Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Ray Davies - 80 Days Demos (1988)

Before I continue posting more Kinks material, I feel the need to post this. This is a well-known bootleg, and I haven't changed anything to it, but I want to help make it better known.

Sadly, in the late 1980s, the Kinks' new albums were not nearly as good as they used to be. Perhaps one reason for that was that main songwriter Ray Davies was losing interest in typical albums full of unrelated songs in favor of this project, which was music for a play put on in 1988 in La Jolla, California called "80 Days."

Unfortunately, while the play was well received, it didn't catch on enough to make it to Broadway, and no soundtrack of its songs has ever been released. Luckily, we have these recordings, of Davies demoing the songs for the play's performers to learn the songs. Even though these are demos, they're fleshed out and sound as good as fully realized studio productions, in my opinion. There's a curious lack of guitars in favor of piano and synthesizers, but the production is tasteful and not ruined by the excesses of 1980s production techniques.

I recently posted "Return to Waterloo" here, which technically is a 1985 Ray Davies solo album but really is a de facto Kinks album, since the Kinks play all the instruments. By contrast, this is Ray Davies' de facto first solo album, since it appears to be done without any Kinks help. It's a real shame he didn't officially release it in any form, because I think the songs are excellent. 

It's hard to figure out the plot of the play from listening to the songs, since it's a complicated story and one doesn't get to hear the dialogue of the rest of the play. Here's a link that can help you if you want to know more:

https://www.kindakinks.net/misc/40yearskinks/teil6_e.html

01 Let It Be Written (Ray Davies)
02 Our World [Empire Song] (Ray Davies)
03 Well Bred Englishman (Ray Davies)
04 Against the Tide (Ray Davies)
05 Ladies of the Night (Ray Davies)
06 On the Map (Ray Davies)
07 It Could Have Been Him - Mongolia - No Surprises (Ray Davies)
08 Welcome to India (Ray Davies)
09 Just Passing Through (Ray Davies)
10 Who Do You Think You Are (Ray Davies)
11 80 Days (Ray Davies)
12 Members of the Club (Ray Davies)
13 Conspiracy (Ray Davies)
14 Tell Him, Tell Her (Ray Davies)
15 Be Rational (Ray Davies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288959/RayDvs_1988_80DysDemos_atse.zip.html


For the cover, I used the artwork designed for the play, but I removed the text "A new musical" - which ceased being true after 1988 - and replaced that with Ray Davie's name.

8 comments:

  1. I've been listening to this a lot lately. It's really quite an amazing piece of work. Some of the songs are too much on the theatrical side, but man there are some amazingly beautiful melodies tucked into some of those songs. Great lyrics and storytelling, sympathetic backing, overall very solid. Actually better in my opinion than any of the kinks '80's albums.

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    1. I heartily agree. I'm really bummed this still hasn't ever been officially released. I have a feeling there's lots more cool stuff in Ray Davies' vault.

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    2. I've heard him say he has over 2000 songs. I believe him. I'd really love to see him release all his home recordings in one place, give us the full length demo's, including the 80 Days stuff. I'm sure you've heard the two new demo's on the new Lola box? Just tiny snippets, but stll cool to have. It's a shame though that he's made them even less accessible than on the two previous sets, not that they're interspersed with talking instead of having them all rolled together in on medley. Anyway, let's hope he's working on something.

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    3. ... and actually, it does look as though he's revisited these songs more recently. 'A Place In Your Heart' from the Americana album is supposed to be an 80 Days song as well. And from the same album 'Message From The Road' recycles the bridge melody from 'Ladies Of The Night'

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    4. Wow! 2000 songs?! The thing is, Ray Davies is such an excellent songwriter that his leftovers would still be pretty good.

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  2. Hi, Paul. This is great. Would it be possible to upload this one to SoulseekQT? I'd love to listen to it. Thanks so much.

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    1. I just double checked - it's being shared there already. Just search for "Ray Davies" "80 Days" and "atse."

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  3. Opps. I located the file, Paul. Please ignore my last message and thanks for sharing. Cheers.

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