20th century man (The Kinks) (LP 4407 - 4410)

 

The Kinks  One for the Road (Vinyl/CD, Arista Records, 1980) *****  

The Kinks  Give the People What They Want (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1981) ****  

The Kinks  State of Confusion (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1983) ***

The Kinks  Come Dancing with The Kinks: The Best of 1977 - 1986 (CD, Arista Records, 1986) *****

Genre: Pop, rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman (One for the Road)

Gear costume: Victoria, David Watts (One for the Road)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: I truly, deeply, madly fell for The Kinks because of One for the Road - a live double album that sounds like one awesome continuous concert (in fact it's made up of the best versions from an American tour from 1979 to 1980).

Ray's stage announcements are judiciously chosen, pithy and entertaining. The music is muscular arena rock thanks to Dave Davies brilliant guitar attack and Mick Avory's drums. The influence of the latter is often forgotten - he is a versatile drummer who serves the song - the perfect foil for Ray's idiosyncrasies. The backing vocals from Jim Rodford, Dave and Ian Gibbons (keyboards) are another superb feature.

This is an amazing album - pretty much providing definitive versions of these songs from throughout the catalogue, from You Really Got Me to Low Budget.

The first studio album of the eighties, Give the People What They Want (1981) carried on the punkish hard-driving energy from the late seventies. I am happy to report that Ray's proclivities for solid hooks and a dry sense of humour were alive and well as the eighties started. 

State of Confusion is The Kinks 20th studio album. Come Dancing was the big hit single from this album. It has a lovely warm glow of nostalgia about it. That success helped the album become commercially successful. It was also Mick Avory's last album as a Kink.

The cover image of the band sprinting away in different directions was a telling one. There is also way too  much synth on this album - that's 1983 for you. I haven't bothered with the albums released after State of Confusion.

Where do they all belong? That's it apart from the compilation album, Come Dancing with The Kinks: The Best of 1977 - 1986. It's a useful compilation of some fine songs between those years and a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with the albums.

The moneygoround (The Kinks) (LP 4396 - 4406)

The Kinks  Kinks - Part One, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround (Vinyl, Pye Records, 1970) *****  

The Kinks  Percy (Vinyl, Sanctuary Records, 1971) ***

The Kinks  Muswell Hillbillies (CD, RCA Records, 1971) *****

The Kinks  Everybody's in Showbiz (CD, RCA Records, 1972) ****

The Kinks  Preservation Act 1 (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1973) ***

The Kinks  Preservation Act 2 (Vinyl, BMG Records, 1974) **

The Kinks  The Kinks Present a Soap Opera (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1975) ***

The Kinks  The Kinks Present Schoolboys in Disgrace (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1975) ***

The Kinks  Sleepwalker (CD, Arista Records, 1977) ***

The Kinks  Misfits (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1978) ****

The Kinks  Low Budget (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1979) *****

Genre: Pop, rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, JB Hi Fi, Real Groovy Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Low Budget

Gear costume: Celluloid Heroes (Everybody's in Showbiz)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: It was a strong, positive start to the seventies for The Kinks. 

In actual fact, the first two albums I ever bought by The Kinks were Lola Versus Powerman, and 2o Golden Greats while I worked at Marbecks. For quite a while I was content with those two albums. The years went by, until one day Roger Marbeck gave me a tape of The Kinks' One for the Road - a double live album. That was it! I had to hear more!

We'll get to One for the Road in the eighties post but in the meantime, there are quite a few studio albums to listen to before then.

Starting with Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround from 1970. It's another Ray Davies' concept that drives the album. This time his target is the music industry itself generally and specifically song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. 

The lyrics balance anger with keen wit and the music is richer thanks to the expansion of the band to a five piece with John Gosling's arrival on keyboards. The big songs like Lola and Apeman are not the only highlights. I especially love This Time Tomorrow, A Long Way From Home and Powerman.  

Percy is a 1971 film soundtrack that Ray wrote for the British comedy film Percy (the name the lead character gives his penis). The soundtrack is a treat - some terrific rock songs (the blues!) and instrumentals (Lola is a delight). It remains an oddity in the Kinks Katalogue though.

Still in 1971, and Muswell Hillbillies continued the momentum and Ray's sense of being from another era entirely. The brilliant opening track (a real feature of all their albums) 20th Century Man tells us I'm a 20th century man, but I don't want to be here. Spot in self-analysis.

The album is a loose concept centering around the working class - hence the brilliant cover photo of the band in the corner pub. AllMusic sums up the album well: Throughout it all, Davies' songwriting is at a peak, as are the Kinks themselves. There are a lot of subtle shifts in mood and genre on the album, and the band pulls it off effortlessly and joyously.

