THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,330) The Kinks — “Till Death Us Do Part”
“What a wonderful song!” (Fischman, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280#post-27461195) No relation, but yes indeed! Ray Davies’s [see #12, 100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,302] song is “sensational” (Fortuleo, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280), “a top 10 Kinks song . . . . [j]ust beautiful” (Steve E., https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280), a “British dance hall meets New Orleans marching band numbers, featuring a martial drumbeat, banjo, and trombone”. (Wayne Cresser, https://wcresser.com/2023/03/17/the-kinks-turn-sixty-reflecting-on-1968s-till-death-us-do-part/). Oh, and Alf Garnett and Archie Bunker love it!
Ajsmith tells us that:
It was written as the closing theme for the 1968 film adaptation of the UK sitcom Til Death Us Do Part which ran in the UK in various iterations from the mid 60s to the early 90s. It starred Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett, a right wing little Englander bigot at odds with both his own family and the modern world. He was kind of an antihero as though he was the butt of most of the jokes on the show, he was also its lead character and was taken by many whose politics aligned with his as an identificatory figure. The show was later famously adapted for US audiences as All In The Family and the character Archie Bunker. . . . On the soundtrack version, session singer Chas Mills sings over the Kinks backing track . . . .
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280
The Kinks’ version didn’t see release until ’73’s The Great Lost Kinks Album, and when that was pulled people had to wait a long time to see it again officially available. “I read recently . . . that Pye wanted to release it as a single, perhaps as a Ray Davies solo song. Ray nixed it, and not only that, he didn’t allow its rerelease in the digital age until the last 6-8 years or so.” (Steve E., https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280)
Wayne Cresser writes that:
[T]he small wonder . . . . is a most literary work from beginning to end, highlighted by one of Davies’ best similes, “life is like a school/but I’m not prepared to keep on learning”, served up with the weary innocence . . . . Much of Ray’s lyric writing during this period touches on the day to day. His is a realism, sometimes sardonic, sometimes richly observational, that is often underscored by doomed romanticism. “In my little life,” says the lovelorn singer, “I know the world must keep on turning, even though it leaves me far behind.” He aspires to be better. For her, he knows he needs to be because she might be leaving him. The tempo changes a little past halfway through, the song almost stopping, before the horns come back and the singer declares that despite his shortcomings, “this is our life, to live together, …Not just a day/but ‘til forever…Until death us do part.” The lines are delivered more as hopeful assertion than invocation.
https://wcresser.com/2023/03/17/the-kinks-turn-sixty-reflecting-on-1968s-till-death-us-do-part/
Fortuleo rhapsodizes over “Death”:
I love everything about this tune, the lyrics are not only adorable but strangely profound . . . the major to minor chord sequence is continuingly graceful, surprising and comforting at the same time . . . . Ray’s delivery is beyond sweet and [his wife] Rasa’s lalalas are among the best she ever did. The jug band/New Orleans/parade backing is fabulous and groundbreaking for the Kinks. Ray is charting a whole new territory for his music-hall typed songs, with trombones, mandolins (I think?) and fanfare drums, a style he’ll often come back to for some of his best songs in the early seventies. The . . . bridge is . . . enchanting . . . . And I just love how the chord sequence is slightly altered in the last two verses, making them more assertive and “steady” than the first three, because after expressing his self doubts, the singer is now declaring that despite all his shortcomings, he’ll be there, with her, until the end. That’s remarkable.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-280
As does Fischman:
The vaudevilleian style here may well be the best such match for the song… and vocal delivery… in the entire Kinks katalog. That mellow trombone totally sets the stage! Match that with the sweetness of the lyric and the innocence in Ray’s delivery, and you’ve got a totally unique winner. I can see why it was never an album cut, but it also should never have been allowed to languish in obscurity. It belongs nowhere in particular, but has applicability everywhere.
Here is Chas Mills’s soundtrack version:
Here is Jeff Tweedy:
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