The Kinks - Do You Remember Walter

[MrGuitarjones]

What a great record Village Green is. I'll take it over Let it Bleed or Abbey Road any day, not that those are anything to sneeze at. The average middle class person can realate to this album very well I believe. No pressure was on the Kinks to be icons or songsmiths or whatever. Their British pride shines through, as it should, even as it seems somewhat critical of some of their institutions at the time, there is still an optimism, a good feeling that comes through. Long live The Kinks !

[MrNiggerIgger]

three walters listened to this song.

[xNorthrnDownpourx]

Walter=Walter Bruce Willis in my life

[LTDViperDeli]

I bet you're fat and married and you're always home in bed by half past eight,

And if I talked about the old times, you'd get bored and have nothing more to say.

Best line in the whole song

[rotsa1]

Gay Marriage Approved by New York Senate

Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples can wed, and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born.

The same-sex marriage bill was approved on a 33 to 29 vote. The Senate galleries were so packed with supporters and opponents that the fire marshals closed them off.

[beatbox77]

@rotsa1 what the fuck does that have to do with anything

[GoldenScarab45]

4 people don't remember Walter

[christinegoetz]

yeah walter was in the golf swingers club...he's now passed on to the other dimension ..i guess... or maybe he still lingers?

[christinegoetz]

yeah walter was in the golf swingers club...he's now passed on to the other dimension ..i guess

[GreenhouseEffectGE]

Such a great song from rock's greatest album ....

[trickymutha]

Everyone has a Walter in their life

[kinksboss1]

people often change;

but memories of people

can remain...

[grizzlygriffin69]

I have an awesome Walter :)

[dougrhon]

Thematically similar to Billy Joel's "James'" but while Joel's song is pretentious and boring this song is just endlessly infectious and catchy yet even more poignant. What catches the foolishness of youth better than "Remember how we said we'd fight the world so we'd be free. We'd save up all our money and we'd buy a boat and sail away to sea. But it was not to be."

[mkohare]

@dougrhon thanks for that comment, i went and listened to that song by billy joel and it only shows further how far and ahead ray davies is as a songwriter compared to others. great theme for 'james' and 'do you remember walter,' but like you said james is a boring song with a nice idea and walter is one of the greatest musical vignettes ever written. even the beatles, who write songs about eleanor rigbys and polythene pams, never quite touch the realism and the feeling of kinks characters

[bubblesmile94]

how do I buy this I can't find it on itunes?!

[paranoid711]

@bubblesmile94 I'm pretty sure you need the album.

[TheMeleemonkey]

most of us ARE walter. as i get older my dreams are less about ambition, and more about escape. lifes a bitch. thank fuck i have the kinks :)

[TheMeleemonkey]

The Kinks best album as far as im concerned. mythology built for me since i wasnt alive at the time. where the fuck is my generations mythology?

[frankpinth]

questa mi ricorda qualcosa di sid burret....

[theej12354]

no they sound like the beatles, anyone who says they don't sound like the beatles doesn't know the beatles...

[RockCleric420]

There ain't half been some clever bastards!

[mmiiikkkeeellelelele]

que buena cancion!! mi favorita!!

[HommaHieno]

I could be Walter..

[criztafer]

saw my walter the other day and the bastard never let on to me. oh well so is life

[thiessen35]

who is walter?

[Powerfulhound]

i had a german teacher named walter.

[thiessen35]

i see a big difference in style compared to beatles..lol

[PicnicHikeMusic]

This and "All My Friends Were there" are the only weak songs on this otherwise BRILLIANT album (The Village Green Preservation Society). If those 2 songs were better, this album would almost rank with Sgt Pepper. Th Kinks finest hour.

[kinksboss1]

@PicnicHikeMusic

are you an idiot? This song perfectly captures Ray Davies brilliance at 24, already looking back on his life about lost friendships, as his songs are truly timeless, and All of My Friends was also similiar, with a catchy music hall and very British sound...Ray was writing about real life issues way ahead of his time while the Beatles, while they were great, trying to be too cosmic or whatever on Sgt Pepper, not even thier best album

[ZZJoCa]

@kinksboss1 I totally agree but I wouldn't call people names. You can sway opinion much easier with cordial dialog.

