This is a song that cannot be praised too highly, and it's influence can probably not be overstated. Hearing this in 1964 must have been like hearing music from another planet. I mean, it really stands out from other hits of 1964.
At this point, we can't hold anything back. This is one of the most influential and iconic records of all time, and for good reason. The 45 should be a mandatory addition to everyone's collection (with a great B-Side we'll get to tomorrow I'm assuming), and it's such a huge step up it's unbelievable. I will say that I'd love to hear that early "ballad" version that's been discussed, but sadly, I assume it has been lost to time. Oh, to be a fly on the wall... @croquetlawns comment about this in the context of 1964 is also important. Those other beat and pop 45s in the UK have nothing on this. We're talking Can't Buy Me Love, Here I Go Again, House of the Rising Sun, Glad All Over, It's All Over Now... all amazing 45s, but slap this on, and I'm sure people either went crazy, or just stood there with their jaws dropped. In short, fantastic.
It was interesting reading Ray's thoughts about how everything went down Apparently the band weren't very highly regarded, and this song created a bit of a stir, and some jealousy among the scene.... having been in the band scene, that really doesn't surprise me at all... it can be a bit catty
Yea, I thought You Really Got Me needed it's own space. Yea, I looked and looked, but couldn't find anything.
I have mixed feelings about "You Really Got Me". ON the one hand there is no denying its importance -- not only for the Kinks, as the song instantly forged their own sound that stood out among the other British bands fo the era --but for rock music itself. At the same time, for me, it is not as representative of their overall sound as other songs and I think that it tends to overshadow much of their career, and many songs that I like better -- mainly because it was such a monster hit in the States. It seems to me when anyone unfairly dismisses the Kinks, they've only heard a handful of their hits, and this one of the ones they've inevitably heard. So I have this sort of resentment for the track and it takes me a bit of will to just listen without all that baggage and appreciate it. Of course when I do it's a brilliant 5/5 song -- even among Ray's 1964 originals which are generally great, it stands out as one of the great ones.
I completely understand this perspective. When I learned about the whole US situation, it really did change the perspective of this song. Also it doesn't really point to where the band were going. It is a lightening in a bottle moment. Wonderful, necessary, but not defining of who the band end up being
There's not much you can say about "You Really Got Me" that hasn't been said before - it's a stone cold classic and I can't imagine what it must have been like to hear this in 1964. The start of the verse sounds menacing, then it's cranked up a notch with a key change, then it's cranked up another notch with another key change. Still sounds great no matter how many times you hear it. Personally I think they perfected the approach with the next single by the addition of the third chord into the riff, but "You Really Got Me" is the original and deserves all the plaudits.
I strongly suspect that that kind of jealousy and a feeling of ‘How dare these upstarts from nowhere get a No.1 with an original song in the blues idiom’ amongst the nascent guitar heroes of London that contributed to the Jimmy Page rumours being put about.
The 1964 Beat Room clip (semi famed for the dancing chef visible mid way through) which is the earliest surviving footage of the Kinks playing the song is also worth posting, although just now the only version I could find on YouTube has subtitles in a Slavic language.. possibly Russian (?)
Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense. I know Page was a session muso, but I often wondered why folks thought Dave never played this, and how the Page myth came about... it makes perfect sense in that context.... like I say, lots of cattyness among muso's.... It's funny actually, but one of my mates gave me the Page story back in the eighties, and I knew no better at the time, so I just said "that's probably why I prefer the live version so much more" it certainly knocked that conversation on the head
' You Really Got Me ' is the best of the early British Invasion songs. I didn't realize it only charted as high as #7 in the American charts. It deserved better.
I know that ' Ringo ' by Lorne Greene was out around the same time and that got to #1 but I cannot help but think that it did so because many thought it was a homage to The Beatles drummer rather than a tale of an outlaw.
Alight, I just discovered this forum and had to sign up to be part of the Kinks discussion. I'll have to scroll back through these 9 pages (so far) to see what I've missed already. It's nice, though, to be starting on the day you discuss YRGM, which--earlier releases aside--is what started it all. It was the first Kinks record I owned when as a teenage Beatles fan I bought a 2 disc compilation of "The Best of the British Invasion" (I think it came out around 1976?) because it was the first time I had a chance to own The Beatles "My Bonnie," and I came to discover YRGM was my favorite track. Who are these Kinks guys? I had never heard of them. There's probably not much more to add to what others have stated, other than I am certain there is a special room in Hell--with extra sharp pitchforks--for people who think YRGM is a Van Halen song.
I thought it was Top 5 ať least. In fact though, it had endured while bigger hits from the era have long since been forgotten.
Ironically, just as The Kinks (well their management really) had attempted to steal The Beatles glory with their version of ‘Long Tall Sally’ so they too in turn were the intended victims of an attempt to get the US hit with ‘You Really Got Me’ before them with this rush release from a group called The Moments fronted by none other than a pre fame Steve Marriot! Fortunately as the Kinks Kash-in failed, so too did this attempt to steal their own thunder, although that said there is a bit more historical curiosity in hearing Marriot’s powerhouse vocals get to grips with this atypical (for him) material than there is in hearing Ray doing ‘LTS’ .
Late to the thread and catching up! Long Tall Sally There's a nice sleazy feel to the way The Kinks do this one. 2.5/5 You Still Want Me You can already that Kinks touch as Ray's vocals come in. Very Beatles-like of course. 2/5 I'm A Hog For You Baby A bit of a clunky cover but it's fun. Nice little guitar solo. 2/5 You Do Something To Me and I Believe You Too much in the shadow of the Fabs and not good. 1/5 You Really Got Me Earth shifts on axis as one of the greatest songs of all time rocks the planet 5/5
Wow, with that beat taken down to just the riff, it really plods along! I'm not shocked this version flopped, despite not being *that* far removed from the original.
That's a surprise! I've heard other Moments tracks (or just one track?) on Small Faces/Marriott comps, but I've never heard this.
Mott The Hoople does an admirable instrumental version of ' You Really Got Me ' on their debut album. Would have liked to hear Ian Hunter tackle the vocal though.
BOOM! On an 0-2 count, the Kinks hit it out of the park! I don't have any profound insights that haven't been already offered by others. All I can add is that I first heard this song through Van Halen in the late seventies, and not being much of a liner-notes reader in those days, I thought it was theirs. I liked the song -- I actually thought it was the strongest cut on their fine debut album -- but I didn't become familiar with the Kinks' original until the local top-40 pop station in San Juan played it as part of an in-house oldies show. And I was blown away -- despite the far more primitive instrumentation and production, this record packed every bit as much of a punch as Van Halen's version. And the rhythm track pounded relentlessly like a supercharged engine. I figured it was time to get to know these Kinks guys a little better. If your grocery-store cashier has heard one Kinks song in her life, it's either this one or "Lola". (Or "Waterloo Sunset" if she's in the UK.) This is an iconic Kinks record, an iconic rock record, and a triumph for each of the band members. The history of popular music develops quite differently without this record. And they were just getting started...