Oct 1963 - Nov 1966 - Kinks get a haircut Apr 1967 - Feb 1970 1965 Never Say Yes 1966 Trouble In Madrid Nov 1970 - Jun 1976 Ray interview The Kinks Move To Arista Records Feb 1977 Sleepwalker Life On The Road - OGWT 77 - ITV 78 Mr Big Man Sleepwalker - Mike Douglas - OGWT - Supersonic - SNL - Outtake Brother Juke Box Music - single - OGWT Sleepless Night Stormy Sky - OGWT 77 Full Moon - live 77 - Ray live Life Goes On - OGWT 77 Artificial Light Prince Of The Punks The Poseur On The Outside - remix Elevator Man Kinks Live Feb 1977 Ray acoustic Apr 77 Kinks Old Grey Whistle Test show 77 Kinks Live Dec 1977 Christmas Concert 1977 The Pressures Of The Road Nov 1977 Father Christmas - video - live 1977 - tv promo - Dave live May 1978 Misfits Misfits - tv 1978 Hay Fever - live? Black Messiah Rock And Roll Fantasy- the hotel room - live Paris 1978 In A Foreign Land Permanent Waves Live Life - US version - UK tv Out Of The Wardrobe Trust Your Heart - live 1979 Get Up 1978 The Misfit Record EP Lola live in the hotel room UK tv 1978 The Misfits Tour Live in Paris 1978 Sept. 1978 20 Golden Greats Jul 1979 Low Budget Ray On Wonderworld Kinks live TOTP 1994 2005 Thanksgiving Day Ray live on Conan Obrien Oct 2018 Dave Davies - Decade - interview If You Are Leaving (71) Cradle To The Grace (73) Midnight Sun (73) Mystic Woman (73) The Journey (73) Shadows (73) Web Of Time (75) Mr Moon (75) - Why Islands (78) Give You All My Love (78) Within Each Day (78) Same Old Blues (78) This Precious Time (78) Mick Avory Pete Quaife - interview - Kast Off Kinks - I Could See It In Your Eyes - Dead End Street Rasa Didzpetris Davies John Dalton John Gosling Andy Pyle Gordon Edwards Clive Davis
I'm not perturbed by the cover. To me it suits the idea of the album, if things keep being run the way they are we'll all be standing on a street corner hoping for a trick so we can pay the bills
Another thing about the cover: in the mid 00s in Glasgow, there was a black cab taxi (of the type pictured below) that for some reason had the Low Budget sleeve emblazoned across its bonnet! I saw this sight several times in around 2006-08ish. I have a vague memory it might have been part of a 'classic albums' series of taxis that got a temporary makeover of this kind, if so it's an odd choice for the UK where this LP was not a success and would be recognised by few. There's also the issue that having a hooker (ok not made explicit on the cover image but definitely implied and made more clear if you've ever seen any of the outtakes from the shoot) on a taxi maybe isn't the best look in terms of corporate image!
Headmaster, this is my confession, I've been such a little fool… @Mark, you've made it clear since day one that this is an important favorite of yours. Like you, but for very different reasons, this is probably the record I’ve been most looking forward to discussing here. For thirty odd years, it has tormented me, resisting my passion and diligent pursuit, the only Kinks album doing so. I see two reasons: 1/ It was always part of the “playlist” era of the Kinks output for me, the LPs I bought in the used bins and listened to in search for some lost nuggets rather than for full album experiences. But it doesn’t have a Don’t Forget to Dance, Better Things, How Are You, Destroyer, Heart of Gold, War is Over, Scattered, Do It Again or Living on a Thin Line : obvious stand-outs that have an obvious ikonik kinksness to them. It’s an album’s album, extremely consistent, some songs are better, catchier, groovier, heavier, but there’s no lost masterpiece, no hidden gems, more of an unified feel. Everything is in plain sight, upfront and, dare I say, in your face. 2/ It’s a record that seems to have worked as a fantastic entry point in the band’s catalogue if you were there at the time and got it as a first taster of Kinks swagger (this one, or the live one). Otherwise, If you came to the band from other angles, it has a fair chance to fall to the cracks because it’s going to resist most of your theories and access roads, youth, immaturity, nonconformism, vaudeville, melodies, whimsicality, levity, carefreeness, anachronism, theatricality, Britishness etc. This one is a heavy American rock record very much of its time. And despite its title and cover art, it’s impossible to determine for certain if it’s ironic or not. I’d say it probably is, but what to make of it ? Like it more? Like it Less? What I know is: most times I put a Kinks record on, it’s because I need a breath of fresh air. And this one is not, its atmosphere being one of carbon saturated sweat. I recently uncovered one track that got me dancing around and humming (Moving Pictures) only to realize it’s probably the least appreciated track on the LP. Go figure! So yeah, it’s the one LP I’m most looking forward to rediscovering with you guys and @(wonder)girl(s) with open ears and an open mind, one song at a time, one day at a time, hoping that my last uncracked Kinks nut will open at last. Rest assured, headmaster, I’m ready to make amends, so spare me, I beg you, don't make me take my trousers down!
