Kinks Weeks – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Kinks Weeks – Village Green Preservation Society

This is the last Kinks day. I’m going to finish up with one of my favorite Kinks songs. I want to thank everyone who wrote and everyone who read the posts! I thought I would be lucky to get 10-12 people to do this… so I was shocked with 18 Kinks songs. I’ll be listening to The Kinks for months now. I did this song back in 2018 or 19 but I wanted to make sure it got covered during this Kinksathon so I revamped it.

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular.
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty, and Dracula.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity.
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.

Some songs can be written by anyone and some can be very popular but generic. Some can only be written by certain songwriters. This would be one of those songs. Ray Davies’s songs have their own DNA. This was on the great 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The album is a concept album reflecting on the loss of the old England that Ray remembered, he captures older village life, tradition, and the impact of the rapid changes happening in British society during the 1960s.

One thing that makes this song and many Kinks songs stand out is Dave Davies…I’m not talking about his highly underrated guitar playing. It’s his high-pitched harmony singing with Ray that compliments the songs so well. Without Dave’s voice, the Kinks would not sound like The Kinks.

This nostalgic song is a favorite of mine. This is a big jump from You Really Got Me to…”We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular, God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty, and Dracula.”

I learned a lot about older British Culture with this song. Desperate Dan, Mrs. Mopp, and Mother Riley… he fits the words like a jigsaw puzzle that magically falls into place. There are no forced lyrics and with these lyrics…that is not easy. This song to me, is up there with their best songs.

Ray Davis: “The people in it are all characters I liked as a kid or people my family could relate to, like Old Mother Riley and Mrs Mopp. Because I used to love listening to the BBC Light Programme on Sundays, like Round The Horne with Kenneth Williams. A time when the population was allowed to be trivial.”

Ray Davies: “You have to remember that North London was my village green, my version of the countryside. The street and district I grew up in was called Fortis Green, and then there was Waterlow Park and the little lake. I sang in the choir at St James’s Primary School until I was about 10, then I trained myself to sing out of tune so I could hang around with a gang called the Crooners instead. Our Scottish singing teacher Mrs. Lewis said, ‘Never mind, Davies – I hear crooners are making a lot of money these days.'”

Pete Townshend: “The Kinks were much more quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should be one day, be Poet Laureate. You know, he invented a new kind of poetry. A new kind of language for Pop writing, which I think, influenced me from the very, very beginning. (It was) very strange that I should be so directly influenced because it was from sideways. We were moving forward together. But I was very influenced by him.”

“I think that Dave Davies is also very underestimated. When we started, I used to feel that. Well, it’s obvious that Dave couldn’t have done the kind of innovation that I did. Because I was with Jim Marshall building the bloody amplifiers. Somehow The Kinks adopted some of that as well. They didn’t actually use the Marshall-size amps that we used. But they were loud, they were raucous. The guitar sound was similar, there was feedback there.”

I added a live version which for me is superior to the studio cut but that is just me. This is a rare time when I liked the live over the studio. I heard this live version before the studio recording. The horns add a lot to this song.

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society. Amen, Ray…

Village Green Preservation Society

We are the Village Green Preservation Society.
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety.
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society.
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society.
God save Mrs. Mopp and good old Mother Riley.
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium.
God save the George Cross, and all those who were awarded them.

Oooh…

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular.
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity.
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliates.
God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards.

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Village Green Preservation Society.
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety.
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society.
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.

God save the village green!

Kinks Weeks – Sitting In The Midday Sun …cincinnatibabyhead.wordpress.com

Today we have CB from https://cincinnatibabyhead.wordpress.com/ who is posting his Kinks song. Go visit his site for some cool music and movies. I’ve been influenced by all of you bloggers. You opened my eyes and ears to new music and styles. CB has been one of those influences by getting me out of my former comfort zone and enjoying new/old music that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise… Take it away CB…

Six Kinks songs popped into my head right away when Max ran this idea by me. I stuck a pin in this one.

One of those everyman songs Ray sings. The song’s character (From Preservations Act I) observing the world as he sees it. He’s happy and that makes the listener happy. Kind of a Sunny Afternoon vibe. Ray did like certain themes and summer/sunshine was one of them. This song has been in regular rotation in my head for a long time. It just puts me in a good mood and reminds me to chill out.

“I’ve got no home

I’ve got no money

But who needs a job when it’s sunny”

I just love the lyrics and the music that goes with it. Sets the mood. CB wants to be the character in this song. Just watching the world go by.

Lets live in the moment with the Kinks and celebrate one of life’s pleasures. Soaking up some rays and taking it easy. I’m in. No one does it better than the Kinks.

So sing along

“So I’m just sitting in the midday sun

Just soaking up that currant bun

With no particular purpose or reason

Sitting in the midday sun”

Note: My son (Big Earl) was over for a visit. I told him I was taking part in a discussion on Kinks songs. I asked him if he had a couple favorites and without hesitation he said “Waterloo Sunset and “Till The End Of The Day” The Kinks are still reaching new ears.

Note 2: For years I thought “currant Bun” has something to do with the sun. I finally found out it does “The Sun” a tabloid in England. There you go Max, I did some homework for you.

Note 3: I’m a big fan of the Kinks concept albums Soap Opera, Preservations Acts I and II, Schoolboys In Disgrace. Not well received commercially but they were full of really good stuff.

Note 4: I’ve enjoyed opening these takes everyday and seeing what all you good people have to say on the Kinks. I was not disappointed. Great stuff. Max is a beauty.

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Kinks Weeks – Muswell Hillbilly …halffastcyclingclub.wordpress.com

He started the blog halffastcycling.club to chronicle a coast-to-coast bike trip and I’ll let him tell you the rest. Recently retired from a series of careers (in co-ops, plumbing, and health care), I spend my time riding my bike (once across the continent wasn’t enough so I quit working to do it again), paddling, writing about bikes and whatever pops into my head, and sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair. I’m old enough that I remember this music when it was new, not from oldies stations. The first hit records I remember hearing were by Little Richard (78 RPM). (I have older siblings.) My intro to live music (besides high school dances) was through BB King (followed quickly by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, Bonnie Raitt, Pete Seeger, and the Grateful Dead, among others). I wrote a high school term paper on the Beatles (after reading the new Hunter Davies bio in 1968) and got a D.

Muswell Hillbilly

The Buddha said that life is suffering and suffering arises from desire.

Pop culture, one could argue, is the packaging and selling of fantasy. Hell, one could argue that all of capitalism involves packaging and selling fantasy. And by fantasy, I mean the objects of desire.

One of the more insidious forms of fantasy is nostalgia…a desire for what was or, more commonly, what never was but what we imagine to have been.

