Man that seems such a backhanded diss on Quaife that Ray remember him as 'the bass player' while naming 'Session Man' Nicky Hopkins... :/
I'm Not Like Everybody Else. mono mix (3:29), recorded probably Jan 1966 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London I won't take all that they hand me down, And make out a smile, though I wear a frown, And I'm not gonna take it all lying down, 'Cause once I get started I go to town. 'Cause I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. And I don't want to ball about like everybody else, And I don't want to live my life like everybody else, And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else, 'Cause I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. But darling, you know that I love you true, Do anything that you want me to, Confess all my sins like you want me to, There's one thing that I will say to you, I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else And I don't want to ball about like everybody else, And I don't want to live my life like everybody else, And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else, 'Cause I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. Like everybody else, Like everybody else, Like everybody else, Like everybody else. If you all want me to settle down, Slow up and stop all my running 'round, Do everything like you want me to, There's one thing that I will say to you, I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. And I don't want to ball about like everybody else, And I don't want to live my life like everybody else, And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else, 'Cause I'm not like everybody else, I'm not like everybody else. Like everybody else (like everybody else), Like everybody else (like everybody else), Like everybody else (like everybody else), Like everybody else. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music/Carlin Music Corp. Apparently Ray wrote this for the Animals to record ... but it ends up that the Kinks recorded it (thankfully) and although one may have expected Ray to sing it, we get Dave giving us the lead vocal. I love this song.... This is a sort of anthem of non-conformity, but if we just take the chorus into account, I think most people probably feel some kind of connection to the song.... because the truth of the matter is, in all our little complexities, we are all pretty different.... even the folks who are supposed to be the squares, or whatever we want to categorise them as, are still individuals... I have always found it hilarious that folks apparently wanting to show how unique they are, generally get together with a group of people and claim to be different in unison... which kind of defeats the purpose.... anyway. The minor key and chord progression that follows has an almost ominous sound and as the song builds up steam it almost comes across as a really well written punk track. I think Dave does a great job of the vocal and is likely his best and most characterful vocal performance so far. The opening of the song has that sort of floating hesitant riff, and it really sets the mood. As we move into the chorus, it gets just about vicious and really gets the attention. As rebellious as the song sounds and feels, there is this overwhelming melancholy to it...... The staccato chord section also really give the song more texture. Anyway, I'm running out of time here, so I need to wrap it up.... though it feels I have just skimmed the surface here. This is probably the most brilliant A and B side combination so far, and again, we have a sort of thematic single.
I don't know where this version comes from particularly, but this is a live version. After the recorded version, I believe that Ray took over the vocals for future and live versions. Ray and Dave both included it in solo sets later down the track. This live version is stunning. It has a completely different feel, and it really suits the song. We have a smooth delivery, and the feel take the melancholic tilt even further. We open with an extended lead break, and it sets up the vocal beautifully. It has a sort of big ballad feel, but it is really punchy.... I really like this version too, for different reasons..... and Ray vocal is great.
To me these are two of the best songs ever to sit on a single together .... and not just by the Kinks
Great observations about the “tales” of drunkenness and cruelty by our host. The character is beat, no question, but he’s probably not that bad… especially as the lyrics are told from his own point of view. Sunny Afternoon is obviously in the top 4 of the most iconic/famous Kinks songs ever, with You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset and Lola. It’s also one of their absolute best, the first they did in their most recognizable style, merging the music-hall inspiration of « Dedicated Respected » with a pop / harmonic ambition that would come to define a lot of their best output. The melody is delightful, so pretty, so atmospheric, empathically following the mood swings of the character with tonality shifts, themselves mirrored and enhanced by the change of tone in Ray’s voice. Nobody ever bettered the Kinks for that. Music and lyrics (and delivery) create vignettes, you see what the singer means. I mean, you actually do see it, which is even more remarkable since you’re in the character’s mind. This is genius, pure and simple, merging crooner/cabaret style with classical music chromatics and bluesy touches (probably the direct result of his Sinatra/Bach/Dylan diet ?). I was surprised the other day when someone mentioned Daydream in regard to Dedicated Follower of Fashion, because I’ve always seen it as a sister tune to Sunny Afternoon. As great as this song is, it is also a fantastic record. The arrangement is stupendous. Dave’s backing ooooh-oooh’s in the verse and his harmonies on the chorus are otherworldly. They deserve a place in the ooooh-ooooh’s hall of fame. It’s a trick they replicated on Waterloo Sunset, Autumn Almanach and others, and I'm certainly not going to blame them for that ! I don’t know many better songs in pop. Now that I come to think of it, I’m not sure I know any better song in pop. Every time I listen to it, I hear the same miracle of perfektion : song, singing, lyrics, backing track, ooooh-oooh’s, melody, chords, feeling, sound… This is the fifth in a string of breakthrough records: You Really Got Me, Tired of Waiting for You, See My Friends, A Well Respected Man, then Sunny Afternoon. And there won’t be any other: this time, they are fully formed.
This is clearly the literal interpretation of this line and the anti taxation theme of the song as a whole (I've also read Ray mention that the Big Fat Mama was an allusion to Queen Victoria) but on a more impressionistic level, this line can't help (to me anyway, but I'm sure there must be others) conjure up a very strong Mammy stereotype/1930s/Depression/Porgy and Bess/Fleischer Bros cartoons/etc atmosphere to this song that is incredibly potent on a subliminal channel. This song always sounded incredibly 'cool' to me received on that level before I knew the context of the song, who recorded it, what it was ostensibly about, and it remains so to me. Simply one of the most powerfully atmospheric singles of all time, on some days it is my favourite pop recording ever. That ULTIMATE DESCENDING SLUMP BASS INTRO (there are so many of those in pop in 1966 ie 'are you ready boots?' but this is just the BEST) leading us into thee most decadent aural idyll ever conjured up by a pop creator in the 20th Century. A truly timeless record, already sounding like a standard on the day it was minted, that endures down the decades, always waiting for the mind to escape to whenever it needs to.
