From the above Uncut (2010): Is the'80s period of the Kinks undervalued? It's undervalued and it's probably the best time we had. To me it was, anyway. Itwas more fun than the '60s. We could play longer sets, three hours ifwe wantedto. In the '60s we played for 40 minutes, tops. —-end paste—- And? If undervalued why not promote it as part of the the 60th anniversary? (Me speaking)
A friendly reminder; the album Ray and company are plugging is The Journey Part 1, which covers the years 1964 to 1975. Rest assured the Arista years and beyond will get their due when Part 2 is released later this year.
Thanks again, Avid Pyrrhicvictory. I also have this issue and CD. Ray was kinda sorta right about not being allowed to leave the country about 10 yrs. later. A very interesting interview.
is it definitely confirmed it’s gonna split that way? If so, the absence of ‘Lola’ on vol.1 seems kinda extraordinary, although maybe volume 2 will feature the live version from One For The Road.
From what I’ve read in various places, yes. Of course, with the Kinks, anything goes. I hadn’t even noticed Lola had gone AWOL! Though I haven’t wasted two seconds on this latest compilation hype.
There are many omissions I could probably add dozens more tracks Volume 2 (lol) Disc one You Really got Me Till The End Of The Day Nothing In The World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'bout That Girl Dandy Too Much On My Mind A House In The Country Fancy Set Me Free I'm Not Like Everybody Else (which I can't believe I missed off) No Return Situation Vacant Afternoon Tea Funny Face Mr Pleasant Susannah's Still Alive Wonder Boy Polly Do You Remember Walter Big Sky Sitting By the Riverside All My Friends Were There Disc two Plastic Man Drivin Some Mother's Son Mr Churchill Says Young And Innocent Days Arthur Mr Shoemaker's Daughter Lola Apeman Get Back In Line Top Of The Pops Powerman Berkley Mews Moments The Way Love Used to Be Holiday Alcohol Lavender Lane Here Come The People In Grey Muswell Hillbilly Disc three Unreal Reality Hot Potatoes Motorway History Daylight Where Are They Now Money Corruption I'm Your Man Preservation He's Evil Here Comes Flash Scum Of The Earth Flash's Confession Artificial Man When Work Is Over Holiday Romance Ducks On The Wall Jack the Idiot Dunce Education Disc 4 Juke Box Music Stormy Sky Life Goes On Live Life Permanent Waves Get Up Artificial Light Superman In a Space Gallon Of Gas Give The People What They Want Killer's Eyes Destroyer Yo Yo State Of Confusion Come Dancing Don't Forget To Dance Long Distance Disc 5 Return To Waterloo Sold Me Out Lonely Hearts Summers Gone Welcome To Sleazy Town When You Were A Child Aggravation What Are We Doing Entertainment Bright Lights Million Pound Semi-Detached Down All the Days The Road Did Ya Look Through Any Doorway Phobia Still Searching It's kind of ridiculous how good this catalog is, and that still doesn't include things like The Time Song Prince Of The Punks The Poseur Elevator Man Hidden Quality Duke Nuclear Love Once A Thief Noise and others floating amongst this thread somewhere lol
Ok, ok, just until 1975, then ? I don't find it much easier to do. Here's another iconoclast 10 songs 64-75 list anyway. The Kwirkinks: I'm on An Island Fancy Lazy Old Sun Pictures in the Sand Berkeley Mews The Moneygoround Hot Potatoes There's A Change in the Weather Scum of the Earth You Make It All Worthwhile I've just read the Mojo piece. 8 pages in which they sample some ikonik songs with cool verbatims by Ray, Dave and Mick (and a little itw with Shel Talmy, in which he pans Pye). Weirdly (well…), none of the 10 songs discussed are from my kwirkinks list. They chose usual 65-69 suspects : You Really Got Me / Tired of Waiting for You / Where Have All the Good Times Gone / I'm Not Like Everybody Else/ Dead End Street / Waterloo Sunset / Death of A Clown / Days / Do You Remember Walter / Shangri-La. Here's a taster, in line with last Friday's Thread action : RAY : "I’m Not Like Everybody Else was cast for Dave. He was the rebellious one. I suppressed my rebellion. But you’re right. I listen to it now and I realize it was written for me, for my more internal anger and my sadness as well. The second verse: “And I won’t say that I feel fine* like everybody else.” In 1966 there was a big party going on in the UK and we weren’t invited. We’d stay at home and watch Match Of The Day." * DAVE: I’m sure a psychoanalyst would know why Ray gave me that song to sing. On the one hand it says a lot about his love for me but it also says something about the way he accesses and uses the information he gets from people. It’s quite frightening, really." (* note : this's suddenly made me think this line may allude to the B*****s' hit)
Off topic but it’s almost free form Saturday. I know there are a few fans around here. I am going to see The Church tonight at a free record store appearance. That’s the I'll get in on this sampler. Here is my list up until 1975. I'll follow @Fortuleo rules of more obscure songs and no VGPS. 1. I've Got That Feeling 2. Rosie Won't You Please Come Home 3. No Return 4. Some Mother's Son 5. Get Back In Line 6. Moments 7. Holiday 8. Sweet Lady Genevieve 9. When a Solution Comes 10. I'm In Disgrace
Love your list. Breaks my heart not to see Live Life on there, but I know I am, maybe not alone, but lonely, in my love for that song. Really, it’s pretty hard to go wrong in this type of endeavor. At this point, I find I just love pretty much all of their songs.