Make America Great Again sells us the fantasy that there once was a time that the USA was great and that it is no longer. When was it great? That’s never specified, but maybe it was 1776 or maybe 1956. When did it stop being great? That’s implied, but might be when folks other than white, property-owning men wanted their share.

Carol Hanisch wrote a paper that was published in 1970 with the title “The Personal is Political”. She argued that “There are no personal solutions at this time. There is only collective action for a collective solution.”

What does this have to do with The Kinks? In 1964 they released “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night”, two songs that led some 11 year olds I know to think we could be rock and rollers. The Beatles were unreachable to us, but we thought we could be The Kinks. Some of us only fantasized. Some went out and bought instruments. None of us became rock and roll musicians. (At least not that particular group of 11 year olds.)

By the time “Muswell Hillbillies” was released in 1971, rock music had gained sophistication, musically and lyrically. It was no longer enough to sing “I wanna hold your hand” or “Girl, I want to be with you in the daytime”, even if we added “nighttime” (“nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more”).

https://www.youtubetrimmer.com/view/?v=ona-RhLfRfc&start=5&end=10&loop=0

A critique of mainstream society was an element of rock by then. In 1969 The Jefferson Airplane sang:

We are forces of chaos and anarchy.
Everything they say we are we are.
And we are very
Proud of ourselves.

The world of rock music had moved on from selling 2 minute singles to selling albums. Albums then became more than a collection of singles and filler. The Kinks had already embraced that by 1968’s “The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society” as well as 1970’s “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One”. “Lola” was both a critique of the music industry and an exploration of sexuality and gender. I hope this series will cover both of these songs or albums. (If not, check out this and this from Powerpop five years ago.)

Muswell Hill is a suburban district of North London, the childhood home of Ray and Dave Davies. It is also the location of St Luke’s Woodside Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders, a branch of the former St. Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics (1751-1916).

Muswell Hillbillies

explores alienation and mental illness. “Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues” is sung from the viewpoint of a man who is “too terrified to walk out of my own front door”.

He sings:

They’re watching my house and they’re tapping my telephone.
I can’t trust nobody, but I’m much too scared to be on my own.
And the income tax collector’s got his beady eye on me.
Oh, there ain’t no cure for acute schizophrenia disease.

In “Catch-22″ (1961), Joseph Heller wrote, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

In the US, COINTELPRO (1956-71) targeted anyone the FBI considered subversive. That originally meant suspected communists, then mostly Black people but also the New Left. They aimed to disrupt organizations via planting false information, creating conflict, infiltration; in short, by making people paranoid. MKUltra (1953-73), a CIA program, dosed people with LSD and other psychedelics without their knowledge. So is the protagonist of Muswell Hillbillies crazy, or does he just think he is, or is there no difference?

In “20th Century Man”, he sings:

This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare.

He has confirmed Hanisch’s assertion that “the personal is political”. He is paranoid but the solution is not an individual one because the problem is not an individual one. Therapy is not going to fix this.

In the title track (you knew we’d get to that eventually, right?) the singer is nostalgic for a USA that he has never seen. US culture is dominant so he knows “Oklahoma” the musical, he knows roots music, and it sounds like he listened to “Rocky Raccoon” for some of his US education, or maybe it was cowboy movies:

Cos I’m a Muswell Hillbilly boy,
But my heart lies in old West Virginia,
Never seen New Orleans, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Still I dream of the Black Hills that I ain’t never seen.

He’s headed for the mental hospital:

They’ll move me up to Muswell Hill tomorrow,
Photographs and souvenirs are all I’ve got,
They’re gonna try and make me change my way of living,
But they’ll never make me something that I’m not.

He knows he doesn’t fit in but he’s not certain that that is his problem. He recognizes that this is bigger than he is but feels powerless to stop it:

They’re putting us in identical little boxes,
No character just uniformity,
They’re trying to build a computerised community,
But they’ll never make a zombie out of me.

But maybe he can resist individually, even if he can’t stop the train. He doesn’t have the power to change society but maybe he can maintain some personal integrity. He is a little bit RP McMurphy from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1962, Ken Kesey). [Spoiler Alert: They make a zombie out of RP McMurphy via frontal lobotomy. Of note, the novel was written under the influence of LSD when Ken Kesey was a voluntary subject of MKUltra and working nights in a VA hospital psychiatric unit. He didn’t know it was a CIA project but did know he was getting free LSD.]

By 1971, the Left in the US was in disarray. By 1971, the Left in the US was in disarray. The 1970 bombing of the Army Math Research Center (AMRC), in the wake of the National Guard killing of students at Kent State and Jackson State, had brought the war home in a way no one expected, as someone was accidentally killed in the bombing. The Kent State killings had galvanized mainstream opposition to the war. [Killing people of color was a long-standing US tradition.] After Army Math, revolution no longer seemed to be just around the corner; and this shit was getting serious. Were we still, like the Jefferson Airplane, “very proud of ourselves”?

COINTELPRO and MKUltra had not yet been exposed and were still active. The American Dream seemed to be a nightmare. Paranoia is no fun. [Many in Madison, WI – home of AMRC – feared that the Grand Jury investigation would be a fishing expedition into the New Left and “We Won’t Talk” bumperstickers appeared around town. Were we paranoid? Were they after us?] Nostalgia began to look good – certainly in the US, probably equally in the UK.

The Muswell Hillbilly is paranoid, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t after him. He wants to live in a nostalgic fantasy world where life is simpler

But in her dreams, she is far away
In Oklahoma, USA.

– but instead he is being packed off to a mental hospital. He feels the alienation of modern life and continues to resist in any way that he can. When faced with a world we don’t want, what are our choices? We can capitulate, we can resist, we can escape to a fantasy world. We can organize, but even that looks hopeless to him.

Listen to the whole album.

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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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Kinks Weeks – Come Dancing …nostalgicitalian.com

Here is my good friend Keith from https://nostalgicitalian.com/ giving a great post on Come Dancing. Keith and I have texted, emailed, and talked on the phone for a few years now. I like asking him questions about his radio DJ days and life…If you heard his voice you would understand why Keith was a DJ. He is a great guy. Go visit his site!

When my buddy Max from the PowerPop blog reached out to me and asked if I would like to take part in his “Kinks Week” feature, I naturally said yes. He told me that I should pick a specific Kinks song and write a bit about it. Easy enough, right? Well, sort of…

They band was formed in London in 1963 by Ray and Dave Davies. The were part of a sort of British R&B and Merseybeat thing that was happening there. Technically, they were part of the British Invasion here in the US, too. They certainly had plenty of hits that still get airplay today.