I understand, I am going to be in a corner by myself here, but I personally don't see how National Health, Superman, In A Space, Little Bit Of Emotion and Moving Pictures aren't Kwirky Kinks tracks
Low Budget was another record I had borrowed and taped onto cassette before buying the CD much later. This is a record I associate with increased success for the Kinks in the U.S. I really like the title track - a beautiful piece of writing that plays on a part of Ray's public persona in a humorous fashion. I was glad it was in the show the lone time I saw the Kinks live. But I am also familiar with a few of these songs because they were all in the Kinks show from 1979 onwards (for a few years). Obviously, "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" has its famous borrowing of the "Jumping Jack Flash" riff (sounds more like the Frampton version than the Stones if you ask me) but I love it. Another song that was in the shows of the era, "Gallon Of Gas", drew the ire of some because a truly English band like the Kinks was seen as pandering to the American audience (ironically, a Some Girls demo of Mick Jagger at the piano singing "Petrol Blues" - available in edited form on the deluxe reissue - begins with the line "Please Mr. President, say it isn't so"). More songs on this record stand out to me than on the previous couple of records.
I am pretty sure you just invented a new word - exact definition to be determined as the thread progresses.
Low Budget The Kinks' biggest commercial success in the US. After the strong sales of Sleepwalker were followed by the relatively disappointing chart performance of Misfits, Arista must have put some body-poppin' marketing oomph behind this one. And the Kinks left behind the airy sound of Misfits in favor of a tougher, grittier approach on Low Budget. Whatever the reasons, everything clicked, and this album went gold and vaulted the Kinks into their highest level of stardom in America since the early British Invasion era. Dave hits upon a grungy guitar tone that is not quite arena-rock, not quite metal, not quite punk, but combines elements of all three -- it's a distinctively Dave Davies sound, and it's very effective -- it's the mortar that holds the bricks together. The new sonic atmosphere takes a bit getting used to, but on the whole it delivers a strong and satisfying album. Despite two or three songs that don't really connect (the lumbering title track, for instance), overall Low Budget offers more diversity that it seems to at first glance: three or four brief, punchy, punky outbursts; a no-frills pop song; a lovely ballad; a clunky Franken-tune; a tight and witty blues excursion that's probably become the album's most enduring track; and a couple of forays into previously uncharted disco and new-wave waters that work a lot better than they have any right to. We get shouty Ray and whispery Ray and everything in between. There are some synths and saxes bobbing around, but they mostly enhance the songs, rather than bury them. My first exposure to this album came in the mid-eighties, when my local college radio station featured it from start to finish one weeknight. My roommate was going around the dial and happened upon the broadcast when they were finishing up the first side, so we missed most of what was on One For the Road (which we were already familiar with anyway), but the second side, which was then unknown to both of us, held our attention to the point where we stopped what we were doing altogether and just listened. I went out and bought the album (actually, the cassette) within a few days. Low Budget might not be Village Green, but it was a worthy addition to the Kinks kanon, and deserved every bit of its popularity. Loosen up your muscles, and feel the knots in your body untie as this fine album sinks in.
I'm late to the party once more. You guys are making hay for sure. Just to wrap up my Misfits thoughts, I really like Dave's Trust Your Heart and Get Up is another wonderful Ray "positive message" song. The opening reminds me of Do It Again. I'd imagine I'm against the tide a bit in that I like Sleepwalker a tad more. This may be because I really got into The Kinks with Low Budget. My natural inclination was to go back one album and Misfits didn't grab my teen heart like Low Budget had. This series of reviews and discussions should be great fun. I sense a little less love for Low Budget, but we'll see!
