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Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One

The Kinks - Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One Audio CD

A fair review of the The Kinks "Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Kinks reviews here, or go back to the The Kinks tabs.

Band: The Kinks
Title: Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Contenders 2: Strangers 3: Denmark Street 4: Get Back in Line 5: Lola 6: Top of the Pops 7: Moneygoround 8: This Time Tomorrow 9: Long Way from Home 10: Rats 11: Apeman 12: Powerman 13: Got to Be Free 14: Got to Be Free

What the?

Can someone tell me if the sample for Powerman and This Time Tomorrow is just a section of the song that is not typical of the rest of it??. I came here wanting to buy this album because of the tracks on "The Darjeeling Limited" soundtrack, but the Amazon audio samples do NOT match the samples I've heard via iTunes.

A Great album then and now
This album was great and I believe they are the most underated band of all time. The Kinks were a great band, period. For many of us Lola strikes a time in our lives that we can all remember as we remember it being played over and over on the radio. This album has some catchy tunes and then it rocks as well. The mix is great. You cannot be a Kink fan without this record.

Sad Tale Of the Music Industry
From the opening chords of "Top of the Pops" to the closing track, Ray spins a yarn of the ups and downs of their rise to fame as English pop stars. This release is a recollection of Ray and Dave's experiences with the record industry. "Get Back In the Line" is a beautiful ballad, and the hits "Apeman" and "Lola" are also stellar. . Great harmonies and excellent guitar riffs dominate the entire package, while the lyrics recall an interesting story .

The whole nut
Like its predecessor, Arthur, it was a record rich in textual continuity, but smarter, more cynical and far more rocking. Although the Kinks made some good records and arguably, a few that flirted with greatness (Muswell Hillbillies, Preservation Act I, Sleepwalker) after this one, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part I marks the last time all the elements came together with such potency. The former was about emigration and and the echoes of bygone Victorian life, the latter about the ups and downs of the popstar life, replete with the characteristic snarliness of early Kinks, "Top of the Pops," music hall madness, "The Moneygoround," and a pair of wonderful ballads, "Dave Davies' "Strangers," and Ray's "A Long Way from Home. " Not to mention power-rocking guitars and whatever "Lola" is besides a bona fide mega-hit. Maybe they should have quit the high concept stuff while they were ahead, gone out on top, but Ray wanted to make musical theater and fight with Dave about it, apparently---in the end, that was just a phase, and the Kinks eventually returned to making pop records, some good, some bad, but none as great as this one.
.

Reconsidered Almost 40 Years Later
" The three songs ("This Time Tomorrow," Strangers," and "Powerman") sounded fabulous in the theatre and complemented the movie well. It was great to hear three songs from this album in the recent Wes Anderson movie, "Darjheeling Limited. A couple of strange things, though. These songs were originally written as part of a concept album savaging the Music Biz. Anderson's movie had nothing to do with that subject, yet the songs neatly emphasized the movie's feel for spiritual awakening. The one song from the album that would have fit the movie best, "Still a Long Way from Home," wasn't even used in the film, though it's theme of brotherly contemplation and reconciliation would have fit the movie perfectly. What is really striking is that these three songs are among the least well-known on the album. "Lola," Apeman," and "Get Back in the Line" are all Kinks classics. "Moneygoround" was also a favorite of mine. "Top of the Pops" is very clever. So how good is this album? It's pretty amazing, actually.

One of the fun things about the Kinks around this time is that there is no continuity, musically, between their albums at all (just the voices, which are as familiar as a good friend's). Village Green sounds nothing like Arthur, which sounds nothing like Lola, which sounds nothing like Muswell Hillbillies. Part of this is changes in musical personnel. Village Green was the last Kinks album with Pete Quaife and the first in awhile not to feature Nicky Hopkins on keyboards. Ray's thumpy piano and mellotron stand out with a new, more urgent drumming from Mick Avory. Quaife's bass is strong as ever, though Dave's guitar is somewhat muted. Arthur is John Dalton's first album on bass, and he takes a backseat to my ears. Avory steps up even more (listen to the drumming on "Shangri La!"), and Dave's guitar shows signs of life. The mellotron is replaced by a strong brass section. With Lola, Dave's guitar is back full force, Avory's drumming hits its apex, and the crucial addition of John Gosling on keyboards integrates with the music better than any of his predecessors. This is an updated Kink's sound where they reap what they sowed when they invented power chords six years earlier. Their return to touring in the US with Arthur also obviously influenced their new hard sound. Of course, they chucked the whole thing for a country/blues/dixie sound in Muswell Hillbillies, but that's another story.

Lola was the Kinks most successful single and album in years, but it was met with mixed reviews, mostly because the concept of striking back at the Music Business seemed too bitter and shallow. I think this assessment needs to be reconsidered. The songs, individually, hold up outside of the confines of the concept, as "Darheeling Limited" proved. Another French movie also recently used "This Time Tomorrow" to tremendous effect in a dance scene that transformed the meaning of the song from a band touring to our common journey through life.

Individually, these songs serve up an honest assessment of Ray Davies' life at the time of its writing. He was emerging from legal hassles, personal struggles, and band personnel changes, and he served it up for us to share - he was determined to be free. Dave's two enigmatic songs stand to the side but also strangely fit the theme. "Strangers" was utterly unforgettable once heard as the background to the funeral scene in "Dharjeeling Limited. "

The songs on this album still sound great. All in all, almost 40 years later, I think it is the Kinks' most successful album, from beginning to end. Rather than a bitter concept album, I think it is more a chronicle of life's journeys and all of the strange turns life can take, perhaps the strangest being becoming a rock and roll God and having it turn into a steady job.

You can see a complete list of all The Kinks discography, or go back to the The Kinks tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.