My introduction to the Kinks came from my dad and from listening to his oldies station. I heard All Day and All of the Night, You Really Got Me, Lola, and Tired of Waiting for You a lot growing up and when I worked in radio. But it was MTV and Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 that I heard them in a way I was unfamiliar with.

In 1983, the Kinks released their State of Confusion album. One of the tracks, Come Dancing, is undeniably an “80’s” song. It has that distinct sound of the early 80’s. When I heard that the song was the Kinks, I actually thought that maybe it was a different band. This song is so different and distant from what I’d call the “classic Kinks” sound. Not to mention that Ray’s accent is very obvious. I suppose that is why it stood out to me.

In one interview, Ray stated that this song was an attempt to return to the “warmer” style that the group had before they became the “arena rock act.” He said, “I wanted to regain some of the warmth I thought we’d lost, doing those stadium tours. Come Dancing was an attempt to get back to roots, about my sisters’ memories of dancing in the ’50’s.”

On the surface, the song sounds fun, but the inspiration for the song and the lyrical content came from a real life tragedy and nostalgia. Davies hints a both of those things in the quote above.

As I began to research the story behind the song the word “nostalgia” came up many times. I suppose it was reinforcing that the Nostalgic Italian had chosen the right song to write about. Rolling Stone magazine called the song “delightfully nostalgic.” Another article says that the song is basically “the 1980’s nostalgia for the 1950’s” and goes on to say how Davies tapped into that nostalgia as he was inspired by his sisters as young adults going to dance halls in the 1950’s.

The real life tragedy involved Ray’s sister Rene. As a child she had rheumatic fever, which led to some heart issues. She lived in Canada with her abusive husband and would come home to London to visit with her family annually. In 1957, Rene (then 37 years old) surprised Ray with a Spanish guitar on his 13th birthday. He had been trying to get his parents to buy it for them, but to no avail. He was thrilled to receive the gift from her. His joy would be replaced with sadness later that evening, however, as his sister would have a heart attack while dancing at the Lyceum ballroom.

Ray took inspiration from his memories of his sisters dancing at the local dance halls to the music of big bands and wrote Come Dancing. The song is written from the point of view of what he called an “East End barrow boy” watching his sister going out on dates. It speaks of the nostalgia of how they are building a parking lot on the spot where the supermarket used to be. Before that it was

where the bowling alley was. Still before that, it was the spot where the local “palais” (French for Palace) dance hall used to be.

Ray said that the song was an easy song to write, because the idea had been in his head for some time. He didn’t start writing it, though, until March of 1982 while on a flight home from Japan. He had just purchased a new Casio keyboard and used it to write the song.

In his book, You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks, author Nick Hasted claims that the song was written in an attempt “to reach out to the Kinks’ lost British audience.” This is probably why Ray sang with his British accent despite being asked to sing it with an American one. He has been quoted as saying that he “tried to retain the Englishness” of the song.

The “Englishness” almost prevented the song from being released. Well respected record man and founder of Arista records, Clive Davis really didn’t want to released the song in the US. He didn’t think that the American public would be able to relate to the English subject matter of dance halls. It didn’t help that the song had already been released in the UK in 1982 and did not chart.

In the end, the song was released in the US in April of 1983 and was a Top 10 hit (reaching #6). The video for the song played often on MTV which also helped the radio performance. Come Dancing would go on to be the highest charting US single of their career (tying with 1965’s Tired of Waiting for you). Naturally, because it did so well in the States, it was re-released in the UK and this time it reached #12 on the British charts.

The Kinks would have one more Top 40 single in the US and that was also on the State of Confusion album. That song was Don’t Forget to Dance, which peaked at #29. So I guess it is fair to say that Come Dancing was the last big hit for the band. Ray wasn’t done with the song, though.

In 1997, he wrote a musical play with the title Come Dancing. It was set in a 1950’s dance hall and included some Kinks songs and original songs. The play opened in September of 2008, and sadly only ran through the end of October 2008. Ray appeared as the narrator in the play. The show was brought back in 2010 but quickly canceled again.

As I listen to all of the nostalgia presented in the lyrics of Come Dancing, it makes it feel like a perfect swan song for the Kinks. First of all, it has a happy feel to it that passes from the music to its listener. It is much like Walking on Sunshine, in that I cannot hear it without smiling.

Then you have a picture of life progressing. The “out with the old, in with the new” kind of thing. You reach a point in your life or career where you look back on where you’ve been nostalgically. In a sense, that is what’s happening here. Despite where we are currently, we look back at many fond and happy memories. Isn’t that really what Ray and the Kinks are doing here? I suppose that’s the way I see it anyway.

Thanks to Max for asking me to participate and and contribute to his look at one of the greatest, and often overlooked bands in history. Thank you for reading. Now let’s give it a listen …..

Come Dancing

They put a parking lot on a piece of landWhere the supermarket used to standBefore that they put up a bowling alleyOn the site that used to be the local palaisThat’s where the big bands used to come and playMy sister went there on a Saturday

Come dancingAll her boyfriends used to come and callWhy not come dancing?It’s only natural

Another Saturday, another dateShe would be ready but she’s always make them waitIn the hallway, in anticipationHe didn’t know the night would end up in frustrationHe’d end up blowing all his wages for the weekAll for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek

Come dancingThat’s how they did it when I was just a kidAnd when they said “come dancing”My sister always did

My sister should have come in at midnightAnd my mum would always sit up and waitIt always ended up in a big rowWhen my sister used to get home late

Out of my window, I could see them in the moonlightTwo silhouettes saying goodnight by the garden gate

The day they knocked down the palaisMy sister stood and criedThe day they knocked down the palaisPart of my childhood died, just died

Now I’m grown up and playing in a bandAnd there’s a car park where the palais used to standMy sister’s married and she lives on an estateHer daughters go out, now it’s her turn to waitShe knows they get away with things she never couldBut if I asked her, I wonder if she would

Come dancingCome on, sister, have yourself a ballDon’t be afraid to come dancingIt’s only natural

Come dancingJust like the palais on a SaturdayAnd all her friends would come dancingWhile the big bands used to play

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Kinks Weeks – Low Budget … freefallin.home.blog

This is Ricky and he is my cousin I’ve known since I was a kid. I would go over to his house in the ’70s and ’80s, play baseball, ride bikes, and later on…watch MTV. He has some good posts about some well-known and rare bands. You can find him at https://freefallin.home.blog/

The title cut from their 1979 album. The song did not chart, but the album became their best-selling non-compilation album in the U.S. It was a flop in the U.K. I’m always on a low budget.

From Wikipedia

“Low Budget” was recorded in January 1979. It describes a man giving up his “expensive tastes” in order to save money. Like many of the tracks on Low Budget, it applies to the economic troubles occurring during the time that the album was released, such as strikes in Great Britain. However, AllMusic‘s Richard Gilliam claimed that the track’s theme could “easily apply to just about any modern recession”.

