A podcast I have been listening to a bit lately History of Rock in 500 Songs by Andrew Hickey featuring YRGM this week. https://www.500songs.com/e/episode-119-you-really-got-me-by-the-kinks/
Here's an amusing anecdote from that History of Rock in 500 Songs podcast. "Both Ray and Dave would sing sometimes, with Ray taking mellower, rockabilly, songs, while Dave would sing Little Richard and Lightnin' Hopkins material, but at first they thought they needed a lead singer. They tried with a few different people, including another pupil from the school they all went to who sang with them at a couple of gigs, but John Start's mother thought the young lad's raspy voice was so awful she wouldn't let them use her house to rehearse, and Ray didn't like having another big ego in the group, so Rod Stewart soon went back to the Moontrekkers and left them with no lead singer."
For anyone who fancies a laugh, here is how the early 90s comic series 'Rock and Roll Comics' portrayed Rod meeting Ray and Dave in William Grimshaw Secondary Modern in their 'British Invasion' issue. Just a hunch of mine here, but I'm guessing the creative team behind this may not have have done a huge amount of research into the typical set up of UK schools of the 50s and early 60s! The portayal of US high school style lockers is just slightly off the mark: It's like The Kinks go to Bayside High!
It's Alright This track comes in as the b-side for You Really Got Me. I gotta wings I'm gonna fly I'm going home And I know why To see my baby That's enough I'm going home It's all right It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah I gotta wing, wing I'm gonna fly by I'm going home And I know why, why To see my baby That's enough I'm going home It's all right It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah I jumped on a wagon a-shootin' off down the road I'm gonna see my baby My baby's gonna take-a me home I gotta wing, wing I'm gonna fly by I'm going home And I know why, why To see my baby That's enough I'm going home It's all right It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah It's all right, yeah Songwriters: Richard Davies It's Alright (Don't Think About It) lyrics © Silver Cab Music, Dabe Music Ltd Another early Ray song, we open with the drums rolling us into the track. Then a piano comes in playing a repeated chord progression that is doubled by the guitar and bass. A solid harmonica comes in on top, and adds a nice flavour to the track. This track has a feel like a bit of a jam really. The dynamic changes between the verses and the chorus work pretty well. Vamping on the same chord pattern has pluses and minuses, it does create a sort intensity of sorts, but it isn't terribly interesting in this context. Up around the minute and a half mark we get this aggressive snare roll that is follow by the main motif again, and then a tacet. This is followed by a nice ascending accented chord pattern, and we move into a strangely placed sort of boogie bridge that takes the listener a little by surprise, and infuses something a little different and interesting into the mix. The change back to the main progression is nice and smooth. I like the enthusiastic sound of the chorus, and I like the bridge section in context with this song. It shows Ray trying a few things, and that is always a good thing, but on the whole the song doesn't really do enough in the main section to keep particularly interested. Not one I'll skip on the extended debut album version, but not a song I would particularly head to for a special listen.\
I agree that It's Alright isn't much of a song, but it is a cool sounding record that compliments the A without taking any of the limelight from it. Even though it's a minor track, it just sounds so much more confident and fit for purpose that their first 2 records. There's one clip of The Kinks doing this one, from Shindig! in 1965:
Perfectly summarised. The energy is absolutely palpable in this recording, and the group are clearly having fun. An absolute rave-up.
It's Alright Nothing special. Ray doesn't even sound like himself. But then again... this is still early days.
Charmingly trashy garage rock; if it didn't have the Kinks name on it, it could almost be any number of bands. The drums are great fun, again, but otherwise this is the kind of album track/b-side that isn't annoying enough to turn off nor good enough to really listen with relish. It does have a rock and roll energy to it that isn't too shrill. 2.7/5
"It's All Right" By no means one of Ray's strongest songs, but the performance has a real infectious energy about it that is well captured on the record. Certainly very decent for a b-side. Also a bracketed tick in the "bands that duplicated a song title" thread, as 29 years later Dave would contribute "It's Alright (Don't Think About It)" to Phobia. (Good grief - the amount of time passed since the last Kinks album is almost as long now as the Kinks' entire career was...)
