"Back to Front": A song whose two things that I always remember is the syncopation of the drums (good analysis on that front, Avid Fortleo) and the abrupt ending just before the next song begins. An OK song, nothing horrible but nothing too memorable. I'll put it in the "life" column to confound Avid Zeki
Back to Front The combination of theme and attitude work perfectly for me here. No, there's nothing I can point to in any kind of objective criteria that would peg this as a masterpiece.... and I don't care. Always loved this one, always will.
I hope you're referring to me @Fortuleo, otherwise I'll feel awfully silly! But yeah, I get what you're saying here, Mick is going for it and comes close to losing it several times but it hangs together and they get the take. There's not only the slapback effect going on here from where and how the drums were recorded as we've discussed quite a bit recently, but the drums are also being fed through a phaser in spots giving them that woosh sound. The sound of the drums on this album is one thing and it seems that a lot of folks here are not in favor of it (I don't disagree). As for Mick's playing itself on this album, it sounds and feels more confident than it did on Low Budget for whatever reason. Maybe he was more used to playing in this heavier style a couple of years later. Plus they had a pretty intense touring schedule in late 79 and early 80 playing dozens of shows of this type of rockier material in bigger arenas. As an aside, I did a gig last year in a local bar for a one-off last minute Dylan cover pickup gig backing various singers and guitarists on a bunch of his standards (Hey Streett! We need a drummer - tonight! No pay!). This bar had a tin roof on it so I was getting this same slapback sound everytime I hit a drum, especially the snare. I hated the sound I was getting behind the kit and purposefully tried to play lighter and less busy (I have prog tendencies), but was told it wasn't a problem out in the bar. But it did affect my approach. I've done a little studio work, playing as a band at the same time in a room back in the day, but more recently drums alone either laying down a backing track or adding a drum track to an existing backing track. I've been in an isolated booth doing this a couple of times and hated it. I much prefer being in an open room. These days a drier drum track is desired in the studio itself, so no more warehouse or metal siding, thank goodness. If those sounds are desired, those are added after the fact. Just demos for locals these days, nothing commercial.
Back to Front This is a Foo Fighters song. 13 years before Dave Grohl started that band. It sounds like 2000s Foo Fighters. I can hear Dave singing this, and I can hear Shouty Dave shouting it too! If they never covered this during a concert, that is a shame. It rocks. It's fun. It's got a generic riff, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. At the same time, it really is also throwback to the early 60s Kinks too, with the call/answer interplay of the vocal and the riff. The vocal matching the melody of the riff. "You Really Got Me" "Girl, I want, to be with you", "I need you", "Rosemary Rose" The band is having a lot of fun playing this live too. Dave just looks so relaxed as he's saucing it up. That Rockpalast 1982 looks like one hell of a show...
Back To Front On the surface, this song seems to be a generic riff with an uninspired structure, but there's actually some interesting things going on here time signature wise. It's 4/4 for the most part, so when the guitar starts that eighth note G, G#, A riff, the G is on 4 and the A is on the 1. But then at :26 the riff stays in the same place when the vocal starts (Just got back) but the beat has been turned around so that vocal starts on the 1 meaning a bar of 3/4 was there right before that. At :56 the East to West vocal starts on the 4, another 3/4 bar at 1:06 and the next vocal starts on the 1 (Just got back). Again the riff is in the same spot but the beat and feel gets turned around as before. Everything stays in 4/4 with the next East and West vocal starting on the 1 this time, and then at 1:43 a bar of 5/4 comes out of nowhere and the band turns it up a notch for some instrumental fireworks (in 4/4 the rest of the way). This is all pretty clever in my book and not so structurally generic after all.
Between the love you, Brian X, Don’s Temple and a few others have shown for Yo Yo, I guess I’m gonna have to go back and reevaluate this song further, because I only marginally liked it thus far. Unfortunately for my participation here, ihave been traveling and my life has been super busy (in Las Vegas at the moment, having just been in the Denver area with the fiancé‘s family, but also managed to snag front row seats at red rocks for the return of the turnpike troubadours just last night, and who, if you don’t know them, you should). Normally I find an early morning listen or three to the day’s song helps me to isolate it from the rest of the kinks’ oeuvre enough to truly evaluate it as a stand-alone song. I love many of the songs on GTPWTW, and those songs towered over Yo Yo (in my mind). That said, in the past, as we have gone through this exercise with other albums, songs that had paled in comparison to the top songs on an album (for example, In a Space compared with certain other songs on Low Budget) suddenly rocketed up in the standings when viewed alone. Due to my travels of late, I have not had the time to dedicate to each song as a stand-alone entity. Based on others deep affection for Yo Yo, I suspect the song really needs some stand alone time devoted to it to really assess its true value. I will devote the time.
Back To Front I didn't remember this until I started listening. The opening sounds like the Pretenders to me (Ray did have some connection to them at that time!) and then becomes a fairly standard rock song. I had thought with my being less than impressed by side one that the reason I remembered this album being pretty good was side two, but so far, other than Destroyer it's pretty basic stuff. I know my other two favorites are coming though. Still, while I found LOW BUDGET as good as I remembered from when it came out, I'm finding GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT giving me less of what I remembered.