Although “Low Budget” refers to economic problems of the times in general, it also refers to some of Ray Davies’ own personal concerns. In the song, Davies mocks his own fear of not having money and his frugality. The song also references Davies’ vanity. The singer describes himself as once being well dressed and able to afford cigars, but now has to buy discount clothes and chew mints. He describes himself as “a cut-price person in a low-budget land.” But despite being reduced to poverty, the singer expresses pride in his hair and his teeth. Author Thomas Kitts notes that even the title, used in the refrain “I’m on a low budget” could refer to Davies keeping himself on a tight budget.

When asked which guitar performance he was most proud of, The Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies noted “Low Budget,” as well as “You Really Got Me,” as a favorite. He said of this:

I like “Low Budget” [1979]. It’s wild. I like that kind of, almost country-style playing. It’s like a shape; I don’t even worry about what notes I play as I’m doing it. And if you catch a few open strings, you might get lucky with a weird clunk or a harmonic or something. I think all the best stuff is the stuff that happens before you’ve even realized what you’ve done. So “Low Budget” and, obviously, “You Really Got Me.”

— Dave Davies, Guitar World, 2014

Low Budget

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we’ll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

I’m on a low budget
I’m on a low budget
I’m not cheap, you understand
I’m just a cut price person in a low budget land
Excuse my shoes they don’t quite fit
They’re a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn’t complain
They squeeze me so tight so I can’t take no more
They’re size 28 but I take 34

I’m on a low budget
What did you say
I’m on a low budget
I thought you said that

I’m on a low budget
I’m a cut price person in a low budget land

I’m shopping at Woolworth and low discount stores
I’m dropping my standards so that I can buy more
Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
We’re all on our uppers we’re all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints

I’m on a low budget
What did you say
Yea I’m on a low budget
I thought you said that
I’m on a low budget
I’m a cut price person in a low budget land
I’m on a low budget
Low budget
Low budget

Art takes time, time is money
Money’s scarce and that ain’t funny
Millionaires are things of the past
We’re in a low budget film where nothing can last
Money’s rare there’s none to be found
So don’t think I’m tight if I don’t buy a round

I’m on a low budget
What did you say
Yes, I’m on a low budget
I thought you said that
I’m on a low budget
I’m a cut price person in a low budget land
I’m on a low budget
Say it again
Low budget
One more time
Low budget

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Raymond Douglas Davies

Kinks Weeks – Waterloo Sunset … musiccitymike.net

I’ve known Music City Mike for a while and I met him through hanspostcard. I can always count on Mike commenting when I post someone not on the beaten path… guys like Garland Jefferies, The Records, Joe Ely, Robert Earl Keen, and many others. He has worked with some artists and is very knowledgeable…You can find him at https://musiccitymike.net and his YouTube site is HERE.

“Waterloo Sunset” – The Kinks

A few years back, I was a guest blogger along with some fellow music writers where we conducted a draft to pick and write about our top ten favorite songs of all time. The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” would have made it high on my list had it not been for someone else drafting it ahead of me. Given the chance to pick a Kinks’ song to write about, my choice was easy.

Why? Well, the only way to say it is that this song is perfect. And it’s not just me that feels this way! I have seen countless lists where people include “Waterloo Sunset” as one of their favorite songs. And I have also seen quite a few who boldly claim it to be the best song ever written. I have no trouble seeing their point. It’s the “Over the Rainbow” of the Rock era.

Now what makes a song perfect? First off, it grabs you the first time you hear it, you follow every word, and the melody gets implanted into your brain. There also is a simplicity to it that allows you to easily sing along. Better yet, if you are a player, said simplicity makes it easy to learn and while it allows for alternative musical arrangements, it would be sacrilege to mess with its basic structure (i.e., no jamming or extended guitar solos). Importantly, there is a poignancy to its lyrical content – not life changing, but more than just a carefree love song. All these things are packed together tightly in a nice box to make it perfect.

Some other examples of modern perfect songs in my opinion are Elton John’s “Your Song,” James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” Gram Parson’s “Brass Buttons,” The Replacements “Achin’ to Be,” and Squeeze’s “Up the Junction.”

What happens to me with “Waterloo Sunset” is that I hear either the original version or one of its countless covers, and I start and can’t stop listening to it over and over again. My latest incident occurred with Robyn Hitchcock’s cover of the song for his forthcoming 1967 LP release of songs he loved from that year. I recently got to see Robyn perform the song live in front of a small crowd and the song filled the room with smiles and collective singing of the “sha-la-la’s.” And what do you think I started listening to as soon as I got to my car?

My favorite hearing of the song though was in 1989 while I was riding on Will Birch’s “Rock Tour of London” bus. The song played over the PA as we crossed the Waterloo Bridge over the river. Even without there being a sunset over the Thames, I became overjoyed hearing the song in this setting.

“Waterloo Sunset” cinematically captures an endearing sentimentality. The song’s narrator recalls this beautiful sunset that makes him say “I don’t need no friends.” He also sings of two lovers, Terry and Julie, who are also so taken in that “They don’t need no friends.” Whether these are excuses for just being loners or just an analogy to how happy they feel doesn’t really matter. He and they “are in paradise.”

And while it’s not totally clear, I think that the narrator’s preference of nature over the hustle-bustle of nearby Waterloo Station comes from two perspectives – his view of the gorgeous sunset as well as seeing the two young lovers enjoy its splendor as well.

Musically, the song has an instantly recognizable and infectious opening riff. Dave Davies’ sharp staccato guitar intro leads into a precise plucking of notes that foreshadow the upcoming tune of the song’s lyrical refrain, a truly memorable melody. Lyrically, the writing is compact with nary a wasted word.

Ray Davies performed “Waterloo Sunset” at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics which was a crowning achievement for the song. Plain and simple, Sir Raymond Douglas Davies penned and produced a masterpiece that people will be listening to hundreds of years from now.

Maybe someday I will return to London and take the time to witness my own Waterloo sunset.

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Kinks Weeks – Stop Your Sobbing …taotalk.com

This entry is by Lisa from Tao-Talk. I’ve known Lisa since 2018 and the biggest George Harrison fan I’ve ever met. She is a wonderful writer with a wide knowledge of music. Lisa is a mother, grandmother, gardener, retired government worker, observer, reader, writer, cinema lover, learner, bicyclist, woman who runs with the wolves, and last but not least, a lover of music! Go visit Lisa when you can!

