Jim Smart ~ 2005 April 30 ~ The Sit 'n' Bull Pub, Maynard, MA
Set List
This Is Where I Belong - Apeman - Life on the Road - Misfits - Sweet Lady Genevieve - Sitting in the Midday Sun - Supersonic Rocketship (with Ducks on the Wall) - Wonderboy - Animal Farm - Come Dancing - Twentieth Century Man - Oklahoma USA - Sitting in My Hotel - Dead End Street - Hard Way - Death of a Clown - You Can't Stop the Music - Strangers - Groovy Movies - Shangri-La - You Make It All Worthwhile - Better Things - Get Back in Line - Full Moon - Schooldays - Animal (one verse) - Scattered - Waterloo Sunset - Harry Rag - Live Life - Do It Again - Living on a Thin Line - Susannah's Still Alive - Days - See My Friends (one verse) - Autumn Almanac
Review
It was a real treat to be at the Sit 'n Bull on Saturday, April 30 for the Maynard debut of Jim Smart performing a set of Kinks songs, accompanying himself on guitar, and on harmonica for a few songs. Jim played with enthusiasm, delight and good humor, to an appreciative audience full of familiar faces. He played a wide variety of songs, mostly obscurities that only Kinks diehards like us would want to hear, from all phases of the Kinks career -- even from the '90s ("Scattered"). The Arista period, the '60s, and the concept album era were all generously represented. You'll never hear that set list again, from any solo Kink or kombination of Kinks.
Jim played almost all of his printed set list and a few others that weren't listed. He did a very unusual, and exceptionally good "Oklahoma USA" in which he accompanied himself on his guitar with the riff of "You Really Got Me." He did a weird medley of "Supersonic Rocketship" with a few lines from "Ducks on the Wall" included -- thus proving the two really *are* the same song. Jim played two songs from Preservation, saying that he has the reputation on the Kinks Preservation Society (internet mailing list) as the guy who doesn't like Preservation. He did a lovely version of "You Make It All Worthwhile," a song that is much improved without the Soap Opera dialogue. He played "Hard Way," saying that he's a schoolteacher and really ought not to be saying things like this.
Jim started one or two songs with instrumental bits that sounded like altogether different songs; a few notes of "Lola" led into a completely different song (might have been "Waterloo Sunset"). So, one could say he played even more than the 36 1/2 songs I'm giving him credit for. I'm counting "Supersonic Ducks" -- as the medley was listed on Jim's printed set list -- as 1.5 songs. The 36 1/2 song total does include two song fragments, but they were enough to count.
Apparently some raving Dave fan had requested that Jim include some Dave songs. Jim says Dave songs are hard to sing because Dave "sings high, and has quite a range," but Jim, you done good. They were great to hear, even "Strangers" with its dizzying vocal highs and lows. After starting his mini-Dave set with "Death of a Clown," Jim segued into "Can't Stop the Music" as a get-well wish to Dave, then played "Strangers," and then he played "Groovy Movies." That one has never been my favorite song of all time, but it is a lot of fun, and it reminded me of the time a few years back at the Bull when Dave Davies played that song. Peter Bochner, manager of the Sit 'n' Bull and the moving force behind Dave Davies' 17 appearances at this venue, made sure Jim knew he was following in pretty big footsteps by playing that song on that stage. Later Jim played "Living on a Thin Line" and "Susannah's Still Alive," the latter of which made me painfully nostalgic for Dave. Any time any Kinks songs are played at the Sit 'n Bull, Dave Davies is always there.
Jim instructed the audience to sing along in a couple of cases where the extra vocal bits were necessary, especially on "Dead End Street"; he laughed at himself at the occasional wrong lyric, knowing the audience would notice; he handled a broken guitar string early in his set with aplomb; on "Susannah's Still Alive" he did the very Dave-like thing of starting the song, getting it wrong from the start, stopping after a few seconds, and starting it over again, getting it right on the second try. This Rainy Day in April became a Sunny Afternoon when Jim Smart played the Sit 'n Bull.
Note: This review originally appeared on the Kinks Preservation Society internet mailing list, of which Jim Smart is a member. While visiting in the Boston area he performed this show for other members of our internet group. He is a very accomplished amateur musician who has recorded a number of albums of original music.