In the days of the long-playing record album —12-inch discs of vinyl introduced in 1948 and in decline since the 1980s — all sorts of goodies came with the music.
The 1969 Jethro Tull LP “Stand Up” had cardboard pop-up figures of the band, like a kid’s book. Alice Cooper’s 1972 classic “School’s Out” — ‘we can’t even think of a word that rhymes’ — came with a pair of girl’s panties as the album sleeve.
Today, you can get a movie with your music, like the one from Ray Davies, founding genius of The Kinks, on his recent “Working Man’s Café” CD.
“America,” narrates Ray at the beginning of the short film, “the land of ice cream and apple pie . . . guns and the Wild West.”
The 20-minute video diary of the 2001 “Storyteller” tour begins in Boston and ends with reports of Davies getting shot in the leg by a mugger in the French Quarter of New Orleans in January of 2004.
Davies saw much of the United States by automobile because the 2001 tour began 11 days after the World Trade Center attacks and air travel was difficult.
The film is anchored by stops throughout the rocking heartland of America, terra super firma immortalized by Ian Hunter in his anthem, “Cleveland Rocks.”
Along the way — from Indianapolis to Minneapolis and beyond — Ray takes zipping-by shots of tractor-trailers on the Kansas turnpike and a sound bite of a archetypal flatland accent when Ray stops for directions approaching Wichita.
The travelogue is accompanied by outtakes of performances of “Victoria” and “20th Century Man” as well as more recent songs — and lyrical camera shots of cloud formations.
The sort of things you and I would make images of while going across the country with friends with “Sunny Afternoon” in the CD player.
“I’m going across America . . . absorbing more of it this time,” says Ray, speaking in his motel room to a camera on a tripod.
“Just arrived in Houston . . . big, big city . . . vast, expanding. Drove for seven-and-a-half hours and all of a sudden heavy metal music comes on the radio, and you realize . . .
“That’s the hardness of this part of the world . . . it’s toughness and men like John Wayne walking around the streets . . .”
