Having now watched the video clips of yesterday's songs... "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" - I enjoyed this at the start - it seemed to be an effective way of recasting the song as a shorter track, but by the end it was starting to get repetitive and I was starting to think that it was overlong at 3:45! Was there a sax player on stage? If so, the cameraman couldn't find them. "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" - the performance sounds similar to the audio version (if they're not the same), but I don't know about anyone else - if I'd bought a live video of a band I'd want to see that live video footage of the band, not some old footage interspersed.
Catch Me Now I’m Falling Don’t have much to add here. Short of the sax part, this is pretty on par with the studio version. I really do like how the guitar plays a larger part during the opening. Which is funny, because the opening is my favorite part of the studio track. It’s that connection to the earlier 70s melodic Kinks. Where Have All the Good Times Gone I love love love the studio version, and that is what I think of when I think of this song — since that is how I was introduced to it last year on this thread. That said, this is a great live version that brings it to 1979 Low Budget territory - playing it as if they wrote it in this era. This must be what inspired the Van Halen version. Here’s what I find so interesting… I have read a lot of folks comment on Ray’s “repetitive” choruses and “too wordy” verses in the mid-late 70s. Um, I’d like to introduce you to Where Have All the Good Times Gone. There weren’t many wordier verses in the mid 60s than this. And that chorus? It’s just the title 3x. This is how Ray does it sometimes. But man, when it works, it works. And however it’s played, this is such a great song. Nostalgic but with some angst thrown in there too.
Great live albums according to me - Rolling Stones Brussels Affair (the unofficial is preferred; the official is just a notch below) Bob Marley Live Little Feat Waiting For Columbus The Who Live At Leeds Bruce Springsteen Passaic 1978 (available as a legal download but the original simulcast is available pretty easily) All from the 1970s. I do like live albums from other decades but these are always at the top of my list.
Now dis, I wanna tell ya, is a Trench Town experience- all the way from Trench Town Jamaica, Bob Marley and the Wailers, CMON! A buddy of mine used to always say “let’s listen to some religious music” and then put this on .
With you on the unofficial Brussels getting the chocolates but no Ya Ya's? Edit: All killer choices anyhow!
I was hardly even born in mid 1980, and YMWV, but I imagine that for many scoping this video that year, the chance to actually own a few glimpses of 60s Kinks footage (in this case from Shindig! and Hullabaloo) on tape would at the time have been appreciated: the Kinks Shindig! performances wouldn't be issued on home video in their own right until 1992. I always think it's interesting how the quick turnover from b/w TV as standard in the early 60s to colour as standard by the end of the decade was then able to bestow a 'this was the old old days' sheen to 60s footage when viewed from such a tiny distance of in this case, 15 years. Only a decade and a half on, Dave is yet to reach his mid 30s but those early clips are from such a different era they might as well be footage from old Harold Lloyd films, it's such a striking contrast. No other era I don't think would benefit from such a Wizard Of Oz b/w to polychromatic way of instantly telegraphing that the times had changed: I think the equivalent these days to show something was from 'the recent past' would be to present it in 4:3 rather than the now standard 16:9, which doesn't have quite the same effect.
That's very true. When the VHS tapes of concerts started to become available, it was kind of thrilling to me. I had three or four ... but I always borrowed any that the local Blockbuster got in. I have to say when things moved over to dvd, it was just as thrilling for me, because more became available, and they were more affordable, and they were generally full shows. The black and white to colour move, makes a huge difference in the way we see the older footage. It does give it a deep historical kind of look. even before VHS, when watching some show collecting videos or even concert shows, it always seemed like the black and white stuff was from a million years ago, even though at the time I was seeing it, it was less than a decade.
I I too was surprised about the general lack of love for Ya-Yas on this forum. I know there are overdubs, and you can hear the tape splices whizzing by, and the whole thing is a Frankenstein-like assemblage. But the sound is warm and vibrant. It's still an exciting record.
