When I 1st heard The Kinks on the radio, round about 1971, 4 some reason I thot they were Mexican. Or Spanish.
Not really sure I can Xplain how I got that impression. But listen 2 the way Ray Davies sings "All Day and All of the Night" -- like he can't quite get the words out, like he's learned English as a 2nd language. But this effect mighta bn due 2 primitive production techniques.
"Lola" didn't clear things up 4 me, either. If NEthing, it just got me more confused. "You Really Got Me" didn't help, either. Again, the direct, almost crude production by Shel Talmy emphasizes the force & push of the guitars -- they're not really "heavy" as we would later define the term, more like a controlled Xplosion. In some almost indefineable way, The Kinks were "spicier," more energetic, than a lotta music of the same period. There was Something Different going on there.
If I'd heard "Victoria" at that point it woulda cleared everything up 4 me, but I didn't hear it until YEARS later....
I don't think I actually got my facts straight until 5 years later when I read John Mendelssohn's Kinks reviews in THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW VOLUME II. & by the time The Pretenders came along with "Stop Your Sobbing," I at least knew who Ray Davies WAS, tho there were a lot of his songs I'd never heard. Still haven't.
Fast-4ward 2 my Record Store Daze: We played the heck outta The Kinks' LOW BUDGET, which had a few decent songs on it -- "National Health" was probly my fave: "Nervous tension, man's invention, is the biggest killer that's around today...," continuing with some funny advice on how 2 keep your stress down. But tho there were a couple of catchy tunes like the disco takeoff "I Wish I Could Fly Like Superman" & the down&dirty title track, with only a couple of Xceptions it wasn't Xactly ... uh ... charming. "Little Bit of Emotion" sounded the most like the real Ray, talking about how often people hide & only let little bits of themselves peek out 4 others 2 see.
We also played the heck outta their double-live album ONE FROM THE ROAD, from which a scattering of tracks caught my attn, tho a lot of it seemed really sloppy. The live version of "Lola" didn't do NEthing 4 me, but "Victoria" was an absolute killer anthem with great crunchy gtr riffs & Brother Dave whooping it up in the background. Ditto 4 "David Watts" -- the only problem w/ both these songs was that they were TOO SHORT.
Then there was the moody "Misfits" & the flat-out gorgeous "Celluloid Heroes." & who could resist Ray's use of Harry Belafonte's "Day-O"? I was starting 2 think these guys might B worth looking in2.
Couple years later The Kinks had a "comeback" of sorts, with nostalgic hits like "Come Dancing" & "Don't Forget to Dance" & "Do it Again," + I remember hearing the title track from STATE OF CONFUSION quite a bit. But it wasn't until AFTER this that I started digging in2 their old stuff.
I started with THE KINK KRONIKLES, a 2-record set of mostly 4gotten trax from their middle period. There I found the marvelous original version of "Victoria" + the modest & charming acoustic "Village Green Preservation Society." But there was a lot more: the sublime "Shangri-La," which Ray sings the choruses of like his heart's gonna jump outta his chest; the depressing-yet-charming(?) "Dead End Street"; the silly & irresistable "Apeman" -- why was this never a hit?! The choruses alone shoulda locked it in2 the Top 10.... There was the equally silly "Sunny Afternoon," which I'd somehow overlooked. Ray sounds pretty relaxed 4 a guy who's sposta B all stressed-out about his marital breakup.... Oh, & "Lola" was on it, 2....
There were a few trax I didn't quite get: Lotsa critics hail "Waterloo Sunset" as something like the most beautiful 45 RPM single in the history of the English language.... While I think it's a clear Dpiction of Ray's more introverted side, I can't get Xcited about it. Just doesn't strike me as a lost classic. ...& "Autumn Almanac" is just silly.
Ghod knows I'm not done Xploring them yet. I was a sucker 4 "Tired of Waiting for You" back when I was about 12, & over the years I've adopted others that I was 2 young 2 notice the 1st time around: "A Well Respected Man," the silly "Dedicated Follower of Fashion"....
Somewhere around here I've got a 2-disc set of Kinks singles I've gotta get 2. Looks pretty complete. & the VILLAGE GREEN album, which I wanna set aside some time 4. All I've heard is the opening title track. If it's all that good, it'll B worth the time.
I haven't actually heard all that much by these guys, but it's intresting how their best stuff really sticks with you. More soon, quite likely....
