25 years of Schoolboys in Disgrace
Wall Duck
It's not one of the Kinks' most popular albums, even among the faithful. That's
a shame. I think it's great and, in honor of its silver anniversary, I'll tell
you why.
What distinguishes a Kinks album? I say there are 5 factors:
1. the quality of the lyrics
2. the quality of the music
3. the quality of Ray's singing
4. the quality of Dave's singing
5. the quality of Dave's playing
The lyrics and music on Schoolboys in Disgrace are not its strong suit. There's
not a song on the album that will make a top-10 list, or a top-20 list, or even
a top-30 list in a survey or contest. In fact, a lot of the songs are kind of
silly.
The thing is, Schoolboys in Disgrace is a concept album, which means that it
must be considered as a whole, not as parts. As a concept album, the lyrics and
music work very well.
But the real strength of Schoolboys in Disgrace lies in Ray's singing and
Dave's playing. They are magnificent.
Ray's singing is at its peak, in power and subtlety and intelligence and humor.
I mean peak literally. There are lots of good Kinks albums to come, but I'd say
Ray's singing never again attains the sustained excellence of Schoolboys in
Disgrace. Listen to how he switches in and out of falsetto joyfully and
effortlessly in The First Time We Fall in Love. And to the phrasing of The Last
Assembly. And the measured belting on I'm in Disgrace. On every song, there's
something about the singing to admire.
Most of all, best of all, Ray sings the songs _straight_. These songs are
sometimes ridiculous, but he shows his understanding that a joke is funnier
when it's understated than when it's overstated. The dryness, for example, of
Ray's delivery of Well Respected Man played a big part in that song's success.
Another obvious example is Lola, which is hilarious on LVPATM, but which is
awful on the live recordings where Ray camps it up over the top. A major
weakness of the Preservation albums is the overly eccentric voices Ray uses to
sing songs that are already eccentric enough.
By Schoolboys in Disgrace, he seems to have learned his lesson. There's no
contempt or condescension toward the characters he plays. He sings the opener,
Schooldays, with a nostalgiac anguish that sets the tone of the whole album.
Even the supercilious schoolmaster of The Hard Way sounds sincere.
Complementing the intelligence of Ray's singing is Dave's playing. I'd love to
have a version consisting of just the album's guitar tracks. Listen to I'm in
Disgrace even before the power chords kick in. The same with Headmaster, which
has the added pleasure of the beautiful interludes. (I sometimes think of
Headmaster as my favorite Dave Davies song, since it also offers a classicly
beautiful background vocal by Dave.) Appropriately, the album ends with some
great stuff at the end of No More Looking Back.
If you really want to appreciate Schoolboys in Disgrace, listen to it with
headphones. It's also fun to listen to in altered states (and I don't mean
Florida). Back in the 70s, it was my favorite record to listen to high. These
days I prefer listening to it jogging or cross-training. (I would not, however,
listen to it while jogging high; I'm afraid my head would explode.)
I think that, despite its relatively low visibility, Schoolboys in Disgrace is
one of the records that famous artists are referring to when they cite the
Kinks among their influences. God willing, I'll be savoring the album on its
golden anniversary. But it will still be around, even if I'm not.
Bill Blackmon
Unlike 3 previous albums, it sounded
good, there were little or no horns, little or no female backup singers,
there was depth in the production, no
clanging Rickenbacker basses and the band sounded like they were really
enjoying being a rock and roll band
after being in a stupor since Muswell Hillbillies. Dave sounded great and
that made it great for me - he'd been shoved in the background for far too
long. I still think its one of their best and definitely the best 'concept'
album.
And the stage show was fantastic. Those were the days!
"Wall Duck" <wall...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20001230125249...@ng-ck1.aol.com...
Patrick Denny
singing indeed is very strong, and although in my opinion there's only
one true "classic" Kink song ("No More Looking Back"), Dave's exquisite
solos on "Headmaster" and "Education" alone are worth the price of the
disc.
Bob Gill
> Twenty five years ago last month, the Kinks released Schoolboys in Disgrace.
> It's not one of the Kinks' most popular albums, even among the faithful. That's
> a shame. I think it's great and, in honor of its silver anniversary, I'll tell
> you why.....
>
> But the real strength of Schoolboys in Disgrace lies in Ray's singing and
> Dave's playing. They are magnificent.
>
> Ray's singing is at its peak, in power and subtlety and intelligence and humor.
> I mean peak literally. There are lots of good Kinks albums to come, but I'd say
> Ray's singing never again attains the sustained excellence of Schoolboys in
> Disgrace.
I don't share your level of enthusiasm for this album, and in fact I don't quite
share your enthusiasm for Ray's singing here, but I know what you mean. There's an
awful lot of life in his voice, as opposed to the occasionally campy voices he'd
been doing for the past four albums. Besides the ones you already mentioned, Jack
the Idiot Dunce has a terrifically energetic vocal. And Dave's guitar sound is the
best since maybe Arthur. Some of the songs are a bit too thin for my taste, but the
overall sound is very good, as you said.
-- Bob G.
argo
agree with you 100%. For some reason people tend to over look the
importance of that period in the band's history. At that point in time
they could have gone in any direction musically but I think that they
must have took a look at where they came from and and where they wanted
to go, deciding to get back to their roots and back to rock and roll.
