When The Pretenders released Stop Your Sobbing in 1979, I was 13 years old. I had no idea it wasn't their song, indeed I probably didn't know what a cover version was. All I knew of The Kinks was that they had a single called Apeman, as someone in my family bought the single. It was at least 5 or 6 years before I heard the Kinks original. So, it's a great song, but to me The Kinks' version sounds like a rough sketch compared with the fully-realised pop single that is The Pretenders' version.
"Stop Your Sobbing" really stands out to me as being about a real-life relationship and capturing it well; not just cloyingly sweet Valentines day love messages cynically aimed at teenage girls -- so I think the Kinks were distinguishing themselves with this right out of the gate. Despite the monstrously huge shadow "You Really Got Me" casts, this is what I think of when I think of the Kinks. Having said that, it is rather ironic that I also prefer the Pretenders' version.
Stop Your Sobbing Were it not for the eartshaking, groundbreaking, iconic status of You Really Got Me, this would be hands down the greatest song on the album. And more than YRGM, this is the one that tells us more about who the Kinks would really become. An all time classic; a deep cut that became so much more. Oh, and the truly definitive version did come later, but it was still the Kinks; it was their live performance on One For The Road that made this song what it is. Got Love If You Want It. Probably the best cover on the album. I like that its longer and still interesting throughout its length. The mix of blues and that wild Moon-like drumming (before we even heard of Moon) is really something. Yeah, a strong close.
Will it be etiquette to discuss the many re-releases and remasterings of each album as it comes up? Or will the re-releases or remastering will be discussed separately when we get to the time frame of release?
Although we have finished the album proper, we are still kind of on the debut album. We have the bonus tracks from later editions, the Kinksize Sessions Ep, and the All Day and All of the Night Ep and single.... So I reckon talking about different masterings and reissues would be cool. I'm sure there are folks interested in these things...
While I can appreciate that others love "Stop Your Sobbing," it never really did much for me. To me it sounds like a lesser version of several songs that will be coming up in the next couple releases. I think it may have made a good single if it came out before "You Really Got Me," but I can see why they'd want to keep going in that more rockin' direction and release a different song to follow that one up. "Got Love If You Want It" is usually not my cup of tea but I really enjoy this one. 3:45 must have felt like an eternity back then but you don't get bored with this track. From slow to fast, quiet to loud, and that intense burst of drums and harmonica at the end, it's easily worth revisiting. I may have been wrong saying "Cadillac" was the best cover on the album.
"Got Love If You Want It" Possibly the best cover on the album, a rollicking way to end the set although I'm not quite sure what Ray is doing with his accent on this one!
Sobbing to me is a song that stands as a nice little pop song, and one of the stronger tracks here, but is also let down by the arrangement offered by a band on their debut LP. I mainly find it curious these days for the very wet vocal in mono, and super dry vocal in stereo. Got Love however has always been a favourite. One of the Kinks’ stronger RnB covers, this one really packs a punch, and is actually tastily arranged, unlike some of the blander covers on offer.
(my fave version!) Stop your Sobbing is a really good song but The Pretenders turned it into such a powerhouse, the original can't help but feel a little clunky. but it's still a highlight of the early days for me. Got Love..... one of their better covers so far
Stop Your Sobbing I only discovered this because of Chrissie's cover. It's great. It's almost a Doo-wop ditty. Got Love If You Want It Nice instrumentation by the high pitched, nasal vocal ruins it for me.
"Stop Your Sobbing" This is my personal favorite song on the album and by far the song that gets the most plays around here. This Ray Davies might turn out to be a pretty good songwriter. "Got Love If You Want It" I agree with everyone calling this the best cover on the album. It doesn't even sound like Ray. A nice ending to a solid debut album. I enjoyed going through it song by song and feel I have a better appreciation for it. Things just get better from here! I also love this version by The Dee-Tees, which is on a compilation called Nothing Comes Easy (Basement Beat Vol. 1). This isn't the greatest sound quality, but it's the only clip I could find. It's well worth searching out.
I like The Who's musical performance (and prefer it to the Kinks', as I noted). But there's no denying the rewritten lyrics are inane, and of course there's the ethical issue of stealing someone else's melody and claiming it as your own that is problematic.
