In You I Believe Dave's heart is in the right place though as ever on his sleeve and overall this is merely pleasant though a bit repetitive for me. I do like the intro however and one moment has me thinking of that future Lenny Kravitz song which i think may be called; "It's Not Over 'Til It's Over?"
"One For The Road" I seem to remember that this was another album that I borrowed from the record library while at university - probably after I had heard one or more of Give The People What They Want, Sleepwalker and Misfits. I honestly can't remember what I thought of it at the time, but I can't say that I've ever been tempted to buy a copy in all the time since. But then again live albums aren't really my thing, so it's hardly a surprise that I wouldn't have picked it up. It will be interesting to listen to this now.
I've never heard One For the Road, partly as I'm not generally a fan of live albums, so I'm curious to hear the tracks. As for the DVD, 60 minutes and 12 tracks?? Talk about short-changing the customer!
Run Dave stretches his voice a little unpleasantly here but is again of course earnest, honest and heartfelt in his perpetual naive way. He reminds me of a boy that never resolved some issues and so in some ways never quite grew up despite coming to inhabit a man's body. A nice chorus of guitars in the outro but like Eric Clapton's 80's track of the same name I don't feel a need to return to it anytime soon.
I don't like everything about it but this album is highly entertaining. In particular, songs from "Low Budget", an album I have very little time for, sound a LOT better and make more sense in a live context.
Wild Man Dave rocks out and wildly throws lyrics over music that seems at times to be a bit random and not so snug a fit. Anti Government speak turns up and bemusingly Dave says you laugh at him but they may yet throw him in the drink, well of course they will but don't take it personally as it is only politics after all. Dave is defiantly a Wild Man but I can't see anyone believing this will protect him from any negative influences of the Powermen! Interesting single choice and I fully believe one Avid that said it didn't get airplay for long!
I think the early VHS tapes this was made for tended to want... or perhaps need 60 minute shows... I'm not sure why, but many came out as truncated 60 minute shows in the early days. Perhaps one of our experts has more info on that.... I sincerely hope that there is a more complete version released at some time, and with someone posting earlier on about Ray and Dave checking out some video or something earlier, perhaps we will be in luck?
I didn't know that One For The Road was the first live release to be simultaneously issued on record and video: I wonder if that's verifiably true or was just an audacious claim for the promo? Either way, it is a very early home video music release. 1980, that's damn early for such a release. To put it in perspective, John Lennon was still alive then! I wonder how much the video cost back then: early video cassettes tended to be mega expensive to purchase. 60 minutes running time for such a feature seems to be par for the course for the era, even if it seems stingy by todays expectations. I do find it a real shame that given that The Kinks appear to have been pioneers of the home video concert with this release, that it's never been properly upgraded/expanded (the DVD added some extras, including Dave's commentary which I've always been curious about, but nothing to the main feature) or indeed have there ever really been any official releases of any more concerts (The DVD with the 2012 Kinks At The BBC box kinda counts I guess, with the 4 70s TV concerts included, but it was a release by proxy of already compiled BBC material, and not the main feature).. and yet other intended concert videos such as The Colossal Shirt Showbiz film, the 1987 concert that was meant to be packaged with The Road, and the 1994 live at Konk session remain largely locked up in the vaults.. I'm hoping this situation finally changes imminently with whatever archive live footage (I suspect it's the Showbiz stuff) Ray and Dave were working on during their last meetup seeing release soon, hopefully this year.
I love your kids! One for the Road, then. I think I bought this record fairly early on in my Kinks journey, probably before any other post-78 studio LP. I liked the packaging (still do) and there was always this notion, back in the day, that some live albums by “the greats” were crucial parts of their canon. I’ve always liked it as such, Ray sings good, Dave plays greeaaat, the energy level is often stupendous, and as far as 1980’s concerned, it’s difficult to imagine a livelier, more explosive proof of the vibrant relevancy of any old classic sixties band. Of course, it’s can’t be considered a definitive statement of what the Kinks were ever about. A crucial element’s all but absent. They offer only two songs from the 66-69 golden age, two high octane tracks (Watts and Victoria), thus completely overlooking the whole poppy swingin’ melodic vaudeville aspect of their art and History. Nothing from Village Green, no great standalone single, and not even one of their famous sunny songs either, the message couldn’t be any clearer. This record’s track-list makes for a legitimate claim at being the “forefathers” of all things 1980, be it punk, post-punk, hard rock, power pop et all, and as such, it’s a great document of that era, but not the definitive all-encompassing Kinks live behemoth it’s often hailed as being (and by @mark winstanley the other day, no less ! ). Symbolically, they even take out the two extraordinary bridges of 20th Century Man and Misfits to make them more direct, more straightforward, less reflective perhaps. The versions of these songs are great but they are indeed only versions of them. Just as well, this version of the Kinks is fabulously entertaining but it’s only a version of them. Years later, it’s interesting to note that when the Kinks were done and Ray started touring as a solo act, he went the exact opposite way, opting (almost) exclusively for stuff that's absent from One for the Road… There’s two sides to every story and this record only tells one. But it does it with panache and more importantly, it proves the Kinks never settled to become a nostalgia act.