Low Budget album general thoughts: The only song I was familiar with, prior to a quick peek two or three months ago, was ‘Superman’ and my initial speed-listen left me less than impressed. However! Just after making a negative crack about the upcoming Low Budget on this thread, I decided I needed to do the due diligence thing and listened again, in full. And will confess to not understanding why I was so put off from it the first go-round. Which is all to say I look forward to the deep dive. Album cover: yeah, I’m 100% with @ajsmith on this and do not like it at all. And whoever decided this should be emblazoned on a taxi is nuts.
Great sentimental memories surround this one and keep Low Budget near my heart. College years, campus life, parties with a new Kinks disc on everybody’s turn table, it seemed. (Ditto “Who Are you” and “Some Girls”; my four years of college were a good era for fans of surviving 60’s British Invasion bands to hold their heads high). I recall walking across the Ball State campus late autumn on one of those ‘Indian Summer’ afternoons when everyone had their windows rolled down, dorm room stereo’s competing with each other for who could crank it up the loudest. Drowning them all out, somewhere, was a guy playing “Attitude.” I wanted to find him and make that guy my best friend. And yet 40 years after college and a quarter century after the Kinks ceased activity, no release among their 23 studio albums has aged as poorly in my personal esteem as Low Budget. Thats not to say I now dislike the record—I don’t—but aged poorly in relation to the esteem it was once held. An album like UK Jive, for example, I always considered weak so it does not have far to drop. Low Budget, on the other hand, I once thought of as the gold standard of the Arista period. These days I recognize it as one of the weakest. The gulf between how I originally viewed this disc vs. how I think of it now is probably the most extreme among all Kinks LPs. This was the result of the late 90’s Vevel reissues. By that time Low Budget was 20 years in the rear view mirror. Without the context of its original release—and my sentimental attachment aside—the things that made it exciting (the streamlined, rockin’ Kinks are back! And now with a heftier ‘crunk’!) no longer mattered. The Kinks being updated and on the charts no longer mattered. The topicality of the lyrics no longer mattered. I was now hearing the songs laid bare, track for track. And…and…I kept thinking how much better almost every other Kinks record was. Revisiting the disc in the 90’s my take was: “I seemed to remember this was better than this. But it’s actually not holding my interest.” The following was my late 1990’s reassessment and, 2022, it hasn’t changed: Superman is great and remains so. The rest? Gallon of Gas and Low Budget are paint-by-the numbers blues-based jams. As such they still hold up…but on second thought I realize I’m remembering them in their live incarnations. “National Health” and “In A Space” I just plain dig without assessing their merits. After that, it falls off: “Catch Me Now I’m Falling”—which I one time thought would endure at a 20th Century Man-level classic—is revealed to be, at heart, just a full band boogie workout with outdated lyrics. Ditto for “Attitude.” “A Little Bit of Emotion” and “Moving Pictures” are among the most forgettable, unremarkable things the band ever did. The weakest links are “Misery” and “Pressure,” embarrassing in their desperation to reclaim a youthful energy like 40-year old housewives out for a “girls night out,” dressed like 20-somethings and hanging out with the younger crowd. And there’s the key to this LP’s drop in my esteem: Those isolated moments earlier in their careers when the Kinks emulate what was current—from Brill Building hits to Beatles to even T-Rex—they were just as good as Brill Building, Beatles and T-Rex. On Low Budget, when they emulate Cheap Trick, Blondie or The Ramones, well…they aren’t doing it as well as Cheap Trick, Blondie or the Ramones. And the irony is those band were, to some degree, emulating the Kinks. So how’s that for crazy? Some bands that emulate The Kinks are actually more interesting than the The Kinks themselves, circa 1979. So, yeah, I love Low Budget, but it’s still a bit of a disappointment to revisit. While many see this as the start of the band’s incarnation as a heavy rock arena band, I feel it is a bit transitional, still seeking out a new direction, lacking the ‘meat on the bones’ feel of the later Arista releases.
