Very funny!


[www.kindakinks.net]

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RawIguanaCologne
Very funny!


[www.kindakinks.net]

Well I think I agree with Ray on this one.....Revolver isn't the best they did IMO

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-11 01:08 by NICOS.

Slates?

I think that by 'slates' he might mean 'slags'.

RD's review seems ironic, because the next Kinks album Face To Face sounded a bit like Revolver and Something Else more so. Maybe he was out to do Revolver better than The Beatles. I wonder what RD thought of Sgt. Pepper.

RD and The Kinks were certainly influenced by The Beatles early on--you hear it in their first two singles from 1964.

were they called discotheques in 1967? ... well there you go!

The term discothèque apparently dates from as early as 1950, describing the type of nightclub where records are played and dancing takes place with other descriptors being "showy decor" and "elaborate lighting".

Hence, "disco" music of the 70s isn't really a descriptive musical term in itself, but rather describes records that are meant to be danced to in such clubs rather than merely listened to.

[www.thefreedictionary.com]

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DandelionPowderman
Slates?

A cross between Slags and Slights.

I always sensed some jealousy from Ray towards The Beatles. He has stated in many interviews how he disliked Lennon, saying his humor was mean. And I saw Ray twice during the Storytellers tour, and he complained both times about The Beatles Anthology...

Funny. I agree The Kinks next two albums were very much Beatlesque.

Revolver is a really overrated album, Rubber Soul was way better, and Sgt Pepper was more solid, if not really containing one standout track and thus lacking the peaks of Revolver. Do people tend to rate Revolver so highly because of the miserly three peaks? Speaking of "I'm Only Sleeping," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said She Said" of course. I personally think that Abbey Road literally TOWERS above their other releases, but I'm also quite a sucker for the White Album which, although undoubtedly containing some filler, features SO many more peaks than Revolver. The American release (which later became world wide official) Magical Mystery Tour is the sole Beatles album to not feature even one weak cut; even Abbey Road had the sometimes-annoying-depending-on-your-mood "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

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whitem8
I always sensed some jealousy from Ray towards The Beatles. He has stated in many interviews how he disliked Lennon, saying his humor was mean. And I saw Ray twice during the Storytellers tour, and he complained both times about The Beatles Anthology...

Funny. I agree The Kinks next two albums were very much Beatlesque.

I think there is something to the rivalry aspect.

I recall a (U.S.) talk show in the mid-90s on which Ray appeared (carrying a suitcase/big fat briefcase he never opened, and when questioned by the host, Ray answered, "A prop, old boy!"; I believe it was during an appearance on the Conan O'Brien show in the mid-90s--I've looked it up: Ray appeared on that show October 23, 1995, so that's the one where he tells the story of being snubbed by The Beatles, but it's been removed from YouTube). At one point during the interview the host ask what it was like meeting The Beatles. Ray spoke of how they were one of the supporting acts where The Beatles were headlining, in England, circa 1964/65, and he related resentfully of how dismissive each of The Beatles were toward him--not so much Ringo, and maybe not George, but particularly Paul and especially John, who made a monosyllabic snide remark to Ray backstage.

This was the point in their respective careers where The Kinks were cranking out these stunningly innovative and original number 1 records and were threatening for a few seconds to usurp the popularity of everyone--the Beatles included.

One has to wonder about the true origin of The Kinks being banned (for fighting backstage?!) from the U.S. starting from 1965--perhaps Brian Epstein used his network of influence among promoters to keep The Kinks from intruding as top dog in the U.S. market the way they were already doing at that point in the UK market.

It is perhaps also worth mentioning that the song Waterloo Sunset was originally titled Liverpool Sunset, as Ray has revealed in interviews from recent years, such as in 2010 with the Liverpool Echo:

“Liverpool is my favourite city, and the song was originally called Liverpool Sunset,” smiles its writer, Ray Davies. “I was inspired by Merseybeat. I'd fallen in love with Liverpool by that point. On every tour, that was the best reception. We played The Cavern, all those old places, and I couldn't get enough of it.

“I had a load of mates in bands up there, and that sound – not The Beatles but Merseybeat – that was unbelievable. It used to inspire me every time.