[ash2ashindust]

@ZZJoCa IT''s SO WEIRD that you just wrote that, about not calling people names..you see, I have been praying (I am not a :Holy Roller" (I don't force my religion on others) but I have recently been trying to clean up my MOUTH, especially in front of my "elders", as I was taught. It NEVER feels good to call someone a horrible thing, esp when you write it in "CYBERSPACE" and you CANNOT take it back! I (just look at the current political climate, the election, neg campaigns.GOD BLESS~

[coversongsallthetime]

elo is great and borrowed alot from this song.

[PhilJonesIII]

That intro sounds like something ELO used. I cant quite recall.

Mr Blue Sky.....anyone agree?

[jamreaper]

@PhilJonesIII well ... kinda but not really - the kinks had a similar beggining but the e.l.o one was more punchy and in a higher key - but by no means was anyone copying (which is i think what u were getting at) - people use similar intros everywhere if u kno where to look

[beezaxe]

I am Walter.

[angusoose]

You can't really compare them to the Beatles. As far as what they did they were better. This song is so much more sentimental than anything the Beatles ever wrote.

[MeIsTheWalrus]

i love them but they are so not better than the beatles. in my opinion ofcourse.

[kentcrawf]

i swear on my life this village green lp was the greatest record of 1968 period!!

[DankeRainer]

greatest fucking album of all time

[68beano]

299 tape then cd now thetube you bastards fingertip lickin easy access shirt dope

[hcfcsonny]

elo's mr blue sky has a similar intro!

[Voxac100b]

A forgotten masterpiece as good as dandy and may other Kinks songs this one could have been released as a single

[johnnyrook68]

so much good music in only 2:28

[monrovia]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ...WALTER

& Ralph Nader

[rotes1968]

What a true song!!! Great!!!

[xXmaayanXx]

I wish I had my walter back...

[Miloseb12345]

I have and i bet you many more people have

[rvilcheszamora]

Awesome, really awesome.

[ScottAln05]

No one can do "jaunty" like an Englishman!

[ZZJoCa]

We all had a Walter in our lives.

[Solivago]

@ZZJoCa Yes. It's a big truth!

[ash2ashindust]

THAT is HILARIOUS!!! WE had a WALTER too!!!! OUR PUNK B&** A@$^& LANDLORD WALTER TALKOWSKI of South Boston, MA, (USA) and he is SUCH a BASTARD...he screwed SO many people over, including people who DIED, he would STEAL from them before calling the police!!! Even "Whitey Bulger" hated him!!! (the #1 most wanted FBI guy) F U WALTER if u r reading this!!! I HOPE U DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH IN A BLDG W/ NO HEAT, like you did to US all those times! ROT IN HELL!!!! (God Bless!).

[ZZJoCa]

@ash2ashindust A Replacements fan, that's cool. My fav is Skyway; very romantic. Sorry your Walter was a bad guy. I was referring to a good friend who I shared my deepest thoughts, desires and musical loves with. Ironically, we also lived outside Boston metro.

Chris Cunningham: I can't find a trace of you. Did you drink yourself to death? I hope not. I thought you would become the next Van Cliburn

[ash2ashindust]

@ZZJoCa Skywayyy...dude...I am sorry about your Walter, is he still alive? I hope so, there NEEDS to be more GOOD WALTERS! I DO have a "good Walter", a counselor, and I am 13 years clean this January! (with his humble help!) He is special to me and my hubby too)

Where in Boston Metro? I am in Jamaica Plain, near Roxbury, but I grew up in Westboro, which is between Worcester and Framingham.

[ZZJoCa]

@ash2ashindust Arlington here, clean too, but my ex is from Rozi. Walter refers to any of our best friends, whom we shared dreams with, by whatever other name. Congrats on your will power.