Stop Your Sobbing, written by Ray Davies

Released 10/2/64 on The Kinks’ debut album, “Kinks”

The first time I heard, “Stop Your Sobbing” was on a Pretenders album. As Chrissie writes her own songs for the most part, it never occurred to me that she didn’t write this one. It was only when a blogmate mentioned that Ray and Chrissie had been a couple and had a child together that I began to wonder and looked a little deeper. It has been an enjoyable journey of discovery on how the song came about, how Ray met Chrissie, and how Chrissie came to record a Kinks song.

The Kinks line-up was Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife, and Mick Avory.

“Stop Your Sobbing” was the next to the last song on The Kinks’ debut album, “Kinks,” released on 10/2/64. The American release of the album was missing 3 tracks: “I Took My Baby Home”, “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter” and “Revenge.” The only single released from the album was, “You Really Got Me.” Looking at the playlist, I was kind of surprised that 8 of the 14 songs were not written by Ray and one was co-written with him. The 3 omitted tracks were written by, respectively, Ray, Jay Miller, and co-written by Ray and Larry Page.

I’ve seen this pattern before, with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (and probably many others?) in their first recordings being written often by others and then transitioning over to mostly written by the groups. Hoping to get some feedback from readers on this.

Secondhand songs shows 11 covers of the song, including 3 in 1965, 1 in 1979, 3 from 2000-2003, 1 in 2011, 1 in 2015; and the most recent is reggae-styled from May of 2023, by Rhoda Dakar.

I know how some readers like chart stats. Peak positions for the album charts in 1964-65 were:

UK Melody Maker top 10 LP = 4

UK New Musical Express best selling LP = 5

UK Record Retailer LPs chart = 3

US Billboard Top LPs = 29

US Cash Box top 100 albums = 25

US Record World 100 top LPs = 20

West German Musicmarkt LP hit parade = 7

For those who want even more deets on The Kinks, including the statistics part, Kinda Kinks has a meticulous breakdown of everywhere the song was released – AND SO MUCH MORE.

Fate Intervenes Where Human Effort Fails

Now to get to the juicy part of what hooked me on the song and motivated me to look deeper, which is what inspired Ray to write it, how Chrissie became aware of it, and how Ray and Chrissie got together and had a baby.

In Ray’s autobiography, “X-Ray,” he said the song was inspired by a tearful girlfriend:

“Her sobbing was making me feel guilty and I told her to stop…”

Most of the songs on that debut album besides the single faded into obscurity, including, “Stop Your Sobbing.” Years passed. Chrissie Hynde, born in Ohio, USA, moved to London in 1973 and began working for NME, a major music publication. She also began forming a band. In 1978, when The Pretenders decided to put a demo tape of 6 songs together, she thought of, “Stop Your Sobbing.” Nick Lowe produced the single and it was released in 1979. The single reached the lower end of the UK top 40. More importantly, it caught the attention of Ray himself. Dave Everley from LouderSound, says that Chrissie had reviewed another single of theirs, Mirror of Love, for NME (I tried to find the review and failed.) and had tried multiple times to get an interview set up with Ray, but he declined. I love this quote about his refusal, taken from Johnny Rogan’s book, _The Complete Guide to the Music of The Kinks_:

“I avoided it. “I’d heard she’d said nice things about me. I thought: ‘Oh God, when she meets the real person and sees what a conner I am.’”

Ray and Chrissie finally met in a New York club in 1980.

I found an excellent DailyMail article about Ray, his relationships with women, and a good photo and quote by him in regards to meeting Chrissie:

She couldn’t take the sudden fame that had come to her and I think she saw me as someone who had done all that rock ’n’ roll stuff and understood it,

Their relationship is reported to have lasted until 1983. Natalie, their daughter, was born in early 1983. Chrissie went on to marry Jim Kerr from the band, Simple Minds, in 1984. Reports say that Ray never met Natalie until she was an adult.

LYRICS

It is time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now

It is time for you to laugh instead of crying
Yes, it’s time for you to laugh so keep on trying
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now

Each little tear that falls from your eye
Makes, makes a me want
To take you in my arms
And tell you to stop all your sobbing

Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now
Stop it, stop it

Gotta stop sobbing now
Stop it, stop it, stop it

Sources:

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Kinks Weeks – Two Sisters …albumreviews.blog

Graham was one of the first bloggers I followed in 2018. His site has a wealth of album reviews from the 1960s to now. I was thrilled when he agreed to this. You will find his site Aphorisitc Album Reviews here at https://albumreviews.blog/. I learn about new pop albums and some less-known names from the past from him as well. Plus, he is a fellow Big Star fan.

The Kinks maintained a long career because they were able to change with the times. They first enjoyed success with raw garage rockers like ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’. Bands like The Beatles and The Beach Boys brought more diverse instrumentation and styles to rock albums in the mid-1960s. The Kinks were able to follow the trend, dialing back the intensity for their 1967 album Something Else.

Something Else features ‘Waterloo Sunset’, perhaps Ray Davies’ most acclaimed song. It’s also notable for three songs written by Dave Davies. ‘Death of a Clown’ and the rocker ‘Love Me Til The Sun Shines’ stand proudly among his brother’s best songs here. There’s an embarrassment of riches. The Kinks explore psychedelia on ‘Lazy Old Sun’ while ‘Harry Rag’ dips into English music hall. ‘David Watts’ later became a hit for The Jam.

Among all these strong tracks, one of my favourites on Something Else is ‘Two Sisters’. Musically it’s driven by harpsichord played by Stones sideman Nicky Hopkins. The simple, light string arrangement that arrives later in the song is a clever touch.

Lyrically ‘Two Sisters’ is a thinly veiled commentary of Ray Davies’ relationship with his brother. Ray Davies was a married introvert. Dave Davies was a party animal, expelled from school at 15 after getting caught having sex on London’s Hampstead Heath.

The scene is set by an evocative opening line:

Sybilla looked into her mirror
Priscilla looked into the washing machine

There’s a feeling of reconciliation by the conclusion. As Ray Davies told biographer Nick Hasted:

“Dave made up for both of us, he was the youthful, fun-loving one. ‘Two Sisters’ is quite accurate, in the sense that one had all the freedoms – one brother stays in, and the other goes out and has fun. And one resents the other for the ability to do it. But in the end, look what I’ve got…”

Ray Davies was married to Rasa between 1964 and 1973. She’s sometimes an overlooked part of The Kinks’ 1960s era. She provided backing vocals and occasionally helped with songwriting.

The Kinks have a lot of great songs, and it’s easy for gems to get lost. ‘Two Sisters’ is a highlight from one of their best records.

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Kinks Weeks – Autumn Almanac … number1sblog.com

I’ve been visiting Stewart at Number1sblog for a few years. His blog never lets me down. Learning about #1 songs in the UK and how different the American charts can be from them. He is currently in the year 1998 but travel back to see the previous years also. He always gives you a quality take on every #1 song.

