A New Thread About The Kinks (But Mostly the RCA Years)

[SteveDave]

After 20-something years of "There's no way in Hell I'm going to listen to a theatrical double album with "Announcement" interludes" I'm now fully invested in both "Preservation" "acts". And "Schoolboys In Disgrace" AND I even quite like "Soap Opera" with it's OTT inbetween singing bits.

My gateway was "Muswell Hillbillies" which is non-stop solid gold hit after hit and then "Everybody's In Showbiz". The live record with that LP is amazing. Full throttle with a horn section and backing singers.

Ray Davies must've been on some kind of diet or had stomach problems for those two records as there are a lot of songs about food.

"Preservation Act 1" has got two jewels in "Sweet Lady Genevieve" and "Sitting In The Mid-Day Sun" that I don't know why aren't on more best ofs. 

I really have no idea why I was so against their 70s stuff for so long. Maybe it was the big hair?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Preservation Act 1 is great, but Act 2 is an almost entirely tuneless, turgid mess. I must've listened to it at least half a dozen times over the years, and the only song I can ever remember is Mirror of Love.

Act 2 abandons trifling elements such as melodies and hooks in favour of furthering a narrative, which is the last thing anyone should ever do when writing a concept album. If you can't be bothered writing any actual songs, then just write a play instead.

Act 1 works as a thematically linked standalone album full of strong, memorable songs, it really doesn't need its cumbersome sequel.

And that's what I'd say to Ray Davies, to his face, if I ever met him.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

My gateway was "Muswell Hillbillies" which is non-stop solid gold hit after hit and then "Everybody's In Showbiz". The live record with that LP is amazing. Full throttle with a horn section and backing singers.

I'm in total agreement with this. Muswell Hillbillies is Ray's last consistently great collection of songs, and possibly the peak of his craft in terms of writing funny, sad, sympathetic vignettes about working class life.

There are, as you say, too many monotonous songs about food and motorways on the studio half of Everybody's In Showbiz, but it also contains two bejewelled Kinks classics: Sitting In My Hotel and Celluloid Heroes. I really like the super-catchy Supersonic Rocket Ship too, it should've been a much bigger hit.

The live album is great, I agree. Kinks gigs from that era sound like a whole lotta boozy, camp, vaudevillian fun.

[PaulTMA]

He's Evil is great on Act 2. Soap Opera and Schoolboys are pretty much ace all the way through.

[Paaaaul]

I really like the super-catchy Supersonic Rocket Ship too, it should've been a much bigger hit.

It was on the soundtrack of Avengers:Endgame, so that song is doing fine for itself, thankyouverymuch.

[Brundle-Fly]

.

And that's what I'd say to Ray Davies, to his face, if I ever met him.

I spot him now and again scuttling around Highgate. I'll pass this on.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I spot him now and again scuttling around Highgate. I'll pass this on.

Please do, thank you.

It was on the soundtrack of Avengers:Endgame, so that song is doing fine for itself, thankyouverymuch.

Well that's nice to know.

For some reason the thought of Ray Davies being a multimillionaire, which he must be, doesn't compute with the image I have - which Brundle just confirmed - of him scuttling around north London on his own. It's difficult to imagine a rock legend such as, say, Mick Jagger having a cuppa in a cafe while gazing out the window, but that's how I picture Ray spending his time.

He does enjoy playing up to that image, of course.

[ajsmith2]

Absolutely love Preservation Act 2 and I still have no idea why so many fans find it tuneless (podcasting gold right there BoBB, if we ever get around to thon Kinks pod and we face off over this one). Yeah it's a lot to chew on, and I admit the lyrical tone of the songs is offputtingly downbeat and banal in a way most of the Kinks work isn't (although with today's tribal, populist politics I'd say it's more relevant than it's ever been before: Trump/Mr Flash parallels are so obvious as to be hardly worth mentioning, while Mr Black is like the Murdoch presses idiot nightmare of what Corbyn would be like in power) BUT tunes (and brilliant stylistic diversions!) it has a plenty! Let me count the ways I love these tunes right here:

Introduction To Solution: stirring striking bit of anthemic folkish pop/rock. I can't tell you the number of times the refrain 'But meeeeee I'M ONLY STANDING HERE watching it all go on, watching it all go wrong, and it's painfully clear that a battle is near and I wish I could just disappear' has popped into my head since the world went more mental in 2016.

When A Solution Comes: Brilliant 70s Floydian downer Qualude-rock. If this was on The Wall or Animals, it would be beloved by Billions.

