That Cobo Hall show is great, captures the band in those days perfectly. Mick gets a lot of stick, so to speak, for his sound on OFTR, but here you can hear him pounding away both aptly and furiously, which is something I marveled at and have always remembered - he had amazing stamina!
Opening/Hard Way The Opening is superb! That riff gets your attention immediately. And the dirty instrumental version of You Really Got Me...wow. That can't be beat. Even with the Who type ending. Hard Way What a great way to begin a show after that little intro. Brilliant! I think the live version makes me sad that I never got to hear them play this live myself. Darn! I know this would have been a favorite! I do favor the studio version just a bit more. For one thing, Hard Way is already a fast tempo song and, just my opinion, I think the the live version is a bit too fast. And I find it hard to sing along...LOL. Yes, this is all about me and my comfort! Anyway, the Kinks are out of the gate and having some hard fun. RAMONA!
Catch Me Now I'm Falling I haven't made a point of listening to the live version next to the studio version, but I feel like this is pretty darned close to the studio. which isn't a bad thing at all, because I do love this song any which way. But they stayed pretty true to the original. and geez...with the "way-o" again?
lol, there's more to come.... Ray is just having a bucketload of fun. It is almost like a running gag or theme through the album, and it comes to full realisation at the end of the last track. It almost feels like Ray taunting the crowd with the idea that they may be just about finished and ready to leave, with more climaxes than ....
There was also this brighter-sounding but no less muddled reissue in 2008. We all bought One for the Road on release day (two pals actually purchased the Betamax video when it first became available!). For me, the insurmountable gut punch of the two worst possible arrangements (in a row!) of the ska-esque Till the End of the Day and just plain awful synthesizer-crippled Celluloid Heroes were a deal-breaker. Ray’s shockingly sloppy vocal overdubs weren’t great (why didn’t he simply mix out the original vocals if they were so flawed, I wonder) but it’s the places where he’s audibly double-tracked that just seemed so wrong. I disagree that Henrit was ever a better choice as drummer. Avory was fantastic; they were never really The Kinks to me after he quit. Everybody loved Jim Rodford but John Dalton was sorely missed as I think his tone and playing better fit the band (live and otherwise). A bunch of us saw three shows from the Misfits tour and, despite the horrific inclusion of Hay Fever, at least the concerts were fun unlike the Low Budget tour (four shows, that year) where it felt like our boys were following a script. At one of the Misfits shows (the Universal Amphitheater when it was still open air) they tried out the lazy You Really Got Me instrumental thing as an opener but it seemed as forced as the (by now) tiresome You’re-not-ready-for-it! Lola false start shtick. I’m always thrilled when folks can find musical enjoyment where I cannot… so congratulations to all of those who love One from the Road (in either form)! I just wish we’d had a few more years of the band who congaed across the stage alongside horn players belting out People Take Pictures of Each Other. Oh well, at two of the Misfits show we were treated to Rush Hour Blues for no good reason… so I guess there’s that! ~Huck
I don't have much time to write these days, and I barely manage to read quickly through everybody's post. But I still "stick around" and unless I have missed a page or two I think Avid @Martyj has yet to fulfill his promise, that didn't fall on deaf ears - or blind eyes ! So please tell us about this cover art, with the eye of a man of the trade ! I don't think I'm going to comment on every song here. Tonight, for the first time, I put my vinyl version of Preservation Act 2, bought a few weeks ago through Discog but left untouched, on the turntable. Failing to find a lonely moment to try it, I threw all care away and imposed it on the family. My wife said "what's this ?", as she always does when I put on the Kinks (she never recognises them, that's how she knows it's the Kinks. I know, I used to have the same syndrom with Elton John). She said it was good to hear some good music (are we listening to crap the rest of the time ? I don't know what that means). The fact is the album sounded really great, and I have to admit that I miss that incredibly creative era in the Kinks' discography, now that we are reaching the outer borders of my ground Kink experience. One for the road may have been the first non-compilation Kinks record that I ever heard, and until very recently the latest Kinks release I've been familiar with. I listened to it the other day, and it rocks really well. I realize I must not have listened to the 2nd record that often... I tried to listen to Give The People