The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    Can’t remember if there’s any more detail in Hasted’s book about why it happened as I read it out the library and don’t have it to hand. Hinman’s day by day book mentions that Quaife played the Kinks show on 27th Jan 1968 with his wrist in a plaster cast, and when questioned about it, ‘implied it was the result of a personal scuffle with an unnamed colleague’ , ignoring the music press cover story that it has been caused by a fall at home.
     
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  2. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    I think i was about 9 (1977-'78) when i first saw a Kinks LP in an older boys collection down my street. I like their look and later heard them on the radio but only some of the Pye hits i believe.
    I didn't collect them and somewhere i got the sucinct impression early on that they wrote some good mid 60's songs had a grungy guitar sound (which i really liked) but were pretty primitive & somewhat limited musicians as far as facility went.

    Come Dancing made me listen to a bit more and see they also had some more great singles from their 1966-'70 period i had only been marginally aware of. I came to feel though and still do that their early 1964-'65 Rock & R & B cover era was second tier compared to others that far more clearly had this more truly in their DNA.

    With the clear high quality of Ray's writing I knew the group had something to offer and had some legendary status but my associates and likely the local mainstream rock media gave the distinct impression that they were yesterday's hero's and that they had been thoroughly examined and a "folks you don't need to know more critique seemed to be the score!"

    I had some type of Marble Arch comp, a sealed '69 promo of Then Now And Inbetween & I had in the back of my mind to get more material to check out as these guys had some greatness about them but I procrastinated (fearing bad SQ, high prices & scarcity until the 1998 CD's with the bonus tracks provided a perfect point of entry.

    First i bought the Singles Collection which I well knew i would love but was disappointed I had to buy it as a 2 CD edition with Songs of Ray Davies but boy in time I was so thankful I did!
    Arthur became and remains my favourite (playing the 50th 2LP as I type) along with the rest of the killer 1966-'70 albums.
    Came to also like Showbiz, Misfits, Sleepwalker, State Of Confusion, BBC & especially To The Bone 2CD & Ray's glorious Story Teller.

    So here iam Mark front and center!

    P.s. Also been buying all sorts of Kinks 7" singles and E.P's from around the world on and off for some 30 odd years.
     
  3. Maseman66

    Maseman66 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westchester, NY
    Looking forward to this! I'll never forget hearing You Really Got Me for the first time one morning on my clock radio in 1964. It just blew me away. I actually still have the scratched up single hanging on the wall. I saw them live 4 times; in 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1993. I'm so glad I kept the ticket stubs. The Kinks, along with the Beatles and the Stones form my triumvirate of rock music.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is really interesting to me that this little golden era of British pop/rock music generally grew from an English interpretation of American roots music.

    The really fascinating, and to me beautiful thing was...
    You had the Beatles, Stones, Who and Kinks ... also probably The Yardbirds and Animals ... they all started off doing US R&B and blues interpretations, but they all grew into very different bands, with very different styles, as they allowed their own personalities to infiltrate the songs they were writing, and they all managed to produce their own sounds and directions based on that.

    I think the Kinks are probably my favourite, even though other bands may have been more consistent in some ways, because the Kinks are so unashamedly British, with a beautiful, whimsical twist, that has a bit of a stiff upper lip melancholy running through it.... even in the mid to late seventies material, that many see as pandering to the US market a little....

    Anyway, just some thoughts.
     
  5. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Well, I do think the Kinks have some consistency. They may not have had the mass and stadium appeal the Stones had and their later albums simply "appeared" - as opposed to the media hype surrounding every new Stones record - but once Ray got over his "Don Quichote period" (aka "The Opera Years") he managed to write quite good (as opposed to "interesting") sets of songs that are hard to fault. I mean.... after 1966 there's no real "clunker" in The Kinks discography. ("Percy" is a soundtrack.)
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I was speaking from what appears to be the general perspective there.... not really my perspective... I even like the "opera" years.... though Soap Opera hasn't clicked with me yet
     