Money Talks: damn Decent Stonesy sleaze rocker.

Shepherds of The Nations: perversely crazy puritan rock! Who else would do a song like this? I LOVE the way Ray hammers home the line 'DOWN WITH NUDITY AND HARDCORE MAGAZINES!'

Scum OF The Earth : Campy Brecthian Brilliance.

Second Hand Car Spiv Proto-Devo angular herky jerky good stuff. Seriously what other first wave UK beat bands were sounding like this in 1974?

He's Evil Discofied Danceable Fun! Again, stick this on the Rocky Horror show soundtrack and it would have been a beloved musical touchstone for 3 generations by now.

Mirror Of Love Ultra Catchy Betty Boop pinkie in mouth Burlesque Vaudeville WONDER!

Nobody Gives A solemn stately history lesson! Okay, a relative trough.

Oh Where Of Where Is Love? poignant and whirly tuned duet!

Flash's Confession More stirring dramatics. I like!

Nothing Lasts Forever Country ballad poignancy.

Artificial Man many wondered dramatic prediction of man's dependency on technology!

Scrapheap City : Okayish donkey ride home

Salvation Road: STUNNING melodied folk popper with Brilliant typical Ray 'Smile through the crap' style valedictory lyrics!

Muswell is not bad, Showbiz and Pres Act 1 I agree with the thoughts above, Soap Opera and Schoolboys are similar cruelly ignored masterpieces I could wax the same amount of rubbish about.

And as for the Announcements on Pres Act 2, well, the last is pretty much a word for word prediction of what the Goverment's first state message to the proles on the morning after No Deal Brexit as Operation Yelowhammer kicks in is planned to be. As I say, more relevant than ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWdRqksZ-30

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Great post, aj! I've been looking forward to your contribution to this thread. That write-up has convinced me to give Act 2 another go, as I feel like I have a stubborn blind spot when it comes to this particular album. I will report back soon!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Introduction To Solution: stirring striking bit of anthemic folkish pop/rock. I can't tell you the number of times the refrain 'But meeeeee I'M ONLY STANDING HERE watching it all go on, watching it all go wrong, and it's painfully clear that a battle is near and I wish I could just disappear' has popped into my head since the world went more mental in 2016.

As is sometimes the way with songs I've never warmed to before, I'm actually hearing this properly for the first time. It's a powerful intro and the lyric you quoted almost makes me feel like crying.

When A Solution Comes: Brilliant 70s Floydian downer Qualude-rock. If this was on The Wall or Animals, it would be beloved by Billions.

Bloody Hell, you're right, it does sounds like '70s Floyd. Which is probably why I don't like it. A dirge.

Money Talks: damn Decent Stonesy sleaze rocker.

Yeah, this is alright. I dig those female backing vocals and dirty horns (don't). Must've been fun live.

Shepherds of The Nations: perversely crazy puritan rock! Who else would do a song like this? I LOVE the way Ray hammers home the line 'DOWN WITH NUDITY AND HARDCORE MAGAZINES!'

Ah, now I really love this one too! A genuinely funny, dotty satire of Mary Whitehouse and her curtain-twitching band of bigots. "We are the national guard against filth and depravity, perversion and vulgarity, HOMOSEXUALITY! Keep it clean! Keep it clean! Keep it clean! Keep it clean! KEEEEEEEP IT CLEAN!"

It's not just the lyrics, though, the melody and multi-part 'onward Christian soldiers' arrangement are wonderful.

Scum OF The Earth : Campy Brecthian Brilliance.

Yes! You can easily imagine Tom Waits growling his way through it. Fuck me, you're so right aj, none of the Kinks' surviving '60s contemporaries would ever dream of writing a song like this.

Second Hand Car Spiv Proto-Devo angular herky jerky good stuff. Seriously what other first wave UK beat bands were sounding like this in 1974?

Seriously, what was I thinking? This is great too. "I was born a slum gutter infantile brute-force educated delinquent juvenile." Ray Davies is the absolute master of briskly syncopated, multi-syllable rock lyrics. Face facts, Dylan.

Again, it's not just the lyrics, Second Hand Car Spiv works as a dynamic piece of music.

He's Evil Discofied Danceable Fun! Again, stick this on the Rocky Horror show soundtrack and it would have been a beloved musical touchstone for 3 generations by now.

The Rocky Horror comparison is very apt, it's an entertaining theatrical Glam showstopper.

