Living with Lewy Body Dementia
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease
My favorite newly rediscovered Kinks song:
I hope every body saw my underrated lists. They are on this website broken into three or four parts. They are altogether one story on AL.com
A colleague is singing the praises of Highwomen. Will check it out. Guess a lot of people are — it debuted at No. 1..
More to come …
Those of you following this blog know I am a big Kinks fan, since my teen years.
They were a genre-defying band that were described in many ways: quirky, satirical, whimsical, a garage band , uber British, and so on. They got kicked out of the U.S. during the British invasion for bad behavior so they missed out on big fame for a while. Ray and Dave fought a lot and I mean physical brawls, tearing hotel rooms apart. Although Dave’s pioneering heavy metal guitar in early to mid-1960s with You Really Got Me and All Day and All Night brought attention, there came a lull. They went through a period where they were experimenting with concept album, mini-musicals if you will.
Most people, during that 1970s period turned away. The albums such as A Soap Opera, a splendid little story piece, or the Preservation albums, wound up in bargain bins or, worse, garbage. Many thought they were a lightweight band. They should have known better from the 1960s heavy metal riffs, although even back then lead Kink Ray Davies wrote catchy little love songs (see Tired of Waiting, Stop Your Sobbing, etc.)
One of their biggest songs ‘Lola’ was about a transvestite.
So when my buddy Michael Ludden, former boss, novelist and all around music lover turned me on to a video blues number by the Kinks, it was not only a further validation of arguments I’ve had with folks who think the Kinks never earned their rootsy stripes like the Beatles, Stones and the Who. It was somewhat of a revelation seeing the early Kinks performing a damn good Slim Harpo blues rendition, ‘Got Love if You Want It,’ worthy of the best of the Yardbirds or the Animals, at least. From deep cuts, I knew they did this kind of stuff now and then but to see the performance is eye-opening:
ALBUMS: Live at Kelvin Hall (1968); Lola versus Powerman (1970); Kinks on Pye (1970); Everybody is in Showbiz (1972); Preservation Act 1 (1973); The Kinks Present a Soap Opera (1975); Sleepwalker (1977); Misfits (1978); One for the Road (1980); The Kinks, A Compleat Collection (1984).
MVC Ratings: Kelvin 3.5/$$$$; Lola 5.0/$$$$$; Kinks on Pye $$$’: Showbiz 4.0/$$$$; Preservation Act 1 4.0/$$$$; Soap 4.0/$$$; Sleepwalker 4.0/$$$: Misfits 4.5/$$$; One for the Road 4.0/$$$$; Compleat Collection 4.0/$$$
*The numbers besides the title or artists’ names on the record reviews indicate the ‘countdown.’ In other words, with the Kinks now reviewed I have moved 10 spaces closer to my goal of reviewing my 678 albums in, more or less, alphabetical order. I have 368 records to go.
The Kinks are something else. Most times they are like no one else.
I heard them in a record store in high school in Athens, Ga. Nope it wasn’t WUXTRY where down the street my buddy Chuck would fix me up with records; the WUTRY where Peter Buck was handing out opinions on music when he was working there, before REM.
No, I don’t remember the name of this record store, down by the barbershop where they’d lather up your neck and take a straight razor to it. There was a guy in this store who played the Kinks all day and all of the night. Seemingly.
So I accumulated 10 Kinks records, most used, and I fell for the brothers Ray’s and Dave’s harmonies, Ray’s storytelling songs, Dave’s crunching and lyrical guitar, and their whimsical sense of humor.
This all came out of a brother-to- brother relationship that was mercurial at best. They fought so much, they were thrown out of the United States during the British invasion initiated by the Beatles, missing a payload of money as the Brits rang the till in America. But that was the Kinks.
Before getting kicked out, the Kinks were pioneering quirky singles like Stop Your Sobbing, heavy metal before it existed, ‘You Really Got Me,’ and “All Day and All Night” where Dave famously slashed his speakers to get a ‘fuzz’ effect on guitar.
Of course, Van Halen famously covered the 1960’s song and by the time I saw them in the late 1970s, Dave Davies in concert would give a nod to the VH version with a guitar assault in their live version of ‘You Really Got Me.’
My first Kinks album was either a Pye collection Vol. 2 or Lola (can’t remember) and, no, I didn’t immediately pick up the idea that Lola was about a transvestite. I was like, no, wait, and ‘so is Lola.’
From the used Pye compilation of early Kinks. I began to really appreciate the melodies and lyrical songcraft songs like ‘Till the End of the Day; Stop Your Sobbing; Dedicated Follower of Fashion Sunny Afternoon, Nothing in this World and Set Me Free.
Probably my favorite compilation I don’t have on vinyl, only on CD: The Kinks Kronikles. If I were starting off on a Kinks collection I would buy it first, then probably the Pye collection — just get a used record of Pye — not the giant boxed set unless you’re loaded. Another great album I don’t have on vinyl is Arthur, which is fairly well represented on the Kronikles compilation.
After losing out on the British invasion, the Kinks went on to a period that many critics deemed slow if not bad. I disagree. The Preservation Act records and Soap Opera era. I think there’s really good music in there. Soap Opera, to this American kid, was like a documentary on English life. The songs are part of a story, so may sound funny to a listener who is not in to sitting down and listening all the way through. But some songs are good on their own. Such as Sweet Lady Genevieve from Preservation Act 1.
The Kinks mean a lot to me for another reason beyond music. My high school love interest (now my wife Catherine) actually enjoyed the Kinks. This was about 1977-78. During her senior year, she had some serious surgery involving her gut, to put it in layman’s terms. She had the surgery, recovered a few weeks and we were off to Atlanta to see the Kinks at the Fox Theater. Kinks fanatic and friend Brian was driving. She told me later she wasn’t feeling well but didn’t want to ruin the fun. But once we got there she basically collapsed with gut wrenching pain. She was throwing up.
Luckilly we were a block away from the very hospital where she had the surgery. Otherwise, we were told in no uncertain terms that a longer delay would have killed her. That perhaps justified my bad behavior of screaming at them when they asked us to stop and fill out pages of forms.
She lived, thank God. And we even went to another Kinks concert about a year later, same venue. But it was only recently when we were talking about it that I said, ‘Funny thing, but the second surgery involved fixing a ‘kink’ in your intestine.’
Wha??? We laughed at the ‘coincidence’ but Catherine stands firm that it was no coincidence — she doesn’t believe in coincidences . WOG, I call it, for Wink of God. She says going to see the Kinks that night saved her life by putting her immediately in the hands of the hospital and surgeon who knew the medical history. That it was a kink needing fixing was the WOG, so she would say.
OK I am going to give you my off the beaten path Top 5 Kinks songs that aren’t Lola — with links..
Of course I cheated with two ties. But I cheated for a good cause. And I didn’t even use Rock N Roll Fantasy.
Or Victoria.
Which was a favorite of my daughter Hannah when she was living on Victoria in British Columbia.
I could have picked five songs off of my Lola album as well. If you noticed you will see I gave it a 5 out of 5 rating. I believe the only other 5 rating I have (so far) is Carole King’s ‘Tapestry.’
And of course, the real deal of a best Kinks’ song is on the video blow. Don’t know how I forgot this tears-of-a-clown Klassic.
Check out Dave Davies on this blog for a couple of solo projects he did. Also, although I disagree with her on the Arista years, the music writer altrockchick has one of the best written takes on the Kinks I have seen.
ALBUMS: Dave Davies — AFL1 3603 ( bar code album 1980); Chosen People (1983)
MVC Rating: Bar code — 4.0/$$$; Chosen People 3.5/$$
Dave’s brother Ray was the Kinks Kreative soul. Dave was the guitarist, and a pioneering one at that. The riffs in early 1960s classics like ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ were much copied (e.g. Van Halen). One could make the case the distortion laden pieces paved the way for heavy metal.
I have lots of Kinks records, bought mostly in my high school years in Athens, Ga. I’ll write more when we get to the K’s in www.myvinylcountdown.com
Ray wrote the lions’ share of Kinks song. One notable exception was Dave’s ‘Death of a Clown,’ one of the Kinks’ most poignant songs ever, and they did a lot of poignant songs.
The Kinks went through so many style changes, every album was like a new band although all decidedly Kinks. They did English folk whimsy, straight-ahead rock and roll and clever commentary songs.
Dave had a way of doing falsetto harmony behind Ray’s lead vocals. I thought it was the coolest thing. Listen to one of their most famous songs, ‘Lola‘ to hear the brother harmonizing effect. It reminds a lot of Ronnie Lane’s style of singing, though with a rocking edge.
These two solo albums I have are hit and miss. Dave shows off his guitar chops. On the bar code album, he puts the bar code on the the cover as the main art for the album, perhaps making the statement that his music is seen as nothing more than a commodity? I’m just guessing here.
Best song on bar code album, ‘Doing the Best for You,’ simple little melody on piano with crunching guitars. The Chosen People has a lovely song called ‘Give Me One More Chance.’
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
ALBUM: Best of Beau Brummels (1981)
MVC Rating: 3.5-$$$
I was a sucker for these Rhino Records compilations of obscure and semi-obscure music.
The company put out ‘best of’ compilations of records by one or two-hit wonders like the Left Banke and Beau Brummels. I will review BB here but wait for the ‘L’s” for Left Banke. Rhino also picked up obscure but good original albums – not just anthologies and greatest hits. One of those was the Beat Farmers, which I earlier reviewed.
‘Laugh Laugh’ is Beau Brummels’ biggest hit and arguably, their best song. It has a sweet little melody driving along bittersweet lyrics:
Don’t say you can get any boy to call
Don’t be so smug or else
You’ll find you can’t get any boy at all
You’ll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf
Laugh, laugh, I thought I’d die
Funny laugh laugh, right? No not really, but they’re working on that irony thing.
This was a big hit and deservedly so, I suppose. They get compared to the Beatles a lot but I’d put them more in leagues with the Kinks, in their early British Invasion stage. They seem like they could have done one of my favorite Kinks’ songs, ‘Nothing in this World Can Stop Me Worrying ‘Bout That Girl.’
But surprise! The Brummels were from San Francisco. And their later stuff starts turning toward a little psychedelia-tinged country.
Their songs are from a different time and place. ‘Laugh Laugh’ and ‘Just a Little’ and ‘You Tell Me Why,’ are songs you probably say you don’t know. Then you hear them.
Then you say: ‘Well, yes.’
Then …”well maybe.”
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.