Listened to this favorite from the past today: the themes are still the same .

"Low Budget","A Gallon Of Gas",and "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" are all just as relevant today as 1979, maybe moreso.

"A Little Of Emotion" and "Misery" both continue to describe the human condition.

"Superman" was soooooo disco, but who doesn't want to look and feel better. I'll take this over "Let's Work" any day.

Anybody else feeling Kinky ??????

Nice call Elmo. I'll need to give a spin. I'm feeling Kinky too but not for you mate! MEZ

Well in California we are always kinky Elmo....Espicially when it makes for a great sig.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Fantastic disc by the Muswell Hillbillies! And it has aged very well. Some of their most consistent rock tunes...Outta Space, Pressure, Misery, are all fantastic full throtled rockers and Ray really belts it out. And some tender moments as well...Love Moving Pictures and A Little Bit of Emotion....

Check out To The Bone for a great acoustic version of Gallon of Gas!!

Very much their attempt at SOME GIRLS. The LP was even recorded in New York instead of their customary Konk studio in the UK. Great album with a nice mix of punk and disco along with their signature sound. The JJF riff gets a nice workout on "Catch Me Now I'm Falling." A fact made even more explicit on the live album and concert film from the LOW BUDGET tour - ONE FOR THE ROAD.

Celluloid Heros on One For the Road is beautiful...tenders vocals and great, great guitar soloing...

was it commented on at the time how derivative of the Stones this new sound was? Must have seemed a bit strange for them to remake themselves as arena rockers at that point. In the 60s--maybe before Beggars?--if anything the Stones took more cues from them, I would say, at least as far as ideas for songs and styles to explore.

Great album - saw them that summer of '79 at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ.
They rocked like there was no tomorrow. What a band.

One of those bands I'm very happy to say I got to see live, in 1984, during the Word of Mouth tour, here in Atlanta. Caught Ray Davies here in 2006, also a fantastic show.

I'd love to see a Kinks reunion, but I understand that a lot of it is still dependent on the health of Dave.

Hey, Elmo.....going to SAL at the Fox with Chuck L. tomorrow night?

I saw the Seattle show on this tour in 1979. The first thing I thought when I heard this album was, "Oh, Ray listened to Some Girls."

was the kinks song "Destroyer" from this album too? I like the sound on songs like destroyer and Low budget. they remind me of the stones sound on "Hang fire".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-06-04 22:51 by ryanpow.

"Destroyer" was a LOW BUDGET outtake that wound up on their next studio album, 1981's GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT. The same fate befell "Entertainment" which was remixed for inclusion on 1989's UK JIVE album a decade later.

"Destroyer" came off the "Give the People What they Want" record which came after "One For the Road" live album. Great Home video from that tour was released at that time. There is a double CD/DVD of "One for the Road" available.

"Give the People" was a great album, contained "Around the Dial" I saw them on that tour and Bryan Adams opened. From what I recall, the crowd accepted him. It was the album before "Cuts Like a Knife"

Hope that info helped?

(Your unofficial Kinks historian)

Forgot to mention all the great "steals" - Stones, Beatles, and Animals are 3 that I caught - on this album.

Love "Destroyer" too. Stolen from ........ The Kinks!

I kick my own ass daily that i missed Ray Davies latest tour.

Davies has to be one of the best songwriters in the business. I wanted to see him at The Beacon a few months ago but couldn't make it. I hope he comes back around.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.

I have forgotten how I love the song Yo-yo from the "Give the People What They Want" CD.

I saw the Kinks a bunch of times in the late '70s and early '80s. 1977 through '84 were the Kinks' big makeup years to compensate for 1965 to '69 when they were banned from performing in the United States because of a dispute with the American Federation of Musicians. After several years of music hall concept records, they finally conquered America as an arena rock act.

The conscious commercialization of their sound was in part due their signing with Arista Records before Sleepwalker. Arista prez Clive Davis told Ray Davies to lay off the concept albums and write some hits. Another factor was Ray Davies' involvement with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. I understand that he was pretty resentful that his girlfriend had huge hits from her first record (covering his song no less), while he had plugged away for more than a decade and was pretty much a cult figure.

Apart from nicking the riff in Catch Me Now, I'm Falling, I don't sense much of a Stones influence here. Dave Davies' guitar sound was too thick and distorted. It was more like they were letting the world know that they invented heavy metal, which Dave arguably invented when he attacked the speaker cone of his amp with a razor before they made You Really Got Me.

Although the albums they released during this time -- Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, Give the People ..., State of Confusion, and Word of Mouth -- had their moments of brilliance, they also had some pandering that seemed beneath Ray Davies. Give the people what they want, indeed.

Those albums were no match for the Kinks' output from 1965 to '71. But, then again, their albums from that period -- Kink Kontroversy, Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola, and Muswell Hillbillies -- compare well with any of their contemporaries during this period.