Argo
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
David Brooks
FWIW, "Schoolboys" may be the album that I put on the turntable most often.
Not because it's the best, but because it's very good, has no stinkers, fits
many moods, and is less demanding that VGPS or its ilk, so I can wander off
in the middle without feeling guilty.
Armin Schumacher
"argo" <argo...@my-deja.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:92rhhf$1b0$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
Kinkdom. Before and after they played *normal* (but very good) Popmusic.
But I myself like the albums from Arthur to SiD very much because Ray
and Dave experimented a lot with different styles and brought out some
remarkable (sometimes peculiar) songs.
I remember that I was a bit sad about the following releases like
Misfits, Sleepwalker or Low Budget.
Armin
--
please apologize my german school-english
Joe Alberti
Armin Schumacher wrote:
>
> .
> But I myself like the albums from Arthur to SiD very much because Ray
> and Dave experimented a lot with different styles and brought out some
> remarkable (sometimes peculiar) songs.
>
> I remember that I was a bit sad about the following releases like
> Misfits, Sleepwalker or Low Budget.
>
> Armin
>
> I pretty much agree, except for Misfits. About 1/2 of the album is
> excellent and quite listenable.
Matthew Montchalin
argo
"Armin Schumacher" wrote:
> IMHO the years betwenn 1968 and 1976 were the most creative in the
> Kinkdom. Before and after they played *normal* (but very good)
Popmusic.
> But I myself like the albums from Arthur to SiD very much because Ray
> and Dave experimented a lot with different styles and brought out some
> remarkable (sometimes peculiar) songs.
>
> I remember that I was a bit sad about the following releases like
> Misfits, Sleepwalker or Low Budget.
You shouldn't feel sad Armin. the kinks didn't lose fans by giving
up the concept album format. They gained fans. Thereby fattening
their wallets a little bit releasing hit singles again.
will.d...@gmail.com
"I'm in disgrace, I'm in disgrace.
Because I fell for your pretty face,
I'm in disgrace. He's in disgrace..."
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858799355/
Will Dockery
Hey hey! I kind of see now why the clerk in the record store was angry when I bought this and another Kinks CD for $5 each last month!
This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the 1998 remastered Velvel release. Catalog 63467-79724-2. http://www.amazon.com/Schoolboys-Disgrace-Kinks/dp/B00000FDJ
Schoolboys in Disgrace on Amazon
When I brought this to the counter to one clerk, the ofther stomped off saying "Well now we have NO MORE Kinks records!"
I was thinking... I thought they were in the business of selling CDs?!?
Will Dockery
"marcus" <marc...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6853b86d-46cf-434c...@a8g2000yqp.googlegroups.com...
On Jun 2, 8:18 am, Will Dockery wrote:
> On Tuesday, January 6, 2004 2:44:58 AM UTC-5, DGDevin wrote:
> > "don freeman" <dfre...@nospam.shaw.ca> wrote in message
> >news:9trKb.6083$hk.5152@pd7tw1no...
>
> > > Well, isn't that strange. My American d of Schoolboys In Disgrace, on
> > > Velvel, is nowhere near as dear to me as Preservation ( Act 1 and @)
> > > or
> > > Soap Opera, or Everyone's In Show Biz, also on Velvel. And it's not
> > > because those all have bonus tracks while Schoolboys In Disgrace
> > > doesn't. It's because I find the songs are so much stronger on those
> > > rock operas.
>
> > Maybe because Schoolboys was Davies making a conscious effort to write
> > something commercial and brilliant rather than just brilliant.
> > Unfortunately the day would come when just commercial was all he
> > demanded of
> > himself, but in the early years pretty much everything he did was
> > astonishing.
>
> Well, I missed "Schoolboys In Disgrace" the first time around brcause
> there was really so much more stuff pressing on me at the time, 1975-76
> and that The Kinks just didn't seem to matter much in the big picture.
>
> Good Lord there was Dylan's second run on top, BOTT, Desire and so on, Lou
> Reed, Bowie, Patti Smith's arrival on the scene just to name a few
> fascinations.
>
> But I am confounded that "In Disgrace" wasn't released as a single and a
> hit one. It sure would have knocked so much out of the way on the radio of
> the time, no doubt:
> "I'm in disgrace, I'm in disgrace.
> Because I fell for your pretty face,
> I'm in disgrace. He's in disgrace..."
>
> http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858799355/
> after it first came out.
>
> The cover is great too.
With having it on constant rotation for the last week or so, I'm putting it
pretty high as a Kinks album, and a 1970s work of rock-n-roll in general.
Even what seemed would be the tedious 7 minute "Education" is getting better
and better the more I listen.
Ray Davies on Education, from his work titled "Education":
http://www.reasontorock.com/tracks/education.html
"...Teacher, teach me how to read and write.
You can teach me 'bout biology.
But you can't tell me what I am living for,
'Cause that's still a mystery.
Teacher, teach me about nuclear physics,
And teach me about the structure of man,
But all your endless calculations
Can't tell me why I am.
No you can't tell me why I am." -Ray Davies