My favourite recording act of all-time. I think that Ray Davies is the most underrated song writer in history, certainly in terms of how the general public see him. Their record sales have been on the low side over the years, Ray is rarely mentioned when the man or woman in the street compiles his or her top ten songwriters of all-time, as far as I am concerned, he is a contender to be the number one individual best songwriter ever. Bold statement? I hope to prove the point to readers of this over the course of the next few weeks by using examples of his music, and by picking out album tracks from Kinks albums that you may not have even heard before.

 

But let's start at the beginning. You Really Got Me was The Kinks first big hit single, and what a very very important single it was! I was watching a programme on BBC Four the other day (I like watching music shows on BBC Four, as readers of the Top Of The Pops 1976 thread will know!). I think the programme was called Metal Britannia, and featured all the top British heavy metal bands - Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and so on. All great bands, of course.

 

Right at the top of the programme a heavy metal officianardo - a journalist, I think he was - said that You Really Go Me has the best claim to be the first heavy metal sound. And many music experts over the years have said the same thing. The Kinks almost certainly invented a brand new musical genre, heayy metal, with their very first hit single.

 

What other artist can even claim that?! Certainly not The Beatles, who's first hit, Love Me Do, was a good commercial record, but that was only designed to get them into the charts and reward producer George Martin's faith in them. The Rolling Stones first hit was a Chuck Berry cover version - not much originality of sound there. All the other mersey groups had interesting debut records, some of which even topped the charts, as in the case of Gerry And The Pacemakers and, if I remember correctly, maybe the Searchers as well. But you would find it difficult to argue a case of any of them introducing a new genre to the music scene.

 

And The Who's first record, I Can't Explain, was based loosely on the chords of You Really Got Me!!!!

 

The claim that The Kinks invented a new sound, the heavy metal sound, with You Really Got Me is backed up by the fact that they persisted with the sound - their second hit record, All Day And All Of The Night, was equally as heavy!!!! Certainly you can make claims that records made before You Really Got Me were also quite heavy for their time, such as Louie Louie by the Kinsmen, but I can't think of any artist who followed up on a heavy sound with another heavy sound the way the Kinks did with You Really Got Me, and then All Day And All Of The Night.

 

Time for some audio proof, I think. Firstly, here is You Really Got Me:

 

 

And the follow up, All Day And All Of The Night:

 

 

And as if to emphasize the point, they also did a lesser known song called I Need You just a few months later, which yet again, pioneers that heavier, power driven style that would eventually evolve into heay metal:

 

 

So that's three very heavy sounding records, all from the pen of Ray Davies, two of which, You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, were big Worldwide hits (You Really Got Me was a Uk number one as well) and yet when rock fans on various music forums talk about the inventors of heavy metal, they invariably talk about Zeppelin, or Deep Purple, or Ozzy and Black Sabbath. The Kinks did it before all of them, in 1964, years before the World had even heard of the bands I mentioned above.

 

This thread is going to take sometime to construct, I have only just scratched the surface. I shall be writing about The Kinks on this thread for sometime to come, so many great records to talk about, and yes, so many more innovations introduced by this group to talk about as well.

 

They were, quite simply, a brilliant band, and never, in my view, got the recognition or the record sales they deserved.

 

One more audio clip for now, The Kinks themselves knew, of course, that they had invented new sounds with their first few hit singles, and would later do their own even heavier versions of their initial hits. As this link indicates:

 

 

 

That's my first post on this thread, will do many more when I have the time. I am going to try and convince readers of this thread that The Kinks were at least as influential, and at least as good, as any other band or recording act that there has ever been. So until the next time -

 

 

GOD SAVE THE KINKS!

Edited September 4, 201113 yr by blackcat

I'm looking forward to this. I agree that Ray Davies is one of the greatest living song writers.

 

Sadly he does tend to be overlooked by most of the British public although he does get a good crowd when he plays at Glastonbury. However, when songwriters such as Damon Albarn (I've always thought of Parkilfe as a Kinks tribute album - and that's meant as a compliment) and Paul Weller cite him as an influence, he must have done something right.

