The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Totally Fantabulous!
N.b. Just for the "Record" it looks the the baddies stole Thunderbird 2.

 

I am pretty sure Mack produced The Game by Queen, which of course had Another One Bites the Dust.

 

Someone else pointed it out
I can't remember who ... sorry...

 

"Accidentally?"

 

I obviously missed that. There's TOO MUCH good info on this thread. Hard to retain it all!

 

Superman

Though 10 going on 11 i was hoping to the disco hits on tv and radio though don't recall the Kinks Kut from real time.

Exposed to me via a compilation a decade or two ago and aside from standing out I kind of dismissed it as I was a rock "n" roll guy and just the title reference probably made me commercially wary.

Moving forward i have somewhat warmed to it, particularly the groove, Dave's guitar & a pretty cool bass line to boot!

I did get the Animals & Bee Gees references but being down under I am often playing catchup from a day or two behind.

A great lasting legacy from disco and specifically "Stayin Alive" is that this song is played every year a gazillion times with the Gibbs willingly forfeiting and royalty payments whatsoever.

Just how does that work you may ask?

The beat and tempo are exactly what is required for First Aid chest compressions in between rescue breaths (resuscitation) and thus used in First Aid training worldwide!

 

I understand the Bee Gees reference but why would the Bee Dees* reference the Animals? Did they ever go disco? Is that really a reference or just noting that he’s got to get out of this place…

*Brothers Davies

 

It's a bet each way, as to whether it is a specific choice, or a coincidence.

As I look through this album, there are a heap of subtle.... virtually subliminal things going on.
Next week will be quite interesting.... I think at least

 

Just looked at the list of Side 2...and so excited!!

 

Well I thought he is struggling with strikes, rent money, self image and wants to run away elsewhere with his gal pal!

 

Here is an update on UK Kinks Singles from that late 80's Record Collector article of mine.

Superman inclusive!

 

Just for @Rockford & Roll, @DISKOJOE and any other like minded James Garner or vintage F1 fans!



Double DVD & a fictitious remembrance (I chanced upon in a 1990 Autosport Issue) by "Pete Aaron" Garner's character in the 1966 film.

 

Thanks to Mark and our family of Avids the vinyl part of my Kinks Kollection has bore a new babe named Lola so me and the Mrs are sitting back toasting with her with a Cherry-Cola!

Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround
Part One 1970
The Kinks

50th Anniversary LP
Hype Stickered Shrink w/Booklet



Crazily enough I have only ever had this title on CD, until now!

 

Nice one! Does this mean you have all the 60's on vinyl now and have started on the next decade?

 

Low Budget.

stereo mix, shorter edit (3:46), recorded Jan 1979 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

I'm on a low budget
I'm on a low budget
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land

Excuse my shoes they don't quite fit
They're a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn't complain
They squeeze me so tight so I can't take no more
They're size 28 but I take 34

I'm on a low budget
What did you say
I'm on a low budget
I thought you said that
I'm on a low budget
I'm a cut price person in a low budget land

I'm shopping at Woolworth and low discount stores
I'm dropping my standards so that I can buy more
Quality costs, but quality wastes,
So I'm giving up all of my expensive tastes.
Caviar and champagne are definite no's,
I'm acquiring a taste for brown ale and cod roe

Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
We're all on our uppers we're all going skint
I used to suck cigars but now I suck polo mints

I'm on a low budget
What did you say
Yea I'm on a low budget
I thought you said that
I'm on a low budget
I'm a cut price person in a low budget land
I'm on a low budget
Low budget
Low budget

Art takes time, time is money
Money's scarce and that ain't funny
Millionaires are things of the past
We're in low budget-ville where nothing can last
Money's rare there's none to be found
So don't think I'm tight if I don't buy a round

I'm on a low budget
What did you say
Yes I'm on a low budget
I thought you said that
I'm on a low budget
I'm a cut price person in a low budget land
I'm on a low budget
Say it again
Low budget
One more time
Low budget

I look like a tramp, but don't write me off,
I'll have you all know, I was once a toff
At least my hair is all mine, my teeth are my own,
But everything else is on permanent loan.
Once all my clothes were made by hand,
Now I'm a cut price person in a low budget land.
I'm on a low budget
I'll have you all know
We're on a low budget
I'm on a low budget

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

I have loved this song since I first heard it, live and studio versions. It's just a great song.

Lyrically we have Ray comedically looking at the finances and he manages to take on one of his personas to sing the song, in a manner that would have sold it, even if the lyrics weren't great.

I'm not sure there is too much to look at with the lyrics, they are about as straightforward as a set of lyrics could be.... It would just be a case of highlighting favourite lines, and for me that's most of them.

Musically this is a corker. This is straight raw hard blues rock, and it is hard to decide whether Dave's great guitar or Ray's great vocal delivery is the real highlight here.... and I have to say it probably ends up being one of my favourite Kinks tracks where Ray and Dave perfectly compliment each other in that regard.

Dave's guitar is fantastic and its dirty gritty sound is a big attraction for me. As someone pointed out earlier on, on this album Dave's guitar sound and tone is just awesome. It isn't a punk sound, or a metal sound, it is this thick wall of dirty, grungy hard blues rock that commands the attention, and his playing is perfect for the set of songs that Ray brought to the party.

