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Monday, July 18. 2011

It's been a long time since I have heard this one. It takes me back...so innocent. ""Kathy, I'm lost,' I said, though I know she was sleeping. I'm empty and aching and I don't know why..."

Posted by Bird Dog in Music at 17:08 | Comments (20) | Trackbacks (0)

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Great song. I just had the experience of actually listening to the words of "Lola" by the Kinks for the first time. I had been humming that for decades without having a clue what it was about. Not so innocent..

#1 BrianInWisconsin on 2011-07-18 18:15 (Reply)

Yep, great song - not innocent at all!

While on the subject of the Kinks, have you heard Muswell Hillbillies? It came out in the '70s but is very prescient today.

#1.1 mudbug on 2011-07-18 18:45 (Reply)

Mudbug-Youtubed it just now. Was that Sardonic? Thanks for the suggestion.I am inclined to listen to the whole album.

#1.1.1 BrianInWisconsin on 2011-07-18 20:59 (Reply)

Hi Brian,

I thought you'd like that. The whole album is a biting social/political commentary that I think most Maggie's Farmers would appreciate.

#1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2011-07-18 21:54 (Reply)

Twentieth Century Man
Ray Davies

This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare,

This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.

Ain't got no ambition, I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.

You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,

Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here.

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna die here.

My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security,
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrmQB38aT5U&feature=related

#1.1.1.2 mudbug on 2011-07-18 22:20 (Reply)

Think there's angst in the country now?

Try two months after Tet 1968, when this came out.

Remember?

#2 Mike Scully on 2011-07-18 19:43 (Reply)

This came out 2 months after Tet?
The American victory turned into a defeat by babyboomers?

I got a little angry listening to this thinking these same people are looking for America and messing it up wherever they go.
Rather funny thinking they couldn't smoke those cigarettes anymore on the bus thanks to their "progress".

Sorry for the rant, I'll climb down off my soapbox.

#2.1 grant1863 on 2011-07-18 22:09 (Reply)

Great song, I like this along with "American Tune", "My Little Town" and "Still Crazy After All These Years". Simon's a lib but good lyricist who can almost make boomer angst appealing.
I think I prefer the cynicism of old Steely Dan.

#3 bill on 2011-07-18 19:54 (Reply)

Great song. MF holds tribute to Dylan every Thursday. I am biig BD fan, truly a top poet/lyrictist PS a great lyrictist, not quiet to BD level, though a much better muscian. Example: slip sliding away, one of the saddest songs ever written.

#4 Jim on 2011-07-18 21:37 (Reply)

Such sad memories of a lost girlfriend named Kathy . . . . I always think of her when I hear this song.

It's still a beautiful song.

#5 Jim on 2011-07-19 00:51 (Reply)

Jim,

Most men have had a "Kathy" in our young lives. Me as well.

A beautiful tune it is.

#5.1 Garry on 2011-07-19 11:22 (Reply)

My take from America is how the effort made by the two characters to find themselves by shirking adult responsibilites results in having no self to find.

#6 John on 2011-07-19 07:38 (Reply)

Sad lyrics - so descriptive of our youth - nothing to live for, just empty lives filled with useless "education", sex, and no true family to love them! This was just the beginning - we see the expression of that depression today in the rage of the "ghetto" generation.

#7 NancyLee on 2011-07-19 08:13 (Reply)

NancyLee,

I disagree. The song was recorded & released in April 1968 on "Bookends". Those were different times. I can only think that you may not have been alive when it first played the airwaves and the turntables.

#7.1 Garry on 2011-07-19 10:37 (Reply)

Not so Garry - I was in my late teens when S&G came to prominence - I see that time as the beginning of the descent into hell we have found ourselves in. We were the privileged generation- the baby boomers - the beginning of the spoiling of American youth. Today we see the result of that - so it looks more innocent looking back but it really wasn't.

#8 NancyLee on 2011-07-19 11:08 (Reply)

Good morning NancyLee,

I was 18 when the song came out so we are the same time frame (still young folks !!) but from different environments. As I recall, there were radical changes occuring, in your country, during this period. Not so radical 'nor' o' the 49th'.

It is just a song. As you know, a song can mean different things to different people.

To me, it's a song about discovery. Today, it could mean a search for a lost innocence. Or any number of other emotions. I, however, can see the other side of the fence as well.

It's still a beautiful tune.

Best regards,

The Canuck

#8.1 Garry on 2011-07-19 11:20 (Reply)

I tend to agree with NancyLee. It may have seemed innocent, but we were just naive. And a lot of us got badly burned by the "freedom" of those days. We didn't know how to value what was truly important until it was too late and it was gone.

#9 Jim on 2011-07-19 14:25 (Reply)

Jim,

Same song? Same words at least.

#9.1 Garry on 2011-07-23 17:59 (Reply)

thanks, bd, nice post - took me back too........(did you sing along?)

#10 milabro (Link) on 2011-07-19 17:40 (Reply)

BD,

If I might...I'll submit this for MF's listening enjoyment and comment.

Another favourite with "meat on its bones".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JdfLGM7G9Q

The Canuck

#11 Garry on 2011-07-20 21:42 (Reply)

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