 

I love the way he has reworked a lot of his songs over the years. His recent albums with the choir from Crouch End and then collaborations with acts as diverse as Amy McDonald and Metallica, Bon Jovi and Mumford & Sons were both brilliant.

 

I really must get to see him live one of these days. I wanted to see one of his performances at the Meltdown festival this year but couldn't make it :(

Indeed suedehead, I do of course agree with everything you have said.

 

Of course, mention should be made of his brother Dave Davies. It was his guitar sound that pioneered the "heavy metal" feel on many of their early hits.

Just one new observation today.

 

Noone can deny that The Beatles will always be seen as the most influential artists of the 1960's. They inspired other acts to great songwriting, they introduced radical recording techniques into the recording studio, they were vastly influential in so many ways. They certainly would have inspired Ray Davies of The Kinks in his songwriting and creativity. I personally love listening to innovative and influential Beatles albums like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper.

 

The problem is that, listening to Beatles fans and observers, you would think that they were the only important and meaningful group around!! The Beatles did not invent every single thing in that era, there were plenty of innovations introduced by other artists. It justs seems as if other creative innovations brought by other artists have been swept under the carpet somewhat, in favour of saying that The Beatles did this, the Beatles did that, the Beatles were the first here, there, and everywhere!!! John Lennon himself was quoted as saying that The Beatles were as much influenced as they influenced, very wise and true words.

 

Even the argument presented above has been challenged by Beatles fans, who reckon that "Helter Skelter" from the White album was the first heavy metal song. "Helter Skelter" is a brilliant song, worth checking out for those who have not heard it before, but the fact is is that it was made in 1968 - a full 4 years AFTER the Kinks were making heavy sounds like You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night.

 

And another Beatles fallacy concerns who introduced Indian music, or Eastern music, into Western pop culture. Beatles fans would claim that the late great George Harrison did this, by using his sitar sound (with the help of people like Ravi Shankar) on various Beatles records from the mid-sixties onwards.

 

Er, WRONG! The Kinks were the very first act to introduce an Indian feel into Western rock music, at least the very first really big beat act to do so. And they did it with this top 10 UK single, called See My Friends:

 

 

This song was inspired by a Kinks trip to India, and it came out around about 4 months or so before Norwegian Wood, the first Beatles record to feature George Harrison's sitar skills. Pete Townsend of the Who said that See My Friends was a brand new sound introduced by Ray Davies, just as You Really Go Me was, and that - and I quote here - "it was far earlier and far better" than the Beatles own Indian influenced rock.

 

And some knowledgeable music experts have cited The Kinks See My Friends as one of the most remarkable songs of the Sixties. It does seem as if the so-called psychedelic era was kick started by this Kinks classic. Within a couple of years virtually every influential group from that era, from the Beatles to the Stones to the Who to the Velvet Underground seemed to be producing records that had a similiar Eastern feel.

 

Of course, it is true to say that See My Friends might have been inspired by other big records around at the time. Everyone was inspiring everyone else in the sixties, and See My Friends probably was slightly influenced by Ticket To Ride, and maybe one or two other songs.

 

But the fact remains that See My Friends was the very first mainstream song I know of that could be closely identified with an Indian, Eastern feel being brought into pop music.........................and it predated eastern inspired Beatles records.

 

Right, will post again on this thread in a little while - next step - did The Kinks also invent punk rock? :unsure:

 

 

Indeed The Kinks were a great band thoughout the 60s and early 70s and it's true they are often overlooked when it comes to inspirational bands of the era. I far prefer them to The Who, The Beatles, The Small Faces and other more lauded acts. And whilst I think claiming they 'invented' Heavy Metal might be stretching it a touch they were certainly a massive influence on many of those whose claims are more certain. I'm thinking people like Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf. All equally influenced by 60s Garage Rock bands like The Count Five and The Sonics (whose 1964 single The Witch could have similar claims to You Really Got Me) but it is undeniable that the guitar sound and riff used on You Really Got Me is proto-Metal. You can correct me if I'm wrong but I heard a story of a cracked amp being partial cause.