Ray's vocals here are every bit as good, perhaps even better than any of the character singing he did during the RCA years. He covers so many types of delivery on this track, almost acting out each line in a vocal style .... I suppose some would look at this as shouty Ray in many instances, but I don't really see it that way.... for me this is the Sunny Afternoon guy after he had been living on the street for a while, and so we get some real grit, mixed among all the other variations..... I could see this being Fagan's theme song in some kind of semi-avant garde version of Oliver Twist.

Side two is off to a fantastic start. The album is shooting 6 for 6

 

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
Attitude
Catch Me Now I'm Falling - remix - alt mix - The Late Man, Sea Cows In Love Mix
Pressure - live 1983
National Health
Superman (ext. mix) - single/album mix - ext fan mix - video
Low Budget

The Low Budget interview
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Ray On Wonderworld

The Kunks

Ray on the Stones

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

 

Ray’s said he wrote this as a reaction to the label’s decision to cut costs for the following Kinks tour… It cracks me up to imagine Ray going home frustrated, cursing at Clive D. and coming up with all those images of being short on money (and tight!), in the process setting the basis for one of his most eccentric live numbers. Smelling of beer and cigarettes (and whatever else too much beer and cigarettes will generate…), this number certainly gave a run for their money to the big uppercases bands, AC or ZZ. I find it interesting that Ray would set both his most direct songs about money (Money Talks being the other one) as down and dirty boogie tracks. He is obsessed by doe, no doubt about it, but always portrays it as a vulgar concern. What's great is the lyrics could be his reaction as an artist for not being supported or just as well be a way to mock Clive's explanations as to why he had to cut costs… This second interpretation being my favorite one!

True. But one stands out for me, the truly immense Ray Davies line “I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints”. In the long tradition of impoverished themed Kinks tunes, from Sunny Afternoon to In a Foreign Land, this must be the funniest image he ever came up with. From cigars to polo mints!! Who else would come up with something so vivid and stupid?? Ahahah! Every time I hear it, I swear I get the tastes in my mouth!

 

I was fortunate enough to see them perform this live a few times. It was hilarious. Ray did like to change lyrics now and then. Sometimes that might have been because he genuinely had forgotten the lyric or because he just wanted to change it.

"I'm shopping at Woolworths and low discount stores
I'm dropping my standards and I'm dropping my drawers".

That one was certainly consistent with the album cover.

Here's the excised verse only found on the single version.

"Quality costs, but quality wastes,
So I'm giving up all of my expensive tastes.
Caviar and champagne are definite no's,
I'm acquiring a taste for brown ale and cod roe".

Terrific lyrics and great social observation about how low the country had sunk at that time. This one's a solid 10.

 

Hey now! This is really neat. I remember watching that movie with my dad. And the "Pete Aron" piece is great.

 

I mentioned this in some posts earlier and here we are. This is one of the more significant vinyl only releases in the catalog. Those with the Velvel CD reissue check out the lyrics to this track that are listed there. There’s a lot more lyrics listed than you hear on this album track.

This track was released as a less than 4 minute song on the album but a longer version about a minute longer was released on vinyl as a B-side on some of the singles.

Here is the US 12” (B-Side of Superman) long version. The album version and US 7” B-Side are edits of this longer version.
The UK 12” and 7” Superman B-Side also have this longer version but it is a different mix. The response vocals “What did you say” and “I thought you said that” are absent from the long UK mix and the instruments have a wider stereo separation in that mix. The UK mix is not on YouTube so those of you that own this will have to compare this the old fashioned way with your turntable!

This alternate UK mix is not documented by Doug Hinman or anyone else anywhere else as far as I know. Just by me here in the current thread and in my posts in ancient Kinks threads here from days of old.

Luckily the long US mix is on YouTube, so check this out if you’re not familiar with it. Again, a lot more lyrics. It’s baffling that this full version in either US or UK mix has never been reissued on any compilation or CD. Why was this not a bonus track on the 1998 Velvel CD especially when they screwed up the A Gallon Of Gas release there and gave us the same exact edit and mix twice? Don’t know what I’m talking about? We’ll get to it next week.

Full length Low Budget as released on the US Superman 12"

 

I never even knew about this. Cheers.

Well that's actually saved me a concern, because I was never able to tell the difference, or find the extra line lol

 

I take it by your comment that I come across as a Pye/Reprise guy which is largely true, however more than half of my Kinks vinyl is post Pye & I am lacking some Pye LP's most specifically the earliest ones!

 

Low Budget

I was a bit harsh on this song in when we were discussing the album as a whole; that's probably because I hold title tracks to a higher standard than the norm. It's not bad, just kind of a routine, somewhat plodding blues, though once again that gloriously crunchy Dave guitar attack comes through to elevate it. Ray turns in one of his most gravely vocal performances... he just snarls his way through the song. And the lyrics are as inspired and witty as we've come to expect from vintage Ray. "We're all on our uppers we're all going skint" -- is it me, or are there far more references to substance abuse in this album than in any other Kinks' work? This poverty is hurting a lot more than our pride...

A solid enough track, but there are better ones to follow.

 

Live 1989:

 

Ray live 2000s or 2010s. Ian Gibbons on keys: he was in Rays touring band for a while around this time: I saw him with Ray in 2009.