The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

It would be pretty tough being a Kinks kompletist!

 

I was accumulating second-hand Kinks compilations until I went into a record store in Stockholm which had about ten I never knew even existed. My kompletism ended that day!

 

lol
Fortunately, I'm not really that interested in compilations... though I do have "Greatest : Celluloid Heroes" and "Come Dancing : Best Of"... but I got those because they were sacd's lol

 

It happens with all bands who change lineups over the years, but it’s funny seeing some of these hits comp sleeves with the 1981 band pictured on them even though that band did not record any of the songs on the albums they’re pictured on.
Is that a beard on Dave on the one called Hit Station?

Incidentally, here's a picture of Jim Rodford from his Argent days. Can't remember if we had any pictures of him from the early 70s in the bio a couple of months ago when he joined the Kinks in our timeline here.
He looks a lot like Ian Anderson here.

 

Yes, it sounds like a better repurposing.

 

Ok which weeknight was it on?

 

Well we know Muhammad Ali didn't take to Bert Newton when he ignorantly called him "boy!"

 

Stop waffling Steve we all know cobber that any red blooded bloke needs no excuse to post and repost a corker bonza Aussie shelia like Margot Robbie!

 

Hilarious Steve!
Much Easier to kollect the Musikal works of Werner Klemperer!

 

Destroyer

Just recalled when Rockaway Records opened circa 1992 in Brisbane & had some reasonably priced Kinks Arista LP's.
I grabbed a couple, slipped on the store headphones and did a literal needle drop of a maximum of a minute a song.
I knew little of the era but had been intrigued enough to one day check it out.
Destroyer eventually rocked hard in a Konvincing, Kontemporary way but I think the opening had me surprised and a little unforgiving in my view of their quest for the filthy lucre.

Skip near 20 years and I bought a sweet cardboard trifold boot DVD digipack called The Kinks - A Life On The Road which carried the '81 SNL performances.
I had the '77 ones on VHS and had greatly warmed to them so bemoaned further that they weren't on this Kompilation after viewing the '81 performance which I confess did not know to be rare.
Anyhow an upthread Avid avowed something along the lines that Ray was awkward, desperate, cringeworthy and therefore ingenuine with his Destroyer performance which is not without some truth.

When I first listened I thought he felt guilty as he had set up cameras to film his fling so he could get what he wants and predictably watch it around the dial!
Today I don't mind hearing it in small doses but think his hook up should have ditched him and kept her thoughts to herself for fear of being harmed.
Of course the doctor should have been conciliatory and becalming also but alas both had to arise to bellow the chorus at Ray so let's hope our protagonist eventually got the professional help he needed.
On the plus side it's possibly of benefit he didn't try to disrobe and make woo with Lola as that kind of paronia could destroy ya and be a crying game!

 

I have, but not for a long time - I appreciate you tagging me for the reminder!

 

Ken Oath! Seriously though, Ms Robbie really knows her strine.

 

Destroyer I have a soft spot for, being made aware of it initially through the medley with All Day And All Of The Night on See My Friends, the latter of the two being the first song we learnt in our secondary school band that year. I think once I my friend and I looked up The original, we endlessly found it quite amusing, and referenced it a lot in Band Rehearsals. As a result, I get a kick out of it, though it is a bit of an odd one - I’m not quite sure what it’s going for overall.

As for the compilation discussion, I have quite a few, but mainly grab ones that are A: cheap and B: significant Tracklist wise. I’m always game for any 60s produced LPs, but outside of that Celluloid Heroes and Come Dancing are the main two, for the unique mixes on the former and exclusive track on the latter. The Kinks (Black Album) is my most recent acquisition.

Basically, if it looks like a good time listen and isn’t just the hits, I’m all ears.

 

finally watched that DESTROYER live tv vid above----like with "Add It Up" the Kinks REALLY DID feel totally fresh and contemporary, even when mining their past, here....Ray wore a skinny tie and was convincingly a new wavish "skinny tie band" dude. Especially the live-only complete stop in the arrangement at the beginning.

Parts of these felt like in terms of "contemporary urban paranoia jive" that this was reminiscent of the Stones "Shattered" in which Mick also sounded pretty convincingly NYC 1978 fresh. But the Kinks here felt even more of that strange late 70s-early 80s moment, I dunno.

 

I have the "Spotlight On The Kinks" double LP compilation - it was probably the first Kinks record I bought, and along with the long-titled Golden Hour Vol 3, these were my staple Kinks listening until I started picking up the actual albums.

 

Maple Leaf Gardens 1981-09-25 is the next show on my list. I know two people who went to that show and said it was great. It was on a Friday night and on the Sunday, the Stones played Orchard Park NY outside of Buffalo - a show upwards of 30,000 Canadians crossed the border for (myself included) because the Stones were not able to tour Canada due to Keith's heroin conviction. One of those friends made both shows.

 

Slightly off topic (but this is Sunday), my spontaneous soundtrack for making dinner tonight was Word of Mouth. I was pleasantly surprised how much of it I instantly remembered. Side One is consistently high quality and Living on a Thin Line - wow! One of their very best songs. I'm really looking forward to the discussion of this album in a few weeks.
(It was a leek and mushroom quiche if you must know).

 

Man oh man, I love this thread and Sundays are a large treat, we get our Kinks comments and a heaping helping of pop culture and what not, like @pyrrhicvictory reminiscing about James Best (one of my favorite guest stars on The Andy Griffith Show as Jim Lindsey). James is also kin to the Everly Brothers and a Kentucky boy! And I’m glad to know what @Steve62 cooked for supper. I love a good quiche. You folks are great.

