Customer Reviews

Soap Opera

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those Kinks records that just went sailing over people's heads. The idea of a rock star gradually becoming a mediocre nobody is the stuff of genius. It's about the oppressive sameness of the masses, and just think about it for a second. What does the expression "keep it real" mean? I can tell you. It means "don't think you're better than the 'hood. Stay undeducated and lame and watch TV and listen to weak rap numbers that denigrate women in a predictable style." Real real.

Ray Davies nailed it all those years ago: We're not a culture of individualists, by any means.. We're all about conformity. He just puts it out there, straight, no chaser. We should ask ourselves: How much have we "settled" over the years? How much has identifiable product overwhelmed the process of choice? To my knowledge, this is the only album that has ever addressed the question.

What Ray Davies does here is illustrate, from his own coast, how the weight of just "fitting in" can crush anyone, even a genius. The moral: Don't fit In! And Ray never did. Melodically as well, this has some of the greatest tunes ever generated. The actual CD closer (not the one on the extended version) has had me in tears.

This is a very, very brilliant album. I wouldn't use the word "silly" for any of it. Ironic, in high Shakespearean style, is more appropriate. It is, in its way, a fully fleshed out version of "I'm not like everybody else," which is hilariously used non-ironically in a commercial these days. Don't they get it? They are ALL like everybody else! That's what the song is about.

Irony 101 for all ad execs. Mandatory. (Oh yeah, and I know folks have noted that "Lust for Life" by Iggy is being used to promote family values. I have lived this long?)

Finally, if the above all sounds daunting....Soap Opera also great fun to listen to. Good singing, good playing, melodies and hooks galore, wit, intelligence, and Ray Davies's voice. And a spectacular foray into the mind of the 20th Century Ape-Man.

Any Kinks album is an investment of time. Unlike other groups who try to make instant hits upon first listening, The Kinks write albums as a single thematic unit. Their "concept album" era, of which Soap Opera belongs, is their most disliked period, but also their most misunderstood.

When I first heard this album, many years ago, I thought it trite, silly and rather shallow. However, I dug it out of my cassette collection recently and re-acquainted myself with it. Once again, I was unimpressed. For some reason I kept listening to it over and over, and found myself less invested with the music than the story. Essentially its about a trumped up rock star who exchanges placed with a middle-aged clerk in order to prove he could make him a "star". Silly concept.

Suddenly I recognized a parallel between the album's story and the wave of reality show on TV. I could easily imagine a show based off of this very premise. Now the story didn't seem silly, but prescient. This is where the magic of the Kinks exists. Ray Davies delves into the distubing trend of societal obsessions and juxtaposes them with the allure of the simple life.

Just visualise the theatre in this music. This album was a great escape for me when it came out. I can't wait to get it on CD. The original album was destroyed when my husband fell down the stairs carrying my albums in a box when we were moving. Oh well. When you listen to this, it's like having a little movie playing in your head. However, recommended for hardcore Kinks fans only. If you really just like their radio ditties, you might find the soap opera side of Ray & Dave kind of weird.

This album is brilliant....lyrically, musically, conceptually....it is the one Kinks album start to finish that I never tire of....the tongue in cheek of Mr. Davies was never more evident. What fun....wish I had seen it live....there are YouTube performances out there....Holiday Romance is a real classic!!

This album gets a bad rap, but if you like rock and roll you will dig this album. Everybody's A Star is one of the Kinks best of hte 70s. Underneath the Neon Sign is another forgotten gem as well as Rush Hour Blues and Ordinary People. Also look for the great melody in nine to five.

