Friday Night Grrrl Power

After too many days of political speechifying, I'm ready for something completely different. How about you? Check out Emma Peel and the Kinks:

We've just got to learn to economize

We are spending nothing this 4th of July holiday, instead staying home to keep an eye on neighbors with illegal fireworks. The garden hose is out and ready for any fires.

In celebration of the cheap life, let's take a look and listen to the Kinks in glorious form from 1979 in Providence RI. This has outstanding videography, including some quality time focused on Dave the Rave's virtuoso guitar playing.

Ray's on tour this summer, visiting points in Canada and certain NW states of America. Details here. I will not be burning up extra carbon to attend. The show this spring at the Beacon is still reverberating round my brain! But if you live close to a venue, snap up a ticket for a really great show.

Cheap is small
And not to steep
But best of all
Cheap is cheap

Friday Night Kick Back: London Song

A lovely collage of sights and scenes of Kinkdom in "London Song," an affectionate haunting view of the "dark passages and alleyways of London" by Ray Davies, first recorded on The Storyteller album.

This fan-created video nicely illustrates the places and characters that populate the song, including William Blake, Max Wall and the Kray Twins (very dangerous people, the Kray Twins!) With some views of the Clissold Arms too! Enjoy...

Friday Night Kick Back -- Low Budget

Here's a song for our times from the greatest rock band ever.

Art takes time, time is money
Money's scarce and that ain't funny...

Everybody's a Star

Tackling piles Things To Do tonight, while the TV provides background noise. Suddenly, the sound of one very great rock guitarist rings out along with the vocal tones of the Bard of Muswell Hill. I'm shocked out of my seat with wonderment! Why is a song from "Soap Opera" coming from my television? Oh yeah, it's that commercial for a shoe company that has a star for a logo. Hence the use of the song "Everybody's a Star."

I believe that everybody's a celebrity,
And we've all got personality
And individuality.
We all read lines,
And we all act a part,
We all need a script
And an audience to play to.
No matter what you do,
Or who you are,
Everybody's a star.

That dear friends, is my philosophy of life and theatre! Now promoting shoes undoubtedly made in China. I just hope the Davies brothers are receiving appropriate renumeration for the use of said song.

On my bulletin board at school, the following line from this song is posted:

No matter what your occupation is
Everybody's in showbiz.

Because no matter what career my drama students end up in, they will make good use of their theatrical training. They will be able to communicate clearly and work well in collaborative situations. All the world will be their stage and it will need every ounce of creative thinking they can muster in order to overcome all the problems besetting them and it.

For more insight into the song "Everybody's A Star" within context of Soap Opera, the rock and roll musical it comes from, check this post.

Breaking Kinks News!

I wasn't going to blog until January, but I found this UPI story today and hope to heck it is true!

The Kinks set for reunion

December 26, 2007 12:43 PM EST

LONDON, Dec 26, 2007 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The Kinks are planning to reunite next year, marking the first time the original members of the British rock band will play together in nearly four decades.

Lead singer and guitarist Ray Davies said the founding members of the band -- which included Davies' brother Dave on guitar, Mick Avory on drums and Pete Quaife on bass -- plan to reunite in 2008, the Mirror reported.

While Quaife quit the band in 1969 and Avory departed in 1984, the Davies brothers continued to perform as The Kinks with various replacement musicians until 1996.

Dave Davies suffered a stroke in 2004.

"I spoke to Quaife about a month ago and he dearly wants to make another record with me. I think Dave's getting better and Mick's still playing. It would be great to get back together just to see what musical ideas we had and what would happen," Ray Davies told Record Collector. "You miss the interactive stuff. You get it to a degree with other musicians but probably not with the same passion."

Reunions by rock bands such as The Police, Genesis, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin were huge successes in 2007, Variety.com said Wednesday.

URL: www.upi.com

Happy Holidaze to All

Here's my favorite Xmas song of all time:



See you all in January 2008!

Friday Night Kick Back -- the Kinks

Here's one of my favorites, both the song and the video. "Do It Again" never fails to get me up on my feet dancing around and gearing up to do what ever it is that needs getting done.

I love how the subway journey transforms from present to a subway bomb shelter in WWII and then on to a seaside entertainment, complete with Ray on drums as Punch and Dave an electrifying Harlequin in full motley.

Friday Night Kick Back -- the Kinks

Sending this old favorite out to a new friend of the Village Green:

Complicated Life

New Orleans is hauntingly present in Ray Davies' new release, and now here is evidence that the influence is not just a one way street. In this video, we see life in the French Quarter of pre-Katrina New Orleans circa 2005, featuring the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band performing a great Kinks treasure from Muswell Hillbillies. This cover of Complicated Life features vocals by Clint Maedgen and a guest appearance by the New Orleans Bingo.

Preservation Out Take

This is a hoot -- for those few folks who have ever heard the Kinks Preservation Acts I and II. Thanks to Neil of the Kinks Preservation Society for passing this along.

Some clever person came up with this rare "out take":

Saturday Night Kinks

Three cheers for YouTube, the people's video archive! Here's one I hadn't seen before -- of a very favorite old sing along Kinks song, Muswell Hillbillies. It's a song about the displacement of people brought about by urban planning schemes. The hillbillies referred to lived in North London. Check out the beard sprouting from the chin of Dave "Death of the Clown" Davies on lead guitar. With Mr John Gosling on organ, Mr Mick Avory on drums, Mr John Dalton on bass guitar, "and my name is Johnny Cash" Ray Davies on rhythm guitar and lead vocals.

Breaking Kinks News!

