Best "tracks 11" on a Kinks album

Results of round 10

1/ Celluloid Heroes (71 votes)
2/ I'm Not Like Everybody Else (54 votes)
3/ Afternoon Tea (51 votes)
4/ Starstruck (50 votes)
4/ Fancy (41 votes)
5/ Young and Innocent Days (39 votes)
6/ Rats (29 votes)
7/ Oklahoma USA (28 votes)
8/ Sitting in a Midday Sun (25 votes)

It happened ! Celluloid Heroes did it ! It broke the "sixties only" pattern that prevailed in all previous rounds. Unfortunately, as most of us know, Oklahoma was never like this… What are you gonna do, polls are polls, and the results were clear.

By popular demand, it has been decided that I'm Not Like Everybody Else won't be on the "track by track best of", even if it was an impressive second in this poll. But I will continue to list the "Great Lost Kinks album" tracks in the next polls.

Tracks 11 offer one big hit, another tremendous mid seventies ballad (A face in the crowd), the weirdest Preservation 2 track (I dare you to vote for it, mister Joe fan) and what is arguably the best power pop song the Kinks ever did (Better Things). Still, the 65-69 stuff will more than likely hold its own…

Some albums are finished, so only 4 votes this time.

 

Great thread.
Plastic Man.

 

(Ah ! Same problem as with I'm not Like everybody Else…)

 

1st for Apeman. Phenomenal Cat is a close second.

 

Not the strongest of rounds. I went with the closer to the usual.

Little Miss Queen of Darkness
Phenomenal Cat
Nothing to Say
Apeman

I would've voted "Plastic Man" over "Nothing to Say" but didn't want vote for a song that won't count.

 

Little Miss Queen of Darkness
Apeman
Uncle Son
Better Things

 

"Fancy" still makes my comp.

 

1971: Uncle Son
1975: (A) Face In The Crowd
1981: Better Things
1993: The Informer

 

The only way that Plastic Man can be doing better than The Informer, must surely be because no-one's heard the Phobia track. Surely?

 

Better Things is one of the very best Kinks songs. An easy first choice here.
Apeman is classic Ray Davies songwriting. Funny and serious within the same song.
Phenomenal Cat and A Face In The Crowd edge Nothing To Say, Plastic Man, and Moving Pictures for the last two spots.

 

Little Miss
Phenom
Apeman
Better Things

Almost Shouldn't Be Sad over Little Miss

 

Demolition*****
A Face in the Crowd
Better Things*****
The Informer

Big props to Moving Pictures (love that groove!) and Apeman, which I selected, then changed.

 

Apeman - one of the very greatest Kinks songs
Uncle Son - best concise political analysis in any song I know and a heartfelt tribute to a Davies family member
Little Miss Queen of Darkness - a great character study with a jazzy guitar part
Nothing To Say - a feeling look at a father-son relationship.

 

Darkness
Cat
Nothing
Ape

 

Love me some "Demolition". . .

 

? What "problem"?

 

~"Apeman"
~"Plastic Man"
~"Better Things"
~"Nothing To Say"

Honorable Mention: "Little Miss Queen Of Darkness", "Phenomenal Cat", "What's In Store For Me", "Funny Face", "Moving Picture"

The songs I'd like to champion this round, as being underappreciated are...
From my list, the lowest vote getter, so far...
"Plastic Man":

Then, a great, later era deep cut gem from the ultra fine album "Low Budget"
"Moving Picture" The Kinks - Moving Pictures »

And finally, a truly great Dave song from their first fully realized album "The Kink Kontroversy"
"What's In Store For Me": The Kinks - What's In Store For Me »

 

Some noted that these are not real "album tracks" because the Great Lost Kinks album is a compilation, and an illegitimate one. So we've decided (?) not to include the GLKA tracks in our own comp even if they do win the rounds… Maybe I shouldn't have included them in the polls in the first place. Anyway, these songs will get another chance when we do the "singles and stray kuts" rounds… Because yes, we will!

 

Round 1 winners
Victoria
David Watts
The Village Green Preservation Society

Round 2 winners
Do You Remember Walter
Death of a Clown
Rosie Won’t You Please Come Home

Round 3 winners
Picture Book
Two Sisters
Dandy

Round 4 winners
Too Much on My Mind
Johnny Thunder
Get Back in Line

Round 5 winners
Lola
Last of the Steamed-Power Train
Alcohol

Round 6 winners
Till the End of the Day
Tired of Waiting for You
Big Sky

Round 7 winners
You Really Got Me
Shangri-La
Sitting by the Riverside

Round 8 winners
Animal Farm
This Time Tomorrow
Love Me till the Sun Shines

Round 9 winners
Where Have All the Good Times Gone
Village Green
Lazy Old Sun

Round 10 winners
Celluloid Heroes
I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Afternoon Tea

9 Village Green
6 Something Else
3 Face to Face
3 Lola
2 Arthur
2 Kontroversy
1 The Kinks
1 Kinda Kinks
1 Muswell
1 Show-biz
1 Great Lost

 

The "revised" (with no Great Lost Kinks album songs) track by track best of so far

Our mighty "track by track" best of so far…

CD1
1/ Victoria (winner)
2/ Death of a Clown (r.u)
3/ Picture Book (w)
4/ Too Much on My Mind (tie)
5/ Last of Steam-Powered Train (r.u)
6/ Till the End of the Day (w)
7/ Shangri-La (r.u)
8/ Animal Farm (w)
9/ Village Green (r.u)
10/ Celluloid Heroes (w)

CD2
1/ David Watts (runner up)
2/ Do You Remember Walter (w)
3/ Two Sisters (r.u)
4/ Johnny Thunder (tie)
5/ Lola (w)
6/ Tired of Waiting for you (r.u)
7/ You Really Got Me (w)
8/ This Time Tomorrow (r.u)
9/ Where Have All the Good Times Gone (w)
10/ Afternoon Tea (r.u)

Bonus CD (track by track best of post Lola)
1/ 20th Century Man
2/ Catch Me Now I'm Falling
3/ Sweet Lady Genevieve
4/ A Rock'nRoll Fantasy
5/ Alcohol
6/ Destroyer
7/ The Hard Way
8/ Supersonic Rocket Ship
9/ Art Lover
10/ Oklahoma USA

 

I agree… But I've just listened to a playlist with this round's songs (except for Flash's Dream), and it's unbelievably great !

Good decades !

I love (A) Face in the Crowd.



But can someone explain the (A) in the title ?

Ahahah ! I'm sure it's because Moving Pictures could be a Preservation track, only a little disco-fied. Great track indeed.

 

That Bonus CD is looking great!

 

I love VGPS but c'mon, Better Things better beat out Phenomenal Cat.

 

Apeman
Face In The Crowd
Better Things
When You Were A Child

 

Better Things by miles, may be the best of the Arista era, the rest are tougher.
Little Miss Queen of Darkness
Phenomenal Cat
Apeman