The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

I hadn’t connected that, but you’re right, low budget (the song) does seem to have a lot in common with love stinks (the song), and that was definitely another one that I was blasting out of my car stereo and was all over the radio at the time. It’s also a good comparison in that I feel J Geils Band, like the kinks, don’t get the respect that they deserve and seem to have been forgotten a bit with time. I’m not sure if anyone has done a J Geils album by album thread, but it would be a worthwhile thread to focus peoples attention On an unfairly forgotten band.

 

Ray, striptease?
I thought you said that!

 

J Geils Band are on the shortlist, excellent catalog.

 

Low Budget (song)

First thing... Dave's guitar. Gritty, thick, crunchy. Yummy. Agreed on the AC/DC territory, and in fact, you can pretty much sing the verse of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long (which came out the following year) over the verse here.

Second first thing.... Ray's lyrics. As said, all incredible and funny. While listening to this the past few weeks, I heard it as "roll o' mints" instead "polo mints", and "low budget band" instead of "low budget land". Either way, the lyrics are memorable and the quips are just extremely well executed. Again, the delivery of the vocal lines is really all over the place. It's not just shouty or the same thing for a bulk of the album. That does put this album in the same vocal territory as Ray's earlier works... it's just that he's focused it into the more late 70s quasi-punk/rock/blues songs, with a bit of a rougher edge to some of his vocals. I think throughout their discography so far, he has tailored his vocals to match the feel of the song and music, and that just continues here. I think the "What did you say?", "I thought you said that", "say it again", "one more time" are meant to be jokes added to almost make this a novelty song or a parody of what a low budget band would play at a dive bar. They are almost in "so bad, it's good" territory. Also note that after "one more time", there isn't actually another time through the chorus... the chorus just finishes and the song ends. The budget is too low for more studio time.

Like this whole album, this song is pretty new to me, and I'm glad to have it added to my list.

 

"Low Budget"

Everybody else has largely said all that can be said about this one. I find the music and the guitar maybe a little stodgy, but the song and the lyrics are enough to overcome that and make it enjoyable. Ray perhaps lapses into the "Comedy Cockney" voice for the asides in the chorus, but again it suits this particular track. Like "Superman", I only know the short version as on my CD, and that one is perfectly long enough for me - I don't need any more lyrics or verses.

 

Ah ah ! I appreciate this attention a lot.

 

Don't you hate it when, for no explicable reason, you stop getting notifications for threads you follow?

Anyway, a bit late, but I really like the lyrics of Low Budget, but that's about it. I often find Blues Rock boring, and here Ray delivers a gravelly vocal almost throughout.

 

If you take that on, I will follow you, and I would be happy to be your second in command. I doubt my song by song reviews could ever scale the same heights that yours scale but I will do my best to pull my weight! I am no expert on J Geils but I have probably everything that they recorded as well as most of Peter wolf’s solo work in my library. I know they are not the Kinks, but they are certainly a very high caliber, second tier Stones (which is meant to be a compliment).

 

@Fortuleo beat me to citing the "polo mints" line in Low Budget. It's laugh out loud. Like Mark, I have loved this song since the first time I heard it. It's coy, it's extravagant (ha!), it rocks, it's alive. Ray and Dave sound great. Cheap is cheap - love it - and I thought you said that -- another great Ray Davies call and response.

 

Low Budget

WNEW-FM New York gave this song a loving home for many years. A very wry, self-aware lyric (natch), and a great character for Ray to inhabit on stage. I recall him introducing this song at Jones Beach in ‘89 as ‘Low Budgie, it’s about Chinese menus.’

Now, I was an Anglophile from an early age but until the internet came along I had to assume ‘uppers’ were pills. I’m just thankful the ‘cod roes’ bit was excised, as that was a (ahem) bridge too far. Also, our headmaster got it right with the ‘I was once a toff’ line which the Velvel reissue has as ‘tough’.