Everybody's in Showbiz is a double album with two sides being a new studio album and then two sides live from a couple of nights at Carnegie Hall. The live album is a lot of fun but it's a weird combination with the studio set in some ways, and Ray's American drawl gets pretty old, pretty fast.

The theme this time is the rock star lifestyle and celebrity culture (he was ahead of his time). A melancholy mood is present in the studio songs - especially on Celluloid Heroes - another classic song by Ray.

Preservation Act 1 and Act 2 came from 1973 to 1974. Overall, it's a mess in terms of a concept and how it was presented. Act 1, acts more like an introduction to the characters, and all the story is condensed into the second album. I never quite know what's going on. But then again, I am not much of a musical theatre fan, even if it is The Kinks.

Although barking mad, at least Act 1 has some interesting songs that stand alone like Sweet Lady Genevieve, whereas Act 2 is beyond my understanding and taste - it's all over the shop.

The Kinks were expanded for these two act productions. Ray, Dave, Mick, John Gosling and John Dalton were joined by the brass section of Alan Holmes, Laurie Brown and John Beecham. All that plus a chorus. The 'over-egged' phrase comes to mind.  

The next musical theatre centred album, The Kinks Present a Soap Opera, wasn't as po-faced as the Preservation albums. It even kicks off with a good song (Everybody's a Star) featuring one of Dave's guitar riffs. 

Compared to Preservation, the whole concept of Soap Opera is much more manageable and understandable - how ordinary people can dream of becoming stars. Very relevant to the 21st century, if not 1975. The whole thing is camp and flamboyant and OTT. Which has an appeal! 

The Kinks Present Schoolboys in Disgrace was also from 1975, and while still in their theatrical period (the title gives that away), it is a creative whole thanks to the 1950's musical direction - doo wop and rock'n'roll and its theme of education. That said, the camp excess was still a holdover from Soap Opera and so it has a limited appeal outside of Kinks fans. Thankfully, it was the last in this music theatre style.

That said, there are some cracking songs on the album. Highlights: Schooldays; I'm in Disgrace; and especially The Hard Way.

Sleepwalker, from 1977 - the year of the punks, marked a return to straight-forward rock songs. The new label - Arista made it clear that they'd rather not have the camp concepts that had been Ray's go-to during the previous four years. It also marked John Dalton's last album as a Kink.

It's okay, but full of not particularly inspired rock songs. Better was to come with the next album - Misfits. Ray sounds much more interested in delivering some solid stuff. This album marked the end of John Goslings' time as a Kink.

The band and Ray mean it maan on Misfits. It's full of chunky rock guitar (Go Dave!!) and big rawk moments. Highlights aplenty on Misfits: Live Life; Misfits; A Rock'n'Roll Fantasy.

Things got even better still with Low Budget. It has a terrible budget cover but its songs hit a new peak in the seventies.

This was the first Kinks album with Jim Rodford on bass. Every song hits its mark with some brilliant lyrics from Ray. Many of the songs would end up on the 1980 live album - One for the Road. The first album in the next post.

Where do they all belong? Ray and the band were on a roll in 1978 - 1979 -the so-called arena rock era.

So mystifying (Kinks) (LP 4390 - 4395)

Kinks  Kinks (Vinyl, Sanctuary Records, 1964) ***  

The Kinks  20 Golden Greats (Vinyl, Pye Records, 1978) *****  

The Kinks  Face To Face (Vinyl, Sanctuary Records, 1966) ****  

The Kinks  Something Else by The Kinks (CD, Sanctuary Records, 1967) *****  

The Kinks  The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (CD, Sanctuary Records, 1968) *****  

The Kinks  Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (CD, Sanctuary Records, 1969) *****  

Genre: Pop, rock

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi, Marbecks Records, Fives, HMV, Fopp

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Waterloo Sunset

Gear costume: Sunny Afternoon (Face to Face)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: I am not a Kinks Kompletist but I do have a fair smattering of their albums, so I'll divide my collection into decades. First up - the sixties output.

The Kinks started out in the mid-sixties by calling themselves Kinks and morphed into The Kinks after a few albums. Their first album in 1964 is just called Kinks. 

As with The Hollies, The Beatles and others, The Kinks suffered from a multitude of album variables in different markets (different song selections, album titles, mono and stereo versions) and Pye, their original record company, made a plethora of compilations along the way.

The debut I have is a re-release with the UK track listing - as nature intended. It's often a high energy, punkish rush of adrenaline with Ray Davies sounding extremely feral at times. The production isn't great though and the R&B covers present an atypical picture of the band we came to know and love.

You Really Got Me is the clear standout and breakthrough moment for the band, but the rest of the album isn't very consistent. 

