Well, it’s THAT time again. Yeah, time to review Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround! Yeah! I love saying the title of that album. Let me say it again.
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround!
No wait…I’m looking at my album, and – egad, it’s really Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part 1! Egad! Does that mean that there’s a Part 2, then?
There’s something just absolutely hilarious about that album title. Except I usually just call it the Lola Album. Lola was what I named my hamster. Except then her little hamster friend who shared a cage, “Ruby”, turned out to be a male hamster (which we named Roger then). So we gave Lola back to the pet store…yeah…
But heck! I’ve never reviewed a Kinks album before! Maybe this might be fun! The Kinks are unlike anything I’ve ever heard before! Well, I mean, I can compare them to bands and stuff. But they’re not too much like anything I’ve ever heard before. They write a lot of “protest” songs. Not of the most literal kind, but I can easily tell that at least half of these tunes are somehow protesting against something or another (mostly the music “industry”). Also, I should say that, maybe it’s the title or something, but it seems that this album ought to be telling a story of some kind. It seems like it wants to be some kind of rock-opera or concept album in which Lola is one of the characters. Actually…it kind of is already a semi-concept album. It’s unusual. Still – I actually kind of like it.
Introduction: This was the first thing of the Kinks I ever heard. I have mixed feelings about this. It isn’t very great, really. When I first heard it, I thought, “Oh gosh, I sure hope the whole album isn’t this way, or else I shall have to either sell it on eBay or give it to Matthew.” (Matthew’s an adult friend of mine…he likes the Kinks…he’s the reason I even know who they are…)
The Contenders: Fortunately my fears were ungrounded, for when this started, I thought, “Yeah, man, this is great! Now I’m glad I have this album!” It’s really pretty good. Good rock ‘n’ roll. The piano adds to the old times rocker feel, too. The way he sings it (Ray Davies, I think he is?) makes it sound like there’s a lot of determination behind what he’s saying. Given the words (he knows what he wants, and he just wants to win by his own rules), this works.
Strangers: There’s a strange sort of feeling that saturates the song. Not in a bad way of course. It just makes me feel some emotion and I’m not sure what it is. Nostalgic, perhaps? Emotional? (No, that word is too vague.) I really don’t know. The chorus (Strangers on the road we are on, but we are not two, we are one.) Also the line, “it aches with rage” stands out to me somehow. It’s pretty good. This is a pretty good song. Also of note might be the way they use piano and organ to show us how they meant this song.
Denmark Street: Oh my gosh…this song is funny. It’s the tune, and the way it’s written, and the funny accent – it’s funny. Not the words of course. Well, it seems funny the way he says it. And the lines, “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’” is pretty darn funny. Satire. That’s what it is.
Get Back In Line: I can tell what this song is about. It’s about government repressing people, right? I know what it means. Not that it’s a bad thing. I can feel the message getting through. He just wants to live a relatively simple life, but government and the people in charge are keeping him from this goal, and essentially his life is in the hands of the government (which may or may not protect him well enough). Lots of emotion in this one.
Lola: Okay, this song is flat-out funny. You know why? It’s a love song about a cross-dresser. And he doesn’t even realize it isn’t even a girl until the end of the song. And so I’m thinking…how does he not realize that it’s some guy cross-dressing? I mean, is it that hard to tell if somebody’s a cross-dresser? (Well, is it? I don’t know. I’ve admittedly never met a cross-dresser...) It’s funny all the same. And it was essentially written due to his dad saying, “Son, I want you to write another hit.” Now, what kind of a father makes his son write a hit song? Ray Davies’ father, it seems. I’m glad, because it’s really really funny.
Top of the Pops: That electric guitar bit at the beginning is so cool. It’s heavy and suitable. The way all the instruments work together to make it work along with the singing is good too. It’s about the music “industry” (I too don’t like how music has become an industry now…let’s all go avant-garde, I say, but no one listens…). And it’s also about how, if your song does well on the charts then that’s the only time they think your music’s any good. (Decemberists! Decemberists! The Decemberists are good! And nobody knows who they are! But I do! Decemberists are good! And so are Kinks.)
