Ladies and germs, from 1967, please enjoy The Kinks "Autumn Almanac." A song and band I suspect was a serious influence on FOW's Adam Schlesinger.
From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar. When the dawn begins to crack... It's all part of my autumn almanac.Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow. So I sweep them in my sack... Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.
Friday evenings, people get together. Hiding from the weather.
Tea and toasted buttered currant buns Can't compensate for lack of sun, Because the summer's all gone.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
Oh, my poor rheumatic back Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac. ...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
Oh, my autumn almanac Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.
I like my football on a Saturday. Roast beef on Sundays, all right. I go to Blackpool for my holidays, Sit in the open sunlight.
This is my street, and I'm never gonna to leave it, And I'm always gonna stay here If I live to be ninety nine 'Cause all the people I meet Seem to come from my street And I can't get away, Because it's calling me (come on home) Hear it calling me (come on home)...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn Armagnac. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...it's my autumn almanac.
That's as gorgeous an evocation of somebody's real life as has ever been set to music. Just brilliant.
I should add that the "Autumn ARMANGAC" thing at the end may be me mis-Hearing it. Okay. So sue me.
I should also add that when they gave Bob Dylan the Nobel for literature, I cheered. But Ray deserves it too.
5 comments:
One of two songs Andy Partridge wishes he had written. The other--"I Can't Let Maggie Go" by The Honeybus.
A great song that, like Waterloo Sunset, didn't chart on Billboard. I'm guessing the ban on The Kinks performing here played a role.
Great song. But of course, Like 'Waterloo Sunset', it's just too British to chart in the States. Yes, we were mad for swinging London, Carnaby street, yeah yeah yeah. That was Dave's world. But Ray was married with child and extolled the conservative comforts of middle-class English life in this family-friendly singalong. Not something that American ears craved back then.
I always thought that the way he pronounces “almanac” that one time was an (intentional) affectation, just to be kind of silly, and give a bit of whimsy - like the way Lennon pronounces “very bright” in “It’s Only Love”.
My English cousins lived in a building called Dolphin Square in London's Victoria section and on a glorious spring day in 1970 I found myself walking through the neighborhood singing this one and I literally could not stop.
https://youtu.be/Ahj-dwaPU1E
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