The Kinks, ‘Autumn Almanac’

Thanks, Max, for giving us the space to write about our favourite songs from Britain’s third-best band of the 1960s. And yes, the Kinks were the sixties ‘third’ British band. Forget the Who, or the Hollies. Don’t dare mention Manfred Mann or Herman’s Hermits! In bronze position, behind the Beatles and the Stones, stand Muswell Hill’s finest.

The Kinks scored twelve top ten hits, and three number ones, between 1964 and 1967, with their last big chart hit of the sixties being ‘Autumn Almanac’. And if you needed an example of why many non-Brits might not choose the Kinks as the ‘60s third-best band, then this is the perfect record.

Not many pop songs talk of sweeping leaves, of crawly caterpillars, buttered currant buns, or of rheumatic backs. Nothing very rock ‘n’ roll there. Nor is there in the middle-eight: I like my football on a Saturday, Roast beef on Sundays, All right… It’s quintessential Kinks: tongue-in-cheek vignettes of British life. Not as famous as Terry and Judy from ‘Waterloo Sunset’, the unnamed aristocrat in ‘Sunny Afternoon’, or the legendary ‘Lola’, but every bit as vital. No wonder Blur’s Damon Albarn named ‘Autumn Almanac’ as his favourite Kinks’ record, given that he spent much of the nineties trying to recreate it…

But before it all gets too cozy and twee, Ray Davies turns his attention to British ideas of respectability, and the class system. This is my street, And I’m never gonna leave it… If I live to be ninety-nine… The singer is trapped in his lower-middle class environment. Everyone he meets, seems to come from his street, and he can’t get away… No social climbing allowed.

For this to be the Kinks final Top 10 record of the decade is fitting. It’s the culmination of their move away from the garage rock of ‘You Really Got Me’, through to more traditional, folksy pop. ‘Autumn Almanac’ is at one moment crunchy guitars, the next a trombone-led, music hall singalong.

But while it’s easy to claim that the Kinks were too ‘British’ for American audiences, leading to less chart success as the sixties went on; that’s not quite the full picture. The fact that they had been banned from touring the States since 1965 thanks to their habit of attacking one another on stage was probably a much more pressing reason.

Still, maybe it was a blessing in disguise, for the touring ban coincided with a change in their sound. Their hard-rocking early hits are great, but for me the classic Kinks period starts with the hilariously catty ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’, through ‘Dead End Street’, and the timeless ‘Waterloo Sunset’, to this. My answer might change depending on which time of year it is, but ‘Autumn Almanac’ will always be close to the top of my ‘Best Kinks Songs’ list.

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Kinks Weeks – Where Have All The Good Times Gone? …superdekes.wordpress.com

I met deKE when I published a Georgia Satellites song and fellow blogger Graham told me about him after he posted a Satellites song a little earlier. Since then he has me listening to all sorts of music. I’m forever indebted to him for the introduction to the Canadian Power Pop band Sloan. Go visit his WordPress site. and he also has a youtube channel to visit. It’s worth subscribing to the YouTube channel. He has interviewed musicians, producers, and all sorts in the know. Ok, deKE…take it away…

Kinks - Where Have All The Good Times Gone

Thanks to Mad Max for letting me be a part of this series. I’ve been reading everyone’s posts about The Kinks and I can honestly say I know the least about them and their history. Sure I know about Ray and Dave’s onstage/offstage antics as I read about some of it back in the day when I would pick up the monthly issue of Creem magazine.

The first time I ever heard of the band name ‘The Kinks’ was via ‘Van Halen’. Believe it or not it wasn’t VHs killer version of ‘You Really Got Me’ but Dave and Eddie’s muscled up version of ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’.

Now you’re probably thinking “say what?!” but it’s true. I discovered VH back in April 81 but I didn’t get the VH debut with ‘You Really Got Me’ on it until 1984.(if you’re a fan of VH, see what I did there). There was so much hard rock coming out between 1980 and 1985 (my teenage years) I had a hard time keeping up. My first two VH purchases were ‘Women & Children First’ and ‘Fair Warning’ in 1981 as previously mentioned. My third VH purchase was in 1982 when they dropped the half originals/half covers release ‘Diver Down’. One of the cover tunes featured was ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’.

If VH wanted to kick off their latest release with a loosey jam like vibe then this was the track to do just that with. Once you hear Alex Van Halen’s drums kick in, next thing you know Eddie Van Halen and Micheal Anthony are joining the party. Ringleader/vocalist David Lee Roth pulls down a good vocal on the song.

As a young rock fan and even as the years passed by and the decades started rolling by, I liked the fact that VH could take a cover tune and make it their own! Eddie’s guitar solo on the song is what air guitar is all about.

The great thing about YouTube is I pulled up The Kinks original of this song and holy moly Van Halen definitely rocked it up but you have to consider back when Ray and Dave cooked up this track that many years later VH took that cue and partied it up and put it out for the masses to devour.

By the way I’m sure Ray and Dave are still enjoying the royalty pay cheques thanks to Halen!

Thanks Max for letting me bend the rules here…

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Kinks Weeks – Apeman … onceuponatimeinthe70s.com

I’m very happy to have Colin Jackson from Once Upon A Time In The 70’s guest host my blog today. Colin Jackson and Paul Fitzpatrick who both run Once Upon A Time In The 70’s grew up in Bearsden, a northern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. They were school friends from the age of five until in 1974, aged sixteen, Paul left school to start a career working with fashion and sportswear brands. Their paths would not cross again for forty-four years, during which time Colin pursued a career in Banking. Their site will take you back in time…just as well as a time machine!

THE KINKS: ‘Apeman’

Should Andy Murray have been born ten years either side of when he was, he’d have been the best tennis player of his generation. As it was, despite two Olympic gold medals and three Grand Slam titles amongst goodness knows how many other achievements, he will be forever mentioned almost as an afterthought in any conversation of the greatest players of the 2000s – possibly all time.

Damn those Federer, Nadal and Djokovic fellas!

A similar fate befell The Kinks, and Ray Davies in particular. Maybe they wouldn’t have gone down in history as the best band ever, but they certainly would have benefitted from a greater appreciation.

Damn those Lennon and McCartney and Jagger and Richards fellas!

Then again, I suppose it could be argued that without the Beatles and Stones, The Kinks wouldn’t have capitalised on The British Invasion of America.

Whatever, throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s The Kinks were always playing catch-up in the popularity stakes, despite their critical acclaim and string of hits. Sticking within those two decades, the band had nineteen Top 40 hits here in the UK, including three Number 1s. Not bad on any level.

