The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night

    Let me rephrase that - if I were played just the chorus, I might not have guessed Kinks but, on second thought, listening to the verses, I can hear the Kinks.
     
  2. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I feel I have to post this track by one of the great bands of the punk/post-punk era...

     
  3. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Yep, that chorus needed work! Otherwise, it's another winner amongst these left-overs. I never expected to enjoy Low Budget outtakes so much!
     
  4. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Paul Weller pronounces it "nucular" on "Going Underground", but I've never heard it pronounced without the "L" before!
     
  5. Martyj

    Martyj Who dares to wake me from my slumber? -- Mr. Flash

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    Whereas "Duke" sounded it belonged in the 60's, and "Hidden Quality" of Sleepwalker/Misfits, "Nuclear Love" is the first of these demos that truly sounds like it belongs of the "Low Budget" sessions. To my ears, at least.

    Would have been nice if they finished it off properly and perhaps slapped it on the b-side of one of the album's singles.

    FYI, my parents, both born and raised in the South, pronounced nuclear the same way Jimmy Carter did. I assumed that was the right way, too, until every one started mocking Carter and pointing out the right pronunciation.
     
  6. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I concur (and am happy to say that Apple has no issues with this transferring to my playlist). I was delighted when I first listened to this yesterday.
     
  7. All Down The Line

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

    Location:
    Australia
    Nuclear Love

    Listening to the Kinks roll through this in its current form i concur with Mark's comparison to Split Enz circa '79 and his idea that a new band could make a successful hit with it.
    I am also reminded of Ray's vast history of having Kinks released songs covered though this one pleasant as it is has a strange effect on me and should have been (as many other songwriting demos had) farmed out to other acts!
     
  8. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Nuclear Love

    I found it a bit slight at first, but it's growing on me. A nice addition to my absurdly heterogeneous "Duke" album.

    I was listening to my mock-Sleepwalker album this morning, and when comparing 1976 and 1978-79 Kinks, what strikes me (again) is the huge difference in drumming styles. On Sleepwalker, Mick Avory is still inventive and musical. The mechanical style he's been obliged to mimick on Low Budget doesn't suit him at all - and it doesn't suit most of the songs either, in my opinion. He's never been a great time-keeper, and he needs more space to express himself within the music, and in support of it. This alone makes Sleepwalker a better album than Low Budget to my ear. On many songs - Catch Me Now I'm Falling comes to my mind - I would love to hear him doing his I'd-play-like-Keith-Moon-if-I-knew-how kind of thing, which I find so pleasant and efficient.
     
  9. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Low Budget

    It's the end, the end of the '70s, and the beginning of a New Age for the Kinks. Low Budget kicks off a four album run that finds the band filling arenas and at the peak of their $ales popularity.

    In some ways its an album that is both a dividing line and lightning rod for Kinks fandom.

    We know this is Ray's band. We know that Ray often treated Dave terribly. But starting here and increasingly with just about every album that follows it seems like Ray gives Dave more influence in the band's sound so that by the end they sound like Dave's hard rock vision of the Kinks.

    Low Budget has a lot of variety. The band sounds more energized and Ray really is firing on all cylinders throughout. There are a lot of good songs and a few great ones too.

    It's bittersweet looking back though knowing what we know now about the band's future-just six more studio albums after 1979.

    On Low Budget Ray changed his and the Kinks Attitude, and while no Superman, over the next half decade you'd find Ray's voice and the Kinks music all Around The Dial. Misfits no more.
     
  10. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    Nuclear Love:

    A short fast new-wavey number deserves a short fast review: Absolutely great stuff. I might’ve substituted this as the opener on Low Budget (I think Attitude is probably the weakest number on Low Budget [still love it though] and this little 2 minute ball of fun might’ve made for a better opener, but it’s the only way, based on the demos that we are covering, that I would’ve modified low budget at all). Sound-wise though, it sounds more like it would’ve fit on Misfits (if the song had existed at the time) or even better, on Give the People What They Want.

    Ray has demonstrated lyrical brilliance so many times, that none of us want to seem to forgive him if he decides to simply dash out a short little rockin and rollin number. I’m sorry, You Really Got Me anyone? Mick and the boys have made a 60 year career out of short little rock and roll numbers that really don’t say much of anything at all. Can’t we let Ray screw around and have some fun once in a while?

    ARL beat me to the Tubes reference. That was the first band I thought of as well (even though, like ARL, I only know a few of their songs). I suspect that it’s less that it sounds like a Tubes song and more that this song sounds like the birth of new wave. I have no idea, and don’t have time to look up, the timing of the birth of new wave, but I’m going to guess that timing wise this probably fits in perfectly with The Cars debut, The Tubes’ She’s a Beauty, Adam and the Ants and other First Wave of New Wave bands (FWoNW - how is that not already a known acronym?). I would’ve cranked this up on the radio just the same as I was cranking up the My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, Beat My Guest (an Adam and the Ants brilliant b-side), and Talk to You Later by the Tubes.

    Fun stuff! I wouldn’t change a thing, even if it is a demo.
     
