Not my first 45 but I did by Athena in anticipation of the It's Hard album. I immediately preferred the Entwistle-penned B-side. It sounded more like Townshend and the Who than the Townshend-written A-side.
A Little Bit of Abuse: I agree with this and it's that line that has put me off the song since I first listened to it. Maybe it's not intended as such, but it feels like black humor comic relief that backfires so badly that it totally undermines the sincerity of the rest of the message. However, after reading others' comments I can better appreciate the rest of the song. I think it's interesting that Ray modified the "A Little Bit of Emotion" title for this song and they share similar themes of keeping emotional secrets: Can't you see They're scared to Show a little bit of emotion A little bit of real emotion In case a little bit of emotion Gives them away And we see where hiding one's emotions can lead: to "a little bit of abuse." And that is such a savagely sardonic title, as in it's just a little bit of abuse, so it's OK. You didn't end up in the hospital so stop complaining. When the snare goes to 4 beats to the bar right before the end, I hear it as a beating. Chilling. I do think this is a powerful song but despite some inspired bits, musically it doesn't hold my sustained interest. 2/5 Thank you for your post and for your openness, @The late man. You had me laughing out loud about duets and ONJ, and then feeling empathetic about your past history. Speaking out is a good thing as it can serve as encouragement to others, so I salute and thank you. And I am happy you are no longer in that situation.
Sorry this is going overy my head. I have never seen this OMJ shot but if I am being asked to comment I will just say that it's hardly the Bilitis rear cover is it!
Thanks for uploading this to share with all the Avids Michael! I have really enjoyed this for 20 odd years and prefer it to the LP Cut.
Better Things. "Better Things" Single by The Kinks from the album Give the People What They Want B-side "Massive Reductions" (UK) "Yo-yo" (US) Released 19 June 1981 (UK) 28 November 1981 (US) Recorded April 1981 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Genre Pop[1] Length 2:59 (single version) 2:44 (LP version) Label Arista ARIST 415 (UK) Arista AS 0649 (US) Songwriter(s) Ray Davies Producer(s) Ray Davies stereo mix (2:44), recorded Apr 1981 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Here's wishing you the bluest sky, And hoping something better comes tomorrow. Hoping all the verses rhyme, And the very best of choruses to Follow all the doubt and sadness. I know that better things are on the way. Here's hoping all the days ahead Won't be as bitter as the ones behind you. Be an optimist instead, And somehow happiness will find you. Forget what happened yesterday, I know that better things are on the way. It's really good to see you rocking out And having fun, Living like you just begun. Accept your life and what it brings. I hope tomorrow you'll find better things. I know tomorrow you'll find better things. Here's wishing you the bluest sky, And hoping something better comes tomorrow. Hoping all the verses rhyme, And the very best of choruses to Follow all the doubt and sadness. I know that better things are on the way. I know you've got a lot of good things happening up ahead. The past is gone it's all been said. So here's to what the future brings, I know tomorrow you'll find better things. I know tomorrow you'll find better things. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. Ray apparently wrote this song in 1979, and they tried to make it work for the Low Budget album, but they couldn't get it how they wanted it. I'm not sure if they actually recorded anything, and the lack of a demo or what have you, leaves me thinking it may not have gotten that far. This song was written about, and during, the time his marriage to Yvonne Gunner was dissolving..... think about that for a moment.... This is the happiest song on the album, in sound and tone, It isn't in a sarcastic tone, or a mean way, it is written like a blessing. It is an uplifting ode to moving forward. .... but here's the thing, as far as I can tell, it was initially written to be sarcastic, and perhaps that's why it didn't come together for Low Budget.... The brilliant thing is though, after an almost harrowing album, we need something beautiful, we need some hope, and so here, now, this song takes on a completely different tone. Ray has said something like "I'm easy to love, but impossible to live with", or something along those lines, and this song seems to be almost a salute to that idea. There isn't any ill will or mean spiritedness, just a blessing for better things ahead. When taken in context with the series of dark songs, it is somewhat a light at the end of the tunnel. I seem to remember someone mentioning that this song seemed somewhat out of place on this album, but I think it is the perfect full stop at the end of the sentence... We open with the favourite DJ MIA. and then we acknowledge that people seem to want to be entertained by sex, perversion, rape, violence, death, murder and plenty to hate.... The rest of the album seems to, to one degree or another, go on to explore some of those things, and in the middle we have Predictable, and the state of bored monotony, suggesting perhaps why. Then we come to the end of this somewhat harrowing journey that has tested our hearts and minds, and we get soothed with a blessing... "I Hope Tomorrow You'll