Lola, and intro. live, stereo mix (4:48), recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island Intro - live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island Lola - live, stereo mix (4:48), recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island This is a song I had heard prior to getting this album. I remember the guy at the record store that suggested I get this album as my Kinks debut (if anyone remembers that little story lol), telling me the intro was great ... and I didn't know what that really meant. I was expecting some kind of instrumental thing, or variation or something. I was quite familiar with live albums, so I was probably slightly disappointed that it was just a bit of showmanship... he built it up to be something special, and although I was still a young tacker, I was quite an experienced album and concert bloke at the time. Anyway, I do enjoy the little bit of gamesmanship from Ray, but it wasn't really something to mention as a highlight. He probably figures because I was in my early teens I was green as grass lol. So the intro is essentially just Ray on the acoustic, and he plays the intro and stops ... Ray likes to sort of taunt crowds in a friendly, fun way, not in a Jim Morrison controlled riot type of way. The crowd gets excited, because it's "that song", and Ray lets them whoop it up a bit, and then says "so, ah, so ah, we're not going to play that one tonight" and of course the crowd boos and jeers and Ray ever playful says they'll do it as long as everyone joins in and sings along. The actual intro is a really beautiful little piece of acoustic guitar, and I always meant to learn it, but never got around to it. The album and the video versions are from the same show again. In some ways I'm sort of glad that they put that stupid edit on Everybody's In Showbiz, or it may not have appeared on this album in this version. I really love this version, but as we have so many broad opinions on the delivery of Ray's vocals in more recent times, I have no idea what others will think. I think this is a much more ballsy version of the song, and I think it enhances the melodic structure. Dave's backing vocals come across really well here too. As with a lot of tracks on the album, Dave's guitar is frequently a highlight here. Towards the end of the song we get the big audience singalong, but I don't think it goes on too long, and it adds to the atmosphere that this album manages to capture In the video version you can see the extent to which Ray is hamming it up, with exaggerated hand gestures and an obvious enthusiasm for this little bit of play with the crowd. You can see how much he enjoys the whole concert game with the crowd, and for me that is another enjoyable thing about the album and the video. There are a couple of minor little bits that are slightly different to the album, but for the most part it is the same. It's still a great song, and this is a really solid and enjoyable version of it.
Pressure. live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island live, stereo mix, recorded 23 Sep, 1979 at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island This is a short sharp blast of high powered rock and roll, even more so than on Low Budget. We again have the album and video versions from the Providence show. This is pretty straight, and the band just power on through it. We see from the video that Ray is still playing the little Chuck Berry style opening. This time it is the album version that is slightly shorter, with the video version being more like the album in length and structure, and the album version being edited shorter. There's probably not too much to say about this one
I think this version of Lola was on the Come Dancing comp? Anyway, it's a vast improvement over the Showbiz version! Pressure is short and raw, but I miss those Beach Boys backing vocals.
Christmas 1975, I got Ya-Yas and Through The Past, Darkly. I remember hearing "Love In Vain" live (I knew the studio version well) and it was the first time I really noticed Mick Taylor. Ya-Yas is the premium live album in the original Stones catalogue but also in 1975, I first heard the Stones King Biscuit broadcast of a near complete 1973 show recorded in Brussels and London and that became my favourite Stones live recording (also a Mick Taylor tour de force). It was not issued officially because the Stones were not allowed to issue re-recordings of songs under the control of Allen Klein (the Stones entire 1960s catalogue) for five years after the Stones severed ties with Klein. That is also why no live album came out from their 1972 tour. Fortunately the deluxe Ya-Yas was a real gem (I really like the disc of opening acts BB King and Ike & Tina Turner which Mick originally wanted to put out with the original album as a double album and the record company asked "Who are these acts on this first disc?".
The resonator riff is back, but where has the good banjo gone, I ask ? I need me some banjo, here !!! Anyway. This Lola is superb (and great on video), although I’ll confess I don’t like the spelling “L.O.L.A” hook. But Ray clearly relished in it, so who am I to complain ? Lots of little things to enjoy in this version. The sped-up bridge is one, Dave’s harmonies are another, and the audience participation is a joy, of almost Hey Jude magnitude. The fact that this band could throw such a monster song as the fourth track of its setlist on any given night without risking to lose steam afterwards is a testament to the stunning quality of its repertoire. They could do Lola early on and still choose from the likes of Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me, Victoria, All Day And All of the Night, Waterloo Sunset, Days, Tired of Waiting for You, Dead End Street or Dedicated Follower of Fashion for later. Who could do a thing like that ? McCartney, the Beach Boys and maybe… no one else!! Makes me think of Mike Love’s speech at the rock’n roll hall of fame, one of my all-time favorite obnoxious but undeniably rock’n roll moments ever. The Kinks could do Lola fourth and not even bother to play half of the tunes I just mentioned, without anyone feeling cheated about anything. That’s how stupendous and massive their repertoire is.
