The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea, pretty much all of them.
    I just saw it as an opportunity to take stock of where we've been.

    I asked the question a little while ago and folks seemed to like the idea
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I guess also, there are a bunch of folks that missed certain sections of the discography, and this kind of gives them a snapshot
     
  3. The MEZ

    The MEZ Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    I'll have to go back & cross reference each track. I think I musta missed 4-5 songs, based on the song titles and such. But thanks for the specific breakdowns Mark & Michael Strett. Itll be easier to navigate my backtracking.
     
  4. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    Yeah, these aren’t too bad here, just a few things.

    Just wait till we get to the 2014 The Anthology 1964 - 1971. There are so many things wrong in those liners, I think I need to get started right now today on typing that out so I’ll be finished by the time we get to that in a few months. :laugh:

    And just to show I can take it as well as dish it out, I’ll point out an error in my earlier post today. I was commenting on the 1983 12” single that had that unique You Really Got Me/All Day And All Of The Night mashup and said it was created by the label Pye. Well Pye had been purchased by PRT by this point so that’s the label that made and released that konkoction.

    See? It’s impossible to keep Kinks stuff of this nature 100% straight, so I get it. :)
     
  5. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Picture Book, part 1

    I was listening to most of this first part today, building a Lego technic car with my son. He's been inundated with Kinks music the past two years, and it made me so happy to hear him singing along to Set Me Free, I Need You, and See My Friends. Little man, how I wish I knew these songs at 10 years old.

    I, too, just assumed that Stop Your Sobbing was a single for them too! That is such a funny song when you think about it. "Stop it! Stop it!" I looked back, and I did talk about this song briefly on my VERY FIRST post on this thread:

    Yes, a good early Kinks song indeed, young sir! But how dare you mention the B***tles. tsk tsk. Listening again now, I find it interesting that the song's title isn't exactly said in the song. It's "Stop all your sobbing" or "Stop sobbing...". But the title is just, Stop Your Sobbing. Straight and to the point, Ray! That's all you gotta do. Stop it, stop it!

    I Gotta Move, I think I missed this song very early in the thread, and it's pretty cool hearing it again now, after being more familiar recently with the live version from the Did Ya EP. When we covered Time Will Tell originally, I immediately added it to my playlist. So catchy, really a lost klassic. I want to hear Jack White / the White Stripes play that song. He'd crush it. Also nice to listen to the original Milk Cow Blues again, knowing that it obviously meant a lot to Dave since he played it live often in his solo shows.

    There's a New World Just Opening For Me... I'd forgotten how mellow and good this version is. In my mind, I kept going back to the Cascades version highlighted on the MSK 3000 about Catalina Caper. It's so different!! Who would watch this and figure it's an obscure mellow Ray Davies demo from 1965....



    there’s a concept, it’s called harmonyyyyy:D
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2023
  6. Geoff738

    Geoff738 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Definitely enjoying this little look back. :righton:
     
  7. pyrrhicvictory

    pyrrhicvictory Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manhattan
    Sound On Sound
    May 2010
    (for the wonky amongst us)
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  8. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    I did no Komparisons to other Kink Kover Kreations but Konversely found it all a bit beige in Kreativity and Kolour.
     
  9. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Thanks again, Avid Pyrrhicvictory, I appreciate it. Great insight about Konk Studios.
     
  10. sharedon

    sharedon Forum Zonophone

    Location:
    Boomer OK
    I like how they put Ray’s name in VGPS font!
     
  11. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Heh I'm one of the people who voted for four tracks a day on this set, selfishly because I missed commenting on everything on this thread up to Schoolboys.

    So I'll just make short comments on a selection of today's songs.

    I'm a Hog For You Baby - just like another *ahem* band's versions of Sheik of Araby or Young Blood, it's great to hear a bunch of young guys goofing around and having fun.

    Time will Tell - ah there's an unmistakeable Ray vocal. And even the first hint of an appearance of Shouty Ray.