Find Better Things" ... Perhaps the little hidden message underneath all that is that we tend to reflect our environment, and if we fill ourselves full of negative imagery, then we will fall into the trap of being a part of that imagery ourselves. "Here's Wishing You The Bluest Sky" ... I'm not sure it gets better than that. The comforting brightness of a clear blue sky smiling down upon us to lift our spirits.... and it is Ray and weather again, and it reminds me of the Seasonal Affect Disorder from Rainy Day In June that I pondered... Ray really does seem to relate mood and emotion to weather. Then it moves into almost an admission of fault... I hope something better comes tomorrow. I hope the verses rhyme and the choruses are great, because I realise I couldn't make that happen for you. I know better things are on the way after the doubt and sorrow. Be an optimist, and reject the negativity. Humans aren't magnets, our negativity attracts negativity, and our positivity tends to attract positivity. Forget about all the crud that is behind you, I know that better things are on the way. We have the chorus come in "It's Good To See You Rocking Out", having fun, living like you've just begun.... Content! .... Again, contentment is the strongest weapon we have in our arsenal.... We get the opening verse repeated, and why not, it's a great verse. Then we get a chorus variation. There are good things ahead. leave the past where it lays, it has nothing for you. Set your eyes on the future with positivity. I KNOW, tomorrow you'll find better things. Given all the other things stated, with contentment and positivity, I KNOW that better things lay ahead. This is a beautiful song, like I say, that works as a blessing towards "the one I love/loved". This is a beautiful remedy to the pain and misery that we have waded through on the album to get here, and from here we move forward into that Bluest Sky. Musically we get another track that could be off an early Church album. Jangly guitar, nice melodic riff. We have that somewhat raw sounding live in the studio feel here, even though the tone of the song itself is lighter. The rawness represents the reality of life. We open with a banging piano, and then the band joins in for the ride. Ray sings a sincere, melodic vocal. The urgency of the chorus is a joyous urgency... and more importantly in this instance, it is a sincerely joyous urgency. The melody guitars echoing each other ... This is just a beautiful track, and in spite of the circumstances of its writing, it is among Ray's most joyous, which given those circumstances makes it even more beautiful. This was the lead single in the UK and it actually charted. It went to 46 on the chart. It was the first song to chart in the UK since One Of The Survivors in 1973 (108), and the first song to crack the top fifty since Supersonic Rocket Ship in 1972 (16) So a nearly ten year drought was broken... yet the album still didn't chart in the UK.... It was released as the second single in the US, after Destroyer, and it charted at 90 on Billboard and got to 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Anyway, this works perfectly on this very well sequenced album, that probably deserves more kudos than it seems to generally get.
Ray live with the Kast Offs (so essentially the 1979-84 Kinks line up with Dave Clarke filling in for Dave Davies) in 2009.
I never could listen to this gem of a song without being almost destabilized by its genius. It’s the perfect power pop anthem, the perfect melody, the perfect words, a sentiment that is so universal that it can apply to thousands of situations. End of school, end of a relationship, leaving a place you’ve lived in for years etc. We’ve all felt it, this song. This feeling of leaving some difficulties behind, some memories, good and bad – because that’s what memories always are, both good and bad – and looking ahead with an appetite for life, like opening a window and taking in the fresh air. You’ve got the triumphant feeling of a rock song and the beauty of an melancholic ballad working hand in hand here. I can’t think of a better more magical pop blend than this. If somebody knows how this could not be a crucial monster hit everywhere in the world, please explain it because, as for myself, I don’t have the slightest clue… I love the opening piano, I love the whole playing, the arrangement and how the first vocal phrase becomes the defining riff in the end ; I love the big chorus, Dave and Ray going at it like a band of brothers (which they are, lest we forget…) and the super long verse melody, with genius chords and this supreme Ray Davies delivery, one of his best singing ever, always just a little behind the beat but coming back on cue every time at the last moment, when everything threatens to fall apart. Same with the pitch, he has blue notes (“blu-est sky-ii”) or just about, but it’s better that way, it creates some extraordinary little harmonic nuances or innuendos that are pure musical feeling. You can’t sing this song with absolute precision and do it perfect justice, you actually need it to be slightly off-key and rhythmically approximative to make it work (something none of the three well known covers, Frank Black, Fountains of Wayne, Bruce & Ray, managed to replicate). The competition is so fierce that I would never seriously attempt ranking my favorite Kinks songs. But like a bunch of Ray’s greatest, this one stunning little tune would be part of my personal shortlist of favorite songs by anyone, ever.