"Lola" - a real crowd pleaser at all Kinks shows especially this era. The "Day-O" chant and the false starts of "Lola" followed by Ray's "you're not ready yet" were a nightly ritual. When I saw them in 1993, it was the last song of the night - the one to send everyone home happy. A live recording does not reproduce the visceral feeling of being in the venue when all of this is going down but you can get an idea of what it might have been like. Plus, "Lola" is another top tier Kinks song. "Pressure" is obviously going to work well in a live setting because it is revved up and the excesses of shouty Ray make more sense in that context. Plus it gives the first side of the album some breadth in terms of the songs included and the various eras they represent. And "Pressure" represented the current incarnation of the Kinks.
So after Lola, the band launches into Pressure, and as far as I'm concerned it’s a masterclass in sequencing. What better choice after such a show-stopping almost six minutes live monster than a 100 seconds pop-punkish romp that takes no prisoner ? Talk about a release of pressure! Crazy fast version, perfect live number, much like the Hard Way. No Ramona this time, and not remotely Romanesque, but definitely ramonesque. Oh, and by the (hard) way, look what I've found : this is the actual pinball!!
Lola Ray has referred to himself as a dreadful tease. Well, live, through the years, this song has the tease that wouldn’t die. The false starts and Day-O’s, many of my music loving friends (and fellow Kinks fans) were saying enough already by the late ‘80’s. The Kinks began the ‘80’s parodying other bands and by the late ‘80’s were verging at times on their own version of Spinal Tap. The lines had blurred. Paraphrasing Paul Schaffer, who himself was paraphrasing some entertainer from a previous generation, ‘We become what we once mocked.’ Which isn’t to say the latter-day Kinks couldn’t put on a great show. The innate tension within the band insured us of that always being a strong possibility. But they were no longer consistently great, sometimes sleepwalking through portions of shows. Still, right up to their end, you never knew what might happen. Day-O, or Banana Boat Song, was written by Irving Burgie. Ray had a Stan Freberg record as a teen, which was a satiric take on Harry Belafonte’s version. In it, Freberg keeps telling the vocalist, ‘It’s too loud, too shrill’ etc. Ray would use this when the band was playing too loud and it developed into an in-joke between them. Used on-stage, the audience picked up on it and the rest is history. Oh, Lola live...I suppose it’s competent enough but compared to many other live takes this one to me comes off as rather week-knee’d, if not limp-wristed. There wasn’t a better source out there from all these takes? Pressure This song sounds so much better than the studio version, a dark horse standout on side one. It features a conspicuously clear bass line that is v. good. Forget it’s a so-so track, in this context it’s a contender. Here is the song (from 1957) Ray was so enamored with in his youth:
"Lola" Well, it's certainly better than the Showbiz version! A good energetic run through a classic song, and having the right acoustic guitar sound certainly helps. The audience singalong is mercifully brief. Haven't watched the video version yet. "Pressure" The audio version sounds like the sharper performance, but it seems strange to leave out a verse from a song which isn't that long as it is. Thus I'd prefer the video version, which has the full version of the song. Plenty of energy in this one, taken at a faster pace than the studio version but works just as well.
Probably should have thought to post this on Sunday but anyhow here is a French RCA 2LP compilation from 1978 that I hadn't seen posted. The Kinks 1978 The Kinks French 2LP 1971-'75 Compilation RCA Cat: CL 42465 N.b. This is not Schoolboys In Disgrace!
I'd have to listen to it.... but looking at it, it looks odd... but with the breadth of material that's not surprising. I also wonder what live versions are on there with Baby Face rearing its ugly head here.
