Tracks: 1) Look For Me Baby; 2) Got My Feet On The Ground; 3) Nothin’ In The World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ’Bout That Girl; 4) Naggin’ Woman; 5) Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight; 6) Tired Of Waiting For You; 7) Dancing In The Street; 8) Don’t Ever Change; 9) Come On Now; 10) So Long; 11) You Shouldn’t Be Sad; 12) Something Better Beginning; 13*) Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy; 14*) Who’ll Be The Next In Line; 15*) Set Me Free; 16*) I Need You; 17*) See My Friends; 18*) Never Met A Girl Like You Before; 19*) Wait Till Summer Comes Along; 20*) Such A Shame; 21*) A Well Respected Man; 22*) Don’t You Fret; 23*) I Go To Sleep (demo).
Excellent review of this album, George. For whatever reason, I've never listened to this one so much (I just don't find the covers or the Dave vocals on the LP proper to be compelling), but looking back, you can see Ray's talents evolve rapidly by just reading through the track list. I know they weren't all on the same album, but to move from Naggin' Woman to See My Friends to Well Respected Man... it's an incredible leap.
I also appreciate that you laud Ray's vocals here. Personally, I was hooked in on the Kinks by Ray's "smile singing" that he developed a couple years later, but even at this stage, that falsetto was masterfully used. I will say in chest voice, I think he is still a little stuffy and pinched nosed during this period, but that will change soon enough.
A couple fun facts for you; apparently "Tired of Waiting for You" was the first song Ray ever wrote (back in 1957, I believe he's claimed); who knows what it actually looked like in its gestational form, but it somehow doesn't surprise me that the wistfulness plus urgency of that song was there from the start. The other fun fact; apparently "I Go to Sleep" was written for Peggy Lee to sing. Her version is alright, but the starkness of Ray's demo is... I don't know, jarring? Like, that jerky melody over the discordant piano is more like waking up from a weird dream than sleeping (compare and contrast with Brian Wilson's ode to going to sleep several years later!) It's an incredible effect, and that track stuck with me immediately.
Anyway, those fun facts come to mind because I recently watched the Julien Temple's "Imaginary Man" on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e1_6ILM2gY. I found it an engaging watch.
Thanks for the facts! I'm not sure 'I Go To Sleep' was expressly written for Peggy Lee (does he really say that in the movie?), actually, Peggy, Cher, and the Applejacks all recorded it at about the same time, which means that Ray's publisher probably went on a spree sending the demo all around. But the original demo is still the best of them all, of course.
“A Well Respected Man” is probably one of my favorite songs of all time, and certainly a major highlight for the early phase of the Kinks’ career. Ray Davies had a downright uncanny gift for taking material that, by all rights, should be mere folky or vaudevillian novelty and imbuing it with genuine melancholy and pathos. The vocal delivery on AWRM shifts from tender to amused to venomous practically on a dime, and it gives the number more dramatic punch than one would anticipate from a glance at the “light satirical” lyrics. This is definitely a talent that Ray would continue to bring to his best social satire numbers, but I’m not convinced he ever really topped his first effort. Hmmmmm, maybe he did with “Mr. Pleasant.”
"commits the travesty of outright stealing the riff to the Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ for its primary groove."
Similar yes - even very. The same - (as implied by "stealing") no. The riffs are clearly different when listened to back to back. Also the argument to Deep Purple's Black Night applies: what The Kinks do with it is very different.
"From a pure melodic standpoint, Ray’s compositions for now are still arguably weaker than contemporary Beatles stuff."
Granted. However the best songs of the Kinks from the beginning had qualities that the Beatles always lacked. Not that the latter aspired those qualities. The most important is imo, perhaps surprising, that nobody understood as well as the Davies' brothers how to use riffs to maximal effect - and in ways that remain unique until today. So the twofold punch of You Really Got Me and All Day and All Of the Night was no coincidence indeed.
It's exactly because of all this that A Well Respected Man is so important: it's the first great song by the band that doesn't need any riff. So we could say that it's with this one that they for the first time challenged The Beatles on their own ground. They wouldn't succeed yet (and certainly not in terms of entire albums) but it was already a good attempt. And just in time - less than two months later The Who already would show the world with My Generation what direction ass kicking rock would take.
I was thinking the other day that the bonus tracks in this CD edition are indeed a WHOLE OTHER album that is in fact way superior to the original one (and a marvel if you add "Nothing ...") . But well, singles are singles! Pete Townshend used to say that in the (early) 60s they were the only thing that really mattered. Amen.
Well, if the US catalog on Reprise had been constructed by the same kinds of people who were responsible for the Stones' and the Animals' US albums, this could have been the case. Unfortunately, albums like "Kinks-Size" and "Kinkdom" were compiled by people who had asses for brains and put things like 'See My Friends' and 'Louie Louie' on the same record.
Yeah, in those early years only The Beatles managed to record coherent albums. There's one big advantage though. Accept that at this stage The Kinks were a singles band and design your own compilation; from an artistic point of view it's completely justified ("because it works" in the end is the only reason that matters). That's why, when I argue that The Kinks were better than The Beatles, I always add that I neglect all the crap and all the filler. It's unfair of course, but being fair never was a requirement when writing about music (or other forms of art).
There are surely few pop/rock groups one can forgive more easily for their early hit/miss ratio than the Kinks. You could even make the case they were merely warming up, getting the (dare I say) kinks out of their Art School system and slowly formulating their idisyncratic brand of ironic Power Pop.
Your review makes this abundantly clear, George, and you back up your claims with brilliant insights, notably with respect to Tired of Waiting: "The universe is expanding and we're all going to die!" This alone was worth the long wait.
"Avoiding the formulaic", you pinpoint their uniqueness perfectly. Just too bad (haha) that you had to draw the Klan into the mix.
I leave you with a nagging question. if, as even Peter Townsend freely admits, the Kinks were arguably the better group during these and later year, why were the Kinks forever overshadowed by the Who?
Because the Who were much more "rock'n'roll" and put on a much greater show, with four completely different, but equally colorful characters. Because the public loves extraverted showmanship far more than it loves introspective melancholy. (Which is not to undermine the brilliance of the Who, of course).
I've been studying YouTube reaction channels out of curiosity, and it's telling that the only two Kinks songs people always ask other people to react to are "You Really Got Me" and "Lola", as if they never released anything else. Of course, this is largely because they were the band's only big American hits, but also the only two that were really made "for the show".
On this very subject, I'm curious to know whether any of the reaction channels that have sprung up since you left the internet have made any positive impression on you. I've found two or three surprisingly rewarding, but lost in the bandwagon effect that followed the early pioneers of the genre, and spawned all manner of copycat imposture. Care to name any of the exceptions that come to mind?
I think it's impossible to follow any single reaction channel for too long. First, they all share the obvious flaw that, since most of the reactions are done by request, channel owners have to simulate a positive response even when they clearly do not like or do not get the material, and that's fake and embarrassing. Second, you eventually get tired of both the "serious analysis" approach (like Doug Helvering's channel) and the "woo-hoo who are these guys" approach.
I think the cutest channel I saw is this: https://www.youtube.com/c/HelineFay/ She's a very nice Finnish flutist who plays and reacts to everything from Mozart to Tull to Legend of Zelda, and sort of stands out from the pack by being so specific.
Check on YouTube some live footage of both bands from 1964 and 1965. On stage The Who were superior from the beginning - even when they still called themselves The High Numbers. Only The Animals were even better, but we all know what happened to them in 1966.
For an overall picture "Beatles Stones Kinks Animals more Live Full Concert 1965" on YouTube gives a good impression. Unfortunately The Who weren't there (My Generation was from October).
Please note that I'm not talking about showmanship but strictly from a musical point of view.
Excellent review of this album, George. For whatever reason, I've never listened to this one so much (I just don't find the covers or the Dave vocals on the LP proper to be compelling), but looking back, you can see Ray's talents evolve rapidly by just reading through the track list. I know they weren't all on the same album, but to move from Naggin' Woman to See My Friends to Well Respected Man... it's an incredible leap.
I also appreciate that you laud Ray's vocals here. Personally, I was hooked in on the Kinks by Ray's "smile singing" that he developed a couple years later, but even at this stage, that falsetto was masterfully used. I will say in chest voice, I think he is still a little stuffy and pinched nosed during this period, but that will change soon enough.
A couple fun facts for you; apparently "Tired of Waiting for You" was the first song Ray ever wrote (back in 1957, I believe he's claimed); who knows what it actually looked like in its gestational form, but it somehow doesn't surprise me that the wistfulness plus urgency of that song was there from the start. The other fun fact; apparently "I Go to Sleep" was written for Peggy Lee to sing. Her version is alright, but the starkness of Ray's demo is... I don't know, jarring? Like, that jerky melody over the discordant piano is more like waking up from a weird dream than sleeping (compare and contrast with Brian Wilson's ode to going to sleep several years later!) It's an incredible effect, and that track stuck with me immediately.
Anyway, those fun facts come to mind because I recently watched the Julien Temple's "Imaginary Man" on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e1_6ILM2gY. I found it an engaging watch.
Thanks for the facts! I'm not sure 'I Go To Sleep' was expressly written for Peggy Lee (does he really say that in the movie?), actually, Peggy, Cher, and the Applejacks all recorded it at about the same time, which means that Ray's publisher probably went on a spree sending the demo all around. But the original demo is still the best of them all, of course.
Ha, he does say it in the movie. But you're right in that he's Ray Davies, you can never take his answers in interviews at face value :)
Yes, if anything, experience has taught me never to trust anybody's memories that are not independently substantiated by additional evidence. :)
“A Well Respected Man” is probably one of my favorite songs of all time, and certainly a major highlight for the early phase of the Kinks’ career. Ray Davies had a downright uncanny gift for taking material that, by all rights, should be mere folky or vaudevillian novelty and imbuing it with genuine melancholy and pathos. The vocal delivery on AWRM shifts from tender to amused to venomous practically on a dime, and it gives the number more dramatic punch than one would anticipate from a glance at the “light satirical” lyrics. This is definitely a talent that Ray would continue to bring to his best social satire numbers, but I’m not convinced he ever really topped his first effort. Hmmmmm, maybe he did with “Mr. Pleasant.”
"commits the travesty of outright stealing the riff to the Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ for its primary groove."
Similar yes - even very. The same - (as implied by "stealing") no. The riffs are clearly different when listened to back to back. Also the argument to Deep Purple's Black Night applies: what The Kinks do with it is very different.
"From a pure melodic standpoint, Ray’s compositions for now are still arguably weaker than contemporary Beatles stuff."
Granted. However the best songs of the Kinks from the beginning had qualities that the Beatles always lacked. Not that the latter aspired those qualities. The most important is imo, perhaps surprising, that nobody understood as well as the Davies' brothers how to use riffs to maximal effect - and in ways that remain unique until today. So the twofold punch of You Really Got Me and All Day and All Of the Night was no coincidence indeed.
It's exactly because of all this that A Well Respected Man is so important: it's the first great song by the band that doesn't need any riff. So we could say that it's with this one that they for the first time challenged The Beatles on their own ground. They wouldn't succeed yet (and certainly not in terms of entire albums) but it was already a good attempt. And just in time - less than two months later The Who already would show the world with My Generation what direction ass kicking rock would take.
I was thinking the other day that the bonus tracks in this CD edition are indeed a WHOLE OTHER album that is in fact way superior to the original one (and a marvel if you add "Nothing ...") . But well, singles are singles! Pete Townshend used to say that in the (early) 60s they were the only thing that really mattered. Amen.
Well, if the US catalog on Reprise had been constructed by the same kinds of people who were responsible for the Stones' and the Animals' US albums, this could have been the case. Unfortunately, albums like "Kinks-Size" and "Kinkdom" were compiled by people who had asses for brains and put things like 'See My Friends' and 'Louie Louie' on the same record.
Yeah, in those early years only The Beatles managed to record coherent albums. There's one big advantage though. Accept that at this stage The Kinks were a singles band and design your own compilation; from an artistic point of view it's completely justified ("because it works" in the end is the only reason that matters). That's why, when I argue that The Kinks were better than The Beatles, I always add that I neglect all the crap and all the filler. It's unfair of course, but being fair never was a requirement when writing about music (or other forms of art).
There are surely few pop/rock groups one can forgive more easily for their early hit/miss ratio than the Kinks. You could even make the case they were merely warming up, getting the (dare I say) kinks out of their Art School system and slowly formulating their idisyncratic brand of ironic Power Pop.
Your review makes this abundantly clear, George, and you back up your claims with brilliant insights, notably with respect to Tired of Waiting: "The universe is expanding and we're all going to die!" This alone was worth the long wait.
"Avoiding the formulaic", you pinpoint their uniqueness perfectly. Just too bad (haha) that you had to draw the Klan into the mix.
I leave you with a nagging question. if, as even Peter Townsend freely admits, the Kinks were arguably the better group during these and later year, why were the Kinks forever overshadowed by the Who?
Because the Who were much more "rock'n'roll" and put on a much greater show, with four completely different, but equally colorful characters. Because the public loves extraverted showmanship far more than it loves introspective melancholy. (Which is not to undermine the brilliance of the Who, of course).
I've been studying YouTube reaction channels out of curiosity, and it's telling that the only two Kinks songs people always ask other people to react to are "You Really Got Me" and "Lola", as if they never released anything else. Of course, this is largely because they were the band's only big American hits, but also the only two that were really made "for the show".
On this very subject, I'm curious to know whether any of the reaction channels that have sprung up since you left the internet have made any positive impression on you. I've found two or three surprisingly rewarding, but lost in the bandwagon effect that followed the early pioneers of the genre, and spawned all manner of copycat imposture. Care to name any of the exceptions that come to mind?
I think it's impossible to follow any single reaction channel for too long. First, they all share the obvious flaw that, since most of the reactions are done by request, channel owners have to simulate a positive response even when they clearly do not like or do not get the material, and that's fake and embarrassing. Second, you eventually get tired of both the "serious analysis" approach (like Doug Helvering's channel) and the "woo-hoo who are these guys" approach.
I think the cutest channel I saw is this: https://www.youtube.com/c/HelineFay/ She's a very nice Finnish flutist who plays and reacts to everything from Mozart to Tull to Legend of Zelda, and sort of stands out from the pack by being so specific.
Check on YouTube some live footage of both bands from 1964 and 1965. On stage The Who were superior from the beginning - even when they still called themselves The High Numbers. Only The Animals were even better, but we all know what happened to them in 1966.
For an overall picture "Beatles Stones Kinks Animals more Live Full Concert 1965" on YouTube gives a good impression. Unfortunately The Who weren't there (My Generation was from October).
Please note that I'm not talking about showmanship but strictly from a musical point of view.