The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Get Up
    The beginning sounds so ominous and then Ray's voice and the nice strumming come in and you know, OK, we're not going too hard on this song, music-wise.

    It's a fine song. We get a preview of shouty Ray, so there's that. But it's probably my least favorite song on the album. Which doesn't make it a failure as I enjoyed this album thoroughly, even with some of the rightful criticisms about some lyrics.

    So I do believe this may be the first album where I enjoyed most of the songs...and no real clunkers...since Lola. So that's a long stretch. It doesn't mean that I don't love other songs more on other albums, but more the overall success of Misfits as an album. I'm so glad I finally got to take a close look at this one. It's been very overdue. That's what makes this thread great - it's pushing me to slow down and consider each and every song. If I was doing this on my own I probably wouldn't be as successful...because I may brush off a song as not that great and focus on the ones that I knew from before or the obvious "earworms".

    Least favorites: Permanent Waves and Get Up
    Favorites: Misfits, A Rock n Roll Fantasy, In a Foreign Land
    Did not expect to love it as much as I do: Trust Your Heart
     
  2. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    You summarized how I feel. There's this great start to this song and you're anxious to see where it goes, but it just never goes there. A shame.
     
  3. pyrrhicvictory

    pyrrhicvictory Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manhattan
    upon further review

    Living with an album (or spouse) for forty-odd years, there will usually be some ups and downs. If most of you are like me, any album can get pulled out randomly over the years and sometimes work it’s way back into your own version of heavy rotation (a chart reentry). Misfits and I have always enjoyed drama-free existence, no peaks and no valleys. It is not Face to Face, a love who’s month is ever May. It is a stalwart, solid if unspectacular, and I thought it had nothing more to reveal. I was wrong about that. I’ve newfound charm in the ska of Black Messiah. Permanent Waves seems wittier somehow. Get Up, which I have loathed most of my life, I now enjoy for its musical (previously) hidden treasures. Live Life has regressed for me but I still wouldn’t skip it or any other song on Misfits. This old dog is having it’s day. It’s always rated above Sleepwalker by a nose or a head, but now I’m seeing daylight between the two. It was like the production on Sleepwalker was zip-locked while Misfits has much more space in the mix, light and airy. Also, after the korporate Kinks, it’s the return of the kwirky, head scratching Kinks. You know, the Kinks.
     
  4. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Same favourites as me. Good taste, in other words!
     
  5. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Very well said.
     
  6. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Wonder if we'll ever match up again? :laugh:
     
  7. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    I think that's because this is a collection of mid-album type songs there is nothing that really screams opening side tracks. You could close each side with Misfits or Rock N Roll Fantasy instead of having the two slow songs on the A-side.
     
  8. JTemperance

    JTemperance Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philly
    The Rogan book has a funny/sad passage about how "Get Up" caused John Gosling to literally get up and finally quit The Kinks in January 1978. He hadn't had an easy time through 1977 by the sounds of it. One show involved being spit on by Dave and subsequently punched in the face by Ray for refusing to go back on stage with Dave for an encore (which sounds about normal for the 1977 shows).

    "I counted sixty-three takes of the one song. [Ray] went back the next morning and said: "Do you think we could try it once more?" I just exploded. I was worn out - I'd had enough." Gosling turned to Ray and said "This isn't the Kinks any more." Farewell to the Baptist - when I think of The Kinks and 'golden ages' I can't exclude the two Johns.
     
  9. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Spitting, refusing to do encores, face punching...who said the Kinks weren't punk rock!
     
  10. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    That falls under very sad, pathetic, dysfunctional.
     
  11. JTemperance

    JTemperance Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philly
    Yes, I should say that any 'humor' is a deeply bleak one. Out of all the stories of rockstar backstage debauchery, excess, stupidity, etc, there is a Kinks anecdote that haunts me since reading it that shows the cost of being in that band. A reporter goes backstage post-show and just watches Ray and Dave screaming at each other (Mick too?) Meanwhile, Gosling is watching too, and just puts his head down on someone's shoulder and weeps. Imagine supposedly living the dream as a musician and instead this being your life.

    We also know that Pete Quaife didn't leave unscathed. His brother makes clear that while his 1966 car accident left him with physical scars, the in-fighting impacted him psychologically to the point of at least one breakdown in the late 1960s.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2022
  12. Endicott

    Endicott Forum Resident

    He saw the people screaming at each other, and decided he'd rather be an out-of-work bum.

    It remains a riddle how John and John gritted their teeth and got through the theatrical albums and tours, but when they went back to a more conventional rock setup, they split.
     
