Were The Lovin' Spoonful the US equivalent of The Kinks?

I'm thinking of 'Daydream' and thinking yes, it does have a Kinks feel to it. I can imagine Ray singing it.
Both great bands.

 

The Spoonful had a lifetime of only three real albums, so it’s hard to compare, but they also never released anything as bad as the Kinks’ albums during their bad patch in the 70s. Remember Preservation?

 

You could argue that The Kinks only released 3 decent albums. Most people know both bands via compilations.

 

good album!

Three decent albums? That's ridiculous.

There is a song by song Kinks thread going on where many would highly disagree with this statement. Preservation is up next!

 

I don't consider that to be one of their great album but anyway the point is really that they were not an album band in the way that the Beatles, Stones, Zep etc were. They sold poorly and were poorly promoted. Compilations galore. Like the Spoonful they were signed to relatively small fry labels compared to the big names of the time. There you go there's another similarity.

 

Spoonful were kind of superficial, compared with the Kinks who had all kinds of social and
political commentary going on in their songs. Spoonful were like teeny-bop (imo).

 

The Kinks are probably the most album oriented band of anyone you listed. Nearly everyone is a concept that follows some sort of theme or story line. When they first started they were a singles band, but so was everyone else. The Kinks were not able to tour the US so that hurt sales. I also think they were a bit too sophisticated for main stream audiences.

I'm not knocking The Lovin' Spoonful. I have all their albums and I am a fan. I just don't see much comparison.

 

The Lovin’ Spoonful were the American precursor to the Swiss band Celtic Frost.

 

You could. And you could also argue that the Earth is flat and the the female orgasm is a myth.

To be slightly more serious (even if I don't have to): the Kinks to me have quite a few really great albums more than the Stones (even if the four best Stones records beats any competition). I think the Beatlers (and the Beach Boys pre-Smile) are vastly overrated by the old codgers here on the Hoff. And even as a huge fan of Zeppelin, I would say that the Kinks have a stronger catalogue than them, as well. As for the Spoonyfullies, they don't really register with my generation. Too hippie and not iconic enough, I guess.

Then again, these are just opinions. As is any other post on the subject.

 

I would suggest you listen again then

 

Preservation is not one of their decent albums though! Ceratinly not Act II anyway.

 

I don’t agree as you will soon find out.

 

I have original Kama Sutra vinyl, they are great. Not exactly Pink Floyd, ya know?...

 

No

 

"Daydream" and "Sunny Afternoon" are like Transatlantic twins but completely different at the same time due to their extremely dissimilar authors!

 

There's nothing at all 'hippie' about their music. Again the question isn't which band was better than the other or was more successful.

 

Not exactly 'teeny-bop' either. They literally recorded a song about looking at teen culture from the concerned perspective of a middle aged parent.

 

Kinks Kontroversy
Face To Face
Something Else
Village Green Preservation Society
Arthur
Lola Vs. Powerman
Muswell Hillbillies

All of the above are great albums.

 

Completely different vibe.

 

I couldn't care less about their popularity, but once again: even if I'm only 33 I knew the name of at least four Kinks records even before becoming a fan and well before I graduated from high school.

Still don't know any by the Loving Spoonful other than a couple of song titles. As I was trying to explain in a somewhat smart alec-y way, the Kinks are considered part of the canon of classic rock and their songs are used in movies and commercials. They've also have stayed fresher than their contemporaries because they've had less exposure for a long time- Partially because they broke up too late, ironically.

 

I would add Showbiz, Sleepwalker and Word of Mouth to that list, as well.

 

The Kinks were signed to Reprise in the States.
They were just as much an album band as any you listed.

 

With "Younger Generation" and "Old Folks" (and maybe even "Money" and "Only Pretty...") they were getting into a lyrical place that was not only deeper, but really original. It's a shame John Sebastian left, which effectively ended the group. Had they had time to mature, who knows where they might have went.

And that fourth album is way underrated. It might be a bit haphazard and experimental, but when it's good it's really, really good.

 

No. I think definitely not. Where the Kinks were inline with other British Invasion groups of the early 60's, I would put them closer to the Rolling Stones.
As for the Loving Spoonful, they were in-tune with the Greenwich Village pop/folk and jug band scene. I would link them with The Mama's and The Papa's, who also had roots in the same Greenwich Village scene.

 

That's how I see it and I love the Spoonful. I have all their albums. The first three are excellent.