  11. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I love the bitingly quick bursts of lead guitar. This guitar sound seems new to me, for The Kinks.
    Edit: Apple has this segueing into Talking Heads ‘Wild Wild Life.’
     
  12. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Hidden Quality

    It's a headscratcher, this one, as to why Ray didn't complete this one and release it. I mean he dusted off Massive Reductions five years later and while I like that song a lot this one is better.

    It's jangly, yet has a nice, raw biting guitar, and a chorus melody straight from the 60s Kinks songbook. Lyrically as mentioned aspects of both Heart of Gold and Natural Gift are present.

    Ray chose never to release it until Picture Book and the world was a lesser place because of it.

    There is a case to made for a second Great Lost Kinks album from their 70s scraps, particularly the Arista era outtakes.

    I'm going to blame Clive for this one's omission.
     
  13. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Duke

    The Stones evoked John Wayne a half dozen years earlier in a completely different context. Here Ray goes back to the 60s musically to honor one of his childhood heroes. There's both a vaguely Music Hall and a Carribean lilt musically. It's a pretty creative twist for a song that was just a demo performed once. I think the song had a great potential as a single. Ray obviously had a distinct vision for Low Budget but as fine as that album is these two tracks would've made it better. Make it a 12 song album and put Pressure on the follow-up.

    I wonder if Ray felt it to sentimental and didn't return to the track for that reason. Maybe he wanted to keep his John Wayne fandom in the wardrobe.

    Either way, he sure should've used the song's music and melody on a future song.
     
  14. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    "Nuclear Love", a surprisingly herky jerky New Wavy style of song for the Kinks. To all the Tubes references by my fellow Avids, I would add my opinion that it sounds like XTC circa Drums and Wires to me. I can see Andy Partridge bark out the chorus of this song. I don't know if those Avids who also frequent the XTC thread will agree w/me or not.

    Are you OK, Avid Ajsmith?
     
  15. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Re-posting Mark’s schedule (next week being this week now):
    “For the record the way we will roll these extra tracks out

    Tomorrow - Hidden Quality

    Monday - Massive Reductions
    Tuesday - Duke
    Wednesday - Nuclear Love
    Thursday - Maybe I Love You and Stolen Away Your Heart...”

    Did we overlook ‘Massive Reductions’?
     
  16. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I think we decided to talk about it when it came up in the album that it's in.
     
  17. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Ahh! Thanks.
     
    mark winstanley and DISKOJOE like this.
  18. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
  19. pyrrhicvictory

    pyrrhicvictory Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manhattan
    Nuclear Love

    I can’t get this stoopid chorus out me head! All morning I’m trying to remember what song this reminds me of and can’t get there. For some reason I imagine Fred Schneider singing (speaking?) ‘nuclear love’ over and over and that makes me like it even more. I actually like this demo but wish that if Ray wanted to go in a New Wave direction, that he wouldn’t do things by halves. Maybe instead of these traditionally styled verses he could take off his storyteller hat and be a little abstract. Use a cut-up technique such as Dame Bowie would. I think Ray and many of his peers want, maybe need, to get their message(s) across, anything less equaling a failure. We begin to see in the 70’s a move toward less literal lyrics, with room for the listener to interpret as they will. Anyway, chop up those verses and maybe we have something here. And yes @DiscoJoe, I can hear Mr. Partridge going to town on this, as he did on Respectable Street.
     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea. It is on Word of Mouth and basically the same, so we'll look at them both together, as per our little chat on Saturday.
     
  21. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    I was going to eventually mention this. I completely agree. Today’s song is more in the Ray camp, but the upcoming albums seem catered to Dave’s style. For me, that’s a huge disappointment.
     
  22. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "Nuclear Love"

    The finest gem to be uncovered from all of these demos. The warble of Ray is back! I would have never guessed they had a song that sounded like this during this era. To my ears, this is a return to Kinda Kinks, but slightly updated for the late 70s. Even in its rough state, this would be one of my favorite Kinks songs on any of the last several albums. This is grade A Kinks!
     
  23. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    That’s fine. I was using the schedule as a calendar and kept scratching my head, “is today Wednesday?” :D
     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It's interesting folks hear these songs as sixties Kinks... is it the clean guitars?
    Duke could be, but that's mainly the stripped back, unfinished arrangement.
    Nuclear Love is straight up herky jerky new wave bounce... it is fairly closely related to Moving Pictures really, but with a pretty straight modern (79-80) pop kind of chorus.
    Hidden Quality could be a Sleepwalker outtake.
     
  25. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    It may be a hot take but I think Dave manipulated Ray particularly in the 80s. The next album is the defintion of uneven (Dave's guitar too loud for some of the songs is a big problem here) and while they right the ship over the 3 albums that follow the final two have too much Dave both songwise and stylistically.

    Rock N Roll Cities, for example, is an embarrasment. Noises or Long Distance should've made State of Confusion over Bernadette is another.

    It's sad really because in less than a decade of Low Budget they go back to being a cult act essentially and then unable to get a record deal following UK Jive.

    Low Budget ushered in an all too-brief golden era but the fact that Ray pretty much ditched songs in his wheelhouse like these outtakes for the rest of the Kinks kareer is pretty telling and disappointing.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2022

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