Lol sorry mate. I was listening to Word of Mouth on Saturday?, and I was like "hang on a minute?" Folks seemed to lean towards leaving it til Word Of Mouth.... so we did
Cause if it’s Wednesday I should be driving to Seattle…and I’m not! (I’m unfamiliar with the song so it’s all a blank slate to me.)
I think you’re on the scent here. Both brothers were manipulating each other and many times the music paid the price, especially through on-stage sabotage, ie. wrong chords being played, false starts and endings, etc. I’m sure they’ve both read The Art of War.
Nuclear Love I like the new wave vibe. Reminds me a bit of the Flamin Groovies, but of course with Kinks vocals. This is a fun song. Seems like great B side material!
Nuclear Love Even not fully realized, this is a fun track. I think I would have very much liked to hear this brought to full fruition. For some reason, I really enjoy the juxtaposition of styles with the verse putting me squarely in sock hop territory and the subsequent chorus pointing to the new wave, capturing the funner side of both as it moves along.
I’m trying to think of a clever rebuttal but all I can think of is Secondhand Car Spiv…and that doesn’t exactly fit.
Duke I see you now, you look so frail You fought your fight and you served us well But even heroes have to say farewell Goodbye Duke, so long and happy trails Duke, we'll never see the likes of you again I’ve gotten a bit obsessed with Duke the past couple of days. Great poetry here, classic AbbAA end rhymes fitting for the traditional values the subject represents, but at the last word, again is slant and Ray sings the root but then drops down to the seventh which is a nice touch and adds complexity. Duke / likes of you is a really nice mix of assonance and alliteration ( ou - k - k - ou ), it makes for a stunning final verse. The other thing I’m noticing playing along is that there is a subtle complexity in the composition - none of the changes are telegraphed, sometimes the way Ray phrases the lyrics will cause an extension or compression of the expected chord progression by a measure or two, which contributes to the awkwardness of the bass accompaniment (amazing job considering it was a first take!) So Duke is a simplifying figure who removed complexity from the world, he was the good guy that always won. He was also a fictional character whose actor was a mortal man. Duke was a contradiction- and likewise the composition of Duke, it’s smooth delivery and pleasant melody masks an underlying complexity. This idea of myth and reality in Duke returns again as a major theme in Ray’s Americana albums.
Nuclear love despite being a bit hook deficient has a nice propulsive new wavey vibe to it that overall makes it a winner overall for me.
Maybe I Love You. stereo mix (3:15), recorded circa 1979 or 1980 at (probably) Konk Studios, Hornsey, London [Backing track and backing vocals only] Chorus: Maybe I love you Maybe I love you Maybe I love you Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. There isn't really much going on with this one. To me it just sounds like a jam... and often in jams you start off doing something you think is pretty cool, and then realise you have just stolen part of another song, and your tail goes between your legs and you move along.... On here we start with some noodling, and the bass pumps a few notes and the guitar comes in with a bit of an arpeggio, and then.... We go into this ascending chord pattern, that is definitely something I know .... in fact I instantly get a blur of a song in my head, and I'm stuck in that irritating "I know that.... what is that? ..... ARRRRRGGGHHH ..... what is it!?!?!?!?!? " thing going on .... Then we move into a tentative chorus that is pretty much a direct copy of a motown type song that also isn't coming to mind .... maybe I have completely lost it ? .... Baby I Love You.... That's probably about all I hear here. This probably holds some interest for folks that aren't generally exposed to band's jamming much, but when you have spent the greater portion of your life doing that, all it really does is give you a wry smile, with a thought of, "HA, it happens to everyone"
Stolen Away Your Heart. stereo mix (3:00), recorded circa 1979 or 1980 at (probably) Konk Studios, Hornsey, London All right, that's the sound... Man, it's hard when you add up the cost Paying the price of what has been lost So busy building bridges I'd never crossed And working too hard, didn't know when to stop So busy digging holes for myself that I Lost what I wanted most in the world now Someone else has stolen away your heart Sweetheart, why do we do the things we do And say. I looked so hard I lost my way Now someone else has stolen away your heart Instead of working late, paying my dues I should have left early to spend more time with you Now the future looks a little bit hard Gonna pick myself up for another new start Instead of running round with so much to prove I should have known noticed that I was losing you Now someone else has stolen away your heart Sweetheart, why do we do the things we do And say. I looked so hard I lost my way Now someone else has stolen away your heart Oh, Sweetheart, my love, for you We'll never, ever fade[?] I looked so hard I lost my way Now someone else has stolen away your heart Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. This is another rough track that takes the form of a slightly more organised jam than Maybe I Love You. It has a very kind of sixties type pop/rock song feel ... which once you get past the styling and production most of this album has anyway ... and it really seems like Ray was going for a revisit to the earlier days of the band. Lyrically we have the idea of a hard working guy, sad that his girl has had her heart stolen away by someone else. He is a bit down on himself, because he feels he should have noticed .... but really if he was working that hard, there is no reason to think that he should have noticed, because to survive in the world it is pretty difficult not to work hard, and anyone worth putting that much effort in for, should realise this..... Musically this is pretty neat, It isn't anything astonishing. Some of the vocals kind of make me think of Jeff Tweedy. Another nice ascending pattern, with a cool guitar riff type thing behind it. This is a pretty neat little track that is nice to have heard, but it isn't going to be wrestling airtime away from other songs I already know.
