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| From | "Bill" <billm45s@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: Ray Davies duets album |
| Date | Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:20:32 -0500 |
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Bill, I have been a huge Kinks and Ray Davies fan forever, going back to
sneaking backstage to see them in 1970 at Ungano's on Staten Island. Let's
just say this will not be one of my most played CDs and leave it at that.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Holmes Online" <bholmes_fm@msn.com>
To: "Auditeers" <audities@smoe.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2011 12:56 PM
Subject: Ray Davies duets album
> I'm a Kinks fan *and* a tribute fan and was looking forward to this album,
> but this UK review is pretty brutal - ouch! Hopefully the truth lies in
> the middle.
>
> ---
>
> Following on from 2009’s The Kinks Choral Collection, on which Ray Davies
> rearranged his back catalogue with the Crouch End Festival Chorus, See My
> Friends finds him sifting through his songbook once again, only this time
> he’s brought Bon Jovi along.
>
> Yes, it’s a duets album, of the type that veteran artists produce when
> they’ve nothing left to prove. Such ventures seldom serve much point
> beyond flattering the star with attention from fellow musicians, who in
> turn are honoured by association. Plus they sell well.
>
> Ray Davies doesn’t need to record a soporific version of Tired of Waiting
> with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, any more than Bruce Springsteen needs
> to trample the bittersweet Better Things with his wholly unsuitable
> bombast. But both were doubtless thrilled by the opportunity to record
> with Davies. And that’s just it: these all-star gatherings are more fun
> for the artists than they are for the listener.
>
> Try as one might, it’s impossible to resist comparing these duets against
> the hallowed originals, especially when their arrangements barely differ.
> The likes of This is Where I Belong with Frank Black (billed as Black
> Francis) and Long Way From Home with Lucinda Williams are pleasant
> recordings of wonderful songs, but what is their point? Jackson Browne may
> be in simpatico with Davies’ unweathered voice on Waterloo Sunset, but
> will anyone ever reach for this version over the magical original? Will
> they even remember it exists?
>
> For better or downright ghastly, the most memorable tracks are those on
> which the guests imprint themselves. The undoubted highlights are Mumford
> & Sons’ folk-gospel medley, Days / This Time Tomorrow, its arrangement
> madly ambitious compared with its companions, and Spoon’s shoegazing
> treatment of the proto-psychedelic title-track. The late Alex Chilton
> sounds genuinely enthused on ‘Til the End of the Day, a song his old band
> Big Star covered during the Third/Sister Lovers sessions. Recorded in
> 2009, it was the spur for these sessions.
>
> But the tenderness and wit of Davies’ songs and singing is smothered by
> his blunter collaborators. However sincere, Springsteen’s bellowing simply
> doesn’t work. Paloma Faith’s Lola is a wretched, over-sung X Factor
> throwaway. Metallica’s drilling of You Really Got Me is bar-band bad. And
> Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s overwrought stadium-rock assault on
> Celluloid Heroes is a laughable abomination.
>
> It’s testament to Davies’ legacy that he emerges from this inessential
> project with his dignity intact.
>
>
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