So I was out in L.A. over the weekend, and drove back across the desert in the wee hours of the morning, coming out of Barstow about an hour before the sun came up and heading toward Needles on the 40. And as you may know, what is along the 40 between Barstow and Needles is 130-some miles of dusty nothing. Though you will pass Daggett (pop. 200), Newberry Springs (about 3,000 widely dispersed and largely invisible people), and Ludlow (population unknown, but pretty much a couple of gas stations, a motel that could star in its own film noir, and a Dairy Queen, with truck drivers standing in line).
The solitude and long straight stretches of highway tempt drivers to excess, and you see all kinds of vehicles — compacts and pickups and SUVs and sports cars — zipping along at 90 or 100 or more, dodging around each other and the overnight truckers. And mostly they get away with it; traffic is sparse and the CHP seldom seen. But still, there are a lot of little white memorial crosses along that stretch of the 40, marking the spots where somebody blew a tire, or misjudged a subtle curve and rolled, or just drove too damn fast and spun out into the night. Some of the impromptu memorials also mark where a soberer driver was taken out by one of these desert racers, maybe a drunk or a meth head, and some of the little crosses and piles of stones are quite a surprising distance from the highway.
So as I made my way home to Laughlin, in the red rock mountains near the Colorado River, I remembered that we’re still seeing red around here. So here we go:
That’s “Red River Rock,” from Johnny & The Hurricanes. It’s from 1960, and it sounds it — this is a goofy little instrumental that piles up rockabilly chords, a soupy sax, and a hapless little guitar solo over a one-finger electric piano that’s there to play the melody and remind the listener that that came from this:
“Red River Valley” link, by the super-smooth Marty Robbins, cowboying up the customary lyrics just a bit. The traditional song dates back to the late 19th century or so, and just about any American teenager who heard “Red River Rock” would have learned and sung “Red River Valley” at home or in school. The raucous rock ‘n’ roll version apparently had quite an impact on those teens — “Red River Rock” hit number 5 on the charts.
And Johnny & The Hurricanes have absolutely nothing to do with this:
Ray Davies’ tale does sing about the ex-frontman of “Johnny & The Hurricanes,” but his hero is named Johnny Thunder (the real one went by Johnny Paris), and he’s an old rock ‘n’ roller who finds time has passed him by. The song is from 1973′s Preservation Act I and yes, that intro and some other odd moments are pure Who emulation, brazen even by Ray Davies’ standards.
“One of the Survivors” is one of only two good tracks from the whole disastrous Preservation project. The other one, also from Act 1, is “Sweet Lady Genevieve.” (Some would make a case for “Sitting in the Midday Sun,” but, well, nah.) Alas, the preachy Preservation Act 2 double album has no good tracks at all.
No connection at all, but one does make you think of the other, and the Kinks song is pretty great, so I thought I’d bring it up.
Sorry to read that you felt The Kinks Preservation set was very disappointing with maybe one or two tracks to your liking. Easily there are another eight to get closer too.
I am not sure what and how you decide a song is “good” or a “waste of time” with “no good tracks”.
Maybe you’ll take another listen. Just sit back and hear why Ray and the boys made this enormously strong effort in the first place. That, today, the two albums sound even stronger and more relevant than when these were first released….and even more so when you listen to each song through a great set ot headphones.
Hi, Joshua –
Thanks for the comment. Tastes do differ, and everyone has their own criteria for what’s good, of course. And I can’t even explain how much I love the Kinks. (I could sing you all of “Scrapheap City” if you want!) But I do believe that when Ray started to try to be “relevant” is exactly when the Kinks lost their grip.
There are tracks I like from the ’70s Kinks, on Muswell Hillbillies and even Lola Vs. Powerman. But I think that post-Arthur (a masterpiece), Ray started down a road that didn’t particularly suit him, and soon it was all about “projects” instead of great songs.
What saves some of Preservation Act 1 is that it’s sort of incoherent. Preservation Act 2 is a great deal more linear, and that’s a good part of why, in my opinion, it doesn’t work. Ray was too eccentric a songwriter to stick to a script, even his own script, and his attempts to build a plot and character over the arc of a double album are, to my ear, tactless and forced.
That the guy who wrote the delicate, precise, and beautifully observed “Waterloo Sunset” or the enraged and gorgeous “Shangri-La” boxed himself into having to write something like “He’s Evil” — I just think there were a lot of better directions he could’ve gone. Preservation doesn’t get a lot of love among most Kinks fans, I think; I’d be interested to hear more of what you enjoy about it.
