As I have said, Showbiz could have been a fantastic live album... I don't think those songs being on there is too much of an issue, and at the time I said they were just giving a representation of what their live shows were.... The problem is, they are terrible songs for the Kinks. It would have worked if they had done a proper double live album, but when the crescendo of your live album is two goofy, lame covers, and a snippet of the audience singing the chorus of one of your biggest hits, it doesn't exactly lift it into the classic status.
Is this going to be an entire album of Dave setting the world to rights? "The World Is Changing Hands" is actually not a bad song even if the chorus is a bit predictable. As for the other song, it might have been better to sing that in a lower key, Dave? It sounds like you're going to do yourself an injury.
Oh but I object! You make it sound like I claimed Rocky IV is a super bad movie, which I'd never do (it's not super good either, mind you). I was thinking something more along the lines of Police Academy 4. But anyway… The World is Changing Hands also has a ready-made-for-soundtrack eighties chorus, but I like the song much better. The lyrics are good (nice "There is a War Going on / There Is a World Going wrong" parallel) and, even with the eighties dry reverb sound, the verse has a 70's power pop quality that is very enjoyable. I think it was @ajsmith who made a Michael Brown/Stories comparison about one Decade track, and it'd also be accurate here (maybe the Beckies this time?). This is one of the tightest / most refined melodies on this LP, with power, grit and passion, all that Dave's supposed to be about. As said above, the chorus is a bit blander. Around the same time people like Pat Benatar were arriving on the scene with excellent pop radio rock'n roll not too different from what Dave's after on this album, but her choruses were at the same time heavier, more creative and catchier. And she had the voice to bring them home, too! As for Move Over, I agree with @Mark it's one of the real subpar tracks on the record. Dave himself must've thought so as well, since it's the track that was left off the "twofer" CD AFL/Glamour (asked to move over, maybe?) and for good reason. I thought we got along fine ?
"The World Is Changing Hands" Yes, there is reverb on this album, but I don't think there is quite as much as that YouTube video makes out! This may be the best track on the album for me - possibly the only one that sounds like it could be on a Kinks album. Or maybe that's just me subconsciously drawing a line from "The World Keeps Going Round". Nice melody on the verses, a memorable chorus and done in under three minutes. "Move Over" This is the one song that isn't ingrained in my memory, as it was omitted from the 2 in 1 CD. I'd never even heard it until last week. Now I'm getting to know what other people are going through when they are listening to this album for the first time in 2022! Starts off sounding more like a generic boogie than anything else on the album, and doesn't really make an impression overall. The Jon Savage biography suggests that this lyric is aimed at Ray. Both of these tracks suffer from Dave reaching for new heights in his vocal range. I think that tomorrow's first track reaches the high water mark.
All Kinks live albums are different and reflect where they were at the time. So Kelvin Hall, Showbiz, One for the Road, To the Bone - all quite distinct. As I heard each one when they were released…. I loved Showbiz when I got it: lovable ramshackle 70s Kinks. One for the Road doesn’t strike me as better or worse, but reflects a leaner more professional version of the band. I saw many shows from both ends of the 70s, and couldn’t choose between these two albums, which are not only souvenirs for me, but bookend an era. All that said, I don’t think One for the Road is as much fun as the Low Budget shows really were. It sounds rushed, the fun, or funny, bits are mostly edited out, and the echoey, thin sound doesn’t reflect the power and eleccity of Dave’s guitar and Mick’s powerhouse drumming. At the Providence show, someone grabbed Dave’s guitar by the strings, he was that close to the audience - and it fazed him not one bit. Great shows in all three (or four) eras, yet none of the live recordings quite live up to them. Showbiz at least does reflect what you got live at the time, so I remain fond of it. I can watch the video of One for the Road, but find the very different album less appealing. Just my tuppence!