What They Want afterwards, trying to feel continuity with Low Budget, but I just can't. It feels too different. I guess the Kinks end with One for the road for me, after a first step down was taken with Sleepwalker. We'll see. I compiled a 1972 Carnegie double live Album, using material from the Everybody's in Showbiz reissue. It's barely 60 minutes long, but then Zappa's Freak out is not much longer, and I read that Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was even a bit shorter. So why not. I will try to listen to both albums successively, to see if I can find a way to really like both. For the moment I prefer the former, with a freer-styled Avory, more musicians and looser though not less efficient arrangements. And more variety. One last note about live albums (nobody mentionned Live at Leeds ? I know it's not very original but it remains one of my favorite live albums of all time. And Misles of Aisles ?). The subject has been commented upon by our Master with his usual talent, but I would like to go further. A live album is a very weird thing, really. Over the last weeks, I went to 2 very different concerts : one was Neil Hannon's The Divine Comedy, the other was a baroque ensemble playing sonatas from an obscure 17th century Italian composer who worked for the Habsburgs. Whatever. Amplified pop-rock music on the one side, non-amplified baroque on the other. The close succession of theses two concerts led me to fully realize something that I have been sensing for a long time. What strikes me is, in classical concerts, the sound is really great most of the time. There is not much difference between what you experience live and what you hear on the record - except that it is better, you see the musicians, there is the frailty of possible mistakes, etc. But rock concerts always sound like de la merde (testing the language skills of the forum's filters here). I mean, you feel the energy, the bass and drum sounds deliciously gnaw at your guts, it's all great, but let's face it : your brain have to make some guess work to achieve the reconstitution of what is being played. Amplified music is just too loud and gross to sound clear and precise in a closed area. In any kind of area really. So this is what I'm getting at: a live album is the most artificial of creations, as it gives you to hear the concert as absolutely no-one ever heard it. In a way, a live album is the ultimate studio illusion. Wherever you stood at those Kinks 1979-1980 concerts, you never could hear Dave's guitar with the clarity and neatness you experience on this record. It's all a rock'n'roll fantasy. And I like it.
After I rattled off the names of several decades old favorites I realized I’d forgotten to mention The Byrds ‘Untitled.’ Similar to ‘Everybody’s In Showbiz’, half the release is studio and the other half is live. ‘Eight Miles High,’ at 16 minutes, sent me into the stratosphere. edit: quite possibly the last live rock album that I was enamored with might be Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band ‘Live Bullet.’ After that I wasn’t much of a live album guy.
It really depends on the concerts... Most definitely most rock concerts are certainly not for audiophiles, and most rock concert venues are essentially cattle barns (and I use that term intentionally). I have been to several rock concerts that had brilliant sound. In the eighties I got to see Joe Jackson twice, and each time the sound was really very good, even in the notoriously bad sounding Perth Entertainment Centre, that no longer exists.... but Joe wasn't trying to blow our hair back with volume. Nick Cave last month or whatever, was excellent sound, but also minimalist instrumentation ... and it was in a theatre, made for performance, not made for fitting 18,000 people in for maximum returns. Most rock concerts though are way too loud, and it is detrimental to the sound quality. I have been to shows where I couldn't even tell what the songs were because it was so loud. I think there is a mentality that louder is better, and loud can cover a wealth of errors too lol.... I love going to concerts, because there is something they offer that just listening to the music doesn't, and it isn't just that the performer is there .... there is a sense of community in congregating with people to share an experience, whatever that experience is... and I am not actually a person who generally likes to be around a lot of people lol As for live albums... I have just always enjoyed them... Oddly, Leeds isn't a favourite of mine. I like it well enough, but it wouldn't be on any ultimate list of live albums for me. I think part of my love of live albums comes from having had live albums from the very start of my record buying days, and I went to my first real concert quite young, and it impacted me greatly... Edit: for me Dire Straits Alchemy is among the greatest live albums of all time. No overdubs and perfect from start to finish. The video is also a favourite.