Thanks! I thought I deleted that top part of my post. That's why it is suddenly cut off. I started to write it yesterday, but decided not to post it. This forum saves what you wrote if you don't finish it! I went to see them last night. My first live music in almost 4 years. I was right up front and they sounded excellent! So many shows all of a sudden. I thought I was going to miss The Church because they were playing Tacoma on Friday and I couldn't make it. I have also seen them live already about a dozen times. Then I found out about the free in store performance in Seattle yesterday, and I couldn't pass that up! I'm so happy they decided to play Seattle. It was nice to see them supported by a large crowd lined up outside. Robyn Hitchcock and Kelley Stoltz also played a show on Friday in Seattle. I would have loved to see both of them, but couldn't make it. I have seen Robyn before, but have never seen Kelley. I'm sure it was a great show. I also lucked out a few days ago and got 22nd row for The Cure for a very reasonable price! I'm super excited. They were one of my first ever concerts about 36 years ago. I have not seen them since then. Love and Rockets are also touring, but I think I missed out on that. It's almost sold out already. I couldn't afford both The Cure and Love and Rockets. I did get to see Poptone a few years ago which was 2/3 of Love and Rockets and they played songs from Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets. It was a fantastic show. Maybe they will keep touring for awhile and I can catch them next time.
Yep…I’ve deleted stuff and then it pops right back. Sometimes days later. Then I have to use the 30-minute edit window to quickly erase like mad.
Stefan’s Voyage of Kinks Discovery, Part 2: Sleepwalker / Everybody’s In Showbiz / Preservation Act 2 / Lola, Percy and the Apeman Come Face To Face With The Village Green Preservation Society… Something Else! In part 1 of this series, last Free-Form Sunday, I wrote about discovering The Kinks via the UK Jive album and then borrowing a friend’s copies of One For The Road and A Compleat Collection. My next stop, in my early days as a fan in 1990, was to visit the local library to find out more about this great group that I had just discovered. At the library, they had quite a good selection of rock encyclopedias and music books on their second floor. These books were strictly reference only, so I brought pen and paper with me and read everything these books said about The Kinks and wrote down the titles of all the albums listed there. Plus stand-alone singles and stand-alone EPs. When I was finished writing it all down I looked at the list and it was rather overwhelming, The Kinks had released so many records! I was in my late teens with a limited pocket money budget and was also trying to save up to buy a CD player so at the time it felt like it would take a lifetime to catch up with The Kinks’ back catalogue. After this fact-finding mission on the second floor of the library, I went down to the ground floor where they had records one could borrow. They had four Kinks titles: Sleepwalker, Everybody’s In Showbiz, Preservation Act 2 and the compilation Lola, Percy and the Apeman Come Face To Face With The Village Green Preservation Society… Something Else. I borrowed them all and went home to listen. Sleepwalker Of these four albums, I listened to Sleepwalker first, partly because it was the newest of them, partly because it was the only one which wasn’t a double album. I really liked it the first time I heard it – it struck me as a very solid rock album full of great songs, well performed and well produced. The one track that particulary stood out the very first time I heard the album was “Mr Big Man”. I liked how it took shifts and turns and gradually built in intensity and energy, with a lot of restrained anger and resentment. A top notch song. Overall, I thought the album was very well sequenced, with “Life on the Road” being a perfect album opener and “Life Goes On” a fitting album closer. I loved the whole album and dubbed it onto cassette, which again would have to do until some later when I’d be able to buy my own copy. I did buy the Arista CD a few years later and then the 1998 Velvel re-issue which I think is one of the best re-issues as it has five high quality bonus tracks. According to Doug Hinman’s discography book, there were quite a few more songs recorded for this album so I think a Super Deluxe Edition would be very nice indeed, though I am not holding my breath. I have probably listened to this album about a zillion of times and think is superb, possibly the best of the Arista albums. When I listened to it again a few days ago it struck me again that the quality of the songs is really top notch. It really surprises me that the title track wasn’t a bigger hit, it is so energetic and catchy and the “oh yeah” backing vocals towards the end of the song are the icing