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Post by bamajohn1 on Aug 18, 2012 23:29:04 GMT -5
Welcome aboard misterpleasant ! Good to see you already posting! I think you'll find things quite pleasant here!
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Post by Iñakink on Aug 19, 2012 6:35:24 GMT -5
Welcome Mr Pleasant!
I hope the board is treating you right.
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Post by HollyH on Aug 19, 2012 12:37:40 GMT -5
Hello Mr Pleasant! Glad to have you here!! We'd love to know where you're from (we're a very international crowd) and what era of the Kinks you love most.
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Post by sleepwalker24 on Aug 19, 2012 15:57:09 GMT -5
Welcome to the board Mrpleasant! Do come back and visit us soon!
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Post by misterpleasant on Aug 21, 2012 15:29:46 GMT -5
to answer a few q's: I live in LA, but I grew up in New Rochelle, NY in the '60's... Like all my friends at the time I adored; You really got me, All day and all of the night and tired of waiting, but when I heard See My Friends I cried... and still do whenever I play it... The Beatles, Kinks and Dylan changed my life as a teenager... but only Ray made me cry... maybe something about the underdog... even at the time my contemporaries could barely keep straight that "well respected man" and "you really got me' were from the same band... holly asked about favorite songs... that changes from day to day... moment to moment... for years it was "rosy wont you please come home" or wonderboy or big black smoke or autumn almanac... or I'm not like everybody else or mister pleasant or days or too much on mind or dead end street... I think you get the picture... since I stopped there I think today it's dead end street... my era would have to be that era... On weekends in '68 my best friend and I would take the stamford local to the city (NYC) and go to the village and prowl the little record stores for new British Kinks singles on PYE that would likely never come out on reprise and if they did they would get little airplay... it is hard to describe what it was like sitting on the train back to new rochelle with Wonderboy and king kong, plastic man etc... my friend Jeff and I each staring down at the new kinks single in our hot little hands - the anticipation of what it would sound like made us giddy... (that era of kinks went largely unheard in the states until god created John Mendelsohn who gathered them all in on one lovely place in 70 or 71... the kinks kronicles) - when we'd get back to Jeff's house and put it on the turntable in his room we'd just look at each other shake our heads and fight back the sobs... Ray had done it again... I would say from about '66 through '69 ray never failed to blow my mind or exceed expectations... I (we) saw them multiple times at the fillmore east... it was a blast to be there but they were not a great live band in those days and could not compare to the likes of procol harum live... they were actually a better band in the 70's shows at the santa monica civic but the powerman era did not have the same electricity of the previous era for me... I myself am a songwriter and have been since i was 13... I came out to california to do that but got somewhat derailed by television and film writing and now advertising... somewhere around 1978 when I had already altered my career plans a friend asked me why I keep writing songs... I said something like; Somebodies got to keep writing new Kink singles... to this day i continue writing new kink singles and perform occasionally here in LA... I put out a cd in '97 called Girls N' Cows... reviews said it sounded like Revolver... but it was more like a kinks album... 15 years later I have a new cd on the way... I now at age 62 unabashedly sing like Ray... meanwhile back to the list of faves... all of my friends were there - Polly - till the end of the day - get back in line - alcohol - too much on my mind - do you remember walter - Harry Rag - the a list of ray davies songs is quite possibly one of the great wonders of the world -
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Post by uncleson on Aug 21, 2012 16:14:34 GMT -5
Your history with The Kinks is quite amazing!! Im a few years younger, 58, and I felt as you did when you heard a Ray song. It was like he was singing to me-he understood me.
Of course I loveed other bands, Stones, Who etc, but Rays music, and daves, really was more personal to me. And, it wasnt easy to find their records after the ban! I really admired The Kinks for going their own way. The Beatles and Stones always followed each other concerned about mass appeal.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2012 16:25:24 GMT -5
I agree Uncle! The Kinks were always not like everybody else! I love that! And thank-you misterpleasant for a brilliant insight into your life with our beloved Kinks!