While I agree the Preservation albums were not as strong as other Kinks albums, the three you named from #1, (yes, I love Sitting in the Midday Sun), along with Daylight and Change in the Weather, and from #2, Shepherds of the Nation was a comical forsisight of the “Moral Majority” of the 80′s and Second Hand Spiv and Scum of the Earth have good melodies…it takes a few extra listens, but there is indeed some good tunes on Pres 2
Where do I start? You’ve said so much in your review of Preservation Act I and your comments…
First, Ray is arguable rock ‘n roll’s greatest song author, period. You can say “taste differs” all you want, but no one wrote better rock songs than Ray, as many, and so many great collections of songs for so long. Not Lennon McCartney, Jagger Richards, (who are not single authors) or Dylan. Just forget it. Ray put out top quality albums, one per year or more, for DECADES. Not many songs compare to Waterloo sunset, Sitting in My Hotel, or Dead End Street, just to name a few.
Second, more specifically about Preservation Act I; it’s appeal, as in all Kinks stuff lies in it’s kinkiness. Ray is not like everybody else nor were his songs or his albums. To say PI is quirky or different, I can agree, but to say it’s not relevant is an oxymoron. The fact that we are discussing it right now is illustrative of it’s relevance. In fact, when you listen to the Preservation albums, you realize how relevant they are to what is going on today all over the world.
And, Ray’s melodies are right up to standard too. If you think “Sweet Lady Genevieve,” “There’s A Change In The Weather” or “Where Are They Now?” aren’t touching melodies (and subject matter) then you should start writing songs.
Preservation I gets a bad reaction because of it’s quirkiness, but all of Rays stuff is quirky and that is where the appeal lies. He combines great melodies with quirky subject matter, and that is what makes the Kinks the Kinks.
I’ll never forget when I was kid I would read Rolling Stone reviews and get so angry and their reason for panning an album was very often that it didn’t congeal or hold together well. For instance, besides the Kinks I love the Faces and Humble Pie. The Faces “Ooh La La” and the Pie’s “Eat It” got terrible reviews, yet hardcore fans like myself feel that both albums are each bands best work. Even the Kinks “Soap Opera” another critically panned album, is some of Rays best stuff. It all has to do with the fact that if critics can’t make sense of it as a whole, they pan it. They pan what they can’t understand. They pan it because they don’t know any better.
Johnny Thunders once said, who ever said “I want to be a rock critic when I grow up?”
@Greg: I’ll grant you the melodies — almost always, with Ray Davies — and acknowledge that “Change in the Weather” has good drive to it and is a fine-sounding song. But I am very much a lyrics-driven music fan, and that is where I think Preservation falls down, particularly Act 2. I mean, consider the stereotypical “classes” that open “Weather.” From a songwriter who could create such memorable individuals, it’s just so disappointing to get lines like “I’m a well bred upper class chap/I don’t care much about this and that.” And that’s the way I feel about almost all of Preservation; Ray downplayed his own very particular gifts for the sake of a plot and a point. And I just don’t think it was worth it, given the end result.
@Swamp
This was more by way of an observation than a review, but I absolutely agree with you that Ray Davies is one of rock’s greatest, most distinctive songwriters, and his “quirkiness” is something I’m well aware of. (And among many, many Kinks songs I am fond of, “Sweet Lady Genevieve” is perhaps the one I love the most.)
I actually didn’t say Preservation 1 wasn’t relevant, I said it was incoherent, and it is. Preservation 2 may have some ongoing cultural relevance, but that doesn’t, in itself, make it good; I find it simply preachy and obvious, and with no single song really representing Ray in good form. He is absolutely a great rock songwriter — but musical theater? That wasn’t where his particular gifts lay, in my view. I do think Soap Opera is better than the Preservation project — “9 to 5″ and “A Face in the Crowd” in particular.
I also have to say, respectfully, that the argument that people who dislike something that one likes oneself “can’t make sense of it” is usually a pretty weak one. It’s entirely possible to understand something very well and still think it was a failure artistically.
Myself, I adore Steeleye Span. And they are frequently criticized by folkies and rock people alike, usually with cries of “Pentangle did it better!” I don’t accuse those people of not “getting” Span’s music — they get it. They just don’t like it. And that’s fine. (Pentangle, however, were a total drag.) I’ve been listening to and loving the Kinks for nearly 40 years, and I understand Preservation very well. I just don’t like it.