It's All Right -- it is all right. Nothing earth-shattering, but for a b-side, certainly very playable. The highlight for me is the harmonica, which gives the performance some extra energy. Dave is also hitting his stride as a backing vocalist. The record sounds like a prototype for Them's "Mystic Eyes", in a way.
An absolute positive energetic raver! LOVE it! Ray clearly tries to do something new. Pure contagious energy! Actually a good record. Being a Kins fan since day 1 there are no bad songs by the Ravens or the Kinks as far as I'm concerned. They are all good or excellent. PLUS the classics and the masterpieces! When "It's Allright" came out in 1964 it must have been indeed very special!
"It's All Right" is better than all right! This one seemed to pass me by all this time. That won't happen anymore. What a jam. The energy lacking in their first two singles is let loose right here. The drums, the harmonica.. And Ray's vocals sound more live than their first four sides where they were more chill, laying on top of the backing but not blending in. Overshadowed by its A-side, this is a real deep cut. Nice one!
It's Alright What a great drum and harmonica intro, then Ray's cool, deadpan vocal. There's also that great moment of madness where it seems to overheat, breakdown, then it kicks off again. Brilliant. 4/5
One thing I noticed about the Kinks when I started looking at their very early stuff is that "You Really Got Me" kind of came out of nowhere. Their early covers are weak and their other originals largely uninspired. "It's Alright" is simply just a competent B side, but nothing more. That would all change rather quickly of course and the Kinks would go on to have some of the best B sides and deep album cuts!
I reckon it always pays to relisten to the tracks before posting. The memory is a deceptive beast, and having a proper close listen is a huge difference to having heard it when the album was playing at some point
It's Alright The opening drum beat is such a tease, making you think there's a surf tune coming. It's very much of its time, but its also got an infectious energy that elevates it above standard b-side filler.
It’s Alright. Or, is it “It’s All Right” per the way it was printed on numerous contemporary picture 45’s and disc pressings? It shows up both ways in various places. I suppose if such a discrepancy was pointed out at the time, the overall felling was “Meh…whatever.” Subsequent re-issues and press favor “Alright” as one word. I’ve changed my feeling on this track over the years. The band is loose, relaxed and uninhibited. My guess is at this point they’ve spent enough time in the studio to have shed the typical caution most bands confront in their early recording careers. Hinman’s book speculates it may have been recorded in the same session as YRGM, and the energy captured on that track spills over onto this one. The first time I heard it….man…the beginning made the hair on my arms stand on end. The drum intro into that riff—likely appropriated from a Chicago blues number, but who/what?—repeated twice in unison on piano, guitars and harmonica. The third time the harmonica goes off on its own, like a bird veering away from the flock but keeping close by. Then Ray’s voice takes over while that driving riff carries under through out. Maybe the lyrics aren’t significant but the band is in a groove. After the second chorus the band launches into a full throttle rave up and session man Bobby Graham is going wild on the drums. It’s all very exciting and things are going great….. Then…ugh…that bridge. It seems to arrive from another song. It’s a songwriting trick Ray will employ in the future. Sometimes it works, other times—and I’m thinking of a ballad a year into the future—it throws things off track. This is the case here and it sinks the song, IMO. I imagine a couple dancing to this, finding a repetitive groove with that riff, and then this bridge happens. They stop, look at each other and think “what the hell are we supposed to do with this?” For this reason for the longest time I saw this track as disappointment, a rare example of where the band is in top form but a decision in Ray’s songwriting lets them down. I often skipped over it, and more significantly, told friends to avoid it (I should point out I have a reputation among friends as being "the Kinks guy" who they would ask for recommendations re:the band. When recommending playlists or talking about the early tracks they should have, "It's Alright" is one I'd alway leave off.) My thinking changed, quite simply, when many years later Ray appropriated it into his Storyteller show. Clearly he thinks highly of the number, and when I listened to it in this “looking back on the old days” context I found myself much more forgiving. I started listening to it again, and how can I not love the overall energy? It's a great example of the so-called British Invasion rave-up, right on par with anything by the early Stones or Yardbirds. So, yeah, awkward middle aside, as of 2021, I dig this song.
If it was recorded in December of 1963, then it was still several months before the Manfred Mann version of "Doo Wa Diddy" was recorded, but I suppose that like them, Ray could also have been exposed to the original by The Exciters.