Ry Cooder was a fan of this song and Ray has said the two of them wrote some songs together but nothing ever saw the light of day. Ray doesn’t strike me as a collaborator, he’s too much of a loner. The Kinks never had superstar guest turns on their records, they were always insular and isolated from the pop/rock circles. Ray was never that brand name with the image that comes along with it, you never knew what to expect from him. There was a team-up with Trevor Rabin (a guitarist who’s playing is not too dissimilar from Dave’s, especially tone-wise) and with Big Country nearly two decades later that were released. But I think of all the rumored writing-partner sessions whose trails have gone cold: Pete Townshend for one of his early solo albums, Justin Hayward, Shirley Manson, Beth Orton to name a few. And of course, the super trio that never was of Damon Albarn, David Bowie, and our Ray. Apparently Dame Bowie put the kibosh on this one when he decided to keep touring for his Reality album, which ended with his subsequent heart issues.

 

When did he work with Ry Cooder it all sounds a bit fascinating as to what went down?

 

I have to track down the interview...but they tried collaborating but something on the music side wasn't a good match. i'm not a musician so I didn't understand it...something about tuning maybe? I think this was in Guitar magazine or similar. Anyone else remember this?

 

Ray and Ry would have been a great project...

Unless it was saying they weren't in tune with each other mentally, that wouldn't really make sense.

I hope something comes out at some point.

 

Supposed to be from the Low Budget tour

 

I do remember seeing both Ray & Dave dressed like that on the One From The Road video

 

A-ha! I found the magazine. Ray interview in Guitar Player Sept 1998 p. 56

"Ry Cooder and I tried writing together about 15 years ago, because he liked a song I wrote called "Low Budget". I went to his house in Santa Monica and played a few songs, but his tunings were so weird. We realized we had best stay good friends and not try to work together. I did write one song for him, though and I put a note on the side of it that said: "Dear Ry, I found a really interesting tuning. You should try it. It goes E, A, D, G, B, E".

 

I assume it was the early eighties. Naturally I can’t find my original source but Ray has talked about it in later interviews in the 2000’s. Ry plays in open G and other idiosyncratic tunings and may have turned Keith Richards onto that. I’m not deeply knowledgeable of either musician but I have heard (and somehow retained) these nuggets.

 

That's weirdness, because the way Ry tunes his guitar doesn't have much effect on writing together.... unless Ray was trying to play his guitar lol

The tuning Ray suggests is standard tuning, so I get the feeling he's having a laugh

 

Probably just an excuse for Ray to get out of collaborating.

 

Not a great picture, but there's Ray on the far right in a phone booth ('memba those??). Some sort of promotion for Superman/Low Budget

 

Low Budget
The good think about entering the discussion late is you can cruise on comments made earlier if you like. But I'll get out of the way first that I fully agree with @mark winstanley that this is a top notch Kinks song in all respects. The key of course is the lyrics, which show Ray at his wittiest best. The blues was an obvious choice for the backing track because (a) the lyrics tell a blues story of loss, albeit one aimed to make us laugh, and (b) the music needs to serve the lyrics, which are the focus of the song.

As a blues fan I instinctively reject these negative sentiments yet understand where they are coming from. Blues played badly or without inspiration (the same thing really) is bland and boring and there is plenty of it around. But the blues doesn't need to be innovative or different to be interesting. It's a bit like The Simpsons - really good blues is based on simplicity, sincerity, passion and repeat. There is almost no musical progression between Buddy Guy's first and 33rd albums and that's a good thing. AC/DC is rock but their music is grounded in blues principles so I get that comparison (actually they've done a couple of straight blues: Night Prowler and Down Payment Blues - the last I think is especially good). On Low Budget the playing is passionate alright - Dave makes sure of that. We could question the sincerity behind it but there's no rule saying blues songs should be depressing: there are plenty of funny blues songs - and quite a few with wickedly funny lyrics (R-rated).
Sorry for being so long-winded. I understand why some people don't like this style of music but I think the band pulls it off very well in service of this particular song.

 

I have Buddy Guy's debut album and likely his 33rd and much in between and believe it or not you sell him short.

 

What a kick-a$% show from the tour for a criminally underrated album. The band is absolutely on-fire here (maybe even more than on One For The Road).

 

I have the complete Chess years, it's excellent