As AllMusic says: The rave-up treatments of the R&B standards "Got Love If You Want It" and "Cadillac" were good, and the simple "Stop Your Sobbing" would eventually be covered by the Pretenders, but overall this is really patchy.

I don't have any other early albums by the band (made up of Ray, his younger brother Dave on lead guitar, Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums) but the snazzy compilation 20 Golden Greats fills in most of the gaps.

It starts with You Really Got Me and ends with Apeman from 1971. The journey through the other 18 A-side singles from 1964 to 1971 shows their prowess as a terrific hit machine. A few of Dave's solo singles add some spice.

Face to Face from 1966 is my next studio album. It was their fourth effort, and notable for a shift away from R&B to introduce a more music hall sound with Ray Davies kicking off his interest in observational/ satiric songs that are centred on English culture and the English social class structure (including 'toffs' in Ray's language). 

Sunny Afternoon and Dandy were the successful singles lifted from the album. The former is a Kinks Klassic! The rest of the album was of a consistently high standard in both songs and musicianship. The band were having fun, and it shows!

Something Else by The Kinks is a work of genius in the year of Sgt Pepper. Clearly it was a peak year for British pop/rock. Something Else contains 13 superb songs - not a middling effort among them. The confidence was running high as the band (led by Ray's songwriting) performed a variety of genres with ease - from acoustic ballads, music hall numbers, R&B, to wig-out guitar numbers. 

There are many highlights but David Watts, Dave's Death of a Clown, Harry Rag, Afternoon Tea, and capping it all off - Waterloo Sunset - all deserve special mentions.

The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society extended the forensic look at English society with a whole nostalgic album considering all of its quaint nooks and crannies. 

The title track is another classic. It sets out the stall, and the rest of the album delivers with musical inventiveness that sets The Kinks apart from every other band.

Their final album of the sixties was Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). It was another freakily brilliant album - making three five-star albums in a row (I may have been a bit skimpy with Face to Face actually).

Arthur saw the introduction of new member John Dalton, who replaced Pete Quaife. The album has a concept in that its songs tell the story of Arthur - a Londoner, who decides to move to Australia during the aftermath of World War II. 

It starts with the best song ever about Queen Victoria (Victoria), an absolute stunner, and proceeds to detail the story via some superb songs. Mr. Churchill Says, for example, is an excellent example of Ray's genius. It seems casual and easy to do but this song came from his brain and vision. I'm left with the impression that I could tell him a random phrase and within seconds he'd dash off a song that was fun and clever in equal parts.

Again, each of the musicians is in perfect sync with Ray's concepts and stories via his lyrics.

Where do they all belong? A brilliant sixties - could they sustain that quality control into the seventies?

Hear yer head a-banging on the door (Oasis)

Liam and Noel Gallagher's band, Oasis, broke up their soap opera existence a while ago (2009) and the brothers now find themselves in opposing camps.

Liam is an iconoclastic front man (even though he sings with his hands behind his back and his head tilted up so that he's singing to the pigeons on the enormo-stadium roof) and Noel is the iconoclastic guitarist and songwriter (Liam's songs are pretty naff).

Now Liam fronts Oasis without Noel - same members but now called Beady Eye (a really naff band name) while Noel is going solo with an album coming out in October (why so long?). I bought the Beady Eye album like I've bought all the Oasis albums on release. I've only listened to it once right through so far. It's okay but the Mojo review was full of unjustified praise. It's an okay Oasis lite album (I'd slot it in about 9th equal place in my favourite Oasis album list with their last two studio albums).

• (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
• Heathen Chemistry (2002)
• Be Here Now (1997)
• Definitely Maybe (1994)
• Masterplan (1998)
• MTV Unplugged (Noel solo) (1996)
• ...There and Then (1996)
• Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)
• Beady Eye (2011)
• Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
• Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

As you can tell I am inclined towards the Noel camp, although both of them can be pretty obnoxious. However, anyone who writes songs like Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger gets my vote. They both make good copy though and their interviews are always worth reading.

The sibling rivalry aspect is pretty interesting. At the end of the day blood is thicker than water but you wouldn't know it from the way brothers have tiffs in bands.

Dire Straits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Kinks are three that immediately spring to mind. In each one a dominant song writing brother, who was the main singer (Mark Knopfler, John Fogerty, Ray Davies) outshone and clashed with the other guitarist brother (David Knopfler, Tom Fogerty, Dave Davies). Egos went into overdrive and being stuck together in a pressure cooker environment and having a baseline of sibling rivalry clearly added up to a potent brew.

In the Gallagher's case it turned ugly early on and ended in violence. Not a good recipe for sustained success.

I'm looking forward to Noel's solo album. In the meantime I'll have another listen to Beady Eye.