I’m curious about all of the Kinks comps. Did they have some kind of different licensing deal than some of their peers? It just seems unusual to me.

 

Wiki says (with links to Hinman, discogs, allmusic): “There have been somewhere between 100 and 200 compilation albums released worldwide.[3][4][5]”

I (idly) wonder how this compares to their peers? Is this a category in which The Kinks leave the others in the proverbial dust?

 

Avid Rockford & Roll (I love how your avatar was plowing through the French countryside in that Shelby Mustang GT350 in Grand Prix, by the way), all those Kinks compilations were yet another reason why Pye Records was a crappy record company for them. These compilations actually began when the Kinks were still on the label and they actually competed w/their proper albums, which was one of the reasons why albums such as Face to Face and VGPS probably didn't do well in the UK album charts. There's a certain mentality that thinks why should I get a bunch of songs that I don't know when I can get this album full of hit singles that I heard on the radio. After the Kinks left Pye in 1971, the compilation tap was turned on full blast, as their hit singles from 1964-70 were an asset that Pye and its corporate successors exploited to the max literally around the world, as you can see posted in this thread. The US was relatively immune to this, probably because WB/Reprise still had the right to the 1966-70 material, but copies of the overseas compilations still clogged the bargain bins in the record stores here. Things didn't get under control until Sanctuary Records got control of the catalogue in the late 90s. I think that the plethora of compilations did harm the Kinks' reputation in that they were probably considered mostly as a 1960s singles band because of them.

 

Probably the Stones (especially the ABKCO owned 1964-71 period) and the Who would be the closest competition, but I think the Kinks would leave them in the proverbial dust.

 

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This is the most crazy Kinks comp I've ever come across (don't own it, though), if only because of its actual title:
"Lola, Percy & The Apeman Come Face To Face With The Village Green Preservation Society... Something Else!"

Yep, that's the title. It's a Golden Hour UK release from 1974. 13 Village Green tunes, 12 from Something Else, 11 from Face to Face, all five proper Percy songs, the two Lola hits, + Wonderboy ! This track-list is of course spectacular, if crazily overlong for obvious sonic reasons…

 

I used to see this in the bargain bins in various Strawberries Record stores back in the day.

 

Sunday miscellany

For the gear-heads, random thoughts from Ray, extracted from Modern Recording & Music magazine, February 1982.

‘The Kinks are still very low paid people. The sidemen get more because that’s their sole living. But the basic Kinks - Dave and myself - get a low wage and then plow it all into Konk. We have a new Neve desk (bought from Pink Floyd) with a computer mix, which I’m a bit suspicious of. I prefer to do monitor mixes. Once you go into the computer, it goes through a set of transistors and you get a very thin, “toppy” sound. You lose a lot of that middle and bass end. Killer’s Eyes is a monitor mix.’

‘Mort Shuman used to like to hack away at the piano, to get a good rhythm track. Then they’d fade the piano track out. That’s what I tend to do with the guitar. But now they use my guitar a lot. I like using a Melody Maker. I got one for $110 at Manny’s in New York and I use it onstage. I’m very conscious of the weight of guitars; I like them light.’

‘(On this album) We used a lot of Neumann mics. I’ve got a lot of valve (tube) mics; I acquired them from the BBC. But they keep blowing up. I use them for the vocals. My voice is very difficult to record because I have a nasal quality. So I use a valve mic and I use a Sennheiser to get both qualities, and then I mix them down to one track.’

‘We’ve got JBL speakers and alternative Tannoys on top because I’m a real Tannoy believer, ever since the days we used to record at Pye. In the studio, Dave’s been using a Roland amp slaved up to a Peavey, which he uses on stage. I’m not totally happy with that because I like a big sound, and he gets a more “jangly” sound. And I like to use as much valve (tube) equipment as possible - if anyone has any, get in touch with me. It’s the fattest sound. All the great records have valve equipment.’

‘I’m really proud of A Little Bit of Abuse. We’re all Otis Redding fans - especially Mick and I - and played loud, that’s a funky track. That’s the whole band’s favorite track on the album. Art Lover was the only track on the album that was close miked. We wanted to get a warm, close little sound. When the guys first heard me play that, they looked at each other strangely, “What is this man trying to do to himself?” But the song is pretty sad, really. It’s about this guy who has no family and spends his time looking at all the other families in the park on Sunday afternoon.’

The interviewer, Jeff Tamarkin, mentions how the songs are less evasive, less vague.
RD: Actually, I’m trying to get more vague. I’d rather suggest. Maybe it’s the attitude I got in near the end of the album. My problem is that I finish an album, then I don’t get a chance to write for two years. If I could be writing now on the strength of finishing the album, I could be doing some really good stuff. It would be great to make an album with spontaneous thoughts and not have to worry about going platinum.’

(Recording Yo-Yo) ‘I just told Mick to sit on the drums and punch. There’s a lot of overdubs on that; we had a big problem with Dave’s guitar. We tried overdubbing a Rickenbacker and that didn’t work. I think we ended up using a Les Paul through a Boogie amp.’

‘We worked really hard to get the best drum sound, and if you play the record really loud you can tell we did. I did a few tricks like put metal on the wall. If you drop a pin, you can hear it. Most studios are dead and we made it very, very “live.” The I said let’s do a rough take and think about the sounds. Usually the rough take ended up being the master.’
JT: The mix sounds better than the other Arista albums.
RD: ‘It’s the most consistent because it was mixed roughly.’

 

I posted this last August to show that Otis and the Kinks admired each other.