THE KINKS

"And they don't need no friends 
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset 
They are in paradise"

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"C"

Main Decade: 60's

Main Eras:

Rock & Roll II, Early Sixties (1960-1966)

Psychedelia (1966-1969)

The Great Transition (1970-1980+)

 

Key Members:

Ray Davies: Vocalist, Second Guitar

Dave Davies: Vocalist, Lead Guitar

 

Key Songs:

You Really Got Me, Lola, Waterloo Sunset, Sunny Afternoon, Picture Book, Well Respected Man, All Day and All of the Night, Stop Your Sobbing, Victoria, Lazy Old Sun, Who’ll Be The Next In Line, Picture Book, I’m Not Like Everybody Else, David Watts, Tired of Waiting For You, Fancy, Celluloid Heroes, Set Me Free, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Big Sky, Death of a Clown, Shangri-La, Where Have All The Good Times Gone, Come On Now, Dead End Street, The Village Green Preservation Society, Starstruck, Two SIsters.

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The Kinks spent most of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s in obscurity. They are perhaps the most underrated band in the universe. They are mostly known today for the hugely popular "You Really Got Me" and the controversial "Lola," but contrary to popular belief, they weren't a one-hit wonder. They have a huge discography and created a unique style that other bands would later emulate in their music during the 80s and especially the 90s. The problem is that, despite being one of the most fundamental and inventive bands of the 60s, they always seemed to do the right thing at the wrong time, or the wrong thing at the right time. They were innovative, but they lacked the visibility of other powerful bands of the British Invasion. So, whenever they came up with a small stroke of genius, another group—be it the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or The Who—would do the same thing better and steal the credit. Finally, towards the end of the 1960s, the group was able to establish a unique sound that they mastered like no other: Britpop. Unfortunately, it didn't achieve widespread recognition at the time because it wasn't the prevailing musical trend of '67-'70 and sounded somewhat outdated and parochial.

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In the late 1990s, technology and global networks allowed this band to be resurrected and given a cult following. Many people, myself included, consider The Kinks a fundamental group in the sound of the 1960s, and among the first to wield a critique of society with a fury that went far beyond hippie reactionary rhetoric, attacking and satirizing social structures and British customs. Their records didn't sell, of course. Who would want to listen to songs about the Victorian era in the midst of the hippie movement? But that doesn't change the fact that they're a good band that made tons of great songs and three or four top-notch albums.

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The Kinks, then, aren't a very well-known band. Most people haven't heard of them, or they've heard "You Really Got Me" but have no idea who plays it. Or, conversely, thanks to the cult following that began to develop online about ten years ago, some people consider them one of the best bands in history. I don't think they're quite that great, and that's perhaps why I took so long to start reviewing them, but I do think they're a very good band, just below the level of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and The Who, and on par with bands like the Yardbirds. Furthermore, the fact that they are pigeonholed as Brit-Pop does not mean that they have not been a varied and inventive group, performing everything from Rock & Roll as in this debut album, to very delicate ballads, rock opera, very fine and elaborate Pop, Hard Rock, etc.

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Ray Davies was an exceptional songwriter with a very distinctive style—tender, innocent, childlike, yet also intelligent, sarcastic, and ambiguous. He was adept at crafting catchy hooks, and his songs featured highly recognizable (though not clichéd) melodic sequences. Furthermore, his vocals possessed a unique and pleasing tone, making the Kinks' songs absolutely unmistakable, bearing a signature sound that identifies them from the very first chords. The British press hailed them as the second band to have a truly original style (the Beatles being the first, of course), but after an initial burst of success, ironically, their weakest albums led to their loss of popularity with the British public, and the American public never took notice.

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The Davies brothers began playing music at a very young age, forming their first bands during their high school years. After several projects together and separately, in 1963 the Davies brothers reunited to form a band called The Ravens with Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums. Producer Shel Talmy, who had produced the Rolling Stones' first album, was impressed when he heard them and secured them a contract with Pye Records, also changing their name to the one we know today. The Kinks' first single was "Long Tall Sally," and their second was "You Still Want Me," both of which flopped miserably. It was then that they entered the studio for their trial by fire, supported by a then-unknown session musician named Jimmy Page. The Kinks rose to fame in 1964 with their single "You Really Got Me," which must still be one of the most recognizable songs on the planet. The single reached number one, and the rest is history.

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Talmy immediately took them to record their first LP, the self-titled album, which still contained a large number of covers due to the rushed production and because the Davies brothers hadn't yet developed their songwriting skills. Even so, the album featured the already hugely popular "You Really Got Me," which helped make the record a moderate commercial success.

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In 1965, they toured Australia and New Zealand, accompanied by bands like Manfred Mann and the Yardbirds. After this tour, an incident occurred that would mark them: While the group was playing at the Capito Theatre in Wales, Dave turned and insulted Mike Avory, apparently for having messed up the timing of the song. Mike returned the insult, Dave kicked the drum kit, and the drummer threw his bass drum pedal, hitting him in the head and knocking him out. Mike ran away thinking he had killed him. They later reconciled, and to avoid problems, they claimed they were putting on a new and improved version of The Who's show, in which the musicians hit each other with their instruments, hahahaha! The fact is that this incident led to them being banned for four years in the USA, preventing them from playing a single concert in their main market during the entire British Invasion and part of the psychedelic era, despite their best albums.

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In 1965, after a tour of India, they released "See My Friends," a song with a distinctly Eastern influence. Although it doesn't use guitar, the song evokes the sounds of the sitar with its cyclical, metallic riff, and sounds almost like a mantra. This marked the beginning of their experimentation, although George Harrison would be credited with incorporating the sitar a few months later. In fact, Barry Fantoni, a friend of both bands, says that the afternoon the Beatles heard "See My Friends," they decided to get a sitar.

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Shortly afterward, they went into the studio to record their second album, Kinda Kinks, which was again rushed and marred by production errors on Talmy's part, though it did contain some good songs, such as "Tired Of Waiting For You" and "Come On Now." For Kontroversy, also released in 1965, they decided to be more careful and slightly alter their sound. The singles "Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" also date from this period. Nicky Hopkins played keyboards for the first time on this album. Davies began to hone his songwriting skills, incorporating social commentary and critiques into his lyrics.

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Face to Face in 1966 found them at their peak, a near-perfect album with a more distinctive sound, already mastering what would later be called Britpop, with tracks like "Sunny Afternoon" and "Dead End Street," and featuring more narrative and melodic songs, as well as the addition of new instruments. Something Else represented a slight step backward, as it was an album where they ventured further into psychedelia, a genre that didn't quite suit them. Their experimentation didn't fare as well, but it did contain one of the most beautiful ballads ever written, "Waterloo Sunset."

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In 1968, they stopped touring to focus on studio work, as the Beatles had done due to exhaustion and the Stones due to legal troubles. Interestingly, it would be three years before they had another hit single. Towards the end of the year, they released *The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society*, one of the best albums of that year and of the 1960s, and horribly underrated. Despite its limited commercial success, the album is a complete work. It's not a concept album, but the songs can't really be considered separately, and as a whole, the album is stronger than the sum of its parts. A collection of colorful, luminous, beautiful British portraits, it lacked a strong single, and perhaps that's why it failed. The curious thing is that this album led to the Kinks, despite still being active, beginning to be considered a cult band in certain circles.

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In early 1969, Quaife left the group. John Dalton took over on bass until 1977. That year they recorded Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), another absolute and underrated masterpiece, which was considered a commercial failure, even though this time it did contain potential singles like "Victoria" and "Shangri-La."

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Just when it seemed the curtain would fall on the Kinks, they released Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One in 1970, almost in desperation. Despite being inferior to the previous two albums, it miraculously achieved success in the United States thanks to "Lola," a curious song about a transvestite. Lola would be their most successful album since they were leading the British Invasion in the mid-1960s.

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Throughout the rest of the 1970s, they would experience ups and downs. They recorded the soundtrack for the film Percy in 1971, resulting in an almost entirely instrumental disaster. They recovered with Muswell Hillbillies, brimming with Music Hall and Country influences, the Kinks' last great album. From then on, they spiraled downward with Showbiz and the infamous rock opera Preservation Acts. Ray Davies suffered a nervous breakdown after being abandoned by his wife and attempted suicide with a pill overdose, announcing to the audience that he was quitting everything and collapsing mid-concert in 1973. The band took a break, and Ray eventually rejoined the group, but according to John Dalton, he never recovered and was never the same again. In fact, their subsequent albums are merely half-hearted attempts to continue down the same path, but the truth is that, apart from a handful of later songs, the Kinks' true gems and their real glory lie in the second half of the 1960s.

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In short, a band that wasn't appreciated in its time, and that hardly gets any attention today. They were always in the shadow of the Beatles, the Stones, and The Who, but they truly should be considered one of the British gems of the 60s and a cult band. After all, no one defined that sound and that Anglocentric lyricism quite like them, a sound that would later give rise to a school and an entire genre called Britpop or Britrock, and whose influence would reach New Wave bands like the Pretenders, The Knack, The Jam, and even Van Halen covered them for their first single. And let's not forget their influence on bands like Blur, Suede, and Oasis.

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Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't know them, this is your chance to enjoy the music of these dedicated followers of fashion. The Kinks!!!

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By Corvan 

Aug/8/2011

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