“So I wrote Liverpool Sunset. Later it got changed to Waterloo Sunset, but there's still that play on words with Waterloo.

“London was home, I'd grown up there, but I like to think I could be an adopted Scouser. My heart is definitely there.”

Full story from the Liverpool Echo at: [www.liverpoolecho.co.uk]

So perhaps being snubbed by the scousers that time backstage--when Ray himself liked to consider that he himself could have been an adopted scouser--may have really hit "too close to home".



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-11 06:12 by stonehearted.

i'll have to look in the picture book box set booklet when i get home but it says when they were kicked out of the USA for a few years. can't remember if it said fighting, i know they were talking about fighting at that point in the booklet though.

As it happens, we don't need the Conan show video after all. Ray relates the matter at length in his book. The Conan appearance was to promote X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography, actually.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from an interview with an Australian magazine called Rhythms, during which Ray relates the incident again:

Absolutely and as we're speaking just about every second Australian is at the moment at a record shop and buying the Beatles Anthology CD. You tell a great story in the book about opening for the Beatles in London and what John Lennon said to you. Was that a pretty vivid memory?
[Lennon told Davies that if The Kinks (who were opening for the Fab Four) ran out of songs to play on stage they could borrow some of The Beatles' songs].
You don't forget things like that. It's one of those things that happens very quickly but in the book it sort of goes on forever, memorable things are like that. It's my Dealey Plaza, my Dallas, it's something I remember. They were such a great band and obviously could still be a great band but that was a very vivid memory.

He was sightly intimidating towards you, wasn't he, on that occasion?
We were just starting out and they were obviously the Beatles and a lot of people think it's unkind what he said to me but I think that's part of being an older statesman. He'd been around, they'd been around much longer than us and they thought why not! We were acting like upstarts anyway so they put us in our place really.

Full interview at: [www.kindakinks.net]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-07-11 06:52 by stonehearted.

The Kinks were banned in America by the very influential American Federation of Television. From all accounts, their 64 US tour was a full on punk shambles. With many fights, a Union official being punched by Ray (for saying the UK was practically communist) and then The Kinks refused to pay union dues before going on a TV show and were blacklisted. At the time there was a lot of corruption in the US music business (payolla another) and I am sure that the Unions wanted to make an example of an English pop group that was taking money in and girls. Ray was quite bitter about the ban in later years, saying it was a conspiracy to rob the Kinks of four of their best years at a peak as a live band.

Here's another interview with Ray from 1995 where he is also promoting X-Ray, this time with Goldmine Magazine. In this interview Ray is again asked about that first meeting with Lennon and in this interview Ray speaks more candidly and at greater length about the rivalry between The Kinks and The Beatles:

I was reading an interesting quote by Pete Townshend where he compliments you by saying he'd never be the writer that you became and he also talked about how the Who and the Kinks never got much credit in light of the Stones and the Beatles. Did you ever feel the light should have shown more on the Kinks?
No, I think justifiably the Beatles got the credit they deserved, and the Stones, for the most part. I just felt that they were led by their promotion machine a bit too much and I think deep down John Lennon and people like that would have preferred to have mixed with us a bit more. I think it was the elitist attitude that their advisors took more than the bands. I think the Rolling Stones are friendlier now to me than they were then. It's easy to say that we were all buddies.

You told a story tonight about an incident with John Lennon at a show where the Kinks were part of the bill.[[i]In his show, Davies described Lennon checking out the Kinks from the wings, putting on an air of superiority until he saw how well the band was going over. Afterwards, Lennon offered to write a song for the Kinks.[/i]]
Maybe he felt intimidated by us. We were the new young band in town and he was sizing us up. I always think of him being like the older boy at school. They always give you a hard time when you go there.

Didn't Lennon love your song "Wonderboy"?
Yeah, in my book I talk about the time he was in a club and was playing it. That's nice. It wasn't a big hit. I think he liked my work. I stayed at an apartment close to him in New York. It's an odd thing, this sort of rivalry that goes on in your lives. I used to see him in New York walking down the street with Yoko. I uesed to just wave. Then one day I was going off on a tour and I ran past 72nd Street by the Dakota and I was off jogging and I saw Yoko standing there alone and she had a kind of weird smile on her face. I'd never seen here without him before. Then I went on the tour and four days later he was dead. It's kind of weird.