The Moneygoround: You remember how Denmark Street was funny? This is ten times funnier. It’s more meaningful to me somehow. And the fact that he sings about it as though he’s so resigned about it…I know how he feels. I know what it’s like when you’ve finally decided to live with an unpleasant truth like that. Sigh. But heck! They don’t deserve money from a song that they’ve never heard. But what can we do about it? Let’s all sit and watch the moneygoround!
This Time Tomorrow: Oh…this is a very good song…it makes me feel. It makes me feel like I’m the singer and I’m saying these words to my favorite person in the whole wide world (I know who she is…) and I’m asking her – where will we be this time tomorrow? (Alas, I have no idea where we’re going to be by then.) It makes me feel daydreamy, in a good way. And the line about being on a spaceship sailing across an empty sea sounds so good to me. The whole song sounds so good to me.
A Long Way From Home: It makes sense somehow that this song comes right after This Time Tomorrow. This Time Tomorrow is about where you’ll be by then, and it turns out that you’ll be a long way from home. I feel the nostalgia in this song. I feel what he’s singing about. I know. I know about being a long way from home. Oh…
Rats: This song is quite paranoid. But I guess I might be too, if I were walking through a street all filled with rats. It carries the emotion well. And the riff somehow makes me feel like I’m falling into a sea of those rats. He’s singing the story of how he just wanted to do his own little thing but the rats got in the way and wrecked it. It does make me feel as though there’s a bunch of crazy people who have lost their heads. In these sorts of moments, it’s almost impossible for people to see or think clearly; there’s only the mad emotion and the here and now. And the here and now can leave us crazy forever.
Apeman: Uh…I really find it hard to express my views on this song. It’s surprisingly quiet for what just came before this. It’s tropical-sounding, and a little bit relaxing. But – it’s somehow disconcerting. I can understand what he’s talking about, and considering the Moneygoround and the rats he’s seen before this point, I can understand how he wants to go become an apeman. But still…On the whole it strikes me as very disconcerting.
Powerman: This is the third title track, isn’t it? It starts out very well. Very cool-sounding. It gives its train of thought immediately. It’s got a good drive to it, and makes me feel a bit paranoid (not as badly as Rats, though). I think I can understand what he’s singing about. The Powerman is basically the guy who finds himself in power, and he is corrupted by this power, and he abuses it. It effects the singer and the people he knows in a bad way. And he’s got his songs. Which is sad. This Powerman guy owns the singer’s songs, and he can’t do a single danged thing about it. I don’t know about you. But that would make me incredibly sad. Though I am glad he’s in love. At least he’s got love on his side. Still…even though he DOES have a lover (and as I’ve discovered, that’s no small thing at all!), Powerman’s got everything else he can have.
Got to Be Free: This is sort of a better reprise of the beginning. So maybe that’s why it’s there. It’s got sort of some of the same meaning as Apeman, but better. And I love the way this story ends. He’s finally decided that he’s had it with it all! He hates Contenders, and Denmark Street, and having to Get Back In Line, and he hates being at the Top of the Pops, and he hates the Moneygoround, and he’s got no clue where he’ll be This Time Tomorrow, and he doesn’t like being a Long Way From Home, and he doesn’t want to be an Apeman, he hates those Rats and the Powerman. So he’ll be FREE! It’s interesting, because it seems to imply we can just be free whenever we like. At least he can be. And when it’s a concept album, I don’t think you have to actually be specific. (Heck, go ask Roger Waters. He sure isn’t specific about what happens in his silly concept album!) But heck…the whole thing ends well. Yes…it leaves me with this strange and unexplainable feeling that even though the ending of the book has been lost, I don’t need to know how it ended because this is good enough.
Best tracks: Lola, The Moneygoround, This Time Tomorrow, Rats, and Powerman.
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