The Kinks and the Village Green Preservation Society

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  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    No...... APEMAN was a brilliant inventive song

    Ray lost it about th time of Cum Dancing... total crap song

    but he had a good run

    Still cant decide whos the greatest songwriter
    ... Paul Mac or Ray ?
  • Michael_EveMichael_Eve Posts: 14,424
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    Happy big 7-0, Raymond. You genius.

    From Face to Face to Lola versus Powerman...I think the Kinks were right up there with The Beatles. Village Green...is a wonderful album, but Arthur....is my all-time favourite. I think it's their absolute masterpiece. Or should I say "finest hour." :)
  • zackai48zackai48 Posts: 800
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    No...... APEMAN was a brilliant inventive song

    Ray lost it about th time of Cum Dancing... total crap song

    but he had a good run

    Still cant decide whos the greatest songwriter
    ... Paul Mac or Ray ?

    Can't agree. Come Dancing was a marvellous song both lyrically and musically. Ray Davies is, in my opinion, the greatest of British songwriters-even though I loved Lennon and McCartney.
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    No...... APEMAN was a brilliant inventive song
    You have to be joking... surely? :D

    I think Ray Davies actually admitted it was a cynical piss-take of the type of song that gets on Top Of The Pops. I detest it so much that I have to switch it off as soon as it comes on the radio.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Was nt Desmond Morris book... Naked Ape.... out in
    paperback selling millions ?
    Maybe that book inspired Ray ?
  • Michael_EveMichael_Eve Posts: 14,424
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    Was nt Desmond Morris book... Naked Ape.... out in
    paperback selling millions ?
    Maybe that book inspired Ray ?

    Very likely. It was released in 1967. I like the song. Fits in nicely with Lola v Powerman's themes of disillusionment with the record industry and yearning for freedom. If I had to choose a rather cynical attempt at writing a hit, I'd plump for Plastic Man, which is bordering on self parody. No, it IS self parody. Think Ray's admitted as much himself!
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    come on .... Ray is famous for his humour and novelty songs.... Las t of the Steam power trains...
    Ape man..... Dedicated follower of fashion etc

    The Beatles were knocking out lots of novelty songs in the 60s too but Ray probably stuck at it more than most .

    Good to see that Ray is hale and hearty and still doing concert tours... wot a guy !

    (thought I heard a rumour of Ray and Dave getting back together to do something too ! )
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Ray Davies is a legend of Rock and Roll and has
    achieved iconic status around the world for his
    brilliant songs and lyrics.

    He hit the scene with the Kinks not too long after the
    Beatles and with songs like
    'You really got me'
    'Waterloo Sunset' and 'Lazy Sunday Afternoon,'
    he helped make the 60s into a special decade of pop music.

    But not many people know that it could all so easily have never happened, a few more hours more left out in the cold
    for the baby(Rays grandma ) and Ray might never even have been born !

    Ray's mother's mother ..............was an unwanted baby and she
    was abandonned on a doorstep..... left out in the cold and rain !
    But luckily the baby was found, taken pity on, and given a second chance in life..

    When she grew up, she met a guy and got married
    but her husband's well to do family were horrified that their son had married an orphan girl with no family history.

    They promptly cut him off from the family.

    The course of true love never runs smoothly but the young couple must have been happy together, because they went on to have 21 children !!
    One of those children was Ray's mother !

    So whoever found that baby on the doorstep and saved
    it's young life, never knew it but they also saved some of
    the finest pop music ever written !


    .
  • Michael_EveMichael_Eve Posts: 14,424
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    come on .... Ray is famous for his humour and novelty songs.... Las t of the Steam power trains...
    Ape man..... Dedicated follower of fashion etc

    The Beatles were knocking out lots of novelty songs in the 60s too but Ray probably stuck at it more than most .

    Good to see that Ray is hale and hearty and still doing concert tours... wot a guy !

    (thought I heard a rumour of Ray and Dave getting back together to do something too ! )

    Yeah, of course. But those songs are good. ;-)

    I think because Village Green had sold so poorly (and I know that's ridiculous) they were looking for a 'banker' to restore their profile, but I'm afraid I think Plastic Man was a cynical rehash of Dedicated Follower...mixed with a bit of, say, Well Respected Man. Those songs are imperishable classics, but Plastic Man, um....isn't. IMO of course. And only judging by the generally wonderful standards of their other songs of the period.

    I come to praise, not to bury the genius of Sir Ray. :)
  • spaceygalspaceygal Posts: 3,447
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    Ray Davies is a legend of Rock and Roll and has
    achieved iconic status around the world for his
    brilliant songs and lyrics.

