The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Sounds like I'm stuck then!

 

Dave actually talks about ‘Islands’ a little in his (soon to be) first autobiography from 1996, 22 years before it was released. He says:

‘There was one track from those sessions, called ‘Islands’ that I really liked, but for one reason or another it never got finished. It was a song about friendships - how people go their seperate ways in order to find something new and sometimes become isolated. Islands.’

so there you have it from the man himself regarding the songs meaning.

 

Now someone needs to ask how the government gets involved!

 

So kind of like "I'm on an Island"?

 

Islands: This is my first time hearing this song. When the song started, my first reaction, in the beginning of the song, was that it was not a song I’d want to listen to again. When it got to what I guess is the bridge, I was thinking that Dave might have been able to turn it into a decent little pop song. Ditch the first minute and a half or so, up to where he sings “Free as the river flows,” and redo the opening verse and chorus music. Easy for me to say I’m not a songwriter.

 

Islands

To paraphrase Mark Twain, if you don’t like the music in a Dave Davies song, just wait a few beats. I bought Decade upon its release and skipped this song more often than not. My ear worms were/are Same Old Blues and Give you all my Love, especially the latter. Listening anew not much has changed for me. The lyrics are a dog’s dinner. I thank @donstemple for noticing the ‘Livin’ day by day then wondering where that day has gone’ line which had escaped me on earlier listens, that’s neat.
I also reckon @Paul Mazz is right enough with his songwriting suggestion, for me the song doesn’t begin until ‘free as the river flows...’
And, by way of the last word, I am adding ‘myriad’ to my list of words never to be included in a rock lyric. (now I’ll have to check all my Of Montreal cds).

 

Marie Provost did not look her best...

 

“There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before times took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay…”

 

Thanks for bringing that up. I had forgotten about Ray's mental health issues and that could explain a lot. And yes, perhaps Dave too. It does make me more sympathetic. It sure makes for a rough ride for those around them.

 

yes, indeed. Unfortunately it could explain most of it. I want to say "what a jerk, Ray/Dave is", but I think they were up against untreated issues. It doesn't mean they aren't responsible for their behavior but I think being in the arena of rock n roll made them get away with a lot of behavior that in other areas of work life, employers would not put up with that crap. They were lucky that way. And lucky to be TALENTED. How many people of this sort slip through the cracks? Misfits...

 

Seriously, I thought for sure it would be "A Gallon of Gas"! His is a better choice though...

 

The rock scene would be akin to the army in time of war, then, accomodating sociopath characters and allowing them to shine ? Interesting.

My share of time allotted to forum duties has dwindled of late, as maybe has my interest in the material studied. I will try to pop up from time to time in order to heighten the thread's level of pretentiousness a little bit. I also have a special "butcher edit" of Catch Me Now I'm Falling to post in due time.

So quickly :

Get up

One more disappointing closer in a long list of failed album endings. My list goes as follows, so far (not including the first 3 albums, I'm not familiar enough with them) :

Failed endings:
Face to face
Arthur
Lola
Percy
Muswell Hillbillies
Soap Opera
Schoolboys in Disgrace (considering Education Reprise)
Sleepwalker
Misfits

OK endings:
Preservation 1
Preservation 2
Schoolboys in Disgrace (disregarding Education Reprise)

Good endings:
Something Else
Village Green
Everybody's in Showbiz

I guess in the 17th century this list would have won me a few duels at dawn, but fortunately nowadays I can hide behind my screen.

Misfits
Somehow, at this point, this record has failed to cristallize as an album to me. I may put it as musical background, it's pleasant, and I really enjoy a few songs. i'm afraid they're mostly the same as before the thread: Hay fever, Black Messiah, Rock'n'Roll Fantasy, Permanent Wave. I've warmed up to the others somehow, but not up to boiling point. It maybe worth trying to mess the tracklisting around, putting "Misfits" (sorry) and "Get up" out of the way, bringing in "Father Christmas" and maybe one or two Dave tunes. Haven't had the time yet.

Islands

I love this song, it's a real gem. I believe the Kinks were not as good for Dave as Dave was for the Kinks. He should have been in a prog band as a guitar player, co-composer and co-singer, that is if there was any such thing as a working-class prog band (here I'm expecting a flurry of counter-examples that will save me much research time, smart move, isn't it? It's just that recently Dave was gently joking about Phil Collins' sitting tour by saying on Twitter that he'd like to sing lying down on stage, as may have been reported here. I had fictitious pictures in my mind of Dave Davies in the 70s hanging around with nose-pinching stuck-up Genesis members). AFL 13603 sounds very much like a 1980 solo album from a former prog guitarist. Dave is no match for Ray lyrically, but I'll be as bold as to say that in the late 70s-early 80s, he might have been the better composer.