  13. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    I'm reminded of a similar account by Pete Quaife in the Jovanovic book about a "Days" studio session. Quaife:

    "We were in Studio 2 recording. We had been there for EVER! As usual, we, the musicians, had nothing to do. All of the instrumental recordings had been done and we were 'required' to sit there and observe the 'Master' at work. Hours and hours had gone by and we were all very bored with listening to Ray go over and over the same bloody piece. It wasn't necessary and made absolutely no difference to the recording." He goes on to describe Ray's "screaming fit" when he saw that Pete had doodled on the tape box.

    Ray has said he was deeply hurt by Pete's leaving, but I haven't seen him acknowledge any responsibility for his part in, essentially, making Pete want to leave. I can only shake my head; it seems that if Ray had been just a bit more considerate of his band, he could have kept that original core together longer, as he obviously wanted to. Ray Davies may be a master of observation of human behavior in his songwriting, but he seemed to have a blind spot when it came to himself and his interpersonal skills with his musicians. Or else he did recognize his own weaknesses but just couldn't do it any differently.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2022
  14. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
  15. sharedon

    sharedon Forum Zonophone

    Location:
    Boomer OK
    Apparently what he doodled was “Daze,” on the box for Days. In an interview, he said that his version of that story was different from Ray’s, but didn’t elaborate. And yet:

    Ray Davies pays tribute to late Kinks bassist Pete Quaife at Glastonbury
     
  16. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    Trust your heart, Avid @palisantrancho!
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2022
  17. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    I hope there is an Oscar-worthy film someday that will be called Ray Davies (or the Decline and Fall of the Kinks Empire), and it will star Joaquin Phoenix as Ray.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    Pete's version: "I did not refer to 'Days' as 'Daze'. ...I was doodling on a tape box - a little man wearing a working man's hat, long coat and rough shoes. Ray saw it and had one of his screaming fits, 'Why was I drawing funny little men whilst he was creating a masterpiece?' I thought it was a complete overreaction to the situation and sodded off out of the studio."

    I think there's no question that Ray valued Pete's contributions, which makes it more inexplicable why he didn't treat him better (as opposed to a musician he was frustrated with, for example). One can assume the pressure of the business is a factor in Ray's difficult working relationships, but the long history of Ray and Dave's infighting makes it clear it goes much deeper than that.
    Good spot!
     
  19. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    Here is what I came up with for my Sleepwalking Misfit playlist. The double is still coming together, but I think I like this track list. Now I will give it a fresh listen with a couple of brews. :cheers:

    Single album:

    Side A
    1. Life On The Road
    2. Permanent Waves
    3. Full Moon
    4. In a Foreign Land
    5. Live Life

    Side B
    1. Sleepwalker
    2. Artificial Light
    3. Get Up
    4. Misfits
    5. Life Goes On

    Double album:

    Side A
    1. Sleepwalker
    2. Permanent Waves
    3. Full Moon
    4. In a Foreign Land
    5. Live Life

    Side B
    1. Life On The Road
    2. Hay Fever
    3. Artificial Light
    4. Juke Box Music

    Side C
    1. The Poseur
    2. Black Messiah
    3. Out Of The Wardrobe
    4. Prince Of The Punks
    5. Father Christmas

    Side D
    1. Rock N Roll Fantasy
    2. Life Goes On
    3. Get Up
    4. Misfits
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2022
  20. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Yes, the pressures at the office. And his socialite engagements. And his selfish wife's fan-at-i-cal ambition....
     
  21. Paul Mazz

    Paul Mazz Senior Member

    Thanks to this thread, I’ve probably listened to Misfits more in the last few days than when it first came out. I feel like I listened two or three times back then and put it away, not really coming back to it. Now I’m finding I really like Rock and Roll Fantasy, Misfits, In a Foreign Land, and Black Messiah in no particular order. As opposed to most here, I do not like Live Life. I can’t get past the chorus with the repetition of the song title. It’s a little too in your face for my taste. Probably doesn’t bode well for my enjoying Low Budget, which is where I got off the Kinks train. I’m hoping if I listen to Low Budget with fresh ears I’ll find things to like about it.
     
  22. TeddyB

    TeddyB Senior Member

    Location:
    Hollywoodland
    Same favorites for me as well!
     
  23. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Get Up

    Don't really know what to say about this little Kinks finale that's starts off with the promise of a thrilling armageddon and changes tack.
    Sustain near feedback guitar, power chords, crashing cymbals and them some self motivating advice from Ray.
    I think @Vangro mentioned the Who and parallels could be made with the powerful intro of yore transfiguring into the poppy power of something on say 1981's Face Dances.
    The piano is interesting as is the rhythm it helps create and I don't mind Ray's tone and mood but he just doesn't end up going anywhere much despite his valid efforts.
     
  24. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Sounds like you'll be often spinning your favoured 78's!
     
    DISKOJOE and mark winstanley like this.
  25. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    If it's just to end his reign dear he's now not worth a sledge!
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2022
    DISKOJOE, Zeki and mark winstanley like this.

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