    Come on Now - Ohhh love the raw energy here, kind of song that gets you up & onto the floor.

    Set me Free - The whole whispery "I don't want no one if I can't have you to myself " bit is a surprising and haunting turn, and here we are already into a structure that shifts unexpectedly and what part of the song do we call which? Anyway a good 2/3 of this song is absolutely brilliant.

    See My Friends - Here's Ray's nostalgia for lost people making an early appearance. Aces.

    I go to Sleep - This is the first one in this set that demonstrates without doubt or reservation that we're dealing with a major pop songwriter.

    This I Know - The first time he sings "this I know" it's like the "I don't want no one" bit mentioned above, a surprising and unanticipated turn in the tune, haunting.

    This Strange Effect -- There's also something strangely haunting about this one. Also, classic RD ambivalence -- he likes the kiss, but he doesn't know if he should like it.

    Ring the Bells -- I'm gong to call this one strange and spooky too, with a kind of detached/resigned/bored/depressed vibe --

    This stuff isn't Stones-dangerous or Beatles-sweet, its Kinks-strange and unexpected, weirdly evocative, completely of its time but also somehow suggesting beyond-time.

    In so much of the early British Invasion stuff you can practically hum the chorus by the time you hit the end of the first verse. The bridge may be a bit of a surprise but within a note or two you know in a general sense where it's going. A lot of these songs, most of these songs are different. But it isn't like "ugh ooops sour note this one could've been better crafted" -- these don't feel badly joined-together or inept -- just, yeah, words of the day, surprising, evocative, sometimes spooky.
     
  12. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    There are a couple of listings for this box at a reasonable cost on Music Stack, a lesser known site than Discogs, but still a viable option for physical media. Many sellers utilize both sites, but I know some who refuse to do business through Discogs, the US seller in this link below, Southland CD, being one such seller. I have used Music Stack many times over the years for purchases and have never had an issue. I can also say I have bought from Southland CD through Music Stack on several occasions and have had no issues whatsoever. Their listing is for the promo version of the box which should contain all 6 CDs and all the music but the booklet with the liner notes is not a part of the promo set, so be advised. There is also a UK seller in this list with a good price on the commercial release but I can’t say I’ve bought from them so I can’t vouch for them.

    the kinks records and CDs
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2023
  13. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    Indeed. I don't think "A Little Bit of Sunlight," "I Believed You," and "I Don't Need You Anymore"* are great by any means but I would choose them over a number of the covers on those two albums. "There's a New World..." and "This I Know" on the other hand probably could not be improved upon; they seem perfectly haunting in demo form. But I do wish the band had attempted more acoustic numbers; perhaps Dave was opposed.

    "Time Will Tell," which Ray inexplicably felt didn't deserve to make an album, would have been one of the highlights for me.

    *Based on Ray’s liner notes, it’s probably for the best he didn’t risk "I Don't Need You Anymore" being a hit - we might have lost him early!

    Thanks to our Headmaster for posting all those Picture Book liner notes.
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2023
  14. Always loved This Strange Effect and wish we would have gotten a full band performance.
     
  15. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    Good call by master @Fortuleo on this CD 1 of this box set covering the era of the first three albums but using little in the way of album-only material and the songs that do appear here that were released on these albums were mostly the single sides whether A or B. Since 1998 I have gotten so used to the expanded CD versions of these albums that have all of the single-only sides as bonus tracks, I never noticed this fact about this box set CD 1.

    This fact has led me down a train of thought about this box set in particular and thinking about a few different aspects and approaches of the track selection.

    This is a huge 6 CD set encompassing their entire career as a band. So. Should this contain every single cornerstone touchstone song that defined them at the time of release or retrospectively from a historical standpoint? Should it concentrate on previously unreleased material and historical recordings? Should it contain all or most of their A-Side singles whether it was a hit or not? Should it contain those non-LP B-Sides?