 

Give You All My Love.

stereo mix (4:05), recorded 1978 at Konk Studios, North London

What a crying shame why we should live this way.
Honestly do you feel that good.
Take a chance, that you might become anything you want.
Anything you wanna be.
Don't throw away all those dreams that keep your love awake.
In each breeze freedom calls to you.

With open arms, I will give you all my Love.
It's no use in understanding why at all.
It's no use in understanding, when it hurts to see us crawl.

What is this? Why is it light yet not day.
It's no use in hanging this way.
It's no use in understanding, when it hurts to see us crawl.

Instrumental

With open arms, I will give you all my Love.
It's no use in understanding why at all.
It's no use in understanding, when it hurts to see us crawl.

What is this? Why is it light yet not day.
It's no use in hanging round this way.
It's no use in understanding, when it hurts to see us crawl.

Written by: Dave Davies
Published by: Dave Davies

Dave - guitars and vocals
Andy Pyle - Bass
Nick Trevisik - Drums

This seems to be one of Dave's opaque love songs.
It's a shame we live this way, do you feel that good, try things. If you have dreams, follow them, it is important for your inner being.
I'll give you all my love, and there is no point trying to understand why....

I more and more get the feeling that Dave was a pretty good songwriter that needed a partner, to take what he had and make it make sense.... lyrically and musically.

To be fair this track may well be one of those demo type tracks where he had the music, and a vague idea of melody, and just sang some words to fill it out, but never got around to sharpening it up.

Reading it as it lays here the lyrics are a little scattered and not really focused enough to make me feel like Dave had any particular point.

Musically we have some interesting stuff.
I like those couple of opening chords, really nice sound, and they lead to Dave's vocal and a steady beat coming in, with a sort of pop/country kind of thing.

We get some nice descending chord ideas, and there is nothing p[articularly wrong with any of it.... It just sort of seems a bit meandering.

For me essentially here we have a few nice odd bits and pieces that vaguely form a song. We have some vague lyrics that form some sort of narrative.... but it is all a little opaque, and I have no real idea what Dave was trying to say..... and although I like the parts of the song well enough, they don't really feel like they quite work together, or perhaps, smoothly fit together.
It kind of feels like a random assortment of ideas thrown into a bag and pulled out and put together.

Not one I would particularly bother revisiting.

 

Within Each Day.

stereo mix (3:46), recorded 1979 at Konk Studios, North London

Within each day there is a moment
When night meets day.
When my mind yearns for comfort.
Silently

In your truth I see the trouble in the world.
I hear a voice calling as a bird. Calling unto you.
In your eyes I see a Love that never dies.
A Love that's never realised. Calling unto you.
From your heart I feel the beating of the Earth.
Guiding me, leading me home.

I remember the day when you came in
Giving my life a clearer meaning.
Wherever I go. Whatever I do.
Now every moment is fulfilled,
Freeing my life of fear and sorrow.
Although I know a child I'll stay.

I Love you. I Love you.
And I know all my days I will spend just for you.

Within each day there is a moment
When my mind yearns for comfort.

In your truth I see the trouble in the world.
I hear a voice calling as a bird. Calling unto you.
In your eyes I see a Love that never dies.
A Love that's never realised. Calling unto you.
From your heart I feel the beating of the Earth.
Guiding me, leading me home.

Written by: Dave Davies
Published by: Dave Davies

Dave - guitar and vocals
Nick Lawrence - Bass
Nick Trevisik - Drums

To some degree this one seems like another Sue song in many ways.
Almost as if he is saying he is perpetually uncomfortable... through the experience he sees the trouble of the world ...
There is a voice calling, like a bird.... a bird is unreachable because it is flying away ...
This adds up to a love that never dies, but is also never realised.

Then it sort of moves into this idea that every moment is fulfilled by the idea that he will always remain a child due to the los that occurred then, and somehow this leaves him free of sorrow.... perhaps the "it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never have loved at all" perspective?

There is such a deep scar here that it is more of an outpouring than any kind of logical narrative or thought pattern.... it's like a restless child laying on a bed with a fever, unable to sleep.....

Again it seems like this just needed someone a little more focused to come in and clean up a couple of ideas, and focus it a bit more.....
There is a charm and sweetness to hearing Dave share his pain, but it doesn't really amount to a song that makes me want to hear it again. It makes me feel sympathy for him. It makes me want to try and help him out of the hole he's in, but it doesn't make me want to embrace the song....

Musically we have a nice song hidden in here.
The chord progression is nice, and the melody is pretty nice.... again I am getting a sort of countryish vibe from this.

I like the change also... it ends up being quite a singable, enjoyable sort of melody....

Then we get a couple of odd little bridges, that are nice enough, but sort of spoil the flow of what he had already put together.

Again it feels like some good ideas here that don't quite come together as a whole song.....

But there is this sincerity, and the heart behind the unfocused message that really makes me want to like this, but it just never quite comes together

 

You are not alone.