on the cake. “Jukebox Music” is another highlight, with Ray and Dave sharing the vocals and singing with such commitment. When they towards the end of the song sing “Music, only jukebox music / Only music, only jukebox music”, in unison as if their lives depended on it, there is certainly nothing “only” about it – clearly they both disagree with the characters in the song who try to distract the mysterious woman from the music she is listening to. Such a great album! A few years ago, I found myself getting short of shelf space in the music room and as I had two copies of several Kinks CDs (the original CDs I bought plus the remastered editions with bonus tracks) I decided it would be a good idea to give the original CDs to a friend, who has a huge record collection and is a living music encyclopedia but hadn’t yet discovered The Kinks. He loved them too and started buying more Kinks albums himself (he has since also bought the deluxe editions of albums and has given the CDs he got from me to another person). Last year, I found a still sealed copy of the Velvel edition of Sleepwalker, which I didn’t think he owned, so I picked it up for him. However, when I attempted to give it to him the next time we met he said he had already bought the Velvel edition. So I gave the still sealed copy of the Velvel Sleepwalker to another friend. She hadn’t heard The Kinks, but we (my wife and I) have enjoyed many great conversations about music, art and books with her (the kind of conversations where you eventually think, “we must have had this wonderful conversation for at least two hours now” and then realise that we have been discussing music, art and books for five hours – time always flies when the three of us meet) so I thought she would definitely listen to the album with an open mind and give it an honest chance. She did – and loved the album and mentioned it to her father. He actually saw The Kinks live several times in the ‘60s and ‘70s and sent an email to me sharing some of his concert memories. Very nice! Everybody’s In Showbiz This was quite a surprise the first time I heard it, sounding very different to anything I had heard by The Kinks at this point in time. Trombones, trumpets and saxophones on a Kinks album? At first, it felt like a bizarre experience listening to it. The songs were good but to my ears the playing sounded sloppy, as if all the musicians were drunk or something. The magnificent “Celluloid Heroes” that I had heard on One For The Road was on the album, so I kept listening and became more and more fascinated with it. The live album on record two baffled me the first time I heard it, also sounding sloppy and featuring strange covers of “Mr Wonderful”, “Banana Boat Song” and “Baby Face” and a brief audience singalong of “Lola”. It seemed such a strange album yet it also intrigued me. I dubbed it onto cassette to listen more to it, but the tape sounded awful the next time I played it so the cassette would come to stay mostly on the shelf. A few years later, at university and having access to email, an email friend in the States asked if I could help her find a CD only released in Europe. I found a copy of the CD in question and in those pre-Paypal days we agreed that the best thing would be to do a swap. I asked her if there were any Kinks CDs available in the record stores she visited. She found a copy of the Rhino edition of Everybody’s In Showbiz and sent it to me. And wow, what a revelation this CD was! It sounded so much better than the record I had dubbed onto cassette. The library’s LP had been quite worn and was probably a bit warped due to poor storage which was why the sound of it was so bad. I listened to the great sounding CD over and over and loved the album more and more. It’s so totally unique, both compared to other Kinks albums and to pretty much anything else I’ve heard by other groups. I love the whimsical vaudeville-ish pop feel and whereas my first impression was that the musicians sounded sloppy I now hear how skilled they all were and created something original and timeless and with a great sense of humour. The great songs keep coming on this album – every track on the studio part is a real gem. “Hot Potatoes” is so incredibly catchy and funny, Dave’s “You Don’t Know My Name” is top notch, “Supersonic Rocketship” is catchy and unique and “Look A Little On The Sunny Side” is a perfect build-up to “Celluloid Heroes”. I have heard many rock bands’ songs about touring life, usually focusing on the travelling aspect and being away from home. To a degree, that is also true of the songs here, but there is also a lot of focus on the food aspect of touring life which I think is quite funny. Then in the middle of this there is “Sitting In My Hotel” which portrays the non-glamorous loneliness aspect of touring in a very heartfelt way. In my opinion, this is one of The Kinks’ very best tracks. And then the end of the studio part of the