I've absolutely no idea why these songs have never sunk in before.

Mirror Of Love Ultra Catchy Betty Boop pinkie in mouth Burlesque Vaudeville WONDER!

As mentioned, I've always really liked this one, it's the most obviously catchy song on the album. Ray's vibrato and spangly falsetto are a bum-bumping Kit Kat Klub hoot.

Nobody Gives A solemn stately history lesson! Okay, a relative trough.

Yeah, this one embodies the sweeping generalisations some people make about Ray's theatrical concept album period. It's a piece of wordy text set to meat and potatoes rock. I can't argue with the sound, angry point he's making and it's a good band performance, but the song itself is nothing special.

Oh Where Of Where Is Love? poignant and whirly tuned duet!

Beautiful. Again, it disproves my blanket assertion that Act 2 is tuneless. Ray has written dozens of songs along the lines of "the world is in chaos and I want to escape", but this is a particularly touching example.

Flash's Confession More stirring dramatics. I like!

The day Ray Davies went mad. Nah, not really, it's a lorra fun. A bit too obvious and didactic for my tastes, but Preservation is basically an eccentric Broadway musical - apocalyptic fun for all the family! - so expositional interludes such as this have their place.

Also, just imagine the rest of the band awkwardly staring at the floor while Ray recorded his crazed spoken word duologue. That adds to the appeal. 

Oh, hang on, that's a review of Flash's Dream (The Final Elbow). Soz. Flash's Confession aspires towards drama, but it's boring. Definitely one of the songs I was thinking of when I dismissed this album.

Nothing Lasts Forever Country ballad poignancy.

Nothing to add here, it's a lovely sad song.

Artificial Man many wondered dramatic prediction of man's dependency on technology!

Not bad, but the album should be over by now. It's already peaked. Still, it was nice of Ray to let Dave sing for a bit.

Scrapheap City : Okayish donkey ride home

Just your standard, lackadaisical country and western pastiche. Quite cute, but nothing special.

Salvation Road: STUNNING melodied folk popper with Brilliant typical Ray 'Smile through the crap' style valedictory lyrics!

This is great, like something from Arthur! I wish Ray hadn't buried his vocals in the mix, though.

And as for the Announcements on Pres Act 2, well, the last is pretty much a word for word prediction of what the Goverment's first state message to the proles on the morning after No Deal Brexit as Operation Yelowhammer kicks in is planned to be. As I say, more relevant than ever.

That last announcement is chilling.

Well, thank you, aj, I have listened to Act 2 anew. It's a far better album than I'd previously thought, and it really doesn't deserve to be dismissed as a career nadir. An admirably ambitious, undoubtedly flawed yet sometimes great piece of work.

Apologies, that was such a long post.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Some very fuzzy black and white footage of The Kinks performing Soap Opera live in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm4EeZtxoX0

[Sin Agog]

Dunioux if it's any cop, but BBC4 recently did a dramatization of Arthur: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009z2w

[ajsmith2]

That last announcement is chilling.

Well, thank you, aj, I have listened to Act 2 anew. It's a far better album than I'd previously thought, and it really doesn't deserve to be dismissed as a career nadir. An admirably ambitious, undoubtedly flawed yet sometimes great piece of work.

Apologies, that was such a long post.

Thanks so much for taking the time to give it a good listen on the 'strength' of my rambling defence of the album. In the light of day I probably tried to oversell some of the LP2 songs there in my zeal to give it some positive discrimination, but imo LP1 especially is a really strong and stylistically varied collection of songs and I'm glad my breakdown of the tracks helped you to see them in a new light. As The Kinks only attempt at a studio double LP i do think it deserves more attention from fans, at the very least as a curate's egg.

Dunno if you've heard this already, but it's also worth checking out the live audio of the full Preservation stage show. Very pantomine/Brecht style theatrics, (Ray at his hammiest as loveable rogue Mr Flash) and the whole story makes a lot more sense in this form imo. Apparenty the stage shows themselves were warmly received by those who saw them at the time, unlike the albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlqFqUEsw3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlNMK1KshXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpF-qI9iI8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlKvovhrK7Q

[ajsmith2]

Some very fuzzy black and white footage of The Kinks performing Soap Opera live in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm4EeZtxoX0

Such an incredibly frustrating edit at around 45 minutes in where Ray says 'I can't stand those FUCKING DUCKS!' and a duck quack comes in and then the film just cuts! Clearly 'Ducks On The Wall' was played as part of the show as indicated by those cues, so why did they cut it out of the film?? Very annoying.