    He hit the scene with the Kinks not too long after the
    Beatles and with songs like
    'You really got me'
    'Waterloo Sunset' and 'Lazy Sunday Afternoon,'
    he helped make the 60s into a special decade of pop music.

    .

    Lazy Sunday Afternoon is actually by The Small Faces, not The Kinks. I love The Kinks and Ray Davies is an amazing songwriter, I agree. So many brilliant songs, real classics and very influential. Actually so were the aforementioned Small Faces, another terrific 60's band. :)
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon..... in Summertime......!

    ( you must remember it ! )
  • spaceygalspaceygal Posts: 3,447
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon..... in Summertime......!

    ( you must remember it ! )

    Yes of course I know Sunny Afternoon but you said Lazy Sunday, which was a hit by The Small Faces so I thought you were talking about that song. Anyway, both songs are good! :-)
  • Michael_EveMichael_Eve Posts: 14,424
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    spaceygal wrote: »
    Yes of course I know Sunny Afternoon but you said Lazy Sunday, which was a hit by The Small Faces so I thought you were talking about that song. Anyway, both songs are good! :-)

    "Lazy Sunday Afternoon-ah...." Brillliant song. Love it when the chimes come in.

    Small Faces were great, just think their albums weren't as consistent as The Kinks. Very few bands are though. :). Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is an off the wall classic, though.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
    Forum Member
    Lazy Sunday Afternoon.... Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon....
    Waterloo Sunset...... Hey Jude.....

    all these classic songs of the 60s.....

    But I bet most of the guys on this forum were nt even born when these songs hit the airwaves !
  • SamMcKSamMcK Posts: 986
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    The Kinks are one of the greatest singles acts of all time. Some days I think they might be THE best. Some of those albums ain't bad either. If they only did You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon or Waterloo Sunset they would be fondly remembered but from around 1964-1968 it was like Ray Davies (and Dave) had an endless supply of musical greatness seeping out of them!

    Days, All Day and All of the Night, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Set Me Free, Come On Now, I'm Not Like Everybody Else, Dead End Street, David Watts, Come On Now etc. etc.

    I mean just listen to Till The End of The Day:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIc-RnqjwWA

    Those riffs, those harmonies. F*ckin' hell!

    This much later version from the Jools Holland Show is brilliant too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-3gxWG2wI

    God bless Ray Davies and The Kinks! :D

    (I was born in 1994 for some proof of this music's staying power)

    Edit: Come On Now is so underrated I wrote it down twice! ;-)
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    holy crap ... born 1994 .... right at the start of the Spice Girls era ...... !

    but hes got to go back to the 60s to find some "real " music !
  • JohnnyForgetJohnnyForget Posts: 24,061
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    Ray Davies is 71 today.

    Happy Birthday Ray.
  • SILLY SUESILLY SUE Posts: 5,499
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    Happy belated birthday to Ray. :-)
  • slimlinetonicslimlinetonic Posts: 56
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    I love that album to be its their monument, although they had such a huge canon of great songs, and they albums are great, some are quite patchy, some are downright horrendous, but Ray is one of the national heroes of Uk music, they've got a lot of great singles to their name and Shangri La is one of the best single ever made, a huge unrated single that deserves to acknowledged as the great lost single it is. as is the brilliant Village Green, the song and the album, buy it now its miles better than Abbey Road.
  • The_BonoboThe_Bonobo Posts: 5,643
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    Has anyone here seen the Kinks musical "Sunny Afternoon"?

    I saw it a few months back and it was amazing. One great song after another and loads
    of laughs to be had. The guys playing the Davies brothers were particularly good.
  • JohnnyForgetJohnnyForget Posts: 24,061
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    Ray Davies is 72 today.

    Happy Birthday Ray.
  • Deb ArkleDeb Arkle Posts: 12,584
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    The_Bonobo wrote: »
    Has anyone here seen the Kinks musical "Sunny Afternoon"?

    I saw it a few months back and it was amazing. One great song after another and loads
    of laughs to be had. The guys playing the Davies brothers were particularly good.
    I have done - it was great, and having liked the Kinks before seeing the show I'm now obsessed with them. What genius! IMO Dave Davies is hugely underrated, you (mostly) just hear about Ray.
  • SILLY SUESILLY SUE Posts: 5,499
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    Heads-up! :)

    There will be a Ray Davies special at Christmas with radio presenter Mike Sweeney. Mike was speaking to Ray for over half an hour a few weeks ago. :cool:
  • clippaclippa Posts: 240
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  • PitmanPitman Posts: 28,495
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    Ray Davies is 72 today.

    Happy Birthday Ray.

    you remembered? :D
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