My favorite of the 1970s concept albums, A Soap Opera is certainly more accessible than the sprawling Preservation project, and less restrained thematically than, say, Schoolboys in Disgrace. The story, such as it is, involves the Starmaker changing places with the hopelessly normal Norman. Familiar Ray Davies subject matter is covered here, especially how the mundane working life robs people of their individuality, and how many of us attempt to cope (there are two morbidly amusing tunes about the old demon alcohol, "When Work Is Over," and "Have Another Drink"). "Holiday Romance" and "You make It All Worthwhile" are both sweet and ironic, while "Ducks on the Wall" is a hilarious rocker about a lover with rather poor decorating skills. "(A) Face in the Crowd" is downright heartbreaking, a character resigned to giving in, to becoming "one of them." Thankfully, the album closes with the far more optomistic "You Can't Stop the Music," a tribute to the rock stars of the past. Remove the storyline and you've still got a strong batch of songs, which is more than you can say for most concept albums. Give this one a chance. I bet you'll be plesantly surprised.

These are some interesting concepts outlined here. I always loved the theatrical side of the Kinks, and this one was one of their best plays. Certainly it's the tightest in terms of storyline.

I never saw it as being truly about a star who changes place with a "nobody" though. To me, it was more the story of a man whose ordinary daily life is so mundane and so humdrum that he invents an exciting fantasy to make it all bearable.

Don't we all?

Anyway, this has everything we've come to expect from Ray and crew, from the giddy fun of "Ducks on the Wall" to the rebellious and anthemic (and slightly panicky) drinking songs (both versions -- "have another drink, it'll make you feel better," and "don't stop and think; have another drink") to the bittersweet and pretty "Underneath the Neon Sign." We sink, with Norman, deeper and deeper into an unescapable lethargy, hating the drudgery of daily life and feeling more and more helpless to do anything but breathe and go on.

This is tragedy at its most Greek: a story of a lively and inventive man who longs for color and excitement but who is instead overpainted in grays. When at last he accepts his life and sees that it has a tender beauty of its own, we can't help but feel a little bit disappointed. We wanted him to break free, if only to prove to us that we might hope to do it ourselves.

Give this one a chance. It's not as great as a lot of Kinks albums, but at that it's still a lot better than just about anything else.

This is one of the few albums where I enjoy it from beginning to end.
Not because every song is amazing, but because it's a complete story.
The life of Norman isn't always the same, it goes in circles from his opening retort of "I'm a Star" to his final admission that he's just like the rest of us.

But is it rock and roll? Well, does it always have to be?
If you're an artist, like Norman (I mean, Ray), then does it always have to be the same ?
Throw in a kicker every now and then.
That's what Soap Opera is - a real kicker.

.db.

What fantastic stuff the kinks did in the 70's. I think Lola was a great thing for the boys, yet people were insatiable for another. I'm glad (beyond glad really) Ray had the courage to do Muswell Hillbillies and everything else after, rather than just trying for Lola again.

What can I say about this album? I'm glad it's gotten the ratings it has on this site (I think there's a bad one in the mix somewhere). There's a great song cycle in the beginning, kinda doo-woop 50's. Ray's flawless. Dave's awesome too. The later songs, Underneath the Neon Sign particularly, is so gorgeous lyrically as well as musically. Even Ducks on the Walls and Holiday Romance fit in very well. Pretty awesome live Dave at the end on the bonus track, a slightly different version of Ordinary People. I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of this album. Kinda horrible cover art though...SACD is so good, so clear.

The Kinks were never seriously into fashion. And the public's taste for the Kinks came and went serveral times. Soap Opera was released durning a time when the public's taste went. But while the musical style of the Kinks' work changed over the decades, the quality of the work was always high. Soap Opera stands up with the other theme albums and has some exceptional tunes. "Ducks on the Wall" cracks me up every time I hear it, maybe because I've seen that wall many times and it struck me the same way it seems to have struck Davies -- sadness, anxiety and humor all rolled into one song. "You Make It All Worthwhile," a terrific lead-in to "Ducks" with sharper contrasts, in the voices, the characters, and the theme. I recommend this album for all Kinks fans and anyone serious about fashion, that thinks Brit music is a video with breasts, or that has seen one too many ducks on the wall, or that has one too many ducks ontheir way ;)