I think I bought Low Budget after One For the Road so I was struck on first listen how different some of the songs sounded - with my preference being the live versions. Listening with fresh ears I've been pleasantly surprised at how good the album makes me feel. The playing is strong, the music is gritty - in a good way - and Ray's lyrics stick mostly to urban average Joe concerns. What swings it into strongly positive territory for me is the tongue-in-cheek humour Ray brings to several of the songs. It seems charming, rather than forced, which makes me feel that this is a more authentic version of the Kinks I like than I've heard in a few albums.
I'll probably be keeping my thoughts to myself once the track-by-track discussion starts because I really can't find anything positive to say about this album - apart from the fact that the songs sound a lot better on the live album. The first track rips off the Who and the second track rips off the Stones, which sums up the level of Ray's ambition. The guy who was slagging off Tom Robinson for latching on to the punk bandwagon is reduced to doing it himself - after the bandwagon has rolled on, Tom Robinson should have written a song about that. But, I hear people say, this is simply the Kinks returning to their proto-punk roots! Like they did with hard rock on "Live Life"! Arguable, but irrelevant if what they produce sounds like a bunch of thirty plus year olds clumsily lumbering about trying to recapture their teenage years. And yet it sold! There's so many parallels between Ray Davies' career and Lou Reed's career and this throws up another one, Lou's quote about how the worse he is the more he sells.
Interesting you say this as I agree but I've rarely seen many other people who seem to : my impression of Low Budget has always been it was The Kinks catching up to new wave (I use that term very broadly to mean the whole 1977-83 era new pop scene) not always entirely convincingly and with a faint whiff of desperation, before settling into doing so a lot more confidently and with more integrity to their essential nature on the early 80s Arista albums: and yet for years I've always tended to see the opposite in reviews online: as I said before mainly from those of the 'The Kinks lost it after 1972' tendency who would grudgingly allow 'Low Budget' as the Kinks one slight return to if not quality then at least guilty trashy fun before writing off the remainder of their career. I should add that despite the above that I do enjoy 'Low Budget' more than the first 2 Aristas and I'm looking forward to the song by song. I just think they got EVEN BETTER on the albums immediately after.
After discovering the Kinks, I quickly amassed a kompliete kollection. Low Budget was actually the last one I acquired. But this had nothing to do with what I thought were the best albums, but rather because I started with One For the Road, so I already had half the songs from Low Budget. Little did I know the rest of those songs were pretty darn good too.
Low Budget: Okay, first things first. I'm firmly 100% in @mark winstanley 's corner on this one. I LOVE Low Budget, or at least that's the mindset I'm carrying as we start the discussion. Is it lightweight and derivative? At first glance, I think you could say that, but deeper inspection reveals a cheeky yet topical album (a postcard from the state of the art of 1979, which was a pretty crazy time) whose messages aged better than some of the album's contemporaries. And to the idea that it's derivative... well, @Martyj put it really well. Yes, the Kinks may be aping Blondie and others, but they pioneered this whole Ironic Rock genre, and through that, I find the album imbued with authenticity. When I picture the Kinks in my mind's eye, the thing that comes to mind first and foremost is Ray's toothy smirk circa ~1966. These songs feel like an embodiment of that attitude (no pun intended). Anyway, we'll have lots more to say as this thread unfolds, but I guess I'll just end by saying... the melodies, chords, lyrics, and musicianship on this album are really good. I think that's the X factor for me -- it all comes together cohesively for the last time. I still love some of the albums after this one, but, in mathematical terms, Low Budget is the local (not global!) maximum.
Low Budget: The summer of 79. Things was changin'. You could feel it on AOR radio, more punk and new wave influences creeping in. Album art going more street/rough-edged in its appearance. Most of all, hair was getting shorter. I never fully considered that before, but all these bands that had shoulder-length hair and poodle cuts, they slowly morphed into those stylish, punky perms, beards trimmed or shaved off completely. This song captures that feeling of 1979 - no, not the Smashing Pumpkins, although I love that song! The Kinks were on it. It was as though Ray had stuck his finger in the wind with Sleepwalker and Misfits, determined which way the wind was blowing on American radio, then dove straight in on Low Budget. It was an exciting album at the time. I recall the FM radio station premiering this one a few days before release, stamping their announced call letters a few times on each track to dissuade taping from the radio. We already had the disco single, which seemed to come out way before the album did. It should have felt like a slap in the face, but I recall kids who didn't even like The Kinks or disco liking that song, probably for the unexpected lyrics. (I'd rather wait until that song to fully expound.) It says a lot that I never bought the single in those preceding months! This is a strange one for me. I loved the album at the time. It felt glorious, like the band was returning to its rightful place in terms of popularity. If you played the title track at a high-school reunion for kids graduating around that time (which I've done!), you'll have more than a few nodding heads and knowing grins. It was of its time. But this one hasn't aged so well for me. Still, we couldn't see it at the time, it opened the door to another phase of The Kinks, and unlike a lot of earlier fans, I loved those 80s albums. I'm curious to dive in and see how this plays out with everyone else!
