The Japanese version of the album from 1965 and the tracklist A1 You Really Got Me A2 Beautiful Delilah A3 So Mystifying A4 Just Can't Go To Sleep A5 Long Tall Shorty A6 I Took My Baby Home A7 I'm A Lover Not A Fighter B1 Too Much Monkey Business B2 Cadillac B3 Bald Headed Woman B4 Revenge B5 I've Been Driving On Bald Mountain B6 Stop Your Sobbing B7 Got Love If You Want It
will be my first listen to this proper! i only know YRGM and Stop Your Sobbing. i dove in around Contoversy....sorry Kontroversy !
I was born while this album was being recorded. This album is typical early-sixties product for a pop band of the time. LP's were primarily a vehicle for "serious" artists back then -- traditional singers like Sinatra and Bennett, jazz performers, etc. We're still in the era where singles were the main medium for teen pop artists -- albums were essentially thrown-together afterthoughts. The Kinks' debut is no exception, which doesn't mean it's not worth listening to, but during the early part of their career, it's the singles that tell the story. Those liner notes are a hoot. Ray "has very definite ideas of his own about almost everything, and enjoys an occasional sulk". They were telling us about Ray Davies before he became Ray Davies!
I only heard this album proper a couple years back when i bought the mono reissue. That being said i first became aware of the kinks around the time of Come Dancing. I was in grade 9. My older sister had mysteriously transformed into a mod at this point and though she had none of the records she had a kinks badge on her jacket. My interest was sparked and i knew my parents had a kinks 45 in their mostly horrible collection. I got my mother to find it and it was the canadian 45 of YRGM backed with All day and All of the the Night. In horrible condition i might add. Didnt matter i loved it. Through friends i eventually heard lots of their stuff. But mostly the 70s kinks. By the end of the year i sported a kinks tshirt and was a fan. It however was one of the bands i relied on my friends to hear. I got the golden hour comp, mentioned a few pages back sometime at the end of highschool, but it was many years before i started buying their albums. Still missing a couple of later ones! But ya that 45 of YRGM made a fan of me..... The rave up killed me. Still got that 45 by the way! The album is good. Its mostly what i would expect from this time period. Face to Face is where i really start to love the albums. Not unusual for me...Stones Beatles Who etc.....66 is when things start to really intetest me! Great thread!
The Kinks Debut Album was recorded in 1964 under a huge pressure and in a very short amount of time. It’s a great Beat/Pop record reflecting the positive spirit of The British Invasion. For most of the album the sound isn’t terribly distinctive. Of course like most young pop and rock groups back then record companies weren’t looking for anything unique; they just wanted something the kids would spend their money on usually surrounding a couple of hit singles with a number of fillers. Nevertheless the album has a lot more to offer than that even though only one of the songs was actually a hit („You Really Got Me“!); a song which many writers have credited as the birth of heavy metal and/or punk. The whole album provides plenty of room for joy, pleasure and entertainment. It’s fabulous to see how the Davies’ gems shine. Favourite tracks – „You Really Got Me“? No, not really! I still have issues with that song as I always appreciated „All Day And All Of The Night“, „Till The End Of The Day“ and „I Need You“ much more. Great songs are the haunting rocker „So Mystifying“, an outstanding early Ray Davies tune standing the test of time (still mystifying me!); the super catchy „Just Can’t Go To Sleep“ with a creative drumming from Mick Avory and strong backing vocals plus „Stob Your Sobbing“ a typical Merseybeatish influenced pop song of the 60’s, a beautiful, quiet and romantic song later to be covered by The Pretenders in 1979. LOVE „Cadillac“ from all the rhythm and blues covers best! A swinging version of the Bo Diddley song from a few years earlier. It’s a blast of fun especially those “C-A-D-I-L-L-A-C” backing vocals. My favourite pick of the whole album is „I Took My Baby Home“. It was the first Kinks tune that I had ever heard in July 1964 while being on my summer holidays in a children’s camp. I didn’t know that it were The Kinks then, but I immediately took to the carefree song which introduced me to The Kinks Music. Still listening to it today! And it was in July 1964 when Ray started dating a 17-years-old Lithuanian teenage girl called Rasa Didzpetris. They married in December 1964 and divorced in 1973.
I never liked the cover art, it shows them as exactly what they weren't : stiffed and almost sleepy. I won't delve into songs for now, but it's clearly an underwhelming debut, by far their least appealing LP until much much later in their career. Too many covers, too much Shel Talmy, it is to the Kinks what "sings My Generation" is to the Who. But it still comes to life in mono, and it has at least two non singles superb tunes that already proved they wouldn't be a one hit band.
Reference guide A bit about the band Oct 1963 I'm A Hog For You Baby (first recording) Dec 1963 Oobadiaboo unreleased? Feb 1964 Long Tall Sally - live footage Apr 1964 You Still Want Me - b-side You Do Something To Me Aug 1964 You Really Got Me - Shindig tv - live footage - beat room - BBC b-side It's All Right/It's Alright - shindig tv Oct 1964 The Kinks
The debut is probably the Kinks album I've listened to the least of all of them - it's been some years since I've played it. I really should give it another listen now - trouble is that while my copies of all the other 60s studio albums are later grey-label Pye or PRT reissues, my copy of the debut is an original Pye, which has some nasty scratches on it. Given that I have just yesterday fitted a brand-new cartridge, I'm kind of reluctant to inflict this disc on it. I'll have to dig out my needle drop from years ago.
Doesn't it seem like early British Invasion era record companies had only two templates for presenting the band's image on LP's or 45 picture sleeves? 1) as "fun-loving lads" engaged in hi-jinx (Think Gerry and the Pacemakers) romping and mugging in a public place, like a park , or 2) As somber, serious "artiste", (think With the Beatles, or early Stones). Given these two options, I glad the Kinks were at least appropriately accorded the more serious option, as opposed to on playground equipment or the like. Leave that to the Freddie and the Dreamers of the world.
I'll be better commenting on the album after we discuss all the songs, but it's an album I enjoy. It's not as bad as I was told it was. "Village Green" was my gateway to the Kinks in the late '90s. The guy who got me going said "Face to Face" to "Lola" was this golden age. Then I realized "Muswell" is darn good too, so I started going back in the other direction and found "Kontroversy" is really good, then "Kinda Kinks" is pretty awesome too, and the debut? Well, it will definitely do. It has fun moments and good energy. It has too many covers but that may be all they had at the time. Some originals were already out on singles. Of course it pales in comparison to what came later, which often happens with bands that improve, but I think it satisfies.
The Kinks As I indicated before, I have little respect for this record. I simply take the originals off of it, plus other 1964 non-LP* originals and just make a playlist of them, with "You Really Got Me" as the lead off track. In a year that had already seen All Summer Long and A Hard Day's Night -- two great, if slightly flawed "rock/pop" albums, as well as a couple of really good (though even more cover-heavy) Rolling Stones albums, this album seems pretty weak. Too many lame covers. But... There is a punkish energy to it that I like - it's fresh and hugely influential -- and the originals are definitely excellent: my playlist of originals stands up to the best albums by any other pop/rock band of the era and I happily listen to it whenever I can. Even the covers, I'll grudgingly admit have at least a certain original sound to them....I just never want to listen to them, that's all. * using the British discography as my guide --it is my opinion that the Kinks, like the Beach Boys and arguably even the Beatles released too much at first and thus diluted their greatness.
From the perspective of someone looking back, I would have to agree ... and yes I would include the Liverpool band in there
I love me some Lance from the Beach Boys thread, but to be fair, neither of those albums you mentioned are debuts. The Beatles debut (and 2nd, and 4th album) had 6 covers, the Beach Boys debut had 3 (should probably have more since those originals are mostly weak), and the Stones debut had like 8-9 covers. It's just how things went back then. Ray cut out multiple covers on albums much quicker than many of those bands did as he started to find his way. The band was still quite new so I don't take away points for that.