A few quotable quotes for me to riff on... This is a great use of the word "horrific". Very funny. Your wife is either being sincere or dealing out some serious passive aggressive commentary. I'd treat it as sincere and thank her! This is a really good point: the bass (?) is turned up so high at many live shows that it pulses through your body. I've tried recording some of these but the bass has blown through my noise limiters. To get a decent live recording out of these shows the sound engineers need to filter out these extremes. +1 to that. If you like Genesis, it doesn't get much better - which is rare for live albums (other examples I think meet the same standard are Live at the Regal, Live at Fillmore East, Live at Folsom Prison and of course Live at Leeds) Woah! Weren't you just a little put off by the bloated song lengths: 11 minutes for Sultans of Swing, 13 minutes for Once Upon a Time in the West etc? When I saw them live in 1982 I was really surprised - and disappointed - that Knopfler turned those tight, early songs into extended jams and noodling. I would have preferred to have heard them play an extra six songs than a bunch of really long songs.
That's probably one of the big things about a good live show for me. The differences. Personally I loved that stuff. In contrast I saw Def Leppard on the Hysteria tour and they were perfect .... replications of the album, and it felt lifeless and dull.
Independent of the current topic (well, sort of, anyway), I am reminded of the the time my mother helped me pen a letter to Sam Riddle at KFWB (three years before the station switched to an all-news format in 1968 and about a year prior to Sam’s jump to KHJ) wherein I (at the age of 7) suggested Sam play more songs by The Kinks… thank you very much. He responded with a nice note, an autographed photo (both since lost) and this promo 45. These are The Kinks I remember. Not the soggy synthesizer-soaked band of the ‘80s/‘90s. Carry on! ~Huck
I just checked ‘Alchemy’ on wiki. I don’t think I’ve heard this. And I just looked up ‘Live Bullet’, as well. 1976; I’d forgotten it was that early so maybe that wasn’t my last hurrah/real interest with live albums.
When "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" starts with the minor-chord piano segment, the "Jumping Jack Flash" riff just seems like the song has taken a weird turn. When it begins with the riff, as in the edited video, it seems like they're actually playing the Stones number.
Where Have All The Good Times Gone No doubt inspired to play this by Kontemporary Kover Kreations i find this treatment very fitting with it's Kink Knockabout rocking vibe. Sure it ain't the studio version but it can proudly stand apart from it proudly repurposed.
That's partly why I said the video version was easily the worst of the 3 with forensics sent in to look for band members fillings should they not reach the verses!
Here's some more interesting background info on One For The Road courtesy of Doug Hinman's research included in his books. The album was originally going to be called Double Life with a planned release date of Feb/Mar 1980 with a different track listing than what turned out to be One For The Road released later (Jun 80 US, Aug 80 UK). Ray decided at the last minute to have some more shows recorded in early 1980 which led to this originally planned album to be scrapped. It was such a sudden decision that tee shirts with this original title had already been printed and were sold at concerts during these early 1980 months. The following tracks were already mixed by Ray and were planned for inclusion on Double Life but ended up being dropped for One For The Road: Sleepwalker Medley: A Well Respected Man/Death Of A Clown/Sunny Afternoon A Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Slum Kids Till The End Of The Day (non-reggae arrangement) Live Life A Gallon Of Gas Of these, only Slum Kids has been released (bonus track on the Velvel 1998 Preservation Act 2 CD reissue). It uses this period 79/80 original mix. Maybe some day we'll get some deluxe sets of these later albums with this extra material. This is on ebay right now and can be yours for a cool $175.
I think I still have some concert Ts from the early to mid80s. That somehow no longer fit. Is there some way for me to take a pic of them and post directly on here using an iPad?