Back to the songs. Last night I listened to the songs on Dave's first two solo albums that appeared in the UK edition of Unfinished Business and I noticed that Dave's vocals were recorded rather differently between the first & second ones. I think that his vocals were rather clearer in the songs from the Glamour album. Anyway, "The World Is Changing Hands" is a half decent, 80s style mainstream rocker that would have made a great single or at the very least something out of an 80s action/drama film. As for "Move Over", which did end up along w/"Wildman" on the said UK edition of Unfinished Business, it's a bit duller and hookless in comparison. There's actually a song from Dave's first album that I rather like coming up real soon.
I notice you don’t include ‘The Road’ in this listing… that one definitely isn’t distinct, being a fairly pointless continuation of the stadium sound already documented on ‘One For The Road’.. even down to the title being a diminutive of the earlier live album!
I like Dave’s first three solo albums a lot. “Wild Man” is… cathartic and I played that B-side to pieces, much to my them wife’s chagrin! I realize that a little Dave goes a long way, but he’s so unusual that I live him all the more. For that. Then again, I also love Captain Beefheart, so extreme singing and playing are more than fine with me. AFL has some great standalone tunes on it, so I still listen to it now and then, whereas some of his later concept albums require a bit of concentration and endurance. His live albums are a scream, and his demos show a more thoughtful side. He’s really good, but he doesn’t always sound like a Kink, which is just as well!
‘Move Over’ is my pick for the day. Generic but I listened through. (I couldn’t make it to the end of today’s first one. Not my cuppa.)
Yea, kind of funny and odd. He's playing his lead and someone messes it up, and he backs up and continues. One of the things I love about the video is how switched on the whole band are. Dave is frequently journeying to the end of his little run to be amongst the crowd. Ray is bouncing all over the place .. Everyone looks happy and in the zone
At least The Road had that half decent studio title track w/the video full of tantalizing glimpses of the 70s tours that we all would like see the whole of before we all die. It was going to be a double set, but MCA refused and Ray was p'oed about that. By the way, how are you doing, Avid Ajsmith?
I was just thinking... I probably only heard Move Over for the first time today, as I have the twofer.... that may explain why it didn't really grab me that much. I hated that vocal reverb choice too
Ever since hearing it this a.m. I’ve had Janis Joplin’s ‘Move Over’ playing in my head! (Slade covered this, too. The Joplin song, not Dave’s!)
The World is Changing Hands While I like the sentiment, this is one of my least favorite tracks on the album. Something (everything?) about it seems too eager to please. Though the guitar outro, like most here, is quite nice. Move Over I seem to be in the minority here as I like this low-budget boogie. I remember being bummed when it was left off that two-fer cd. Nice to see the Freud wannabes (Frauds?) are sleeping in this morning as I don’t believe this song is anything to do about Ray. Dave has said it’s not then added that he could never ‘write something that obvious.’ Yes, I chuckled, too. And I strongly agree with our headmaster about the benefits of an outside producer; Dave, and for that matter Ray, would both do well to have someone in the bunker with them.
Yes, adding the bonus tracks from the Super Deluxe proves it could have been much better without the bizarre song choices and the overreliance on the recent Muswell material. In the time between Showbiz and One for the Road Ray had really changed a lot as a frontman. And the mix, wow. That bass drum! Thuwmp thwump thwump for 77:21 straight. And Dave's stacks up to 11! A strong response to Van Halen covering their songs and their audience not knowing the originals. It was a critical moment to reclaim their legacy. Once the discussion starts, I'm back in! I've listened to Glamour exactly once.
Funny thing about the studio track The Road. Ray is on record as really hating Jimmy Page, and yet he namechecks Led Zeppelin on this song.
