Anybody like The Kinks?

Kinks Kontroversy and Face to Face (late 1970s or early 1980s PRT pressings) are among the most-played purchased-as-new vinyl I own.

Paul

 

For a legendary band, why did so many Kinks albums sell so poorly? It seems they are known in the USA for 3 or 4 hits, but ask the average music fan to name a Kinks album, and I'm not sure they could do it.

 

For reasons I don't remember, there was a time when the Kinks weren't allowed to tour in the US, and I think that had something to do with the lack of awareness among the general public. I'm very vague on this; someone else will know more.

I find the Kinks' lack of popularity hard to accept, as I knew about each album as it came out, and bought every one through SOAP OPERA. I grew up outside NYC; maybe they got played more on the radio there than elsewhere.

 

The Kinks are the only band that really rivals The Beatles for me. I never get tired of anything from Face To Face up to Low Budget. Their 80's-90's output is hard to listen to because of the production but the songwriting is still there.

"Something New" and "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" are as good as Revolver and Sgt Pepper or The Who Sell out and Tommy.

Why are they not popular? I haven't a friggin' clue except "bad management." Their isn't even a Kinks section in Best Buy. How can you have had all these hits and not one CD available in Best Buy:

You Really Got Me
Well Respected Man
All Day And All Of The Night
Sunny Afternoon
Till The End Of The Day
Waterloo Sunset
Lola
Celluloid Heroes
Juke Box Music
Destroyer
Do It Again

That's just a drop in the bucket. I know I'm forgetting some biggies.
Shame on modern day main stream radio and Best Buy.

The Kinks ARE in the hall of fame are they not?

 

Well Respected Man
Sunny Afternoon
Waterloo Sunset


History !!!

 

You're forgetting Come Dancin'!

 

Their first hits were huge and then Ray switched to very "unhip" themes for the times and got little promotion via radio. They were banned from touring the US because they (Ray) openly clashed with some union.

I believed until Crawdaddy magazine opened my eyes that they were a defunct band that had a few hits in the 60s. My first Kinks album was "Schoolboys", special-ordered and smuggled into Venezuela sometime in the mid-70s.

I envy those that have no awareness of the Kinks' opus as they are able to discover a new world. I hate to say that word "best" so I can say that the Kinks are the band I choose to call my favorite, above the Beatles and all others.

I great introduction to the Kinks could be Ray Davies' storyteller album and perhaps the book. Ray makes no effort to mithologize himself or the Kinks. If anything, he deprecates himself and the band in them. And a splendid time is guaranteed for all too!

 

Here's the details of the Union clash (lifted from www.classicbands.com/kinks.html):

"In 1966 the Kinks released two singles of pointed satire, "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", indicating the personal turn Ray Davies' songs were taking. Their next album, The Kinks Kontroversy, though containing another hard-rock 45, "Till the End of the Day," was increasingly introspective, with songs like "I'm on an Island". Also that year, an appearance on the American TV show Hullabaloo resulted in a problem with the American Federation of Musicians that wasn't resolved until 1969 and prevented the group from touring the U.S. for some time. "Sunny Afternoon" (#14, 1966) from the "Face to Face" LP was their last hit of that period."

Brilliant band - my brother bought their first couple of LPs in mono on vinyl and we played them continually. He may still even have them.

 

I got to see Brother Ray a couple of times touring in support of his book. Just him and another guitarist. Amazing shows; incredible stuff. He's really quite a guy. Very charismatic and well spoken. Fantastic material.
What was the name of that thing? Raygun or something? Too tired to look it up...

Peace-
Norm

 

Two more words (well, five, actually): SOMETHING ELSE by the Kinks.

 

That was my first real introduction to the band. I had the Reprise GH, but that didn't show me the depth of the band. Even if you delve deeper, this comp is still a keeper(rhymes) because there's harder to find B-sides and EP tracks on it.

 

Didn't Bon Jovi write that song just for them??

 

Give The People What They Want was my intruduction. I was 10. Someone left it over our house and then I begged mom for my own copy.
it has:
Destoyer
Art Lover
Around The Dial
A Little Bit Of Abuse
Killers Eyes
Better Things

It was around the same time as The Stones Tattoo You. Both albums were strong showings by 60s bands at the dawn of the 80s.

Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace never really grabbed me (maybe someday). Every time I try to play them my mind wanders. Weren't they based around stage productions?

 

Yeah, but "Destroyer" (I think it was really called "Paranoia Will Destroyah") was just this ripoff of this song by this band called the Doors, "Hello I Love You Let Me Jump In Your Game."

 

Yeah I Love The Kinks! the 60's kinks were the best though! when they got rid of MICK AVERY The band was no longer a band!

that said some very good singles came in the 70's like "Attitude"!

 

Actually "Destroyer" refers to "All Day And All Of The Night" as the Door's "Hello I Love You" does.

 

Hi Norm, I think you are referring to Ray's book "X-Ray: an unauthorized autobiography"--great book and I agree, the "Storyteller" tour was amazing. I took my niece to the show and we had great front row seats. After the show, as Ray made his way along the front of the stage shaking hands, he completely ignored me but managed to grab the hand of my pretty niece and say "Hello darling! how ARE you?". I guess he is an art lover after all.

 

Actually Mick Avory stuck it out for longer than you might realise. He left during the recording of Think Visual in 1986.

For me the real end came with the departures of John Dalton and John Gosling.

 

You mean there are two of them?

 

I arranged a family Manhattan vacation around a Storyteller concert in Peekskill. At the time I was a runner-up for "most miles traveled to attend a Kinks (related) concert" award.

I was able to shake his hands and give him a couple of CDs from a local SS. He wrote in them how important Ray had been for him.

At first sight, what stroke me first was the gap between his teeth. Most ST shows were almost family reunions, small venues full of adoring, long-term fans. And Ray is a charmer.

Re Art Lover, watch his Return t Waterloo movie and you'll keep guessing...

 

Waterloo Sunset, Autumn Almanac, Big Sky, Victoria - all rubbish songs, not nearly as good
as Oasis or U2

 

Love, love, love Shangri-La from Arthur. Also love The Way Love Used to Be from Percy.

 

That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.

 

My first intro to 1966-70-era Kinks was a groove-crammed double LP of 44 songs, part of Pye's Golden Hour With series. This one combined the names of several albums of that time. This was a Canadian domestic LP, never saw a UK version. Loved it.