Back to Front - After reading the lyrics again this morning, my prosaic interpretation is the rock star is returning home to reality after being in fantasy/unreal reality on the road (a more intense "Hot Potatoes," if you will). While he's been gone so much, friends and especially his home situation have changed, and perhaps the political scene also. He's not a star in his day-to-day world back home (the cashier doesn't recognize him), yet he can't fit in as just another face in the crowd either. He's disoriented and doesn't know which way is up. Throw in at least a bit of hook and/or melody and I'm a sucker for a Kinks hard rocker if it doesn't drag on too long, so this is right up my alley. Yes, Avory is the star here, especially in the double-time section. Like @Fischman I won't spend time defending it, but I like it a lot. 4/5 Perhaps at some point I will catch up on the previous 2 songs.
I'm glad you went through that because I haven't had the time to; I knew something was happening but I didn't know what it was! This is the kind of subtle disruption of flow that endears me to a song, for whatever reason. I think it's because it gives me a problem to solve, a challenge of understanding on each listen. I also get a chuckle out of "Are you with me? NO!". This is a song I'm enjoying more and more each time I listen. And the transition to Art Lover is fantastic, as someone already pointed out.
Back to Front The first thing I thought of, hearing this, was Spinal Tap. Then I thought of the riff from Earache My Eye (well my mama talkin' to me try to tell me how to live...). Fortunately, I have both Stonehenge and Earache on my heavy/silly playlist (along with Nick Lowe's Music for Money and Tenacious D's Tribute), so I have no problem with that kind of thing. I will say though that, when I imagined what Give the People What They Want sounded like, I imagined an albums-worth of songs like this. And it would be disappointing if GTPWTW was that, but the songs on either side of it (as someone above said) make it an appropriate palate-cleanser, and the guitar is wicked. @Fortuleo, thank you for the catch. The somewhat generic dialectical pairings (east/west, left/right, up/down, black/white etc) kept me from listening too closely to the lyrics, but yes, he's not remembering or imagining or pining after his *friends* here, they've all just turned their backs on him. Maybe because he's giving the people what they want and not prancing around the room like some outrageous poove? As Blanche DuBois says, "there is some obscure meaning in this but I fail to catch it." Not a standout fave, not a skipper; enjoyable on special occasions. Side note: My wife said "I hate it" (a pretty strong reaction coming from her), but she was humming it later in the evening. The newly-minted 13 year old was indifferent, and shrugged.
I need to adjust my capitalization and punctuation, I think. This has long been a fake screen name for me... "Don Stemple" EDIT: I am unable to find how to adjust the spacing/capitalization of my username. Anyone know how? One of the great things about this thread as we have evolved past the Pye era that pretty much everybody loved everything.... there are now some songs that some of us love and most are indifferent to... and there are some songs that some of us hate and most are indifferent too... and there are some that some hate and some love. And it's great to read these differing opinions. Different backgrounds, different eras, different histories, different lineups. But one band and one thread.
Same... I'm glad these were already written up, or I'd have been struggling . I wouldn't stress on it too much, it may just not appeal to you. I'm a bit of a trollop when it comes to music lol
“Back To Front” This song does nothing for me except make me want to turn it off. I’m with @Zeki on this one. The guitar and riff has Dave in his Eddie Van Halen mode. It actually sounds more like a Dave song that could have been on one of his solo albums. I will say I have been enjoying several songs on Glamour this past week. “Telepathy” is so great. I would swap it with today’s song. I don’t think Ray had enough strong material for an entire album. He could have easily given Dave a couple spots on the album.
It's really interesting though. When I first put this album on for a revisit, I really struggled... I remembered liking it quite a bit, but at first I was dreading writing it up.... Over the course of a few listens the songs started to really gel with me though. For all the talk of changes across the course of the thread, this album is the first really drastic change that didn't flow on very smoothly from the previous album for me. I think in part it is the sound. Initially it repels, but given a couple of listens it has a homely beauty and rawness that takes us back out to the shed/garage for a few beers with the boys..
I have just gone through side one of Chosen People... the first thing that came to mind was that you may like it.
Is this the next album we discuss or is it after State of Confusion? I have never heard it. I will give it a quick preview this week.
Back to Front: As a bit of a head banger, I liked this one right from the beginning. I agree, perhaps not the deepest of lyrics but it rocks! The live version that was posted was pretty great too. Rather than rewriting it, see above. That was my take on it as well. Viewing it through this prism makes it a little bit less of just a dumb head banger in a little bit more of a typical Ray lyric digging into his own life and pondering things. Isn’t that what we like about Ray, he can take some thing and make it seem so simple on the surface to the point of it being a dumb head banger (like me) and yet in reality there’s a lot below the surface. PS, I saw them do this one in concert and it was quite enjoyable. But then every song they played when I saw them was quite enjoyable.
A big stumbling thuggish bruiser of a song, BACK TO FRONT, and a great one! It rocks, dude! It just rocks. And the lyric is worthy of Ray.
Back to Front Well all the instruments get quite a work-out in this song. I enjoy this one. It's not Klassic, but at this point in most albums, you're not going to find that. Just some straight forward rock n roll. I like how Rays sings: "I should stay cool but want to shout." I watched the live version and I can see why this would be a fun one see in person. Good to see Dave playing his heart out. I'm not sure about the lyrics. I'm taking that it's Ray coming back from being on the road and how things around him have changed or shifted. Was it politically, socially, personally? I haven't a clue.
