Growing up I had a greatest hits album by the Kinks and this song was on it. Later, I would buy Give The People What I Want, Low Budget, and their 80s albums. It was later when I got The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and I started to listen to more of their 60s music that wasn’t just the big hits… but was just as good or in some cases better. I also know the song through Big Star as they covered it on their album Third/Sister Lovers. Ace Frehley also covered the song.
By 1966 The Kinks were in a touring, recording, and promotion cycle that put enormous strain on the band. Ray Davies was married and had a child and was still counted on writing more songs. Ray was growing as a songwriter. Their career started with You Really Got Me and as they went along…the sophistication of the songs grew with Davies’s songwriting ability.
This single was one of the last early harder-rocking songs. What came after this was introspective pop songs like Waterloo Sunset and Dedicated Follower of Fashion. I like the jarring guitar intro plus Mick Avory’s drums. Nicky Hopkins, the supersession piano player, played on this track. The harmonies by Dave Davies and Peter Quaife elevate this song also.
The song peaked at #8 in the UK, #34 in Canada, and #50 on the Billboard 100 in 1966. For me, it ranks high on my list of early Kinks songs.
Ray Davies: “That song was about freedom, in the sense that someone’s been a slave or locked up in prison. It’s a song about escaping something. I didn’t know it was about my state of mind.”
Ray Davies: “I remember how ‘Till the End of the Day’ came about. I had a bit of writer’s block, and my managers were getting worried because I hadn’t produced anything in almost a month. They sent Mort Shuman around to my house, one of my hit-writing heroes. He wrote ‘Save the Last Dance For Me” with Doc Pomus. This mad, druggy New Yorker came ’round to my little semi-detached house in London. He said, ‘I’m here to find out what you’re thinking about. I’m not interested in what you have written; I’m interested in what you’re gonna write.’ He was completely paid off by my managers to say it. I thought it was ridiculous that there was so much importance put on it. If I don’t want to write for a month, I won’t. To say the least, I was pressured into doing it. Then I went off to stay with my sister and bought a new toy, a little upright piano, and wrote ‘Till The End Of The Day.”
Till The End Of The Day
Baby, I feel good
From the moment I arise
Feel good from morning
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Yeah, you and me
We live this life
From when we get up
Till we go sleep at night
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Yeah, I get up
And I see the sun up
And I feel good, yeah
Cause my life has begun
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
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Cool song and my first time hearing it. Did Ray Davies end up collaborating with Mort Shuman?
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No I don’t think so…I couldn’t find anything that came of it…other than prodding Ray to write this song.
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Ha you know things are serious if they are sending Mort Shuman! Classic Kinks right there, haven’t heard this one in like forever.
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It was The Kinks (I think it was specifically “All Day and All of the Night”) that made a few of us 5th graders decide to form a band. Only one of us could play so it never got past the fantasy stage. I was to be the bassist. We would have been ground-breaking, as it was a mixed-gender group in 1964.
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When I learned guitar we did that in 83…which was the best thing for me because I still play and we still gather in the garage every once in a while.
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My brother did played with a few of his pals before he left Phoenix and moved to Ohio; Too dang cold in the garage to move them frozen digits before they froze to the frets!
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Oh yes…lately it’s been to cold here to do that. We have all talked and are waiting for spring.
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Great song. They had so many brilliant singles between 1964-67 that this one gets lost in the mix.
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I love this tune, Max. You really got me with this one. When I was younger so much younger than today, I had “Live at Kelvin Hall,” which kicks off with “Till the End of the Day” and also has some of the Kinks’ other great ’60s tunes like “Sunny Afternoon” and “You Really Got Me”. While I primarily know them based on specific songs, not entire albums, their ’60s period remains my favorite. They are among the bands I really would have loved to see!
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I did get to see them in 1983…the only classic British band that I saw in their 30s…it was a great show…a mixture of their entire career.