As for the cover, one may be turned off by it, but it is good design. It leads the eye. It’s image branding and much like Muswell Hillbillies it achieves an iconic status even if one dislikes the graphic choices. I find the logo and type treatment among their best and most memorable. The photography lighting captures the concept. Conceptually, it perfectly captures ‘low budget’ as a reflection of the music within, e.g., leaner instrumentation, Ray economizing as the keyboardists, etc. I can imagine someone in the Arista marketing department giving a designer the orders: Do not listen to the music so as to influence your thinking. Just come up with a design based around the title low budget. Just ask yourself ‘how does one convey ‘low budget’ as an idea. The result is this spare design, with the setting suggesting this hooker’s services are on low budget end of what a customer can afford. It feels like even the cigarette butts are a less expensive brand. Interesting trajectory of the 7 Arista LPs covers: the first three studio releases are strong designs culminating at the mid point with a live release that gives possibly the best pure packaging of all Kinks records, followed by another three that track a noticeable decline in cover design. One can almost imagine the personnel in charge of executing such things changed at a certain point, although I have no doubt Ray probably had in influence on cover ideas, too.
I’ve read enough reviews of both music and film over the years (and have even done a bit myself) that I can’t help but noticing a follow-the-heard mentality, where if enough people are praising or deriding a work, it clouds a reviewer’s judgment going in lest they appear to be that one person who ‘doesn’t get it.’ Thus, someone might reference “OK Computer” or “Citizen Kane” as masterpieces, not because that’s their own opinion, but, rather, are acknowledging those works reputations. I believe Low Budget’s acclaim benefits from this, abetted by the knowledge of its chart success. The reverse would be the historical drubbing the RCA albums have gotten. But all these years later the worm seems to be turning, the works more objectively assessed in hindsight. Thats born out not just in things such as Mojo and UnCut album guides, but this thread as well.
"Low Budget" is definitely the worst of the Arista albums I've listened to and I'd never heard any of them until I started participating in this thread. I haven't got beyond "Give the People What They Want" though.
For those Avids who don't know, or remember from earlier in this thread, Kinked is a compilation of Kinks covers & Ray and Dave songs that were never done by the Kinks. It's very highly recommended: Various - Kinked! (Kinks Songs & Sessions 1964-1971) I reviewed this for Ugly Things back when it came out and I said that the Petula Clark song would have been perfect for a Wes Anderson. Too bad it wasn't in The French Dispatch, although I do like the spin off album featuring Jarvis Cocker as 60s ye ye singer "Tip Top".
I have one song tagged for playlist consideration (pre-discussion) but will listen to the album in full today and see where I’m at before we dive in on Monday.
Of course it depends on which herd one is following. I generally find on the forum that successful albums, particularly from band's that have generally been somewhat on the outer, are almost roundly dismissed as rubbish
Bought it on release day, saw the tour, literally bought the T-shirt. I was, and remain, a lifelong Kinks fan, starting in the 60s, and loved this album when it came out, but like others, it hasn’t all aged well with me. I still listen to it on my exercise bike, heh, and there’s lots to admire about it even now. They finally got Mick a good drum sound. Great time capsule, given how hard up so many of us Kinks fans were at the time. More like an old friend than a good friend, yet a friend for sure. Also bought the Superman 12-inch, which was a jolt (and a funny sendup of Blondie-style disco pop of the time; classic witty and self-deprecating Ray lyric, too). I drove my then-new-bride crazy with it! Seeing the band play Low Budget at the Providence Civic Center/One for the Road concert was a fantastic high point! Just some scattered thoughts…
