Give the People What They Want (1981)
As I’ve mentioned several times before, this is the first album I ever purchased. I was nine or ten at the time and my mother brought me down to the local record store (“Strawberries”). After strolling around the store for about an hour, I finally reached through the hole in the plexiglass (old-school security measure) and pulled the cassette out onto the conveyer belt. The Kinks were flying high when they cut
Give the People What They Want, an album inspired, in part, by early reality-TV spectacle
That’s Incredible!. Like
Low Budget, it was recorded quickly, although this time back on the home turf of Konk Studios in London. As the band headed into the studio, a tour was already booked to sold-out stadiums that the new songs were designed to be played in. To achieve the proper the mix best heard in the far reaches of the stadiums they would soon play, Ray had the studio walls covered with corrugated metal that reverberated and amplified the drums and gave the album a raw, compressed tone. The lyrical tone was laced with biting sarcasm, as the subject matter ranged from domestic violence (“A Little Bit of Abuse”), sociopathic killers (“Killer’s Eyes”), mental illness (“Destroyer”), monotony (“Predictable”), to the public’s thirst for debauchery (“Give the People What They Want”).
Give the People What They Want was the record The Kinks made after they finally conquered America. It also added another color to their ever-changing, chameleonic existence/sound.
1. Around the Dial
You never gave in to fashion,
You never followed any trends
All the record bums tried to hack you up
But you were honest to the end
Radio feedback & static usher in the record. Strong punk vibe a la The Replacements, with Ray’s Beach Boys pop sensibilities popping up halfway through – “Around and around and 'round and 'round... Woo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo…” Like they did on
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, The Kinks tackle the music business again. This time it’s the radio corporation guys upstairs whom, despite great ratings, seem to have fired a popular, strong-willed DJ.
2. Give the People What They Want
Blow out your brains, and do it right
Make sure it's prime time and on a Saturday night
Covers the same ground as Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”. The Kinks did it a year earlier and much better. I hear the "Hey, hey, hey's" throughout the song as a hat tip to Van Halen & the "Hey, hey, hey's" in "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love". Van Halen helped reintroduce the American public to The Kinks with their cover of "You Really Got Me" which appears just before "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" on their self-titled album.
3. Killer’s Eyes
How could we know what it was like inside a killer's mind
It never really showed, you kept the secret deep inside
Ray takes on the mind of a serial killer. "Killer's Eyes" was written on the bus to Scotland after Ray saw a newspaper picture of the fanatic who tried to shoot the Pope. It also alludes to the Yorkshire Ripper's history and John F. Kennedy's assassination. A final reference point was to John Lennon's murder, and according to Ray, the line "Why'd you go and do a thing like that?" was an unconscious attempt to replicate Lennon's vocal phrasing.
4. Predictable
Go to my office, sit at my desk
Predictably just like all of the rest
Harkens back to
Soap Opera’s “Nine to Five” and its main character, Norman – the soul-crushing, nowhere-to-go monotony of working-class life. Where is the Starmaker when you need him?
5. Add It Up
Money can't cover up the fact you're getting older every day
And you can't disguise your sad little eyes that give your loneliness away
Ray rails against one of his favorite targets, materialism and greed –
“Ah, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci.
Cartier, Cartier. Gucci, Gucci, Gucci. Cartier, Cartier.” Ray hams up his British accent big time on this track. The band is in fine punk form.
6. Destroyer
Met a girl called Lola and I took her back to my place
Feelin' guilty, feelin' scared, hidden cameras everywhere
Dipping into the past with an arrangement similar to “All Day and All of the Night” and the reappearance of an old character, Lola. Also revisits much of the paranoia dime brilliantly details on
Muswell Hillbillies. Obvious influence on Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health” is obvious.
7. Yo-Yo
Ah, you thought you knew me pretty well
But with people like me you never can tell
Ray details a decaying marriage with the boredom and monotony (“Predictable”) chipping away at the bedrock of it. An underrated Kinks gem.
8. Back to Front
I don't fit in but I don't stand out,
I should stay cool but want to shout
Another common theme in Ray’s writing resurfaces – his inability to find his niche in society. It was addressed in songs like “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”, “20th Century Man”, “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains”, “Animal Farm”, “Apeman”, “Supersonic Rocket Ship” and “Misfits” to name a few.
9. Art Lover
Come to daddy,
And I'll give you some spangles
Ray really plays up his British accent again. Might be the creepiest song in the band’s catalog. A sweet, innocent-sounding song that details a child stalker/molester who justifies himself as an “art lover” with the “art” being young girls. Or is it Ray detailing the pain from not be allowed to see his daughters as result of his divorce, alcoholism and general mental instability? Ray’s trademark dualism certainly blurs the lines here.
10. A Little Bit of Abuse
You wind him up, but you're living in fear
You keep going back but it ends in tears, oh
A tragic tale about the cycle of abuse that the title, purposely, doesn’t do justice to.
11. Better Things
Here's wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow
The sequencing of The Kinks’ albums frequently has them ending with the best and/or most upbeat song – Waterloo Sunset, Celluloid Heroes, Muswell Hillbilly, Salvation Road, You Can’t Stop the Music, No More Looking Back, Life Goes On. It also follows a recent trend of Ray laying out the brutal ugliness of the human condition and life in general, but offering a positive, forward-looking song at the end to tie a neat bow on the shit nestled inside the package. I think I hear Ms. Hynde harmonizing in the background. Clams thinks it’s one of their best songs. He speaks the truth and should not be faulted in this situation. This song & "Strangers" are currently dominating my listening space these days.
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
- DPM