The Fountains Of Wayne cover, as performed on the Conan O Brien show on September 21st 2001, introduced by the O'Brien as 'an old Kinks song that seems especially appropriate in light of what we've been through over the past few days'.. the heartbreaking fragility and daring optimism of this song has perhaps never been more appropriately deployed:
"Better Things" A brilliant track, so good it almost brings a tear to your eye. For those who don't much like the heavier rock, shoutiness or stark lyrics on the rest of the album, here's one that has none of that. For those of us who don't mind the heavier aspects, it's still a wonderful bonus to get this jangly power-pop gem at the end. It has just about everything you love about 60s Kinks while being firmly a part of the 80s. I love the unashamed, unabashed use of "rocking out" in the first chorus. Talking of which, I've always heard it as "and the very best of choruses too" without a link into the next line, but I suppose it works better the other way. Yes, its probably more ragged and garage-y than it needs to be, but it only adds to the charm. Despite it making the outer reaches of the UK chart, it never reached my ears during 1981.
After the sadness of "Art Lover" and the harrowing tale told in "A Little Bit Of Abuse", we get the album closer "Better Things". The title alone makes me feel good, A beautiful slice of power pop that culminates in a sublime chorus fleshing out that title a little bit but the message is clear - things are going to be ok if we make them that way. Bob Dylan said he'd like to think all his songs ended with the sentiment "good luck" - well it's great to have a Kinks album that ends with "Better Things".
Hi there. Nothing much to add. It's a great song that obviously harks back to pre-shouty pre-My Old Man's A Dustman Ray. Do I believe in a happy bright-eyed optimistic Ray Davies? Not particularly - and with good reason it seems - but he pulls it off nonetheless.
Give The People What they Want. So we haven't looked at any of the songs yet in the thread, so this is just my personal unadulterated opinion, that perhaps could be modified after reading everyone else's perspectives on the songs and the album. I am surprised by this album, because I have had it a fair amount of time, and it is one of the albums that got quite a few listens, and I always sort of liked it, but having a proper listen in a timeline sequence, seems to have done wonders for quite a few of these albums, and this one perhaps more so. When I had my initial scan listens ... because that's how I go about it. When we started the thread I had listened to five or six albums prior to starting and then started pounding the albums individually in order to try and get closer to the general feel of what it was about. If it was an album that hadn't clicked or I didn't get, it gave me time to try and find a connection, and from my perspective it has been working really well, and I have had a connection with everything we have looked at so far... to varying degrees of course, but a connection nonetheless, and that was the whole point. Now when I first put Give The People ... through its paces... I was a bit nonplussed by it initially. It felt very different. I know lots of folks seem to think the Arista years are this one paced, immovable object, but Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget and Give The People are all very very different albums, and types of albums... I suppose using a very very wide brush one could paint them together, but if these albums are all the same, then Everybody's In Showbiz through Schoolboys are all the same.... and they certainly aren't, and neither are these four. All four albums are very different, and Give The People ... is somewhat of an outlier... It is much less accessible, in the classic sense. It has this lean, raw garage band type sound, and sure we have some crunchy guitars. but that isn't really the heart of this album. As I say initially I thought I had found my first stumble in the catalog, but this album very quickly moved through the ranks, and I am left feeling that this is as good, if not better than Low Budget, and you all know I like that album more than popular opinion suggests I should... so after my exposure listens I liked it a lot, but after my deep dives into the songs it moved to a love. There is something a bit special about this album..... even a song like Predictable, that of itself is not really super exciting, in context with the album it is the perfect song to be where it is.... There were one or two lyrics that weren't quite as focused as I am used to with Ray, but again, it fits in with this album for me. As an album it is a great piece of work.... Now I know it isn't a concept album, and the thematic links I have tried to draw are fairly loose, but they are there for me, and I think that they really work to enhance the overall appeal and relevance of this album to me, and the idea