We all know this story. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-kinks-song-that-saw-ray-davies-call-jimmy-page-an-*******/ Oops I know this is a no-no. Sorry gorts. Never happen again. The Kinks song that saw Ray Davies call Jimmy Page "an a+++++" Jack Whatley @jackwhatley89 SAT 23RD OCT 2021 14.30 BST When The Beatles and The Rolling Stones broke America, they left ajar a crack that countless British blues bands would try to squeeze through. Artists such as The Animals and Cream may have made some headway, but it was down to supreme Londoners, The Kinks to kick open the floodgates. The band, led by the Davies brothers Ray and Dave, would produce British-centric tunes that the whole world could enjoy. Except, apparently, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Let us go back to London in the swinging sixties — the kind of place we always like to imagine. Amid a swirl of creativity and the promise of pop music pounds flooding in, rock bands across the capital set themselves a task of cashing in. The Kinks were no different, and they set their sights on gaining the same fame and fortune that was befalling the Liverpudlian foursome. While other bands relied heavily on covers during this time, Ray Davies was already determined to write his music, giving the world some of the foremost youth anthems of the day, including ‘All Day and All of the Night’. One of The Kinks’ undoubted classics, ‘All Day and All of the Night’, was a signifier to Britain’s youth that The Kinks were hip. The band made not-so-subtle references to sexual encounters with their girlfriends, which not only made the kids go wild but also provided a searing pop song. We’re not going to sit here and proclaim that this is necessarily some of Davies’ most poignant or purposeful work. But to ignore the potency of his lyrics as well as the subversive subtext is not only to forget the time and place in which they were written but how simply universal they were. The song was reasonably derivative of their first hit, ‘You Really Got Me’,’ something instigated by the record company’s need for more and more records. Ray Davies later described the track as a “neurotic song – youthful, obsessive and sexually possessive.” It certainly fits the bill for a youthful anthem if ever we heard one despite being initially rejected by the label for being “too blue-collar, too working class.” But the song has another outside of the dancefloor joy it brought to millions. Not only is the song often thought of as a reference point for The Doors song ‘Hello, I love You’ — so much so that The Kinks’ publisher wanted to sure the Los Angeles band and only didn’t because Davies refused to take action — but, depending on who you believe, it also featured a young Jimmy Page on guitar. A seasoned session musician at the time, the young pre-Yardbirds Jimmy Page was a contributor to a lot of records around this time. The guitarist was as talented as ever and more than happy to fulfil the role of studio tech and sometimes axeman. Much of his work during that time is well-regarded and not disputed, but this inclusion certainly is. The focus of the argument is the searing guitar solo in the middle of ‘All Day and All of the Night’. Many, including Jimmy Page, have suggested that he was on guitar during that recording and that Ray Davies was nowhere near the solo. When listening to the track with this knowledge, it is easy to hear Page’s signature style. But, it is a notion that is hotly disputed by Ray Davies, who spoke to Creem magazine in 1981 and not only refuted Page’s claims but dished out his own sentiment too: “I remember Page coming to one of our sessions when we were recording ‘All Day And All Of The Night.’ “We had to record that song at 10 o’clock in the morning,” Davies continued, “because we had a gig that night. It was done in three hours. Page was doing a session in the other studio, and he came in to hear Dave’s solo, and he laughed, and he snickered. And now he says that he played it! So I think he’s an *******, and he can put all the curses he wants on me because I know I’m right, and he’s wrong.” Of course, it would be quite challenging to know for sure who was behind the monster solo in the middle of ‘All Day and All of the Night’, whether it was Davies or Page who laid down that fiery lick, but what we do know is that the song will likely outlive the dispute. An anthem for the youth no matter what generation The Kinks track will be played at ragers forever.
I'm trying to get into Glamour at the moment. It's different again. Whether folks like what he does or not Dave's an interesting fellow.
I always thought it was supposed to be You Really Got Me lol.... My mate was carrying on about Page playing the lead break one time, I just said "that's probably why i prefer the live version" end of discussion
popping in -- still w/ a house full of family -- to add raves for Showbiz's live LP. I always found Muswell a bit um stodgy & deliberate given the good-time quality of some of the songs. & feel like Alcohol, Holiday, Acute SP Blues, Muswell, and Skin & Bones (as well as Top of the Pops from Lola) really benefit from Showbiz's boozy, brassy, loose & sloppy energetic treatment. Of course the "Lola" sing-along was a rip off and a disappointment at the time, but by now I've heard that song enough times done in enough ways that an abbreviated version is sort of a relief.