"Maybe I Love You" - pretty loose type jam with the chorus from the Ronettes "Baby I Love You" inserted into it with one word changed to give it a bit of irony. Not the best bonus track ever but good for a listen on this thread!
"Stolen Away Your Heart" - a ballad of regret over losing your love to another due to your own neglect. It's ok but probably best left on the cutting room floor as it was and not developed into a full Kinks production. Ray does melancholy well but this doesn't get anywhere near the heights of some of his better material in this vein. Prince released "When You Were Mine" in 1980 - one of his best songs - which takes on the same subject matter with a slightly kinky twist (and no I don't mean Prince wrote something influenced by the Kinks).
"Maybe I Love You" ...it's basically "Baby I Love You"! I don't hear a lot in this particular jam that sounds like a classic in waiting. "Stolen Away Your Heart" Nick Lowe has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread recently. I'm currently listening a lot to Labour Of Lust, which I finally bought a couple of weeks ago, 43 years after I first considered buying it (but bought Get The Knack instead). So when I heard the opening line of this, it was reminding me of something - couldn't think what, until realising it's the opening line of the verse of "Cruel To Be Kind"! Other than that, I can't hear much in this one either - the tune is kind of dreary and undistinguished, and it sounds like something that would have been rejected for Sleepwalker or Misfits. I'm guessing we dive headlong into the Dave zone tomorrow?
Yeah, ‘Mayhe I Love You’ might be the slightest thing ever officially released under The Kinks name, including those VGPS instrumental jams. Its just a loose cover of the chorus of Barry/Greenwich/Spector classic with one letter changed, prob a warm up jam that just happened to get taped. Although one thing worth noting: in Jan 1980 The Ramones were enjoying their only UK top 10 hit with their Spector produced cover of that same song: could the fact that this song was back on the airwaves circa early 1980 be the reason The Kinks were jamming on it in this timeframe?
Maybe I love You. This one’s almost funny in just how much it sounds like the Kinks of old, but only because Mick’s actually allowed to play like Mick Avory… Otherwise, a perfectly innocuous little sketch, not even really the start of a new song, since the whole melody comes from an old one: Marcella by @donstemple and @Jasper Dailey's own favorite band. (which itself most certainly quoted Baby I love You!). Stolen Away Your Heart, I’d completely forgotten until this morning. But when I put it on, I could hum it almost note for note. So it’s either proof of its pop catchiness or that it reminded me of something else that I can’t put my finger on. Some later Ray song ? A sixties tune ? A Springsteen outtake ? When I read that the E-Street guys were in the same studio recording The River while Ray & co. were doing Low Budget, I thought “ah I bet uber-Kinksmaniak Miami Steve must’ve been looking through the peep hole of the Kinks room the whole time”. But maybe it was the other way around too, as there’s something in this song that strongly recalls the simpler more pop oriented half of The River sessions , down to the romantic lyrical content. It also has a Brian Wilson/Andy Paley vibe to it which, now that I think of it, is pretty close to the poppy girls group style of some of Bruce’s stuff from that time. I’m happy to report Ray will do much better in this melodic style in the remaining Kinks albums. But anyway, it's good, a bit on the generic side of good, but good. And very refreshing, like all these little forgotten demos we've just covered.
I like "Stolen Away Your Heart" a lot. Would have been nice to hear a fully developed version. This goes back to the idea that Ray could have developed a more 60s-ish power pop version of the Kinks at this time, which would have sold nothing except to a few fanatics but which, in my opinion, would have held up a lot better than shouty/hard rockin' Ray. Still, a guy's gotta eat.
So that's why I enjoy listening to this otherwise perfectly uninteresting jam ! Thanks for helping me put my finger on the reason why. I did have a River-era Springsteen reminiscence while listening to a Low Budget-era Kinks song these last days. Maybe it was on Stolen Away Your Heart. I like this song, and the way Ray was writing happy-sounding stuff at the time, in which the bitterness of the bitter-sweet lyrics doesn't take itself seriously.
Yea we have the album intro tomorrow Friday - Where Do You Come From? and Doing The Best For You Saturday - Visionary Dreamer and Nothing More To Lose
Stolen Away Your Heart is another winner in the closet of Low Budget outtakes. Maybe I Love You, not so much! But well done @ajsmith for linking it to the Ramones hit cover version!
‘Stolen Away Your Heart’: David Bowie-ish vocals right at the beginning of this gem of a song. Later, yes, I can see the Jeff Tweedy reference; especially in the phrasing (?) (if that makes sense. Lyrically, this seems a bit of an outlier for Ray…but I really like it.