 

First time hearing both of the Dave tracks today as well.

"Give You All My Love" does sound as if it is moving towards the sound we would hear on his solo debut. Admittedly I can't remember anything about it, five minutes after listening, but my impression was that there are some nice riffs, melodies and ideas here, but probably too many disparate threads to allow it to hang together properly as a piece. By the time of making that debut, Dave had learned how to focus his songs a little more.

"Within Each Day" is similarly unmemorable after the first listen, and sounded a little less like a solo album track, but I liked the instrumental outro.

Lyrically both tracks are pretty much what we would get on the solo albums - you can either read them as personal to Dave or an oblique grand statement, and both are probably correct.

 

Give You All My Love starts like it could be a sweet mid-tempo pop ballad but then turns out to be the typical Dave rhythmic and emotional paradox : at the same time visceral and unfocused. Visceral could/should mean tight, to the point and straightforward. But with Dave, it often means quite the opposite of that. Some wonderful soaring bits (and pieces) of melody throughout, but… It’s really fascinating how many of Dave’s songs from this era are tentative or fragmentary, built on the same apparent reluctance (inability?) to sustain a mood or a semblance of structure. I listen to this tune and I ask myself how the musicians could remember their cues or where they’re at when the song shifts and then shifts again. What a weird musical brain this guy had…
As a demo, Within Each Day sounds a bit more fleshed out, almost ready to be properly recorded. Of course, when Dave's more "conventional" in his song structures, there’s always a risk that the result will end up being more conventional, period. The melodies on this song are indeed more predictable than usual but I’ll argue that in Dave’s seventies’s case, it’s all for the better. The song flows and follows an internal logic. There's no real verse, no real chorus, but a real bridge (I Love you I Love you), and a structure that gets repeated without meandering too much. From what I remember, at this point, Dave had yet to meet aliens and get his cosmic spiritual awakening, but this song seems addressed to some kind of God or Deity. Not a love song to a girlfriend, but a Love song to an all-encompassing Entity.

 

The melody for the the main section of 'Within Each Day' that goes with the lyric:

'In your truth I see the trouble in the world.
I hear a voice calling as a bird. Calling unto you.. '

etc reminds me of the melody of the intro to 'Life On The Road', except.. I kind of prefer Dave's song.. the way it tumblingly unfolds seems to me a better use of that tune, as others have already said along the lines of Dave's unresolved quest for expressing the inexpressible whereas in comparison Ray by this point could often maybe be a bit too efficient and a self conscious artisan as a composer.. and sometimes it's better to attempt to lunge towards the unknown than tie a neat bow onto the familiar, if that make sense.. I think @The late man probably said this better with 'Dave is no match for Ray lyrically, but I'll be as bold as to say that in the late 70s-early 80s, he might have been the better composer.'.. I could maybe go with that.. we'll see what the early 80s solo albums are like.. only vaguely familiar with the debut and never heard Glamour or Chosen People.

 

Today’s two songs are in the not-too-shabby category. There’s no way that I accept the notion that Dave is outshining his big brother in the song craft department…but these are both interesting tracks.

Lyrically, Dave always seems to manage to throw in several “and what does that mean?” moments. Why are both people crawling in ‘Give You All My Love’? And in ‘Within You’ he’s fulfilled, he has a love that’ll never die and yet…his love isn’t ‘realized’. Why not? Seems like the two are besotted with each other!

 

doubling back to '20 Golden Greats' yesterday, about the only positive thing I can say about the cover is that it uses a photo from the very last photoshoot with Pete Quaife, when he'd started sporting a goatee: (also used for the 1973 WHATGTG single reissue as seen here)

 

Give You All My Love: Definitely a pleasant melody, but meandering as Mark said. That said, I will give this song points for being 1 song rather than the 2 or 3 that Dave stuffs into 1 song during this period. Not as good as Islands, but better than most of the other Decade stuff we've heard so far.

Within Each Day: Okay, this is more like it. Yes, it's a bit old hat, but I'll always take a I -> III -> vi chord progression. The singing is also pretty solid on this, presaging his vocal style in the mid-80s forward, and the 3:45 of this track went by faster than expected for me. This is another one that Dave could have dusted off, thrown in a guitar solo, and added to Bug, and it would work.

 

The two Dave Songs for Today: The first one has a bit of a good hook to it in the beginning, but it turns into something else entirely. The second song has better vocals and is a more structured song, but the drums sound kind of weird.

As for that single PS that Avid Ajsmith reposted, doesn't Pete look very miserable in comparison to the others, who are laughing & smiling? It's like a picture of a bunch of schoolboys taken just after they pulled a prank on a friend, like stealing his chocolates or telling him his pet died. No wonder Pete's days in the Kinks were numbered.

 

He sure looks unhappy…

 

Pete's just wondering where all the good times have gone.

 

Of he's just heard that 'Plastic Man' is the next single!