The Kinks
My sons, a few friends and I went to see Ray Davies of the Kinks the other night in Boston. I think I became a Kinks fan with the release of Sleepwalker in 1976. I have probably seen Ray or The Kinks 15 times since then. If you have never listened to much Kinks stuff I highly recommend checking them out in depth. I would put any of their 60’s British invasion songs up against any band of the time ( excluding the Beatles of course ). And as far as a song writer Ray is one of the best.
Pete Townshend said “The Kinks were much more quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should one day be Poet Laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning.”
After a few hits in the early 60’s, You Really Got Me, Tired of Waiting , All Day and All of the Night the group was banned from The US. The American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts in the states after their 1965 tour. Although neither the Kinks nor the Union gave a specific reason for the ban, at the time it was widely attributed to their rowdy on-stage antics. It would be four years before they played live again in the US. No touring meant no radio play so they were pretty much silent during the height of the British invasion. But they pressed on releasing a slew of great songs and albums in the 70’s. The 80’s and 90’s weren’t as productive but they still put out some great tunes.
Had it not been for that four year ban I think today The Kinks would be talked about in the same circle with The Beatles, Stones and The Who as one of the top five British groups.
By the way, the show in Boston was excellent, the old Orpheum Theater was rocking, paint chips were falling from the ceiling. Ray’s new songs are very good and he cranked out lots of Kinks classics.
Here is a list of what I think are some great Kinks songs. Some hits, some not, but all great songs. Also a couple of pictures I took of The Kinks many years ago.
No More Looking Back – Schoolboys in Disgrace
Moving Pictures – Low Budget
Set Me Free – Kinda Kinks
I Gotta Move – On an EP with All Day and All of the Night
Where Have All The Good Times Gone – The Kink Kontroversy
Get Up -Misfit
Sitting in the Midday Sun – Preservation Act One
Life Goes on – Sleepwalker
You Cant Stop The Music – A Soap Opera
One Of The Survivors – Preservation Act One
Victoria – Arthur
Waterloo Sunset – Something Else By The Kinks
Better Things – Give The people What They Want
Shangri-La – Arthur
God’s Children – Percy ( Soundtrack )
Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy – Kinda Kinks
Who’ll Be The Next In Line – Kinkdom
Im Not Like Everybody Else – Face to Face
Sittin’ On My Sofa – The Kink Kontroversy
She’s Got Everything – Days 7” Single or The Ultimate Collection
Star-struck – Village Green Preservation Society
Do It Again – Word of Mouth
Living On A Thin Line – Word of Mouth
20TH Century Man _ Muswell Hillbillies
And of course there is You Really Got Me, Apeman, Till The End Of The Day, Lola and the list goes on and on. A lot of these songs can be found on Compilations and you can sample most on iTunes, but some of the earlier stuff is not there.
Let me know what you think.
saw ray davies recently, great show!
As a new Kinks fan, I’m rummaging through their music for the first time, and what strikes me the most is their clever originality. Besides the occasional cheap imitation (i.e. Green Day’s song “Warning” riff stole the hook from “Picture Book”), no band sounds quite like The Kinks—though many bands try to do so. While many ‘60s and ’70s bands sound incredibly dated today, The Kinks early music, for example, has lasted because they weren’t so bogged down (at least to my knowledge) in the whole psychedelic thing. Their material, besides their disco album, could have been recorded yesterday. They were writing alternative music before there was such a genre. They were writing punk music when Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten were still “schoolboys in disgrace.” Speaking of which, I will post a review of that album soon.
Ahhh…..The Kinks
I agree with keith, I would even put them as one of the top 3 English bands. Ray Davies is an incredible lyricist, he leaves you wondering how he ever came up with some of the lines. Combined with brother Dave on guitar, Mick Avory on drums and a bassist (I CAN”T REMEMBER WHO IT WAS!!!!!) They never falied to dissapoint. My favorite was the Christmas show in the old Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
PS…I still have a drumstick that Avory threw into the crowd!!!!!
I’ve been listening to the Village Green Preservation Society album for several days straight and believe it to be one of their very best (that I’ve heard so far). It has such an English sound and contains some remarkably original lyrics and melodies. I particularly like Do You Remember Walter?, Picture Book, and, of course, Days. The album reminds of how the art of creating albums has been lost. That is, albums once were a collection of songs that worked well together as a song cycle. In the advent of MP3s and iTunes, people are more interested in downloading individual songs.
Always glad to see another Kinks site, I’m the photographer who shot the picture of Dave with his black guitar. FYI Saw the Kinks in 69 open up for the Who here in Chicago. Lazy Old Sun and Get back In The Line and Mincless Child Of Motherhood are among my favorites. I have many Kinks photos and many stories. How is Dave these days?