    (We all know that “hit” is a relative term when it comes to The Kinks. So many songs should have become anthems and in the public consciousness as so many of their peer’s singles are to this day, but for so many reasons, all of them unrelated to the quality of the songs, they are not. I think we all know what I’m getting at here and we’ve had discussions along these lines here and there and perhaps we can and will go there again before we’re done with this thread, but that’s not my focus here in this post. But I digress.)

    To my mind, a set this large (6 CDs!) covering the entire 3-decade gamut of their career as The Kinks should try to strike a happy balance and medium across all those fronts outlined above. It cannot possibly contain everyone’s individual favorite tracks, but does it succeed in providing the historical balance of touchstone career-defining tracks, hit singles, important album tracks, rare tracks, and previously unreleased material that the Dedicated Dan The Fan Follower such as myself would want and expect from such a set?

    Perhaps we can make a sort of game with this where we list our touchstone songs for each era that each of the CDs covers in this set and see what did get included and meets your own personal approval in that regard. But also see what was not included that you think should have in a set of this size, missing songs you think were an oversight by the compilers (or Ray if he had the final decision). And finally what songs were included here that don’t add much to the big picture 30,000 feet view and should have been left off in place of other songs you would have included.


    My cornerstone touchstone career defining songs from the era of CD 1 of this set and my thoughts where relevant (my list will be different from yours and I expect they will get more divergent as we move into the late 60s, 70s, and 80s but that should make this fun and interesting):


    • I Believed You – included - not a great song, but historically important as the first original song recorded (although that demo of Revenge could take this title).
    • Long Tall Sally – included – a cover and again not a great record, but historical as the first single A Side.
    • You Really Got Me – included (duh.)
    • Stop Your Sobbing – included.
    • All Day And All Of The Night – included (duh).
    • Nothin’ In This World Can Stop Me Worrying ‘Bout That Girl – not included! First oversight.
    • Tired Of Waiting For You – included (duh).
    • So Long – not included. An oversight for me.
    • See My Friends – included (this song and recording is just about as historically important as YRGM to my mind).
    • I Go To Sleep (Demo) – included (hind sightedly historical in so many respects).
    • Till The End Of The Day – included (duh).
    • Where Have All The Good Times Gone – included.
    I have other favorites of this era I have not listed as they were not hits or historically significant songs or recordings, just my own personal favorites for whatever reasons, so the fact these are not here is simply down to my own personal tastes.

    So to my mind, CD 1 presents a pretty fair and comprehensive overview of this era really. In looking at the track list, I’m hard pressed to say any song that was included here should have been omitted and replaced by one of the ones above I suggest should have been included. Maybe some of the previously unreleased songs could have been jettisoned to make way for these other already released tracks, but that would also defeat the purpose of this set which should absolutely include this previously unreleased stuff from a historical standpoint, quality being a secondary consideration in this regard.

    Anyway, does CD 1 get a passing grade or a fail from me? Most assuredly a strong confident passing grade, around a solid A or a strong A Minus.

    As I say, opinions should get a lot more interesting and divergent from this point forward which should hopefully lead to interesting and stimulating conversation should you choose to play along.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2023
  16. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    I would be fascinated to see you bite the bullet and eliminate the necessary amount of songs to allow you adding your favoured cuts above.
    Come on now don't you fret we are amiable Avids avoiding Streett fights!
    :-popcorn:
     
  17. Geoff738

    Geoff738 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Freeform Sunday. Saw Buddy Guy in probably his last Toronto show. He still puts on a good show, sings great. And, he’s funny!
     
  18. Geoff738

    Geoff738 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Ok, CD1. I might quibble over a song or two but I think they got it pretty much right on this one.
     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I looked at that sort of thing in my summary...

    I think it all passes, but I have reservations to some degree about the choices... not songs particularly... the undecided middle ground approach.
     
  20. TeddyB

    TeddyB Senior Member

    Location:
    Hollywoodland
    I prefer the stereo version, especially on the MFSL CD. It’s admittedly a bit of the era, but it’s well recorded and performed.
     