[ash2ashindust]

@ZZJoCa PS-congrats on your recovery too!!! sorry to write so much, I almost never come on here, but your words have touched my heart, so thank you. (R u in Arlington? Maybe the hubby and I, and you + a friend cld hit a meeting over there sometime!

[ZZJoCa]

@ash2ashindust No, not any more. I went out to San Diego for a few decades and now, live in the wild hills of North Carolina; but thanks for the offer. Plus, I'm a little scared to see what they've done to the Bean Town I knew. I hope they still have the trollies; green, yellow and blue lines and the swan boats. I'd like to see Revere Beach and Wonderland again, if still there. Spent quite a few summer days and nights out there,

[thelmasss]

wiiiiiiiiiiii freedom

[jamreaper]

im a lovin da kinks

both in good english and bad english

[Jangocat]

I love this song, the Kinks are legendary. Awesome stuff for early 60's

[paddyo702]

Late 60's, this is from 1968.

[Jangocat]

Lol, of course you are correct, funny I relied on memory and it's written right in the description. Late night surfing...

[paddyo702]

No problem, and you're right it is awesome!

[markpetersound]

man i wonder what walter looked like...school days...

[frentury]

The lyrics great, but the musics even more so,absolutelly stuning - beutiful, when the third time singing it Ray goes to the high notes, that really feels to me like i'm lifted be some ecstasy-music-force :)

[Juderinos]

DO YOU REMEMBER WALTER HOW WE SAID WE'D FIGHT THE WORLD SO WE'D BE FREEE

Yeah that's pretty awesome.

[frumble10]

awesome song LOVE IT!!

[tyleryesta1]

this song is timeless

[BeLiketheSquerrl]

yes people often change but memories of people cam remaaaiiiin.

easily one of the best kinks songs. absolutely amazing

[sbarr10]

"I bet you're fat and married and you're always home in bed by half-past eight."

Oh dear. This hits a little too close to home for me, LOL.

[cannibaljuice]

I Love this song

[natasaaa]

is it me, or did elo completely rip off the beginning of this song on 'mr blue sky'? anyway, i love the song. it's such a wonderful album.

[proggoth]

I know what your'e saying but thats a pretty standard drum lick so i wouldnt take it to court. Both awesome songs though.

[natasaaa]

and the piano, too! but yeah, both are good songs.

[StripeyFilms]

Could be I wouldn't be surprised. Could also be from a Day in the Life

[MrArable]

A ton of songs have had that, although this does sound a lot like it.

[televisionlighter]

That sort of tempo was popular in alot of english songs back then.

[MeWindi]

Genius.

[briangroovy]

this is the best nostalgia song ever. I had a dream last night where i was singing this song and all the people in the dream were people I used to know when I was younger and that I drifted away from. my old friend tom was playing the piano. I had to listen to this song as soon as I woke up.

[ptola]

perfectly agree with you... makes me think about my past schoolmates I'm not in touch with anymore... wonderful song... touching lyrics

[giusair]

I reckon that dream was made up.

Sorry if i'm wrong.

[briangroovy]

my bro left the comment under my username but the dream was real alright. he told me about it in detail over breakfast. was a nice dream by the sound of it too

[reasonformirrors]

Why can't my dreams be that cool? I'm usually being chased and/or beaten by some otherworldly reincarnation of my dead mother. I should seek help.

Love the Kinks!

[fodsaks]

That sounds like a great dream... Something Rod Serling would have written.

My dreams are things like, I'm on a bus and Dan Aykroyd is teaching us how to read newspapers properly, then I look out of the window and we're in the middle of the sea and my dad is in a rowboat laughing for some reason and then I realise I've got a coffee cake to deliver to Fleetwood Mac and although I yell for the driver to take the bus back to land, no one seems to hear me... That kind of thing.

[bbqplatypus318]

Wow. Sounds pretty cool.

My dreams tend not to make much sense when I remember them. I remember one dream I had a while back where I was a ninja. And I rode a bicycle on the Great Wall of China. And killed my grandpa for some reason. Or maybe it was David Strathairn. They look alike.

But yeah...the Kinks. Awesome.

[Luna2010able]

ohh classic walter

[fodsaks]

I had a Walter... Although his name was Steven.

We used to sit on top of his dad's shed and talk about all the things we'd do once we were old enough.

Boy... Having to swap childhood for adulthood is a real rip-off!

[bbqplatypus318]

I think just about everybody had a Walter. That's the beauty of music like this - it speaks to everyone. Everybody's felt this at some point in their lives.

[fodsaks]

This song reminds me of a time before I was born, and a place I may never have been to.

[brython2]

A perfect evocation of lost childhood, no less eloquent than Housman's

"That is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain:

The happy highways where I went,

And cannot come again"

[TheMeleemonkey]

@brython2 WITH rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had,

For many a rose-lipt maiden And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping 5 The lightfoot boys are laid;

The rose-lipt girls are sleeping In fields where roses fade.

[krankiekat]

God save the kinks! They're # one to me always were and always will be!

[mickbozo]

Your wrong the kinks were huge in britain

in the sixties. I know i was there.

[Dave66xx]

There is no way The Kinks stuff was going to be appreciated during the mid to late 60's. Ray Davies was creating a whole new genre at the time, and it's only now, after the whole hippie bullshit faded away, and with the passing of time, that people can start to appreciate these wonderful pop songs. It will never sound dated the way so many of the heavy, bluesy, hippie stuff has now become i.e Cream, Hendrix et al. which is what most young people where listening to at the time.

[BailMeOutObama]

Perhaps not appreciated by the public in general, but certainly by contemporaries such as Pete Townshend and John Fogerty. Townshend took the better portion of "Tommy" directly from Johnny Thunder. Fogerty's entire "bayou/river" milieu is an American version of Ray's village green.

[LightningLice]

Best song on a great album.

[openyourmind25]

what an incredible song.

Although I don't quite get why he has to rag on the people who go to bed early!

[sshhaarrr]

Everyone should stop trying to compare The Kinks to other things.

Every kind of music is its own thing.

You like it or you don't.

[SkeikSprite]

Can't agree more. This applies to every band

[bretadounitedfc]

this kinky guy luvs THE KINKS!!

[patterson903]

i love this song!!!!!!

[PHYZOE]

God save the Kinks!!!!!!

[fodsaks]

If God doesn't exist, why does Ray sing that we're all God's children?

Huh? Huh?????

[worldsno1drwhofan]

Tbh I dont think anyone knows Rays opinion on god as he contradicts himself with two songs. Thats the thing about Ray, nobody really knows what he's truly thinking/feeling because he's such a deep and personal person and he covers himself with a mist. He only tells you whats on the surface. If you listen to 'fancy' you'll see what Im getting at.

[skint0n0minted]

i don't believe in god either.

ray also sung 'i'm king kong and got a hydroen bomb, beware!!'

but he's not actually kingkong.

he aso sang 'i'm an apeman' but he isn't actually an ape.

what i'm saying is just because he sung gods children doesn't mean he believes it, or it true

[GazeOnWaterlooSunset]

I think we can just appreciate the music. And Ray.

[randomactiongirl16]

can you prove that? The answer is no

[eldorado303]

kinks are my friends!!! i love them!!!

[ZdoTelhado]

They are great, you can say they are better than the Beatles if you want, but they DON'T SOUND LIKE THE BEATLES. They sound like The Kinks and they are GREAT!

[lluhta]

Village Green Preservation Society surely was better than the White Album.

[bassist4141]

I'm a big fan of VGPS but it's surely not better than White Album.

[TheResidentSociopath]

The White Album is considered to be one of the ten greatest albums of all time and there are about six or seven Beatles albums better than The Village Green Preservation Society. That's certainly not to say that The Kinks are musical Gods but they're just not The Beatles. No one is.

[skint0n0minted]

what the hell have the boring beatles got to do with this song?????????

[allegoria87]

@ZdoTelhado don't kno who's better...sure the kiks were coller....

[OnlyOnTheXbox360]

true dat

[braybeatles1]

@ZdoTelhado. Well said 

[Theykilledkenny19]

okay so if you know it will upset people why do you do it? jerk

[frithyman]

gnarly song

[NotOrdinaryInGames]

Awesome(my standard comment)

[amarelosubmarino]

Why don't you go play with your Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake CDs and let the grown ups enjoy their music? You'll get an Ice Cream in the end!

[amarelosubmarino]

Why don't you go play with your Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake CDs and let the grown ups enjoy their music? You'll get an Ice Cream in the end!

[arthurschool]

Ray Davies sings like the Beatles? You're an idiot!!!

[FadaSininho2008]

Ray Davies sings like the Beatles? You're an idiot!!!

[foodeater398]

hahaha wow people are touchy

dare i say thats something of a complement

[kinksboss1]

all of my friends are fat and married and home in bed by half past eight!

[birkiejamboy]

this song gives me goose pimples rrrrrrrr

[senojcram]

I thought VGPS was the best Kinks album but have you heard Misfits?

[mariojac]

Great song...Many memories...been there, done that...never got the t-shirt though! "Village Green Preservation Society" & "Kinks Chronicles" are the BEST KINKS albums (CDs) ever and taxmonkey123 is right on the money... Walter , my old friend...

[juiaob]

People change, but few live with a youthful spirit until their death.

[spoonie1231]

i love the drums. they are splended

[Zykorai]

This vid made me sOOoOoOo wet LOL X

[kinksboss1]

one of the greatest songs ever...I am in my mid-40's and all my friends are married and like Walter

from a Kinks fan in Northern California

[xtcx0js]

"I bet you're fat and married and you're always home in bed by half past eight"--just like every friend I had in high school.

[pajo1982]

Sublime

[taxmonkey123]

The Kinks are the most underrated band in history.

[imaweedaholic]

Amen.

[jonthegoon]

Indeed!

[ScreenFlavour]

intro reminds me of mcartneys section in 'a day in the life'

[nicolasonnn]

I've wrote the piano lines...a long times ago

[jwattie]

Absolutely bloody amazing! Shame there is no feeling left in music nowadays!!!!

[FirstAndLastCoUk]

I fell sorry for you that you feel that way and I hope you dont give up all together. Personally speaking, there are some amazing bands producing some great music nowadays, the problem is that we are bombarded with too much, which can make it difficult to find anything unique.

[hobbsk]

fantastic band.

[EleFantastic]

this song is simply amazwing. i didn't know it was the kinks until now. another kinks song i LOVE LOVE LOVE

[worldsno1drwhofan]

This is such a tearjerker! A beautiful song that makes you reflect on emotional stuff. No other band has really ever had this effect on me. The Kinks songs are really special lyrically and very unique.

[ALICECOOPER19]

.."yes people often chnge but memories of people can remain..."

such a unique song this is a song so full of memories and childhood images i really love this song

[BKLYNSASSY]

DITTO

[Nozickal]

my favorite song

[braxbsk8]

it's so beautiful

[gabbyfortea]

i dated a guy named walter.

haha

[FiveZeroSix]

o....k

[allivegp]

Walter, remember when the world was young

And all the girls knew walters name?

Walter, isnt it a shame the way our little world has changed?

Do you remember, walter, playing cricket in the thunder and the rain?

Do you remember, walter, smoking cigarettes behind your garden gate?

Yes, walter was my mate,

But walter, my old friend, where are you now?

[mrblue99]

it wasn't until seeing your puncuation that i realized he's addressing walter, not the listener. and this has been a favorite album for 25 years. well, it just got better. thanks.

[pauleyh]

there were synthesizers used in this album it is thier finest album they ever made.

[johnfright]

I always go bananas for all the mellotron on this record!

[johnfright]

Man, one of my favorites from Village Green. Thanks!

[twyman]

When I hear this song I always think of my old USAF buddy (Nab, if yer out there!) with whom I used to listen to the Kinks. Maybe he, too, has gotten "fat and married" and "wouldn't even know my name".

[allivegp]

Yes! I do remember Walter!