I must confess, though, that I too am guilty of overlooking them in favour of (most definitely) The Rolling Stones and (yes, probably even) The Beatles. Which is a terrible admission to make, when I take a proper look at the prolificacy of Davies’s writing.

I’d not long turned twelve years old when this single was released. My musical bias had not yet been shaped. I just liked what I liked. I had no idea of what was ‘cool’ or otherwise. It would be a year further down the line before I decided I was a fan of The Sweet and John Kongos … but there was something about ‘Apeman’ I found so appealing.

Perhaps it was the catchy hook. Or maybe it was the (now cringeworthy) faux Caribbean accent during the short, spoken word passage. Or maybe, most likely it was, the silly video of some geezer dressed up like a gorilla and following the band around a most ‘un-jungle-like’ wet and miserable (London?) park.

It certainly wouldn’t have been the lyrics – not at that age. In fact, as I’ve alluded in the past, I’m still a bit of a philistine when it comes to song lyrics. However, even a very young ‘me’ was aware of the Cold War at that time, and the line about not wanting to die in a nuclear war did hit home.

Ray Davies had of course by this time already shown a great deal of social conscience and disdain for the forsaking of tradition. I’m sure others will cover these, but think of ‘Dead End Street,’ ‘Autumn Almanac’ and ‘The Village Green Preservation Society’ for starters. So, for him to display the utopian spirit of peace and freedom would have come as no surprise who already appreciated his work.

Davies had (has) a knack of making serious comment from entertaining, upbeat and melodic songs. Almost fifty-four years on from ‘Apeman’ peaking at #5 in the UK charts, sadly nothing much appears to have changed. Indeed, the words are perhaps even more pertinent today:

… So I’m no better than the animals sitting

In the cages in the zoo man

‘Cause compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees

I am an apeman

I think I’m so educated and I’m so civilized

‘Cause I’m a strict vegetarian

But with the over-population and inflation and starvation

And the crazy politicians

I don’t feel safe in this world no more

I don’t want to die in a nuclear war

I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an apeman

________

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Kinks Weeks – Sunny Afternoon …eclecticmusiclover.com

I’ve been going to Jeff’s site for years at https://eclecticmusiclover.com. He features newer music on his blog from a large range of bands. He does a lot of great work there… often getting inside information and interviews with the bands themselves. Go check Jeff out…he is a fine writer.

I’m honored to be included in Max’s series on The Kinks, and my pick is their 1966 single “Sunny Afternoon”, which ranks among my top ten favorites of their songs. I was 11 when the song came out and I remember liking it a lot, not only because of its catchy, upbeat melody but also for the lines “Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze. I gotta big fat mama trying to break me” which, being an 11-year-old, I found pretty funny. Though I didn’t fully comprehend the deeper meaning of the lyrics at the time, my guess was that the song was generally about a guy’s discontent over his current life situation.

Written by Kinks frontman Ray Davies while he was at home suffering from a bad cold, “Sunny Afternoon” was inspired by the high levels of progressive tax imposed by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson (a subject also covered by the Beatles in their song “Taxman”), as well as a host of difficult issues he was facing at the time. Despite the Kinks’ immense success, group tensions, lawsuits, an unrealistic workload and unsupportive management was making them miserable. Davies was also dealing with new fatherhood, and had even left the band for a while.

In writing the song, Davis composed the melody first, then created an alter ego to express his feelings. He later recalled: “The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself.” In order to prevent the listener from sympathizing with the song’s protagonist, a spoiled aristocrat bemoaning the loss of his vast unearned wealth, Davies said, “I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty.” (Songfacts)

Regarding those lyrics I loved as a kid, Davies explained in a 2016 interview with Q magazine: “My mother was quite large. But that also alludes to the government, the British Empire, trying to break people.”

Davies was still suffering from his cold on the day he recorded the song on May 13, 1966, and now that I know this, his nasal congestion is apparent in his vocals, which nevertheless still sound great to me. He recalled to Q magazine: “I did it in one take and when I heard it back I said, ‘No, let me do it properly,’ but the session was out of time. So that was the vocal. I heard it again the other day. I was 22 but I sound like someone about 40 who’s been through the mill. I really hang on some of the notes. A joyous song, though, even if it’s suppressed joy. I had real fun writing that.” Backing vocals were sung by Dave Davies, Kinks bassist Pete Quaife, and Ray Davies’ then wife Rasa.

With its strong music hall vibe (a type of British theatrical entertainment similar to American vaudeville that was popular from the early Victorian era through World War I, characterized by a mix of popular songs, comedy and specialty acts), “Sunny Afternoon” was a continuation of the stylistic departure from the band’s earlier hard-driving, power chord songs like “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night” that began with 1965’s “A Well Respected Man”. Besides Davies’ wonderful vocals, I love Pete Quaife’s jaunty bass riff, session musician Nicky Hopkins’ spirited piano, and the charming little musical touches like the harmonica, tambourine and lively percussion heard throughout the track.

Released as a single on June 3, 1966, “Sunny Afternoon” went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart that July, where it spent three weeks. The song also reached #1 in Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands and Norway, and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. It was later included on their fourth album Face to Face, released in October 1966, as well as becoming the title track for their 1967 compilation album.

The promotional video produced for the single featured the band performing in a cold, snowy environment, in sharp contrast to the lyrics about enjoying a sunny afternoon.

Kinks Weeks – Living On A Thin Line …christiansmusicmusings.wordpress.com

Christian and I share a lot of the same musical tastes. It’s odd because neither one of us grew up with The Beatles in real-time or that great 60s generation. We both grew up in the 80s but share a lot of the same likes. He has a very cool informative site that is a must if you are a music fan. He goes over older music and newer music much more than I do. Go see him at https://christiansmusicmusings.wordpress.com/

A Kinks Song I Dig: Living on a Thin Line

When Max, who writes the great PowerPop blog, came knocking to see whether I’d like to participate in a song series dedicated to The Kinks I replied, ‘sure!’ After all, next to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, they are my favorite ‘60s band.

I also knew right away what my pick would be, which may seem a bit strange. After all, the British group has many great songs. As an ‘80s song, it’s also not the most obvious choice, especially considering I tend to favor the band’s ‘60s output over what they released in subsequent decades: Living on a Thin Line.

One distinct feature of Living on a Thin Line is that it was written by Kinks lead guitarist and backing vocalist Dave Davies instead of his older brother Ray Davies who penned most of the group’s songs. The track first appeared in November 1984 on the Kinks’ 21^st studio album Word of Mouth. Two months later, it was also released separately as a 12-inch promotional radio single in the U.S., backed by Ray Davies track Sold Me Out.