  21. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    the BBC version is a full band performance?

     
  22. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    That is all very heart warming to hear as I will be flying to Sydney to see his final ever Australian show in 12 Days on April 14th.
    I've seen him 3 times before but not for a whopping 30 years since London 1993.

    P.s. Was there any musical acknowledgement towards his friend Jeff Beck?
     
  23. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Picture Book

    I don't know if I was aware of this coming out when it did - I feel I may have seen it in HMV at some point, but never felt tempted to buy it. Had it come out in the 90s (and I'd known about it) it would have been more likely that I would have lapped it up. At that point I was still seeking out b-sides/obscurities/outtakes by my favourite artists and I'd compile them into albums of their own, sometimes sequenced chronologically, sometimes sequenced into a proper album with side openers and closers. This probably came to a peak in the Napster/Audiogalaxy days when I could download these tracks. But ultimately, do I listen to these "albums" as much as the proper albums? The answer is no - maybe a short burst of listening initially, but then the proper albums take over again. So Picture Book would have been a hard sell for me in 2008.

    It's probably easier if I just revisit the previously-unheard songs at this point - they may have only got a cursory listen when we covered them during the thread.

    The earliest ones, where they are kind of sounding like Gerry & The Pacemakers, don't interest me that much. The first one that piques my interest is "Don't Ever Let Me Go" - it's obviously reusing the YRGM riff, but the song takes it in a worthwhile different direction. "There's A New World" is a nice moody acoustic piece, and "Time Will Tell" is another entry in the riff-based song list, but not as strong overall as the ones that made the cut. All three of these tracks sound like they would fit on Kinda Kinks, but ultimately I like that album as it is. Even "There's A New World" wouldn't dislodge "Nothin' In This World" for me.

    "I Go To Sleep" is the first real gem that I would like to own - there is an extraordinary feel to this with just Ray and the piano. "A Little Bit Of Sunlight" is a nice enough song that many lesser bands would have loved to cover, but doesn't really reach the required high standard for a Kinks track. "This I Know" is similar to "So Long", and in an alternate universe where the former made the album in favour of the latter, we might be talking of it as a Klassik, but in this universe I'm quite happy with "So Long".

    "This Strange Effect" is obviously a great song that has endured through the years - we recently covered the Squeeze version in that thread. It's a pity that there wasn't an officialy-released Kinks version at the time, although perhaps it needed a few more takes to get a version that did full justice to the song. "All Night Stand" was another good song that I seem to remember got a good version from another band, while the quality of this take makes it hard listening. "And I Will Love You" shows that Ray was never less than interesting at this point, but this song doesn't seem to come together too well in the end (and while I'm accidentally stringing together song titles by that other band, isn't this a bit "And I Love Her"?)

    So that's nine songs I've picked out from this disc which might make a decent mini-album together, but again how often would I listen to it? As good as some of these tracks are, it's really difficult for songs I'm discovering for the first time now to compete with the songs I've known for 30+ years.

    Of course there is not the same problem for actual albums I'm discovering for the first time now. The four RCA albums that I didn't own and had ignored for 30+ years before this thread are doing just fine for listens and will continue to do so.
     
  24. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    A Free'd Form Sunday.......

    Returning from swimming my 10 year old daughter again heard Lola playing (from that USB!) so I decided to explain more exactly just who Lola was.

    Louise oohed and smiled with each revelation and the penny dropped.

    I then asked her how she thought an everyday man may react who found such a "Lola" very attractive and was later to find she was revealed to be a physical male.

    I was assuming her response to be that the fellow in question would scream, yell, be embarrassed, get angry, run away, vomit or perhaps even apologise for their mistake or even several of the above responses.

    Her answer: He would be gay.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2023
  25. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    This thread's 10/12/13 years old never cease to amaze me…

    Maybe it's a new generation thing… Or simply, youngsters that are lucky enough to be raised with the Kinks' music in their life are just bound to be special.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine