EVERYBODY’S IN SHOW-BIZ:
THE KINKS ON FILM
A mixtape of trailers, original compositions, sound bytes, and needle drops that celebrate the celluloid contributions of the Ray Davies and The Kinks.
ABOUT THIS MIX
Despite being one of the first Battalions within The British Invasion, compared to their peers in The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, Ray Davies and The Kinks were somewhat of late bloomers here in the States.
The band’s slow start in the US can be credited to their four year touring ban in the late 60s, but I would also suggest that when Davies started to forego the conventional pop song for character driven concept albums, it took even longer for them to make up ground.
Like all the greats, thanks to the passage of time and countless Music Supervisors, The Kinks and their back catalog eventually got their flowers in the form of massive exposure in Commericials and Movies.
With Ray’s nice and tidy story songs, full of picturesque village greens where Terry meets Julie amongst a backdrop full of dedicated followers of fashion and well respected men about town, it’s not a surprise that they found their way to the film world.
Just listen to David Fricke from 1985, he wouldn’t lie to you about the cinematic prowess of Ray Davies, would he?
With that, the Kinks/Davies tracks on this mix have been selected through the lens of the following stripes:
They Shoot, He Scores: A deep dive into Ray Davies’ original compositions for film and television.
Kinks Syncs: From Auteurs like Wim Wenders and Wes Anderson to Marvel movies, we will armchair quarterback some of the more notable music needle drops featuring The Kinks.
I am The Creator: From Ray’s star turns on BBC Teleplays (Long Distance Piano Player, Starmaker), to penning musicals, and starring and directing feature films (Absolute Beginners, Return To Waterloo), these songs celebrate Ray the multihyphenate.
LINER NOTES
Starstruck - Last Night In Soho
Edgar Wright, no stranger to Kinks needle drops (see Hot Fuzz) beautifully weaves this song into Last Night by having his 60’s obsessed fashionista, Eloise, get bullied at a party for listening to this song on her ipod. Chastised for listening to ‘Granny music,” also sets the scene that her anachronistic tastes won’t be tolerated by her peers.
Nothin’ In The World Could Stop My Worryin’…..- Rushmore
Legend has it that Wes Anderson wanted to make Rushmore using an entirely Kinks laden soundtrack, but got pushback from the Studio. That didn’t stop Bill Murray’s Harold Bloom from nailing the best alienated pool plunge since Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate.
A Well Respected Man - Juno
Jason Reitman leans into the Ray Davies’s storytelling gifts and lets the song do the heavy lifting in introducing the viewer to Michael Cera’s affable unsuspecting potential father-to-be Paulie Bleeker.
The Virgin Soldiers March - The Virgin Soldiers
Ray turned down the offer to appear in the film, but did write the Main Theme and a set of accompanying lyrics. Apparently the lyrics were so bad that the Producers scrapped them, and commissioned a second set of lyrics to be recorded by American singer Leon Bibb.
Too Much On My Mind - The American Friend
Leave it to Director/Kinks superfan Wim Wenders to coyly work in more than one Kinks song into a Tom Ripley noir thriller. Twice we find Bruno Ganz’s character singing The Kinks tune “Too Much On My Mind.” The first time it’s subtle, as he is whistling the tune while framing some art in his workshop. The latter borders on product placement for The Kinks’ Face To Face.
God’s Children / Dreams / Lola Instrumental - Percy
The Kinks career arc is riddled with self-inflicted career wounds, like getting banned from touring the States at the height of the British Invasion, and according to Ray Davies, making Percy as their follow-up to Lola vs Powerman. Nonetheless, Percy has some gems buried within.
Marathon - Long Distance Piano Player In 1970, with no previous acting credits to his name, Ray Davies was offered the lead role in a televised play called The Long Distance Piano Player. The play was the premiere episode in a long running BBC Anthology teleplay series called Play for Today that ran for 14 years.
Often compared to venerable Depression era drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in that Ray plays a man who decides to enter a marathon piano playing contest, which takes a toll on his marriage and those around him.
Nobody’s Fool - Theme From Budgie (Demo)
In 1970, Ray Davies wrote the theme song for The BBC show, Budgie, starring British teen idol turned actor Adam Faith. Written during the Muswell Hillbillies sessions, the song was then handed over to a band called Cold Turkey for execution. OR WAS IT?
Powerman / This Time Tomorrow / Strangers - The Darjeeling Limited
Brothers don’t shake hands, brothers gotta hug! Unless you are the three distrusting brothers in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, which is why the tension laden dynamic of Ray and Dave Davies serves up delicious needle drops for this Sibling Rivalry classic.
Everybody’s A Star - Starmaker broadcast Live Granada TV, 1971
In the 1974 Television Play Starmaker, Ray is in character and full Elvis regalia, as a fictional rock star named Starmaker, who has taken it upon himself to turn an ordinary man into a celebrity. Filmed in front of a live audience, the remaining members of the Kinks demoted to backing band status, while a cheeky Davies regularly breaks the fourth wall
Supersonic Rocket Ship - Avengers Endgame
So this needle drop is not on the Soundtrack to Endgame, as it’s not a Guardians of the Galaxy type affair, but I selected this song as it’s inclusion in the scene where Hulk and Rocket Racoon track down Fat Thor in New Asgard made me smile.
Quiet Life - Absolute Beginners
Ray Davies had been singing about the doldrums of middle age since he was in his 20s. At the tender age of 42, Ray finally got to act out his midlife melodies on screen in Julien Temple’s 1986 musical Absolute Beginners, where he portrays peace seeking Patriarch in the song “Quiet Life,” which he also wrote for the film.
Be Rational (Unreleased Demo) - 80 Days The Musical
In the late 1980s, Ray Davies wrote the music and lyrics to a musical adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days. I can’t pretend to know anything about the source material, but this song is further evidence that Ray Davies is the Godfather of Twee. (Article A in the evidence filed is “Sitting In My Hotel,”).
Return To Waterloo / Not Far Away - Return To Waterloo Soundtrack
Ray’s directorial debut could be called The Midlife Mystery Tour, as it’s a fairly bleak and lifeless hour long meditation on the life of a daily London commuter played by Kenneth “Admiral Piett” Colley. It gets weird, and isn’t a fun watch, but the movie has a pretty great scene with a Teenage Tim Roth as a singing punk.
Till Death Us Do Part (Demo) - Till Death Us Do Part
Till Death Us Do Part, was a 1965 UK sitcom that inspired All In The Family. A few years into their series run, the show made the leap to the big screen and brought aboard Ray Davies to write the title track. However, singer Chas Miller was brought in to handle vocal duties. Here is the Ray vocals demo that was eventually released on a Record Store Day 7”.