It's really striking how much less adept at covers The Kinks were than their peers (The Beatles, The Stones, The Animals, even The DC5). If Ray hadn't developed into a songwriter very quickly, I think the band would have gone nowhere fast. Listening to the non-original songs on this album to me is analogous to listening to The Beatles' Decca audition tape... fascinating as a piece of history (given the band they would become) but not very enjoyable as a basic musical experience absent the context.
"You wear those dresses and the sun comes shining through/Can't believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you." Elvis sings it on his first several takes of the song, but midway through the session Steve Sholes caught on to what was being implied there and made him remove the line from subsequent takes, including the master.
To a degree I would agree with this. To a degree it seems from my perspective that most of the covers just don't really suit the band (as I know them), and show the band trying to fit in with the scene, and in many ways, it just isn't their scene. I think Cadillac and Got Love If You Want It come over well. Too Much Monkey Business and I'm a Lover Not A Fighter are pretty good. Beautiful Delilah and Long Tall Shorty would have been much more suited to a less affected vocal. The two Bald songs should have been avoided, and I can only assume it was a pair of tracks aimed at getting Talmy extra dollars. I totally agree the Stones and Animals are likely better at the covers scene than the Kinks .... I think in comparison the Beatles, for the most part, just picked better songs, generally.... But the simple fact of the matter for me is that although Ray had a long way to go still, his original songs are more suited to the band, and therefor sound better. How much of that is my familiarity with the Kinks, is really hard to say, and I find it hard to come to the stuff and completely erase nearly forty years of hearing the band, and the majority of that being the seventies and eighties material, except for singles... and to some degree I think that's likely why the debut album had never been spun prior to the run up to the thread. I don't particularly dislike most of the covers, I just find them lacking the Kinks personality, and the Kinks personality as a band is a huge draw for me. Either way, we will be moving onwards and upwards as we go. It sure has been interesting looking at the first album though.
To me, Stop Your Sobbing sounds very much tongue in cheek. At the same time it is a minor "perfectly formed egg" that they had to do something with, but the lightweight, haphazard and playful (like the displacement of the line "gotta stop sobbing now" at the end of each chorus) of the original is actually the best possible: a more thoroughly performed arrangement would have "cracked the egg", or obscured the simple genius of the song. The Pretenders version is a more serious take on the lyrics, and it works in its own way, but I still think it sounds a little strange.
For me, this has always been interchangeable with "Just Can't Go To Sleep." They're both in the key of G and have the same meter & tempo.
I can see that. I think Stop Your Sobbing has the Kinks personality starting to shine a little brighter than most of the debut album tracks
Woah. I've never heard this stereo mix of the Kinks' 1964-recorded version of "Stop Your Sobbing." Weird! I feel like I'm hearing too many of the rough edges and seams here compared to the mono mix. Someone posted a live Pretenders version, but it's worth posting the Nick Lowe-produced single, which was their first hit, and put them on the map. Their second single, "Kid," was a hit in June 1979, so this must have preceded it. (Ah ha! Wikipedia says January 1979.) The debut album came out in the US in the final days of December 1979. And, as other have said in this thread, C. Hynde transformed the song. Hers is gorgeous and feels like a love song or lullaby. Ray's, not so much. It's quirky! If anything, it's more like the eccentricity we'd hear on things like "I'm on an Island," a little over a year later. He seems to be saying, in the bridge..... "When you cry, sweetie, I wanna take you in my arms....and say, 'Shut up, woman, or I'm outta here.'" The version on "One For the Road" was recorded in September 1979 -- after the Pretenders' hit. If so.... aren't they sort of covering the improved cover? They even duplicate the Pretenders' backing harmonies near the end of the song. Agreed.
As we are wrapping up the Kinks' debut, I thought I'd share this! Shel Talmy has been posting reminiscences on Facebook, and just posted this account of the Kinks' debut, in early March. Well worth reading! I have no idea if he intends to keep this post up or not, so I don't dare cut and paste the article without his permission. But.... enjoy! Shel Talmy, "PRODUCING THE KINKS DEBUT ALBUM"
Thanks. Valuable information! It also sheds light on why Talmy ensured he would get a publishing royalty by slapping his name on those "bald" folk songs; it was a way to defray his out-of-pocket expenses for having to cover the recording costs.
Re: The Stop Your Sobbing/Hynde backstory -- I seem to remember a story(myth?) that Chrissie became obsessed with the song as a teenager and played it endlessly, even falling asleep to it. Yet I can't seem to find anything about this online. Does anyone else remember a story like this or did I come up with it on my own after a night of partaking in green combustible matter?
