GEORGE HARRISON - SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND

Is the music business messed up now? It's been messed up for a long time. It's all about money, making a buck off the latest fad. It's not about .....MUSIC! George Harrison submiited an album to his record label in 1980, and it was rejected. "They say they like it but in the market it may not go well as it's too laid back / You need some oomph, papa, nothing like Frank Zappa, and not new wave, they don't play that crap" ("Blood from a Clone"). C'mon! This is George Harrison, doesn't that name mean anything to you guys? Apparently not. George wasn't being commercial enough, they said. "There seems a confusion under the illusion that they know just what will suit you all....beating my head on a brick wall, hard like a stone, don't have time for the music, they want the blood from a clone". The album that eventually came out was short 4 of the original songs ("Sat Singing", "Tears of the World", Lay His Head", and "Flying Hour"), in in their place were four new ones, but George still got his point across. He refused to bow down to the corporate gods, he worshipped the only true God - "the One that I'd die for, You're all that is real", "the breath of life itself" ("Life Itself"). He looked around the world and knew the root problem was "they've forgotten all about God, He's the only reason we exist" ("All Those Years Ago"). George's tribute to his former partner and friend John Lennon is heartfelt and honest..."deep in the darkest night, I send out a prayer to you, now in the world of Light.." Some fans say the song sounds too cheery, but I think it's beautiful, and it's nice that Ringo Starr sits in on drums,and the background vocals feature Paul & Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. It's not all doom and gloom, either. George does a couple of Hoagy Charmichael favorites, "Hong Kong Blues" and "Baltimore Oriole" (I love this song - lovely chord changes), possibly some of the first music he ever heard. I know well the misery of the character in "Teardrops", "I've had my share of crying buckets full of teardrops...and it feels like I have taken over for the rain". George's slide guitar playing just got better and better through the years, and it's all over this album (listen for the beautiful solo during the fade of "Save the World"). The original version of the album is worth searching for, too. It was never officially released, but all of the songs have turned up on various compilations, so it is possible to put together your own tape or cdr of the original track lineup. "Sat Singing" features one of his most beautiful melodies- how could this have been forced off the album? I guess it proves those "label types" at Warners weren't listening with their ears. I've never heard a cash register make music this beautiful. "Flying Hour" implores us not to live in the past for future, but NOW. Nice synthesizer work on this one. "Lay His Head" features nice slide guitar work, while "Tears of the World" is another lament for this insane planet. All of these songs deserve to be heard. I loved George Harrison, and of all the ex-Beatles, his music was the most consistently enjoyable and rewarding. I just wish he was still among us, blessing us with his musical talent, but I do believe his spirit is still with us.

THE KINKS - ARTHUR or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire

The best anti-war album ever made, because it looks at war from a human - not political - perspective. "I was born, lucky me, in a land that I love, though I am poor, I am free, when I grow I shall fight, for this land I shall die, let her sun never set..." (Victoria)"Yeah, you're a real human being but you don't have a mind of your own...mister, you're just brainwashed! "(Brainwashed) "Give the scum a gun and make the bugger fight! If he dies we'll send a medal to his wife" (Yes Sir, No Sir). "Some mother's son lies in a field, back home they put his picture in frame, but all dead solidiers look the same" (Some Mother's Son). Ray Davies' gift has always been to look into the lives of ordinary people and give them voice. He understands that need for escapism during hard times ("Drivin'" in the country on a Sunday afternoon), or just a need to escape (in this case, to "Australia"). Other times he looks back and reflects upon our "Young and Innocent Days". Through his voice and pen, he brings all these people to life. Dave Davies gets a chance to stretch out on guitar on the extended tag of "Australia", while John Dalton (bass) and Mick Avory navigate the tricky time and tempo changes of "Shangri-La" and "Mr. Churchill Says" like a fine machine.

THE KINKS - LOLA VERSUS POWERMAN AND THE MONEYGOROUND, PART ONE

There never was a Part Two (so typically Kinks). Much of the album is Ray expressing his disillusionment with the music business, but there's more to it than that. IMHO, it is about trying to find some meaning in life, trying to find your place on this crazy planet. "Hush little mammy don't you cry, gotta see what it's like on the world outside, gotta get out of this world somehow, gotta be free, gotta be free now". Dave's "Strangers" is one of the album's best tracks, an intense acoustic-based song. "Till peace we find tell you what I'll do, all the things I own I will share with you, if I feel tomorrow like I feel today, we'll take what we want and give the rest away"...wow, pretty radical stuff for this capitalist maximum consumption society. Pretty soon, though, Ray is taking us to "Denmark Street", where the publishers go, "You go to a publisher and play him your song, he says I hate your music and your hair is too long, but I'll sign you up because I'd hate to be wrong!" Oh yeah, one of those songs might be about somebody that "walks like a woman and talks like a man....L-O-L-A". Okay, you've heard this one before, it's one of the 3 Kinks songs in heavy rotation on classic rock radio. "Well I'm not the world's most masculine man but I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola". Read into that lyric what you want! Pretty soon your song is on the "Top of the Pops"...."life is so easy when you're record's hot!"....."and now I've got friends that I never knew I had before"..."and now my agent calls me on the telephone and says 'son, you're records just went to #1...and you know what this means...this means now you can earn some real money!"....yeah, assuming you ever see any of it...."the money goes around and around and around and it comes out here"...."but if I ever get my money, I'll be too old and grey to spend it"...yeah, thanks to those new "friends" of yours. Fortunately, such moments on this album are balanced with more reflective moments like Ray's "This Time Tomorrow", and "A Long Way From Home", both featuring some nice acoustic playing from the Davies brothers, and the piano stylings of the exquisite John Gosling. The mood changes sharply with Dave's hard rocking "Rats'....I've known a few of them in my life....'walk over all the people you can't see, if they die there's more bread for me, like snakes crawling through the grass"...no wonder Ray would prefer to be an "Apeman"...."I don't feel safe in this world no more, I don't wanna die in a nuclear war"....Well some people say we're nothing but highly evolved apes anyway....I don't know about the "highly evolved" part....."I look out my window, but I can't see the sky, cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes"...fogging? Well, that's what the lyric sheet says......I've got ideas for songs in my head, music flowing through my veins, but "Powerman's got money on his brain"....so how do you escape the stranglehold of "Powerman" and the moneygoround? "Gotta be free, we gotta be free now...."Be who you are, play the music that's in your soul, and don't sign it over to any sharks in 3 piece suits! That might mean a life away from the bright spotlights, but stardom isn't the real reason you're playing the music, is it?

