gary
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Post by gary on Mar 10, 2011 12:17:21 GMT -5
(I hope I'm doing this starting-a-new-thread business correctly. I'm new to this sort of thing.) Along with my renewed obsession with the Kinks (after a years-long hiatus) comes the odd conviction that many of the songs are commenting on today's events. For example, "Get Up" sure sounds tailor-made for the folks who are protesting right now in Wisconsin. I think it's because Ray wrote about fundamental situations that keep coming up again and again. Do you ever find yourself making this kind of connection?
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Post by uncleson on Mar 10, 2011 13:49:43 GMT -5
Yes I do Gary, very frequently. Gallon Of Gas, Pressure, and Low Budget are as relevant today as they were when those songs were first released. A bad economy with gas prices rising. Sounds like the seventies to me! I remember when I had to schedule an appointment to get 10 gallons of gasoline during the OPEC oil embargo of 1974(?)
The list is long, so Ill let someone else list their relevant Kink's songs.
By the way, great idea for a thread!
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gary
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Post by gary on Mar 10, 2011 14:45:55 GMT -5
Thanks! I think it was the "Low Budget" album that started me thinking like this. If the Kinks had a higher profile, we'd be hearing "Gallon of Gas" on the radio every day.
The title I gave this thread makes it sound like I think most Kinks songs are not relevant to today, but that's not the case -- they all are! It's just that as the years come and go, some of them sound particularly so.
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Post by uncleson on Mar 10, 2011 14:59:55 GMT -5
Youre right. I too think they are all relevant. Ray is a genius, and wrote songs that we could all relate to.
Nothing To Say is another song that is so relevant in certain situations! I sit around with my wife and sometimes we have nothing to say! Been married 37 years...there are times when we just run out of things to say.
can you think of another, gary?
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Post by bamajohn1 on Mar 10, 2011 15:19:58 GMT -5
That dreaded 70s relic, stagflation, was mentioned on the news this morning as 'on the horizon'! I think the circle will be complete once that has set in!
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gary
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Post by gary on Mar 10, 2011 15:25:24 GMT -5
Uncleson, I'm sorry to say that "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" sounds pretty relevant on many bad news days. Then there are the songs that relate to me personally. I once reconnected with a childhood friend, and it turned out he didn't remember any of the things that I remember -- ever since then, "Do You Remember Walter?" sounds like it's about him and me.
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Post by uncleson on Mar 10, 2011 18:08:52 GMT -5
Yes! Its just like you said, all these Kinks songs are always so relevant! I had the same kind of experience with "Walter"
Village Green and We Are The Village Green Preservation Society always play in my mind when I drive or walk through my home town, which is in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. I feel like Ray wrote those songs for my village!
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Post by uncleson on Mar 10, 2011 18:10:48 GMT -5
And David Watts? Didnt you know some guy like him in school? I sure did!
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Post by sleepwalker24 on Mar 10, 2011 19:02:31 GMT -5
What a great idea for a thread Gary! I feel personal connections to many Kinks songs, as I'm sure most of us do! VGPS is my fave Kinks album, I think this is partly because I grew up in a little village and the songs on this album remind me of my childhood, a time of innocence and a time when life was much more straight-forward. I think a lot of people can relate to the song Days, for me this song is about losing someone you loved, but being grateful for the time that you had them in your life. This is just my interpretation of the song and I may be wrong but sometimes this song makes me think about people I have lost Of course I feel connections to many Kinks songs, far too many to mention them all!
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gary
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Post by gary on Mar 10, 2011 20:02:33 GMT -5
My original idea was to share thoughts about Kinks songs that have a special connection to what's going on in the world today. We've moved on to Kinks songs that have a special connection to us personally. That's interesting too, but should it be in a separate thread? Or should we perhaps rename this one? (And where did those little smiling emoticon guys go? I need to paste one right here.)
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Post by bamajohn1 on Mar 10, 2011 22:40:19 GMT -5
Gary, I think you are looking at the parallels from a US perspective between today and themes in the Kinks music! I would think some parts of the world would have similar experiences today to the themes in Kinks songs but some other parts of the world may have a different experience! I would add to the 70s/Low Budget parallel to today that there is also unrest in the Middle East today as in the 70s which contributed in some way to the oil price spikes! There was the US hostage crisis back in the late 70s and attempts at peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and the Palenstinian situation. Today, we have the unrest in various Middle Eastern countries that has heavily contributed to the new oil and gas price spike we are experiencing. Stagflation became the catchword for the US in the later 70s. Low growth exacerbated by high inflation. Outrageously high prime lending rates went side by side with the high inflation in the 70s. Unemployment was also very high. So far, we have experienced low to hardly any growth and high unemployment, but interest rates and inflation have been relatively low. Now there is a noticeable spike in food and gas prices that have some analysts raising the spectre of 'stagflation' if things proceed as is without abatement. The similar result from both periods is everyone is on a Low Budget! And believe me, as a primary caregiver and rehabilitator for a parent in various extent going back almost two years, I can tell you this current economic environment has just made a stressful situation for me just triply worse! Sleepwalker, you've got an excellent idea that is so good it would be great to separate off and start your own thread for!
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Post by HollyH on Mar 10, 2011 23:27:33 GMT -5
Around the Dial still reverberates for me -- the loss of great radio stations, I still mourn that.
Drift Away also seems weirdly pertinent, especially with the bits about "the man on the news is going over the top" -- how the media whips up our panic about the world's desperate conditions.
Have you noticed that most of the songs we're mentioning are on the later albums? That period was when Ray seemed more concerned with writing "topical" songs. Perhaps earlier his songs were more personal, or more universal...
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Post by uncleson on Mar 11, 2011 13:55:40 GMT -5
Today, Lost and Found. Though its about Hurricane Andrew(?) it does describe the power of nature over us:
This thing is bigger than the both of us It's gonna put us in our place We were lost and found, just in time Now we've got no time to waste
They're putting up the barricades Because the hurricane is heading up this way So won't you come in from the cold and the pouring rain And the old see dog says shiver me timbers The sky's gone black And it's like the dead of winter
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Post by Kinkcan on Mar 11, 2011 16:27:43 GMT -5
With half the couples having to go through a seperation or a divorce these days, I think that the song 'Property' is quite actual too.
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Post by HollyH on Mar 11, 2011 23:49:09 GMT -5
And of course Ray was way ahead of his time in dealing with sexual confusion. "Lola," "Out of the Wardrobe" -- very sympathetic songs.
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