Living on a Thin Line, one of two songs Dave wrote for the album, was a reflection on the Kinks’ long and difficult career, as well as his disdain for politicians, he noted in his 1997 biography Kink. Another influence was what he viewed as the deterioration of English identity in the 20^th century and a sense of nostalgia for the old days.

In a July 2022 interview with UK paper The Independent, conducted in the wake of Dave’s memoir that’s also titled Living On a Thin Line, he gave a more narrow explanation of the song. “Living on a Thin Line is about us,” he said, meaning The Kinks. For context, the story notes at the time he wrote it, Dave had started to worry The Kinks had become Ray’s backing band and, quoting the article, poured his feelings about how their relationship had become an uneasy tightrope into lyrics ostensibly about the decline of England.

Here’s a live version of the song, which apparently was captured in 1984 during the Word of Mouth Tour in Frankfurt, Germany. Setlist.fm documents a concert The Kinks played at the city’s Festhalle on November 23, 1984. Damn, I wish I would have been there!

Living on a Thin Line has received praise from critics as one of the best songs written by Dave Davies who also penned some other Kinks songs, most notably the great Death of a Clown. “In ‘Living on a Thin Line’ – a dark variation on Ray’s own death-of-England’s-glory songs – brooding, goose-stepping chords and moping Pink Floyd synths underscore the desperate effectiveness of Dave’s nervous croon,” opined Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. Even Robert Christgau had something nice to say about the song, calling it the second-best on the Word of Mouth album after Come Dancing.

Living on a Thin Line also gained some exposure on TV. It was featured three times in a 2001 episode of The Sopranos titled University. According to Wikipedia, producer Terence Winter said it was the series’ most asked-about song. Living on the Thin Line was also used during the credits in the finale of HBO series Vice Principals.

Sources: Wikipedia; The Independent; Setlist.fm; YouTube

Kinks Weeks – Heart Of Gold …soundday.wordpress.com

Dave grew up in Canada, now resides in Texas, and has been passionate about music for as long as he can remember. Unfortunately, a brief foray into buying keyboards during his high school years didn’t equate to making music people were passionate about doing anything with but avoiding! He writes a daily music blog, A Sound Day, looking at memorable music events from album releases to artist birthdays to important concerts and more. You can find Dave at https://soundday.wordpress.com.

Thanks Max, for inviting me to be a part of this “forum.” I look forward to seeing what other music fans come up with, what their reactions are to The Kinks and which songs from the band’s 25-or-so year run they choose to highlight.

It would be easier and more obvious to do the Beatles or Rolling Stones instead, but The Kinks are perhaps a more interesting choice since they’ve always been sort of on the periphery of major headline stardom and to many are an afterthought when discussing the ’60s and the British Invasion. I don’t put them on an even footing with the other two bands but the Kinks certainly deserve a bit more respect. A good chunk of their catalog is unknown to most, myself included.

My first thought when asked to write about a song of theirs was “Come Dancing”, their superb 1983 comeback hit, but that title had already been claimed. Which was actually good because it made me think a bit more and re-examine some more of their songs. Still, I knew I wanted to do something off State of Confusion, the album that put them back on hit radio after a fairly long absence, in North America at least. It was indeed the first album of theirs I bought and to date, still the only studio album – not a greatest hits sort of compilation – that I’ve had.

Though the Kinks showed up on the scene at approximately the same time as the Beatles and the Stones, they never quite matched their success and weren’t adopted nearly as much by “oldies” or “Classic Rock” radio stations. So as a kid growing up in the ’70s, I was aware of and quite liked some of their big hits – the quirky, scandalous for the times “Lola”, the rock staples like “All Day and All of The Night” and the nicely pop-py “Victoria” but they were never at the forefront of my musical thoughts.

I noticed and liked their hard-rocking “Destroyer” in 1981; think I even bought the 45. But I really only began to appreciate their real talent with State of Confusion. I heard enough of it on radio to go out and buy it, and when I did, I found myself liking almost all the tracks and playing it end to end quite often. I really became aware of what a great lyricist Ray Davies was – how he could paint such aural pictures, and match opposing feelings like joy and sorrow, optimism and realism so well in a song. Thus, how he captured the nuances of life!

Also clear to me was that the band, like most good ones, was varied. They put together both great fist-pumping rockers and beautifully melodic pop tunes. This, ironically, annoyed their label boss Clive Davis. For some reason he thought this would cause, well a “State of Confusion” among fans and limit their appeal. Instead, I think the opposite was true. However, he wanted to market them exclusively as a hard rock act and didn’t like songs like “Come Dancing” or “Don’t Forget to Dance” since they were hardly companion pieces to Ozzy Osbourne or AC/DC for radio.

Many of their best tunes are rock; many are “pop”. But “Heart of Gold” falls somewhere in between, rather best described as “power pop” – so where better than the Power Pop Blog for it to show up!

The song tells of a young woman who is embittered and seems to have a tough demeanor, but he realizes has a “heart of gold” underneath that “tough exterior”. In the song she was “the apple of your father’s eye” until a younger sister came along and she found “all the affection suddenly gone.” Random, fictitious thoughts from Ray… or about someone he knew? Many think the latter.

Ray had been in a serious relationship with Chrissie Hynde for a couple of years or more at the time the song appeared. In fact, they’d just had a baby together, Natalie Hynde. Rather mirrored in the lyrics. However, all wasn’t rosy for the pair; soon after they split up and she married Jim Kerr from Simple Minds, making the song all the more poignant and an admirable expression if it was indeed about his soon-to-be ex, who certainly showed a tough exterior in public.

Musically, I love the upbeat song and especially the jangly playing of Ray’s brother Dave, the band’s lead guitarist. Despite being contentious as anything, the two brothers were always the core and heart of The Kinks. On this one they manage to pull off a very retro-’60s sound yet keep it modern with solid production (which Ray did himself). While mirroring their ’60s heyday, it also showed a keen ear-to-the-ground awareness of the new alternative rock sounds just beginning to show up – R.E.M., The Smiths and yes, The Pretenders. It was lost on me back then, but re-listening to “Heart of Gold”, the first thing that jumped out at me is how much it sounds like a Pretenders song. It is easy in fact to imagine Chrissie singing it instead of Ray. So similar are the stylings I went to the liner notes to see if any of The Pretenders were on the song. They aren’t, but I’m betting they were in Ray’s mind when he was putting the song down on paper. Indeed, Rolling Stone noted the same, saying it “has the jangly, quasi-folk rock sound of the present hit ‘Back on the Chain Gang’” by the Pretenders.

The song wasn’t released as a single, so like many other worthy Kinks songs, it was never widely known. A shame. I’ll give the last word over to Rolling Stone again, who at the time stated “nobody but The Kinks could have made such a record in 1983 and no band deserves more to be at the top.”

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