album there is “Celluloid Heroes” which remains one of the most magnificent songs I have ever heard. The live album is both a fun and great listening experience. It has a “anything goes” feel to it with the versions of “Holiday” and “Alcohol” as the highlights. I bought the Legacy 2-CD edition when it was released and it is great to hear a fuller version of the Carnegie Hall shows. When I listen to all the live tracks together it really comes across what a special thing a Kinks show in 1972 must have been. It makes me wish I could find a time machine and travel back to those Kinks shows. The Legacy edition also featured a previously unreleased track, “History”. I can’t stop playing this one, it is so good! How on earth did this song remain unreleased for several decades? Preservation Act 2 The rock encyclopedias I had read at the local library had mentioned that The Kinks did several theatrical concept albums in the early ‘70s which, in their opinions, weren’t very good. I therefore didn’t have any great expectations when I started to listen to this album. I listened to it once and wasn’t keen on it at all. The numerous Announcements were off-putting and I didn’t get the plot in any case. I suspected it might have to do that this was Act 2 and maybe it would make more sense if I had heard Act 1 first. I also realized that I had been listening to Act 2 in the wrong order – for some strange reason, the library’s copy had sides A and D on record one and sides B and C on record two. I didn’t realise this until after I had finished listening but it did make it even harder to try and understand the plot. It must have been this edition: The Kinks – Preservation Act 2 (1974, Santa Maria Pressing, Vinyl) - Discogs Why would they put side D on record one? At the time, I decided that Preservation Act 2 wasn’t for me, so I didn’t dub it onto cassette. I also figured that maybe the concept albums wouldn’t be my cup of tea at all and that as there were so many Kinks albums, maybe I should focus on the ‘80s albums. For a time I did, but I would later come to love the concept albums too, including both Preservation Act 1 and 2, and obviously ended up buying all the studio albums (most of them multiple times too) and all the live albums plus a few selected compilations. And the solo albums by Ray and Dave. Lola, Percy & The Apeman Come Face To Face With The Village Green Preservation Society… Something Else! I was a bit suspicious of this record when I borrowed it at the library. The title itself was rather awkward, the front cover artwork looked really dated and tacky, the back cover was promoting albums by other artists and the record company had somehow crammed 44 tracks onto two records. All such reservations blew out the window once I started listening to the album. I was stunned at the quality of the songs – masterpieces followed by masterpieces followed by masterpieces, from start to finish. Not a single bad track on the whole compilation and totally unique and amazing lyrics and music, excellent instrumentation and vocals. What a compilation! I dubbed into two 60 minute cassettes and couldn’t stop listening to them. It stunned me that I hadn’t heard any of these songs before – why weren’t The Kinks every bit as well-known as The Beatles, for instance? I have high regard for The Beatles and up until then I had been totally convinced that they made the best music in the late ‘60s, but to my ears The Kinks were even better, not least in terms of lyrics. Ray is certainly an outstanding lyricist and songwriter and the Dave songs on this compilation showed what an incredibly talented songwriter he is as well. Looking back, it’s a stunningly good compilation that the record company seems to have issued as a low budget item. It baffles me that the record company would put together a double album on which they essentially included three full albums (minus a handful of tracks, among them “Sunny Afternoon” and “Waterloo Sunset”) plus the best songs from Percy plus the two hit singles from 1970 plus “Wonder Boy”. And they seemingly put the tracks in a random order, but the album has such natural flow, so I think credit is due to whoever decided on the track order. As I listened to the cassettes I had dubbed over and over for months, it made me think that I had to get the original albums, preferably on CD, but it would take some time before I managed to track down copies of them. To be continued…
I’m diligently listening to our upcoming Americana projects and was going nuts trying to figure out why I knew two of the songs that aren’t in the discography to date. Austin City Limits! And maybe one of Ray’s other live performances. Phew, I can rest easy.
As I began reading this 2nd list I was thinking it is virtually as good as the first especially the first 2 discs and may be the 4th too. Soon much great Kinks music everywhere!!!!!
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