I was in Paris doing an interview and they were playing records and asking me to make comments on the records and they played [Lennon's] "Starting Over" and I said, "I think it's a good record. I'm glad he's having success. It's not as good as the stuff he's done on his own."

And he said, "Don't you think it's as good?"

And I said "Not particularly."

And the guy said - it's a French journalist - "Oh, that's interesting because he got shot this morning. He's dead."

I felt really pissed off that he did it in that way. So I went with the people who I was with to Notre Dame and I lit a candle for him. It was the only thing I could do in the circumstances. It was a big sense of loss. You know sometimes the rivals are closer to you in life than the friends.

Full interview at: [www.kindakinks.net]

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whitem8
The Kinks were banned in America by the very influential American Federation of Television. From all accounts, their 64 US tour was a full on punk shambles. With many fights, a Union official being punched by Ray (for saying the UK was practically communist) and then The Kinks refused to pay union dues before going on a TV show and were blacklisted. At the time there was a lot of corruption in the US music business (payolla another) and I am sure that the Unions wanted to make an example of an English pop group that was taking money in and girls. Ray was quite bitter about the ban in later years, saying it was a conspiracy to rob the Kinks of four of their best years at a peak as a live band.

yes it was something like that in the booklet.

It used to be cool to slag off Sgt Pepper.

Now it's cool to slag off Revolver.

It will be Rubber Soul next.

revolver is better than anything the kinks ever recorded.

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sonomastone
revolver is better than anything the kinks ever recorded.

false

I would say REVOLVER is the best Beatles album.

When I think about it, I never play Revolver.
Rubber Soul, however, I play once a week. Their best album IMO.

At the risk of sounding stupid......isn't In My Life on the American Revolver?

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Thrylan
At the risk of sounding stupid......isn't In My Life on the American Revolver?

No, was on Rubber Soul. Several songs from Rubber Soul and Revolver were butchered off each album and put on the US album Yesterday and Today.

Ahh....then never mind, In My Life is a personal favorite.

Yeah it is a stunning song, and with amazing lyrics written by such a young hooligan. Very introspective and mature, with some stunning chord structures.

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whitem8
Yeah it is a stunning song, and with amazing lyrics written by such a young hooligan. Very introspective and mature, with some stunning chord structures.

Considered to be the first one they(John) wrote that's not about "romantic" love......very mature indeed.

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sonomastone
revolver is better than anything the kinks ever recorded.

IMO, the Beatles didn't last long enough to reach the Kinks's level.

Listen to the Sleepwalker album. IMO, there is stuff there that very few bands can do.

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DandelionPowderman

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sonomastone
revolver is better than anything the kinks ever recorded.

IMO, the Beatles didn't last long enough to reach the Kinks's level.

Listen to the Sleepwalker album. IMO, there is stuff there that very few bands can do.

sleepwalker, misfits, muswell hillbillies, everybody's in showbiz, something else and village green are all better than revolver.some might include the album arthur and lola as well.

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keefriffhard4life

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DandelionPowderman

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sonomastone
revolver is better than anything the kinks ever recorded.

IMO, the Beatles didn't last long enough to reach the Kinks's level.

Listen to the Sleepwalker album. IMO, there is stuff there that very few bands can do.

sleepwalker, misfits, muswell hillbillies, everybody's in showbiz, something else and village green are all better than revolver.some might include the album arthur and lola as well.

I love Revolver, but even Schoolboys and Low Budget are better, imo.

I like the fact that on Revolver each song is sung by a different band member.
Name another LP where that happens.
Tomorrow Never Knows is seriously trippy and inventive...shit those guys were so stoned they even let Ringo sing a number. They were progressive mainstream pop. Our kids sing their drug songs at school 50 years later..isn't that more subversive than some bands you could mention.
Revolver rules. As does Beggars, Face to face, etc. love them all.
Ray's review gives you an idea as to his music - hall taste. He probably liked When I'm 64 best on Sgt Pepper. That's a dead end street as far as i'm concerned.
Worth mentioning that some of his recent recordings have been really good though.