books in your hands. I always thought highly of Mr Schruer’s writing and would love to get my hands on that manuscript.

 

I have a special surprise planned for the thread for April the 1st… I’ll say no more till the day arrives….

 

this one?

Ray Davies (trumpeter) - Wikipedia

 

No this fella:

Raymond David “Ray” Davies Obituary - Peace Arch News

 

Ah ok! I see co incidentally this guy was also a trumpeter!

 

I know! for one, it would mean he fixed his gap!

 

Judging from his obituary, it would be ironic if he either 1. never heard of the Kinks or 2. didn't care for them.

 

I think it's a good decision to do two songs a day on Dave's albums. I like them, but they are something of an acquired taste, and probably require some switching off of your critical judgment to appreciate them. If anyone hasn't heard them, and thinks that tomorrow's track might be a pointer to what they are like - it's not really.

 

I would vote two songs per day for Dave, but to me, one per day for OFTR, because to me the songs are very different from the studio versions and it’s a seminal pice of work as far as double live albums go. It would be like doing a Skynyrd song by song and not treating their double live as a stand alone.

 

I agree with two Dave songs per day, but would be contrary and suggest 2 OFTR songs per day as well. If you think about our discussions, there is a lot more time spent on lyrics than music, and as we have covered all the songs on the live album there will be little to say about the lyrics, we'll just be comparing studio vs live versions.

 

Go figure?

 

Dont worry @Wondergirl there will be no Chitty Chitty Ban Ban!

 

?

 

"You're kidding!"

 

Now that is a life well lived but our "Ray" is still searching!

 

Trust Your Heart.

stereo mix, recorded Aug 1977 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London

In a sheltered place where I viewed the world
And all that it contained
I would see your face in a misty haze
And wish that you were there
Yes I wished that you were there
Darling Fool, I was with you all the way
Be as the flower that unfolds with each day

Trust your place in time though you have won and lost
How very much like me you are
When you come to me
Truly, truly trust your heart
Truly, oh truly trust your heart

Why bear malice just let it go
So what of pride it will swallow you whole
Here's to the judge, to the tyrant, and the beast
You keep a knockin' but you can't come in
Truly, truly trust your heart
Truly, truly trust your heart

The moonlight of your soul, told of memories long ago
Of the days when we were young
Of love that we'd forever hold
Truly, truly trust your heart
Truly, truly trust your heart
I bring thunder, lightning and rain
For those who administer injustice and pain
Comfort the weak and feed the poor
What on earth do we need government for?
Truly, truly trust your heart
Truly, oh truly trust your heart

Written by: Dave Davies
Published by: Dabe Music, Ltd.

So we hit the Dave song, and I guess we will get the same broad spectrum of responses about Dave and the way he goes about it.... I reckon this is a great song, and contains one of Dave's best vocals.

I think this is somewhat Dave's reaction to the hotel room scenario that we had with Ray and Dave in Rock And Roll Fantasy.
To some degree it seems at first like he is singing to a girl, but looking closer ... the first verse seems to speak to the idea of being in the hotel room, or a particular place of comfort where Dave is, and he wishes Ray was there also. He also encourages Ray to let his creative flower blossom anew each day.
I think the Darling Fool is a bit of a red herring, but I often find Dave's lyrics hard to decipher, as he tends to be more interested in how he uses the words to paint pictures than what they actually appear to mean.

Then Dave goes on to encourage him to trust his place in time and space ..... Look, you have won and lost, had success and failure, but everyone does, you are who and where you need to be.
He suggests they are both very similar.

The next verse/chorus is particularly interesting
Why bear malice, just let it go.... I wonder if this is in relation to people leaving the band, and folks not necessarily wanting to go in the same direction of Ray?
Don't get caught up in pride, let it go, or it will destroy you.
Here's to the judge, the tyrant, the beast... from the outside it seems like these are all things that people could perceive Ray as, particularly while putting an album together .... and they will and can only cause resistance (you keep a knocking but you can't come in .... which is obviously a bit of a Little Richard reference)

The last verse seems to somewhat speak more directly to the hotel room scenario.
The Moonlight of your soul, told memories of long ago ... almost seems like as they were moving into the evening Ray was reflecting and this seems like how Dave heard it during their conversation.
It moves on to describe their memories and days of old, and the love they will always have for each other.

To me lyrically this seems like it may be Dave encouraging Ray to trust his heart in relation to where things are going with the Kinks, and Ray and Dave's relationship.
It seems like it is saying look we have been together all this time, we will still be together in some way or another, and as for the direction we head in now, have confidence in who and where you are, don't let the successes and failures blind you of direction, trust your heart and lets get on with it...... or something like that....
I always seem to find Dave's lyrics to be cryptic and more about the pictures he is painting than the words or narrative meaning of them.

It is also interesting that Rock And Roll Fantasy and Trust Your Heart mirror each other on the album, like they each were placed second last on each side for a reason.... balanced perspectives reflecting the same discussion .....

I don't know, let me know what you guys think.

The main draw for me here is the dramatic and dynamic music.

To a degree, but only a small degree the guitar opening is a distant cousin of Skynyrd's Free Bird, but it moves on into its own territory, and ends up being a nice melodic intro to the vocal section of the song. It's a really nice intro, with a couple of really nice runs in there, and Dave leads us into the vocal in fine style.
Also the unison run up to the vocal is excellent.

The vocal comes in at an interesting, not really typical point. I think Dave's vocal on this is really good, and he is certainly giving us a really good melody in the vocal also.
He is singing with a lot of passion here, and for the most part avoids some of the issues that some folks have had problems with when he gets a little carried away in the stuff we have looked at prior.
It opens with a lower reflective vocal and builds to a nice melodic bit of power singing, that again mellows out to the gentle fade out vocal.

Then we get another nice little instrumental section, with more nice lead work, and that run up.
It leads into this reflective section that is also instrumental. To get there we get this chunk guitar making us feel like it is about to burst wide open, but instead we get this light and airy guitar with some suspended chords and that leads into a really nice double section with an ascending chord line, followed by a faux ascending chord pattern that changes to a descending pattern.
To me it is very effective, and it is also quite different..... particularly for Dave this seems like an adventure in his writing.
Also this kind of reflects the feeling that intense conversations have. We get the gentle agreements and the not so gentle disagreements blending across a period of time into a smooth wave of ups and downs through the conversation.

The drums and drum accents are really excellent too, adding a lot to the flow and feel.

From that bit we get the reflective verse type section that bursts into the refrain of Trust Your Heart, and again the staccato accents from instruments and drums are very effective.
Then we move into a sort of rock and roll boogie section that leads us to the refrain, that gets reworked into the same style.... and then we're back to the mellow reflective verse type section.
We then burst into the rock refrain again, and then we get .... a bridge? .... it is somewhat like a verse, but now we have that rock and roll boogie section with Dave pushing his voice about as far as it can go..... and then we hit that rock refrain again and hit a dead stop for the end of the song.

This is such an unusual arrangement, and I guess for some that is going to be off putting, but for me it makes this a really interesting song.... Although the song may have some fairly typical things about it, the arrangement is far from typical and it ends up being a really interesting track, that with several listens becomes one of the most interesting songs on the album.

The somewhat schizophrenic nature of the music, probably lines up pretty well with Dave's, seeming encouragement to Ray, and the extreme sort of nature of their relationship, as far as one can tell from the outside......

I reckon this is an excellent song that is different enough to keep it interesting, but accessible enough to make it very listenable. I don't find Dave's extreme type of vocals here problematic at all, he seems fully invested and I think it really works quite well.... probably better than I would think it could be on paper....

Another really solid song to me.