of Better Things tying up the loose ends and suggesting that perhaps looking at all the dirt in life isn't the best way to experience it, really helps to consolidate that opinion.... This is a very human album, from the sound, to the topical matter, to the way it is put together, and it is an album that if you allow it to grab your ear, and allow the message as a whole to sink in, works incredibly well. I've had virtually no sleep, and am a bit tired, and I may not be making sense but on this 6th day of May 2022, these are the thoughts coming out of my sleepy head. So perhaps I will add more, or delete this and start again, or change some stuff.... but perhaps I won't.... just trying to keep my eyes open at the moment. Anyway, I reckon this is another great album. For me at this stage doing my best to decide where and what, my Kinks album ratings would be something like this..... The Albums 5 star albums Arthur Muswell Hillbillies Village Green Preservation Society One For The Road Something Else Low Budget Lola vs Powerman Give The People What They Want Face To Face 4.5 star albums Sleepwalker Misfits Kontroversy 4 star albums Preservation Act 2 Preservations Act 1 Everybody's In Showbiz Soap Opera Kinda Kinks Schoolboys In Disgrace 3.5 star albums Percy The Kinks Kelvin Hall A slight reshuffle, as will likely happen again, because I'm just not very good at this kind of thing.... I suppose Give The People What they Want being so high in my ratings may seem odd to some.... in fact probably most, but for me it is a really solid album, and I have no problem with the sound and I think the songs are great, even though it is probably the darkest album the band have released. The sequencing and the beautiful way the album works its way around to the redeeming Better Things is a wonderful piece of work that stands up with the bands best work for me.
What a great song! Jangly guitars, solid backing vocals, non-shouty, catchy, great uplifting lyrics - if it had been a release by a new band it would be hailed as an early example of jangle pop or the paisley underground! I was surprised to see that the single version is 15 seconds longer than the album version - what do those extra seconds give you?
I assume this is the slightly longer single... Sorry guys, missed the boat on that one. Thanks for the reminder @croquetlawns
Did you know this was in the running to be the theme song to the US Office? (the other contenders were 'Float On' by Modest Mouse and 'Mr Blue Sky' by ELO).. at the last minute the now famed , original instrumental theme was substituted. It's odd to consider how mega-ubiquitous 'Better Things' would have become had it been selected for this spot! 'The Office' almost had a very different theme song: A legendary pop hit.
and a decade later, it inspired the title of (though I don't think it actually features in) the Pamela Adlon (Bobby Hill in King Of The Hill, associate of the now-disgraced Louie CK and 'Dolores' in Grease 2) 's sitcom of the same name:
So you got half stoned then lost your virginity to Kink? Around the same time circa 1982 the Stones were as ignored (or as off the radar if you like) at my school as the Kinks were at yours so i am in solidarity with you as identifying as a misfit with a cause that was not wishing to confirm!
Better Things Obviously a great closer, and a song even my non-Kinkster friends know and sing along to. I will say that one can see why the song only made it to #92. That rough-hewn Kinks charm will only go so far with the American record-buying public. Never mind when Ray first sang the lyrics of Art Lover to the boys in the studio, when they heard these sun-lit proverbs they must have thought he was taking the piss. And, of course, he says he was, which does indeed make this v. funny. I do love the Fountains of Wayne power-pop version, which is terribly on point; if Ray had groomed the track for success we might have been treated to Casey Kasem introducing it to the Top 40. Played in coffee shops, supermarkets, on bank commercials; it was even short-listed as the theme song for televisions (U.S.) The Office. Often compared to Days, it’s the closest you’ll get on this album to harkening back to those glory years.
I've always been interested in how this one came to chart in the UK after such a long drought. 'Come Dancing' kind of became a UK hit through the back door after becoming a US mega smash, but this one seemed to reach it's modest but not insignificant placing after such an absence on it's own merits. I do wonder if there was a particular station or DJ that got behind it.
Weird how location changes perspective so much.... In 82, I was in my second year of high school, and it seems like The Stones and Acdc were the top rung of the ladder at the time. Memory could be failing me, and I'm not that sharp today, but around my way, it wasn't until the mid to late eighties that the movement to things like the Strolling Bones and such happened