It's also annoyingly not in the original Starmaker TV special, although in that case in was never included in that version in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8laVs0aMWw

I'm saying the above with the acknowledgement that some may not miss DOTW much as they find it a poor novelty single, but I personally love it (It's like the 10cc single that never was) and you have to admit it would have worked well as a showstopping live number.

[SteveDave]

I've only heard this today from the 2 CD "deluxe" Muswell Hillbillies set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb5O17DojS0

A re-use of bits of the "Waterloo Sunset" melody but it's amazing.

The knobs and the toffs sent down two la-di-dahs
To mix with the people and to drink in their bars
They looked down their noses and they puffed their cigars
Instead of 'off' they say 'orf', instead of 'yeah' they say 'ya'

[SteveDave]

Also

http://camdennewjournal.com/article/the-taverns-back-landmark-archway-pub-is-set-to-reopen

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I've only heard this today from the 2 CD "deluxe" Muswell Hillbillies set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb5O17DojS0

A re-use of bits of the "Waterloo Sunset" melody but it's amazing.

Great lyric, but it is a bit odd that he blatantly reused the melody of one of his most famous songs. I guess that's why it remained in the vault for so many years.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dunno if you've heard this already, but it's also worth checking out the live audio of the full Preservation stage show. Very pantomine/Brecht style theatrics, (Ray at his hammiest as loveable rogue Mr Flash) and the whole story makes a lot more sense in this form imo. Apparenty the stage shows themselves were warmly received by those who saw them at the time, unlike the albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlqFqUEsw3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlNMK1KshXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpF-qI9iI8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlKvovhrK7Q

I haven't heard these! Thanks, aj, I shall investigate later.

[Charcoal-ish]

In that picture up there, they're standing about fifty feet away from what was then Graham Chapman's house.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dunioux if it's any cop, but BBC4 recently did a dramatization of Arthur: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009z2w

Did anyone listen to this, then? Quite nice, rather touching, and the closest thing we'll ever get to Ray's original plans for Arthur as a play.

He's rewritten it considerably, of course, the birth and growth of The Kinks wouldn't have been in the original Granada TV script, but I think it still gives a good impression of what he was aiming for.

[Attila]

Did anyone listen to this, then? Quite nice, rather touching, and the closest thing we'll ever get to Ray's original plans for Arthur as a play.

He's rewritten it considerably, of course, the birth and growth of The Kinks wouldn't have been in the original Granada TV script, but I think it still gives a good impression of what he was aiming for.

I plan to off iPlayer, as I was at one of those BBC History Weekend things during the actual broadcast.

There should be a new documentary on the Kinks coming out from TV-Arte around Christmas time/New Years, directed by Christopher Conte. I don't think it will be shown in the UK, but Arte loads programmes onto their website sometimes after broadcast. It should be quite good, if Conte's other documentaries are any indication. He did a lot of filming up at the Clissold and neighbourhood around there; it was absolutely tipping down the day we were up there for the location shoot.

[ajsmith2]

I plan to off iPlayer, as I was at one of those BBC History Weekend things during the actual broadcast.

There should be a new documentary on the Kinks coming out from TV-Arte around Christmas time/New Years, directed by Christopher Conte. I don't think it will be shown in the UK, but Arte loads programmes onto their website sometimes after broadcast. It should be quite good, if Conte's other documentaries are any indication. He did a lot of filming up at the Clissold and neighbourhood around there; it was absolutely tipping down the day we were up there for the location shoot.

Sounds promising!

The BBC radio Arthur has been well received by most, so I don't like being the moaning party pooper and admitting that I wasn't that huge a fan of it, although it had it's moments and I'm still glad it was made. Good performances from the 2 main leads playing Rose and Arthur, but I found the decision to retool the storyline into another lightly fictionalised retelling of the Davies brothers formative days disappointing as it's a well Ray's gone to many times before, especially recently. Of course Arthur was always based on his real uncle but I'd always got the impression that the original teleplay was meant to have a more archetypal lead and a more epic scope. I could well be wrong, but that's always how I imagined it from the songs on the album. The WW1 songs didn't hit as hard repurposed into describing events from later in the century either.

To make this post relevant to the thread title: was the 'R R R Rockin Radio Ramona' jingle used by the fictionalised young Ray anything to do with the real Ray's otherwise non-sequitur shout of 'Ramona'! in 1975's 'The Hard Way' (where he's playing a schoolboy of course)?