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  7. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Classic rock and British Invasion in particular were what got me to love music, so The Kinks were a band I was aware of from the beginning. At the time I pretty much only knew them for “Lola” and “You Really Got Me”. Later in high school I got a singles collection and heard some of the “golden age” albums and started to become a fan. It wasn’t until I got into college that I really fell in love with Something Else, Village Green, and Sleepwalker. The Kinks aren’t a band I’ve ever listened to often, but whenever I do I really appreciate them. To be honest, I’m only familiar with a small portion of their discography, specifically the early hits, the “golden age” albums, and the Sleepwalker-Misfits era. This thread could be an excuse to finally do the deep dive, but I guess we’ll see if I can stick with it enough.
     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    You can do it mate :righton:
     
  9. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    I look forward to this. Glad to be here at the beginning.
     
  10. Peja11

    Peja11 PC is Neither

    Location:
    Sacramento
    I knew(and liked) all the 60's hits as they came out but it wasn't until "The Golden Hour of the Kinks" LP came out in 1971 that really put me over the top. Worthy inclusion in the "Big Four" of the British invasion.
     
  11. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    That was my first album of theirs. Crappy sounding really but what a great introduction !
     
  12. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    There's actually a second "Golden Hour" album, whose title is "Lola, Percy and the Apeman come Face-to-Face with the Village Green Preservation Society...Something Else". It's a double album that includes many, if not most of the tracks on the albums mentioned in the title - 44 tracks in all. Haven't played it in years, so can't comment on the sound quality, but the tracks from Face To Face, and bizarrely also a few of the tracks that come from stereo albums are marked as "electronically re-channelled for stereo".
     
  13. Yawndave

    Yawndave Forum Resident

    Location:
    Santa Clara CA
    You have to wonder "what could have been" with the Kinks had they not been banned from performing in the USA. Missing out on those 4 years between '65 and '69 was a huge loss--those were big big years for rock concerts in the States. The band might have earned a legion of loyal fans if they had gotten the chance to see them live. On the other hand, touring in those days was fraught with craziness, to put it mildly . It could've led to the already tense group dynamic blowing up and the band self destructing --and we never would've got to hear all the great music they made from the 70s onward.
     
  14. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Also, being banned from the USA probably reinforced Rays insular Englishness - perhaps the music of 65-69 would have been different and less satisfying if they spent months each year in the States.
     
  15. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I remember that Cameo boot.
    That one is actually the third one in that series. There was a Volume 2 of "Golden Hour" which collected most of the rest of the early stuff. Together with the first volume and "Lola, Percy..." album, and adding "Kink Kontroversy" along with "Arthur" you would pretty well have all of the Pye-era material. I never heard that third volume, but the sound quality on the "Golden Hour" volumes 1 and 2 was as @Wildest cat from montana posted, abysmal.
     
  16. Yawndave

    Yawndave Forum Resident

    Location:
    Santa Clara CA
    Re: Ray's "insular Englishness"--I always found it interesting that his journey led him from being a quintessential English rock songwriter to recording the two Americana albums with The Jayhawks.
     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Great story mate...
    Don't know how I missed it til now :righton:
     
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  18. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    The Kinks, like the Beatles, the Stones and the Who, were a fantastic UK sixties singles band.

    Unlike the other groups though, they never really made it in the album market.

    The proof of this is that they never had a number one UK album.
     
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  19. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Yes that was my first compilation too, thanks for reminding me!
     
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  20. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Is that the double with the cartoon sleeve?
     
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  21. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    A huge chance of that being the case, especially the Englishness part which I think even Ray had touched on.
     
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  22. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    No surprise also if having 30 minute sides.
     
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  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is one of those strange quirks of the music world I guess.
    I certainly think they made albums worthy of being chart toppers, but to some degree Ray was quite quirky himself, and seemed to like to keep everybody guessing, to some extent.
     
  24. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    It's this one. I knew it was bogus when I saw it but couldn't turn it down.
     
  25. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    Charts have always been about popularity, not quality.
    Those 60s UK Kinks albums have less (I'll say no) "filler" (a word I don't use, but works here) than most bands of the time.
     

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