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Oh yeah, & I shoulda added something about how The Kinks do "great, vivid portraits of small-town post-colonial British life," or about their intimate pictures of the "little people" who make-up British society & keep it running... That shoulda fit in there somewhere. Maybe I kinda rushed this 1....
Interesting. I've always thought of The Kinks as one of the most British of bands. You know, as much from their subject matter as anything else, and no I'm not that much of an expert.
It never seemed to me as if Davies sung as if English were a foreign language, BUT what you say is interesting because I *have* gotten that feeling from another band I consider to be quintessentially British, The Fall. It often seems to me as if Mark E Smith is reading (or chanting or mumbling or whatever else it is he does) aloud from a sheet he's been handed which contains only a transliteration of the phonetic sounds that the lyrics make. It's as if the words he "sings" (and of course I use the term loosely) are totally divorced from meaning.
I've heard the same thing from this Italian postrock band I like, the gal singer confused at the sounds of the English words written for her, but why would I get that feeling from Mark E Smith, a self-styled poet who was taught the Queen's English as a boy?
And why would you get that feeling from Ray Davies, no less thoroughly educated in the Mother Tongue?
And does anyone get this feeling from the Arctic Monkeys, the last in my triumvirate of paradigmatic British acts?
Good interesting questions all.
Since I speak of The Kinks and of The Fall, I should mention The Fall's cover of "Victoria," impossible for a record to get any more British without wearing a tophat, monocle and tails I don't think.
The Kinks-hmmm. That is one band that I like that I don't have much of...(Don't ask me why, I don't know) Is there an album that I really should get hands on?
Drew: Well, all I've got is a singles-best-of, KINK KRONIKLES, VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY and LOW BUDGET. I've read that both ARTHUR and LOLA VS. POWERMAN AND THE MONEY-GO-ROUND are pretty great, or any of the later '60s stuff: FACE TO FACE, SOMETHING ELSE, etc. MUSWELL HILLBILLIES has some rabid fans. I've also read that it's good to avoid their more theatrical stuff (PRESERVATION ACTS 1 & 2, SOAP OPERA, SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE), unless you like British music-hall & have a lotta patience. The early & late stuff rocks, the middle stuff gets arty, & Good Luck....
R: Maybe what I MEANT 2 say is that summa those early Kinks singles are sorta tense or "charged" -- contained explosiveness -- or maybe Ray Davies hadda bit of a speech impediment? Or he was overly shy? He seemed at times overly delicate when enunciating summa his lyrics, even when it wasn't necessary -- who cares how well you sound-out the words on a rocker like "All Day and All of the Night"? I dunno -- ever had a feeling you can't exactly put in words?
The Kinks are of course VERY English, right up there with The Who, & many of their middle-period songs are about English small-town or class-related issues, but their earliest hits weren't, not until "Well Respected Man" & "Dedicated Follower of Fashion." Tough NOT 2 figure-out those were British-class-centered. That didn't help me in my confused 1st impressions, tho....
More evidence that I shoulda sat on this 1 longer til I figured out what the hell I meant.... Thanx 4 commenting anywho....
Hey TAD In order to take on The Kinks and their albums you would have done a three parter in terms of their classic years, the arty farty years and the rock out years. Next to the Beatles, The Kinks made great albums, Face To Face, Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola, Muswell Hillbillies are A albums of varying degree. Certainly the first four albums were British but Muswell supposely was Ray's take on The Kinks trying to be a country band. Everybodys in Showbiz is a bloated mess but it's a glorious bloated mess with a crazy live album to which has be heard to be believed. The concept albums that followed might be the least, by School Boys I'm sure Dave was ready to kill him but with Sleepwalker they return to more rock and no silly concepts. Low Budget got terrible reviews but for rocking pretty hard I still like it fine. But after that, they repeated the formula. I liked Word Of Mouth and Think Visual a lot myself, UK Jive okay but Phobia may have been the worst album The Kinks put out.
For the early years the albums were uneven, Dave's singing the Chuck berry covers is proof why he should play guitar and not sing and the Motown covers are by numbers garage rock but they made hard rocking singles. It's All Right B-side to You Really Got Me comes to mind and I Gotta Move B side to All Day...I think I played at much as the hits. Of course The Kinks Kroniles does excellent job of the middle period Kinks.
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