Unfortunately I am not much of a charts guy, and the info was from wiki, and could well be incorrect..... Also with many countries having more than one chart, it makes it difficult to know what actually was... It may well not have been a number one, I am certainly not going to die on a hill over it
Another killer single with both sides being brilliant. As much as I love Sunny Afternoon, the very different I'm Not Like Everybody Else is just as good IMO. It's nice that we get a different vocalist on each side, and both do a great job - Dave has certainly improved a lot since the covers on the debut album!
"Sunny Afternoon" Well, it's "Sunny Afternoon" isn't it? What more can you can you say? A classic on every conceivable level. The song, the lyrics, the performance and the production all spot on. A track which creates its own timeless little world inside your head. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" First heard this on the second Marble Arch compilation. It's a garage band classic. Those opening guitars are ominous enough on their own, but then it becomes even more menacing, winding up inexorably into the chorus - and then you get a sudden release of tension before the final two lines of the chorus. Dave's guitar part is simple, but very effective, and his vocal is even better. You can even forgive the random loss of sound level that happens just before going into the third verse. The cherry on the cake is Ray joining in on the outro. A fantastic track and a 7 inch single of the highest quality.
I think this is the To The Bone version, recorded in concert 1993 but released on record in 1996. Made famous later (I imagine becoming the definitive version to many) through it's use in The Sopranos.
I love this intro riff so much ! It’s like making the Zorro sign on guitar: a signature, a defying/defining mark. It’s hard to tell why Ray had Dave singing it. Maybe the song was too much of a 1st person claim, something Ray almost never allowed himself to do in those days? This is a brilliant rock song, the repetitive screaming chorus is a genius move. The teenage frustration is palpable, the revendication builds with anger and cockiness, until the release of “cause I’m not like everybody else”, verging on exhaustion and frailty, like a plea to be understood and accepted. I agree this may be the punkiest song they ever did (and dully acknowledged as such by many covers through the years) but it's also one of their most sensitive and moving. Anyway, yes, the case is closed as far as I’m concerned: A-side + B-side, this beats Till the End of the Day/Where Have All the Good Times Gone as the all-time best Kinks single of them all.
Oddly enough this is the first version of I'm Not Like Everybody Else that I ever heard.... I had assumed it was by this band at the time.... a really odd Australian band called Jimmy and The Boys.... Joylene Thorbird Hairmouth may have been the first trans person I ever saw... I'm sure most folks aren't going to like this lol
I have to say I'll always prefer the original recording of 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else' over the 80s/90s live reworking. While the latter was clearly very successful in bringing the song recognition to a wider audience by translating it into a stadium anthem (my wife's stepdad raves about that version, how it sounds really contemporary and powerful) it just doesn't have that very 1966 spook and mystique of that first recording. When I hear the 1966 Dave-sung version, I imagine the 4 Kinks playing the song in a pitch black subterranean garage 20 miles below the surface of Mars, they sound so dark and garagey mutoid strange!
The Chocolate Watchband - I'm Not Like Everybody Else Great cover! The Kinks recorded the song on May 12th 1966.
For sure. I really like that live version, but the original version is just so original ... a really special track
I always liked The Chocolate Watchband's version of 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else', fully transporting it into the garage rock idiom. Though not any different arrangement wise, through sheer attitude it's the equal of the original recording imo.
Sunny Afternoon, the track that so many people associate with, well, summer, and I always am reminded of winter (maybe due to the wintery TV performance?). Either way, this track is truly iconic, and I don't think anyone old enough to have a general music knowledge doesn't know this song, at least here in the UK. From the doom and gloom descending bass intro (complete with buzzing snare), to those Klassic Kinks ethereal backing vocals, the lazy but melodic verse, the simple but hooky chorus, and above all for me the bridge, with that singalong melody, and bar stool piano from Nicky in the background. A perfectly written, arranged, and recorded record. Amusing anecdote, a friend of mine and their brother though it was "blazin' on a sunny afternoon" until they realised such lingo wouldn't exactly turn up in 1966. Just like @ARL I first heard I'm Not Like Everybody Else on the 'Sunny Afternoon' Marble Arch comp, and it has resonated with me ever since. From that spine tingling intro, to the constant tension throughout, building oh so well into the chorus. If Ray did write this for The Animals as noted by @mark winstanley then it would have fitted them perfectly, and I'm shocked they didn't record it as well. Dave suits the lyric perfectly in my opinion, added the right amount of garbled sneer to the track that Ray's voice may have given a comedic twist to and not quite reached the same heights. I do love when Ray's response vocal enters in though, a beautiful counterpoint to his brother. I may even enjoy it more than the A these days.
I was just re-reading a Rolling Stones anthology edited by Sean Egan where Sunny Afternoon/I'm Not Like Everybody Else is mentioned as one of the greatest singles of all time, along with Ruby Tuesday/Let's Spend The Night Together and Hey Jude/Revolution. I vaguely remember hearing Sunny Afternoon on the radio back in the day, chiefly the "in the summertime" chorus. I got fully indoctrinated into the song (and into the band) when I bought the black album ("The Kinks") compilation in my university bookstore for very cheap. The Great Lost Kinks Album was my introduction to I'm Not Like Everybody Else. In the liner notes, John Mendelsohn says he just sees it as a "I'm going to let my freak flag fly" song, but I think most disagree with this assessment. The last time I saw Ray Davies perform, I think the first two numbers were Where Have All The Good Times Gone and I'm Not Like Everybody Else, a pretty spectacular one-two punch.