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I certainly envy you for that, Max – of course, in a good way! 🙂
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New to me, sounds quite good. Not the Beatles – but who were besides the 4 – but The Kinks could write good songs & seamlessly move from sweet pop to borderline garage rock.
Do you think ones like this would’ve been big here had they not been banned from playing in N.America for a few years?
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I think it had an excellent chance Dave… The Troggs and other pre-punk bands were having success at this time…this one is quite catchy. I do like the Big Star cover of it.
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Looks like Im going on a Kinks jag. Like both covers. Never heard the Big Star before. Kinks rule man!
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Yes they do…BTW…I checked out Soul Deep by Gary US Bonds…really good and soulful….no pun intended.
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Those two albums he did with the E Streeters are really good. To me anyways.
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Yep…I have one coming tomorrow man. Probably his last hit. I love the live clips I have found of him.
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Ill tune in for sure.
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The Kinks were my first concert (late 80s)! I saw a program where someone said “you don’t mess with Dave Davies”….implying he was an aggressive guy. Maybe some of it comes out via his guitar playing in this brilliant track!
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Yea… I noticed his solos came in spurts live and agressive. What a first concert! Mine was REO…consider yourself blessed lol.
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One of the bands that blossomed and grew in the 60s as the Beatles did. Ray wrote some great songs , I listen to ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and the mood of the music just transports you there. A great run in the mid late 60’s up until that sweet little boy-meets-girl romantic song, ‘Lola.’
I recall on one of the first of Daves posts I commented on, mentioned ‘Full Moon and ‘Sleepwalker,’ still great but later songwriting. I liked some of Daves solo stuff too, ‘Death Of A Clown ‘ for one.
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Waterloo Sunset may be my favorite Kinks song…for me it’s up there with Eleanor Rigby and anything else you want to put beside it. I have to say…I like all of their eras…something I don’t say about every band.
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True enough about liking all of a bands eras, it’s pretty rare. I seem to have a sweet spot of around 10 years with the long-lived 20 years+ bands. Stones, maybe 15, but that 15 years is well back last century!
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The Stones are a good example. Yea after Tattoo You…I liked some of the music (excluding Dirty Work) but on the whole not as much. I do think their early pop period is looked over too much. All the attention is on the 5 album stretch of Beggars Banquet through Goats Head Soup.
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The original Noel and Liam of the rock world.
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New to me. Good tune but, I am preferring The Kink’s version.
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I do like the Kinks version…dang….later on Alex Chilton and Ray Davies did a version of it together…I should have posted that one also.
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So…post it…
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It’s done!
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Ok. My new fave version is Chilton/Davies. I looked it up and, The 88 band was involved, too. For it to be from 2010, I swear Chilton coughed up some of that Letterbox growl I like so much.
Dude! Another new song that I need to snatch off of YT & put in my phone song list.
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They did do a great job. Davies and Chilton became neighbors I believe in New Orleans.
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Wow. Time to jam! 😄
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They would!
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Hey Vic….have you posted anything recently or have I just missed it?
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Two week break…😁
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I will have one coming up at some point in the summer.
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I hear ya. Traveling?
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No….just time off at some point. Like I did last summer but only 2 weeks. I’ll probably get 6 ahead on Star Trek and have them post while I’m gone.
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Great tune of theirs and I agree with everything you say here about it. Those harmonies do elevate it. The Kinks are a band I am turning to more and more because their music is so compelling to me.
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They have the rawness of the Stones and the melodies of the Beatles in many songs.
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I think where the Stones and Beatles have pretty straightforward lyrics, the Kinks have much more clever and sharp-edged lyrics. They’re all greats afa I’m concerned.
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Bruce Springsteen has been called the American Ray Davies…so that fits.
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Max, I think Bruce takes it to another whole level, as he leaves the poison out and injects the music with his heart and soul.
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I was all primed to mention the Big Star cover, but I should have known you’d cover it.
This one’s really good, even if it’s little close to You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night.
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