Wonderful news for Kinks fans! No, not a reunion tour announcement, but in my book just about as good -- a new Ray Davies album is supposedly due out next month! The title of the album is Working Man's Cafe. The announcement was posted on the Swedish version of the V2 Music web site, and if you can read Swedish click here to access it. If you don't have a command of Swedish, a member of the fan club approximates a translation:

Kinkslegenden Ray Davies slapper ett nytt album "Working Man's
Cafe" i slutet av oktober. Forsta sparet heter "Vietnam Cowboys"
och ar bland de starkare sparen han skrivit. Vi ser skarpt fram
emot att aterse honom pa svensk mark tidigt 2008.

Kinks legend Ray Davies comes with a new album "Working Man's Cafe"
at the end of october. The first track is called "Vietnam Cowboys"
and it's one of the stronger tracks he wrote. We look forward to (??
aterse honom??) on Swedish ground early 2008.

The latest reports from the German V2 web site confirms the release of the new Ray Davies record for 26th October 2007 (in Germany). That means that the album will be released
29th October in the UK and 30th October in the USA.

Fans only recently found out that a new album was in the works. After waiting decades for the first ever Ray solo album, we finally got the brilliant "Other People's Lives" in 2006, and may have not had it at all had the gunman in New Orleans raised his weapon higher. In July of this year, we learned that the Ray did not show up at the trail in New Orleans and the case was consequently dismissed. It was reported on the Kinks Preservation Society listserv that Ray was in the studio working on his next solo album and was given too little notice to cross the Atlantic for the trial. Ray also said the guy in custody was not the shooter, but rather the driver of the getaway car.

Some fans were not happy with Ray's choice. Personally, I don't blame him for not wanting to go to New Orleans for the trial of a hapless criminal associate, especially while in the middle of a recording session. Regardless, all fans are thrilled to hear that the album is ready for release sooner, rather than later.

In celebration of this Major Breaking News and Reason To Go On Living, here's a bootleg clip from Ray's appearance at the Supper Club, NYC in November of 2005. Yours truly was in attendance! Am I still obsessed after all these years -- uh, yeah!

No more looking back

Because this blog doesn't have nearly enough Kinks videos, and because I spent the day running from one event to the next, I give you a song for a contemplative Saturday night. It is one of my favorites with a great deal of personal resonance:

We are not the Village Green Apartments!

Some folks stop by here looking for the Village Green Apart- ments. Sorry, we are not that village green. We are a virtual village green inspired by a concept album called: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Check out the title song here.

But if you are looking for those apartments over in Wallhaven, you'll have to look here instead. Looks like they have some vacancies available today, and pets are allowed! Cool!

Happy Ray Day!

June 21st, the longest day of the year, just happens to be Ray Davies birthday, so let's celebrate!
Here's a clip from A Soap Opera, a marvelous piece of rock and roll theatre about a rock star who trades places with an ordinary man called Norman. The star wants to experience real life which will inspire him to write new songs. This one is called Rush Hour Blues.

A Soap Opera was my very first Kinks show. It was at the Akron Civic Theatre and it was a momentous night indeed. Thanks Ray, Many Happy Returns!

How Many More Mother's Sons Will Die in Iraq?

We have reached another vile benchmark --3500 Us soldiers now dead in Iraq. Presidential candidate Mike Gravel says in a campaign letter to the Village Green:

"To understand why over 70% of Iraqis want our troops out of Iraq, consider that peer-reviewed research by the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health indicates about 818,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the U.S. invasion. The U.S. population is about 12 times the size of the Iraqi population. Thus, the suffering our invasion has unleashed on Iraq is comparable to an extra 9.8 million violent deaths in the U.S. during the last four years, or equivalent to killing every person in 10 U.S. states and two major U.S. cities."

This week, another "perfect son" from Green, lost his life in Bush's tragic misadventure. What will be the magic number of casualties on our side that finally ends the slaughter? Assuredly nobody seems to care how many Iraqis are killed.

You might want to send a link to your Senator or Representative to the video below. It's a haunting cover version/video of the Kinks' "Some Mother's Son" from Arthur, of the Decline and Fall of British Civilization, by doctorcastille via YouTube:

Entering the end of the school year zone

Four more school days for the kiddies, while I have to summon the energy to get through three more weeks of school related obligations.

I am embarrassed to admit that I couldn't even put up a Friday rock and roll clip last night, dropping into sleep on the couch and waking up at 2 AM just enough so I could climb up the stairs to bed.

Today I'm off to the Irish/Scottish Festival in N. Canton. Later on today, I'll get to my second Low Impact week post focusing on the bedroom and closets.

Until then, here's a sunny Saturday afternoon rock and roll clip:

Friday Night Kick Back -- You Really Got Me!

Excuse me, but I just have to get the sound of Sanjaya and Joe Perry out of my ears. So here's the real deal. Check out the guy in the crowd dancing with a chef's hat on!

Save the Clissold Arms Preservation Society

Ray and Dave Davies grew up in Muswell Hill, an area in north London. Many of their greatest songs refer to the landscapes and people there. An old pub by the name of the Clissold Arms holds the distinction of being the place where they first played in public with the Little Green amp. Over the decades, various memorabilia has been hung on the wall to commemorate the greatest rock band ever to come out of the UK. Fans from all over the world on Kinks pilgrimage make it one of their stops - "to raise a glass to rock stars of the past, those that made it and those that faded."

Recently the pub was purchased by one of those people with no regard for history and no sense of style. The announcement was made that the pub would be made over into a high class hang out (a "gastropub") and the Kinks treasures might very well go out the door to auction.

A great to-do has been made about this. Articles written, local politicians, fans and celebrities outraged and an online petition immediately went up. The pressure was felt very quickly and the new owner has promised not to mess with one of the holiest of Kinksian shrines! However, go ahead and sign the petition. You never know when the gentrifiers might strike again!

Here's a lovely tribute to the affair by long time Kinks fan and musician from Hawaii, Jim Smart: