The Kinks’ song ‘where are they now?’ was recorded in May-July of 1973 and released in November 1973 as their rock opera concept album ‘Preservation: Act 1’ (A-4), one of the sequels to their much better known concept album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society of 1968.
From its inception, Davies considered the album for stage presentation and its general theme served to inspire the Kinks’ more ambitious, but less popular, two-part theatrical work Preservation in 1972–1974. In his autobiography X-Ray, Davies would refer to the three albums as his “Preservation trilogy,” confirming that Preservation is directly related to Village Green Preservation Society.
Partly, Preservation Act One gives a misleading impression because it was never intended to be heard in this form. Originally, Preservation was intended as a single piece — a narrative work based on, and expanding upon, the themes of Village Green Preservation Society as well as the material about the destruction of communities in Muswell Hillbillies, but the album took much longer to complete than originally intended, after Ray Davies scrapped the initial sessions, and so it was released in two sections.
The songs of ‘Preservation: Act 1’ were .
It’s a nice song, not rock’n’roll, but its inclusion on the site is justified by the contents of the lyrics. Within the operetta, it was sung by a character named ‘The Tramp’ who represented the ordinary everyman as against the ruthless businessman ‘exploiting people’s weaknesses Mr. Flash’ and the puritan moralist ‘Mr. Black’ exploiting people’s fears.
*Altrockchick 2016 in a review of both Preservation albums URL: www.50thirdand3rd.com/classic-music-review-preservation-acts-1-2-kinks/
“There is also a fair amount of filler in the play, more so in Act 2 more than Act 1. “Where Are They Now?” seems disconnected from the storyline and doesn’t do much to reinforce the traditional preservation theme. “One of the Survivors” works because it at least forges the link to Village Green with its depiction of an aging Johnny Thunder. I love the way Ray delivers that line, “Old Johnny Thunder looks a little overweight,” as if he’s poking him in the belly while he sings.
Did Ray Davies attend the 1972 Wembley Rock’n’Roll Show? [purchase Ray Davies, A Complicated Life]
I’ll sing a song about some people you might know
they made front pages in the news not long ago
but now they’re just part of the crowd
and I wonder where they all are now
where have all the Swinging Londoners gone?
Ossie Clark and Mary Quant
and what of Christine Keeler
John Stephen and Alvaro
where on earth did they all go?
Mr. Fish and Mr. Chow
yeah, I wonder where they all are now
where are all the Teddy Boys now?
where are all the Teddy Boys now?
the brylcreem boys with DAs
the drainpipes and blue suedes
Beatniks with long pullovers on
and coffee bars and ‘Ban the Bomb’
yeah, where have all the Teddy Boys gone?
I hope that Arthur Seaton is alright
I hope that Charlie Bubbles had a very pleasant flight
and Jimmy Porter’s learned to laugh and smile
and Joe Lampton’s learnt to live a life of style
where are all the angry young men now?
where are all the angry young men now?
Barstow and Osborne, Waterhouse and Sillitoe
where on earth did they all go?
and where are all the protest songs?
yeah, where have all the angry young men gone?
I wonder what became of all the Rockers and the Mods
I hope they are making it and they’ve all got stead jobs
oh but rock and roll still lives on
yeah, rock and roll still lives on
Ok, on to cultural references (*Mick Bozo (YTcomm, 2011) “you have to be of a certain age and english to get this one.”).
60s Swinging Londoners
Ossie Clark | Mary Quant | Christine Keeler | John Stephen and Alvaro | Mr. Fish and Mr. Chow
50s
Teddy Boys | Brylcreem boys with DAs | drainpipes | blue suedes | Beatniks with long pullovers on | coffee bars | ‘Ban the Bomb’
Angry Young Men/Social realism/Kitchen sink
Arthur Seaton | Charlie Bubbles | Jimmy Porter’s learned to laugh and smile | Joe Lampton’s learned to live a life of style
Barstow | Osborne | Waterhouse | Sillitoe | protest songs
The list of names he recalls in the beginning are real cultural references which belonged to the SWINGING LONDON (a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London in the 1960s):
*Ossie CLARK was a fashion designer of that time, as *Mary QUANT (London, Feb. 11 -1934) inventor of the mini-skirt.
*Christine Margaret KEELER (22 February 1942) is an English former model and showgirl…that in December 1963 was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.
*John STEPHEN (August 28, 1934 – February 1, 2004), dubbed by the media “The £1m Mod” and “The King Of Carnaby Street”, was one of the most important fashion figures of the 1960s. By 1967, he operated a chain of 15 shops on the thoroughfare in central London which he and boyfriend Bill Franks made the epicentre of *SWINGING LONDON: Carnaby Street.
British fashion designer Michael CHIPS created the kipper-tie and dressed rock idols as David Bowie and Mick Jagger, in the mid 60s he opened his boutique in Picadilly, *MR. FISH by Clifford Street.
Perhaps the *MR. CHOW of the song may be related to Michael Chow, son of Chinese Peking Opera Grand Master, Zhou Xinfang, opened the first *MR. CHOW bistro in Knightsbridge, London on February 14, 1968, since Davies is a fan of chinesse food.
The name *BAN THE BOMB (1950s) may not be known but 90% of people will be aware that it is a symbol for peace and anti-war.
2)
Suddenly, The Tramp is sentimentally taken by his deep nostalgic memories so he starts to mix names of fictonal characters of drama and cinema as if they were real ones.
*Arthur SEATON is a young 21 years old buddy working in a working man’s club of Nottingham and enjoying a night out with Brenda, the wife of a colleague at work, as portrayed in the first novel by British author *Alan SILLITOE. “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (adapted by the author into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney).
*Charlie BUBBLES is a British film of 1967 starring Billie Whitelaw and Albert Finney, and also featuring a young Liza Minnelli. The film made great play of its Manchester setting, contrasting the return of its eponymous lead character, played by Finney to his home city after achieving success as a writer in London.
Young *Jimmy PORTER is the main character in “Look Back in Anger”, a theater play by John OSBORNE from 1956, which eventually was filmed in 1958 by actor Richard Burton.
Famous as The TEDDY BOYS, The ROCKERS and THE MODS years later, were in Literature *The ANGRY YOUNG MEN: a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group’s leading members included Davie’s names sung in “Where Are They Now?” in the role of The Tramp:
*Stan BARSTOW, *John OSBORNE, *Keith WATERHOUSE & *SILLITOE.
Andrew Hickey – One of two really weak songs on the album, unfortunately programmed back to back, this sounds like an outtake from Everybody’s In Showbiz. A nostalgic track looking back on the past, it was presumably meant to evoke similar emotions to some of the songs from Village Green Preservation Society, but rather than looking back on some mythical golden age of the past, it’s only looking back at the late 50s and early 60s, and has nothing to say about that time, just lists a bunch of people (Mary Quant, Christine Keeler, Keith Waterhouse) and fictional characters (Jimmy Porter) who were quite well-known at that time and slightly less-well known a decade later, and asks “where are they now?”, over a plodding background that sounds like Like A Rolling Stone on barbituates.
‘one of the survivors’ (A-6) (Sung by Johnny Thunder and Chorus) [example of 70s ‘rock’]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Thunder_(song)
See Johnny Thunder sitting on his motorbike
Riding along the highway
Rock and Roll songs from the nineteen-fifties
Buzzing around in his brain
Johnny Thunder he’s one of the original bebop generation
And he’s got no time for complicated music or too much sophistication
First gear, second gear, third gear, fourth gear, all right
Old Johnny Thunder looks a little overweight
And his sideburns are turning grey
But he still likes to bebop, boogie and jive
To his worn out seventy-eights
Johnny Thunder
He’s alright
He’s one of the survivors
Twelve bars flowing through his brain
Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and The Belmonts
Johnny and The Hurricanes, Johnny and The Hurricanes
Andrew Hickey – The other bad song on the album, this revisits Johnny Thunder from Village Green Preservation Society, finding him now heavier and greying, but still listening to the music he listened to when he was young.
Much like the previous song, this is about nostalgia for the (then-)very recent past, and consists almost entirely of lists of things, in this case 50s rock songs and performers (with an emphasis on slick white doo-wop like Dion & The Belmonts and Danny & The Juniors). It’s the musical equivalent of TV programmes of the I Love 1983 type. It wins over the previous track in that it has some energy, but then extends what amounts to a minute or so worth of mediocre musical material to four and a half minutes, losing all goodwill along the way.
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