Kinks Weeks – When I Turn Off The Living Room Light …thesoundofonehandtyping.com

This post is by John from https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com . John’s blog has different subjects and he will post songs that I had completely forgot about. I like talking guitars with John also…He is an internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

I’m not a huge Kinks fan, as I told Max, but there is one song I’m familiar with that I’m rather fond of…

Back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Warner Brothers Records would advertise sample albums on the inner sleeves of their albums. They were cheap as chips (maybe $2 for a double album), and had songs from albums they were trying to sell. That’s where I first heard this song, “When I Turn Off The Living Room Light.” At the time, the song was marked as “unreleased,” but it later appeared on the band’s 1973 Reprise album, The Great Lost Kinks Album. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Lost_Kinks_Album), which, as everyone knows, is The Blogger’s Best Friend (trademark), tells the story of that album…

On 2 July 1969, Ray Davies and manager Robert Wace delivered numerous tracks to Reprise Records’s offices. Most of them were for the Kinks’ 1969 studio album, Arthur, as well as a potential Dave Davies solo album. They delivered an extra reel of twelve songs, marked as “spare tracks” and not assigned a master tape number, indicating they were likely not planned for an immediate release. Author Doug Hinman suggests the additional songs’ delivery was likely due to a contractual obligation that the Kinks provide the label a set number of songs over a scheduled period. Ray Davies later expressed he was hesitant to deliver them because he did not feel they were up to standard and wanted to include a note explaining, “please, we’re just fulfilling our contract, just put it in a vault somewhere.”

 In 1971, the Kinks’ seven-year contract with Reprise was set to expire. Disappointed with several clauses in the band’s contract, Davies opted to instead sign the band with RCA Records. The same year, Reprise rejected the Percy soundtrack album for US release, finding it lacked commercial potential in the American market. Because they did not release Percy, executives at Reprise determined that the Kinks contractually owed the label one more album.

All that said, here’s the song. I will warn you that the first line implies that Jewish women aren’t attractive. At the time, I was in high school where a significant number of my classmates were Jewish girls, many of whom were VERY attractive, so I don’t know what he was talking about… Anyway, the lyrics are in the video…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

16 thoughts on “Kinks Weeks – When I Turn Off The Living Room Light …thesoundofonehandtyping.com”

  1. I like how he changes it at the end, from being about “you” to being about “we”. Maybe it’s his own insecurity about his looks, rather than the mean-spirited song it starts out as.

    I remember those old WB promo albums (though I never bought one) – sort of the opposite of my “K-Tel’s 24 Original Happening Hits”.

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      1. The ‘schlager’ name I wasn’t familiar with but on going to the link I understand- Eurovishinny stuff in all its glory. (Thanks John, always something new for me to learn about music.)

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      2. This song was driving me a little nuts today. When I first saw the title I thought I knew it but what I was mistaking it for was lyrics from another Kinks song ‘Ordinary People’. At the end of the cut Ray’s character sings “Turn out the lights”. Now I’m not as nuts.

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  4. Not trying to be a pain, but this song would have been ok just for teenagers generally. Why did he have to make it about a particular race/religious group? Quite offensive, even if he shift the ugliness to both of them by the end. It’s clever but not in a good way. Interesting back story about those songs, John.

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  5. I can honestly say I missed this one. First song in the Max series I hadnt heard. I can see this fitting into one of their concept records. Time capsule. Like you John there are bands that I’m not into but a song will pop out of their bag that will grab me. I get it. A curve ball this morning.

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  6. Well, interesting and apparently a rarity. Musically it just put me a bit in mind of a recycled ‘Sunny Afternoon’ in places and lyrically, yeah, his humor maybe missed a bit this time around. Still, not a terrible effort for a “throwaway” tune.
    I bought a couple of those promo sampler albums in flea markets or second hand shops in the day, they used to be pretty good pot-pourris of every type of music.

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  7. Ray the romantic strikes again! Or strikes out maybe? It’s way unPC now, as it was back then, but I guess it wasn’t meant for release. It is redeemed a little by Ray taking a look at himself in the harsh light of day and seeing himself as less than an Adonis perhaps?

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  8. We’re back to another Kinks song I had not known. I guess in this case the fact it wasn’t meant for release makes me feel a bit better. Except for the unfortunate first line, I kind of think the lyrics are hilarious. “To me you’re gorgeous/And everything’s right/When I turn off the living room light” – yes, maybe a bit mean-spirited but also funny.

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    1. Yea…I’ve never read where Ray was anti Jewish…I think it was tongue in cheek…especially at the end where he changes it to “me”

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