THE KINKS - WORD OF MOJTH

Okay, it's 1984, Mick Avory, the original Kinks drummer leaves the band, Bob Henrit (ex of Argent) is in, but the band is far from done. "Back where we started, here we go 'round again, day after day I get up and I say I better do it again"...yep, life goes on...."the days go by and you wish you were a different guy, you make alterations and affect a new pose, a new house, new clothes, new car, a new nose...but the voices in your head keep shouting in your sleep...get back...get back...." ("Do it Again"). Try as you may, you can't escape the daily repetition....to make matters worse, "all my enemies are spreading bad news"...."the word of mouth says I've gone insane, that wine and women have affected my brain..." yeah, you can always count on others to say the best about you, right? "Say it to my face!!" Nope. Not a chance. The cowardly gossipers could never do that. "Shut your mouth! Shut your face!" ("Word of Mouth"). "And someone just said that the world's gonna end"...sol what can you do? It better be a "Good Day"..."hey baby, if you'd come back home, it would be a good day today, they could drop a small atom bomb on this city today, but if you'd walk through that door, you know it would be a good day today..." You know what I love about Ray Davies' songs? They sound like they were written by a real person - a human being with the same worries and concerns as me, Mr. Nobody. Such insight...he's a genius songwriter. Dave Davies is a talented writer, too. "Living on a Thin Line" is about England, but it could just as easily be about the USA, 2009. 'I see change, but inside we're the same as we ever were"....man, this song is haunting....so sad....and then there's Ray's "Sold Me Out"... this man is a prophet, but all we care about here in America is Profit..."work all your life put your money in the band, sign on the dotted line, try to draw it out, the joke's on you, they put up the empty sign...you sold me out, to get a better deal for yourself,,,you sold me out, and now we want some of your precious wealth"....yeah, you're gonna need it, because in corporate America there's layoffs, "they're making massive reductions to stay alive...they're laying me off all because of inflation, I'm losing my job and my reputation.." ("Massive Reductions") The actions of the mighty and powerful will be judged someday...."guilty until you're proven innocent...guilty because you've turned away" ("Guilty"). And how do the Kinks manage to make such great bopping rock and roll out of such gloomy themes? With a rhythm section a tight as Bob Henrit and Jim Rodford, even a corpse will start dancing. Oh, and there's that driving rhythm guitar from Ray, and Dave's spine tingling leads......I saw these guys at the Paramount in Seattle in 1985, and there was never a better live band than these guys. So much onstage energy...for that matter, in the crowd, too! I used to dream I would someday be as dynamic a front man as Ray.....knew I would never play guitar anywhere near as good as Dave.....well maybe in some parallel universe....hey, is there Kinks Karaoke?

THE KINKS - PHOBIA

My former musical partner Dave Park once complained that he was "sick of all the love songs" our group was doing, so here's a song for Dave - "Hatred (A Duet)", sung by Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks. Forget about love, hate is where it's at. Look around us. Democrats and Republicans slandering each other in the name of good old fashioned American politics. Employers abusing the workers just because they can. Families at war with each other. 'I woke up this morning and found that I no longer love you, so I'm leaving. I hate your freakin' guts!" Leave it to the Kinks to always tell it the way it is. If you doubt me, just look around on the internet. Any open discussion forum quickly turns into war, poison penned writers assasinating each other in print. Civility is a crime, chaos is king, as the world heads into the "Wall of Fire". Some say the Davies brothers' view of the world is too bleak. I say it's realistic. "Sometimes I wish I could just drift away, to that island in my dreams..." "but back in the real world, there's tension everywhere.." And who do we blame for all that's wrong? "It's that man over there who's hanging from a rope!" "You left me alive, you should have killed me instead...now I'm surviving..." And meanwhile the corporations are determined to turn the Earth into a planet "full of scrap metal", Lord Almighty, "there better be life on Mars!" No wonder we're all going "Over the Edge"! But "It's Alright (If You Don't Think About it)", just turn on the tube, and distract yourself with reality tv (real life for entertainment? Sure, give the people what they want). Or get lost in the web of the internet. Technology, gadgets, toys, all man's inventions designed to make us "happy", "but what about the heart of man, the spiritual needs?"

STEALERS WHEEL - FERGUSLIE PARK

Featuring Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan and the hit "Star"