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Post by misterpleasant on Aug 21, 2012 16:31:08 GMT -5
Yes... you are right... because of their somewhat secondary pop status there was a sense of ownership with the Kinks... only my friend and I knew mister pleasant... the kinks were mine... and after a while he was just singing to me... i must say that Lola changed all that... for about 10 pop minutes the kinks went viral again but then after muswell it was back into a happy kinks obscurity... what part of the world did you grow up in?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2012 16:41:00 GMT -5
because of their somewhat secondary pop status there was a sense of ownership with the KinksAbsolutely agree with this!! I think that we all feel this way. The Kinks were always misfits and most of their fans were too! I know i am, and Uncle would agree!
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Post by uncleson on Aug 21, 2012 17:22:40 GMT -5
what part of the world did you grow up in?
Chicago, and t wasnt very easy to find KINKS albums, let alone singles. I found Face To face in a bargain box in a grocery, and was lucky to snatch the only copies of Something Else and VGPS in our towns record shop.
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Post by uncleson on Aug 21, 2012 17:24:33 GMT -5
The Kinks were always misfits and most of their fans were too! I know i am, and Uncle would agree! I am and always will be a Misfit!
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Post by sleepwalker24 on Aug 21, 2012 17:32:45 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your Kinks story Mrpleasant, I really enjoyed reading it, I love hearing how people got into the Kinks We hope you decide to stick around, it's always lovely to have new members posting
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Post by misterpleasant on Aug 21, 2012 18:21:22 GMT -5
good to get feedback - thanks for being all warm n' fuzzy - It's interesting that the ownership thing resonates throughout the kinkdom... the underdog thing is what I think helped keep ray creative for as long as he has been...
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Post by HollyH on Aug 21, 2012 20:15:29 GMT -5
Beautiful, beautiful account of your Kinks life, Mr P! It resonates so much with my experience too. I think you'll find we're all a band of misfits here, no matter how successful in life some of us may be -- it's that sympathy with the underdog and the desire to be just a little different (not like everybody else) that makes us tick. And the sense of ownership is very important. In fact, during the 80s (the arena years) I fell off the Kinks bandwagon because I felt they were no longer "my band." I continued to listen to their albums and loved that earlier music as much as ever, but I didn't buy any albums after Low Budget because I felt betrayed. It was if the Kinks didn't need me anymore, after all my years of being the only person I knew who loved them. Now, of course, I listen to those 80s albums and see that they are fantastic, but I couldn't hear it then. I remember hearing that Chrissy Hynde and Ray were an item and feeling angry . . . well, for multiple reasons, but the one I really admitted to was that I didn't want the New Wavers "adopting" Ray. And then along came "Come Dancing" and it made me cry all over again, like the best of the Pye era songs. But I really didn't return to the fold, so to speak, until 2005. After Ray was shot (boy, did I cry when I heard that news) I thought he'd never produce new music again. And then, lo and behold, I discovered that he was going to release his first solo album. The first cuts I heard off of Other People's Lives simply shattered me, and in an instant I was back in Kinks world. I haven't left since!
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Post by misterpleasant on Aug 22, 2012 2:23:25 GMT -5
I'm not like everybody else - completely resonates with all humans - It's something everyone feels at some age - In '66 it was the B-side to Sunny Afternoon - The only way to have heard it was to have bought the 45 RPM Single of Sunny Afternoon and flipped it over if you were curious... the song came with no hoopla... I don't believe it was on an Album until Kronicles around '70... In a time where music and styles changed so rapidly, to bury it for four years was to likely not care about it... It's A-Side would became the song he's best remembered for... but the B-Side is the one everyone relates to... the underdog if you will... it's a brilliantly kinksian ironic tale...
in speaking to the legacy - Waterloo Sunsets fine - I was in a pub in Whitby in'04... when said W. sunset came on the jukebox - everyone stopped their conversations and sang along - - a bit like the La Marseillaise scene in Casablanca - It felt good to know that 40 years down the road that song resonates in its home...
and finally... I secretly resented Chrissy Hynde too! Although as guy I remember thinking 'hey it's freakin Chrissy Hynde!"
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