Also interested to hear your suggestions for claims to inventing Punk. Again I don't dispute an influence over here on the late 70s explosion but I'm not sure how much The MC5 and The Stooges (for example) took from them.

Indeed The Kinks were a great band thoughout the 60s and early 70s and it's true they are often overlooked when it comes to inspirational bands of the era. I far prefer them to The Who, The Beatles, The Small Faces and other more lauded acts. And whilst I think claiming they 'invented' Heavy Metal might be stretching it a touch they were certainly a massive influence on many of those whose claims are more certain. I'm thinking people like Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf. All equally influenced by 60s Garage Rock bands like The Count Five and The Sonics (whose 1964 single The Witch could have similar claims to You Really Got Me) but it is undeniable that the guitar sound and riff used on You Really Got Me is proto-Metal. You can correct me if I'm wrong but I heard a story of a cracked amp being partial cause.

Also interested to hear your suggestions for claims to inventing Punk. Again I don't dispute an influence over here on the late 70s explosion but I'm not sure how much The MC5 and The Stooges (for example) took from them.

 

Thanks for your post Severin, nice to know that there are other Kinks fans out there. I see I am going to have my work cut out as regarding persuading people of some of these claims, however! :blink:

 

Well I will go through the punk claims in my next post. All a question of perspective, I suppose. You mention the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, it depends what you define as early punk. I would say that bands like The Doors, The Who, and later Alice Cooper could all claim to have an influence on punk, and The Kinks could claim to have a very big influence on all of them! So all a matter of perspective.

 

As regarding the heavy metal claim, again I reiterate that The Kinks did follow up You Really Got Me with other heavy sounding records, which in my view differentiates the group from earlier examples of "heavy" sounds. Jimmy Hendrix did tell Dave Davies that the guitar sound on You Really Got Me was a trademark guitar sound, and Jimmy certainly knew his stuff as far as heavy metal sounding guitars go!

 

All a question of perspective, as I say.

Right, so to the Kinks influence on punk rock. As has already been mentioned, there were American bands that came along in the sixties, like MC5 and The Stooges, that could loosely be described as pre-punk bands that were playing a form of punk rock. I have no qualms with that argument at all.

 

In fact, if we are to be honest, elements of punk rock were incorporated into early Elvis, and Eddie Cochran performances and records. And The Beatles in their Hamburg days looked like punk rockers would later look, dressed in black leather and with a sneering, snarling attitude towards their audience. Anybody who has ever seen the film Backbeat will know where I am coming from.

 

Well Elvis's wildman image was later tamed by him joining the army, Eddie Cochran was unfortunately killed in a car accident in England before he could develop his own unique style any further, and the Beatles image was considerably cleaned up by their manager Brian Epsteain before they began to make an impact on the World.

 

I would argue that it was the emergence of mod bands like The Kinks, The Who, The Small Faces who really kick started interest in loud, rebellious, attitude based music, and The Kinks came along well before The Who and The Small Faces. And they certainly would have had a big impact on the garage rock music scene in America, from which bands like MC5 and Iggy Pop And The Stooges would come from.

 

Quote from wikipaedia about the Kinks impact -

 

"You Really Got Me" was released in August 1964,[25] and, boosted by a performance on the television show Ready Steady Go!, quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom.[26] Hastily imported by the American label Reprise Records, it also made the Top 10 in the United States.[4] The loud, distorted guitar riff—achieved by a slice Dave Davies made in the speaker cone of his Elpico amplifier (referred to by the band as the "little green amp")—gave the song its signature, gritty guitar sound.[27] Extremely influential on the American garage rock scene, "You Really Got Me" has been described as "a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal".

 

Quoting from wikipaedia may not seem a stylish thing to do, but I reckon that the above description sums up the impact of You Really Got Me perfectly. It was not only a big influence on heavy metal, but certainly on the proto-punk scene that was developing in the States at the time. And by implication, either directly or indirectly, that means an influence on MC5 and any other worthwhile garage band of the time. Again, bear in mind that the Kinks aggressive, power chord based sound (much more aggressive than either The Beatles or The Stones at the time) pre-dated The Who's own heavy sound by at least a year, and the same as regards other energetic bands like The Small Faces. And to back up this influence on the American "punk" scene in the sixties, The Kinks also toured there as well in the mid sixties.

 

Here'a another quote:

 

["The Kinks are recognized as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the 1960s.[1][2] Stephen Thomas Erlewine called The Kinks "one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion",[1] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website states that "Ray Davies is almost indisputably rock's most literate, witty and insightful songwriter."[2] Artists influenced by The Kinks include punk rock groups such as the Ramones,[154] The Clash,[155] and The Jam, New Wave and heavy metal acts like The Pretenders and Van Halen, and Britpop groups such as Oasis, Blur, and Pulp.[1] Pete Townshend, guitarist with The Kinks' contemporaries The Who, was particularly influenced by the group's sound: "The Kinks were ... quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should one day be poet laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning."[156] Jon Savage wrote that The Kinks were an influence on late-1960s American psychedelic groups, "like the Doors, Love and Jefferson Airplane".[46] Musicologist Joe Harrington has described The Kinks' influence on the development of hard rock and heavy metal: "'You Really Got Me', 'All Day and All of the Night' and 'I Need You' were predecessors of the whole three-chord genre ... the Kinks did a lot to help turn rock 'n' roll (Jerry Lee Lewis) into rock (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Stooges)."

 

So Wikipaedia has certainly concluded that the group were fundamental in the development of punk as well as heavy metal. They were unquestionably a big influence on all the bands who are now seen as a massive influence themselves on punk/new wave, bands like The Stooges, The Doors, The Who, The Ramones, The Jam, The Clash, The Sex Pistols. And again, I remind you - they predated all of the above bands, bringing their own brand of heavy rock and attitude inspired songs into the world in 1964. They are also big influences on The Stranglers, David Bowie, and modern day punky bands, such as Green Day, The Killers, and The Kaiser Chiefs.

 

Let's hear some examples of this rebellious and energetic new form of music brought to the scene by The Kinks, and maybe we can then see why it was so influential on punk.

 

We have already heard some examples of this new energy, like You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, here are some lesser well known tracks, all from the pen of Ray Davies again.

 

Who'll Be The Next In Line was a great early Kinks song, only a b-side release at the time, although it was given heavy exposure in the States when radio stations realised how good it was:

 

 

It's Allright was another great early, energetic Kinks offering:

 

 

And I have not mentioned their third hit single yet, Tired Of Waiting For You. This song represented proof that The Kinks could produce a slower number than You Really Got Me or All Day And All Of The Night, and yet still maintain a sense of grumpyness and rebellion. Tired Of Waiting For You sounds to my ears like a plea for the world to hurry up, for red tape to stop interfering, for change to take place. "Please don't keep me waiting" Ray Davies sings to his girl, but to my ears, it was a plea to the world to catch up with all the changes that were taking place in society at the time:

 

 

Other examples include the other side of All Day And All Of The Night, a track called I Gotta Move, and here is a live vocal performance from Ray Davies - so live that he does make a slight mistake at one stage!

 

The attitude, the energy, the moodiness ousing out from this track, no wonder the Kinks were seen as a big influence on the garage bands at the time:

 

 

 

I like the girl dancers in that as well!

 

And talking about moodiness, and attitude, The Kinks may have been an influence on punk rock in other ways than their music. One of the things that attracted music fans to the punk rock movement in 1970's Britain, in particular, was the anti-establishment behaviour of some of the bands concerned, particularly the Sex Pistols, of course, who swore on daytime tv and who were banned from performing by local authorities in many areas of the UK.

 

Well, if we are talking about controvercy and being banned and things of that nature, the Kinks were not short of that kind of thing either! There were riots at some of their concerts, one in Denmark in particular caused a right stir, there were fist fights amonst the band members on stage, during one concert, in Cardiff, Mick Avory, the Kinks drummer, reportedly knocked Dave Davies unconsicous with part of his drum kit on stage! That would have been quite a concert to be at!

 

To top it all of, after about a year of largely successful Stateside touring, The Kinks were suddenly banned from setting foot in the United States for four years!

 

Now if you are interested in that kind of thing, bad behaviour in rock and roll (and certainly many punk rock fans were), then The Kinks surely take pride of place here. Heavy metal bands that destroyed their hotel rooms, punk bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash, grunge bands, rap artists with subversive lyrics, satanic bands, you name whoever you want to name - I personally cannot think of any other recording act in history that has been banned from performing in the World's main record market, the USA, for nearly half a decade! But it happened, from 1965 to 1969.

 

Reasons given for the ban? No one seems to really know the full reasons. Rowdy behaviour by the band is one explanation put forward, Ray Davies alledgedly assaulting a music union official in the States is another one, even conspiracy theories that this was the USA music industry's way of getting back at the British invasion bands.

 

Obviously I am not American, and I don't know how such a ban would have affected the Kinks following Stateside in the sixties, but I would imagine that the garage bands Stateside who liked them would have liked them even more, as their records went underground, as it were. Being banned in the States for four years because the authorities decreed that you are too rowdy for the American public is something I wager that any rock and roll band that has any pretentions of being rebellious would be very very proud to have on their CV!

 

As the 1960's progressed many artists turned to making statements, inspired partly by the brilliant writings of artists like Bob Dyan, of course. And again, The Kinks own statements could be seen to be an influence on fledgling punk. Where Have All The Good Times Gone is exactly the kind of thing The Sex Pistols were asking in the 1970's, another brilliant song from Ray, and I have decided to use a visual clip with some very powerful images for this song:

 

 

Everybody else seemed to be enjoying the increased consumer benefits and better lifestyle enjoyed by Westerners living in the 1960's - not Ray Davies! He was asking where the good times had gone too, and the good things like honestly and integrity from previous generations.

 

Another landmark Kinks song, a direct comment on the poverty that was about in this so-called affluent decade of the sixties, was the classic Dead End Street, which came complete with The Kinks own promotional video:

 

 

Dead End Street, again, in my view, punk before punk, commenting on poverty and joblessness the way the Pistols and the Clash would comment on it ten years or so later, only Ray Davies was commenting on such things in the swinging sixties, when there was supposed to be peace and love and enough food and money for all.

 

All Ray saw around him in that era was increasing povery, unemployment, the pound being devalued, and people, even in the Western World, continuing to suffer.

 

The above promotional clip for Dead End Street, by the way, was banned at the time by the BBC. The BBC did not like to show people jumping in and out of coffins, or Dave Davies wearing women's make up, or real pictures of people living on the poverty line. The world's first ever video nasty, maybe.................?

 

The one Kinks song during the sixties era which was really revered by punk bands up and down the line in the 1970's was this next song, however, which came out as the b-side of Sunny Afternoon in 1966. No commentary from me here on this Ray Davies song, which was sung mostly by Dave Davies on lead vocal, it is, quite simply in my view, punk rock before punk rock officially existed. It's called I'm Not Like Everybody Else:

 

 

There are plenty more examples of what can be defined as punk songs by the Kinks before the punk rock movement even came into existence. One entire album of theirs, made in 1970, the Lola Vs The Powerman And The Moneygoround album, was more or less a rage against the entire record industry! Most punky track on the album? This one, again mostly sung by Dave Davies, but written by Ray, called simply Powerman:

 

 

Unusual clip for that one, good if you were into driving with your music!

 

A year or so before that album came the Arthur album, about more of which I will write later, as I consider it a masterpiece. Certainly had some punky moments on it, such as this track, Brainwashed:

 

 

You can't read the comments on youtube about this track because of the way I have pasted it, but one of the comments about Brainwashed was whether this was grunge rock before grunge rock, but with horns instead of guitars!!!

 

The Muswell Hillbillies album came out in 1971, with this classic pre-punk rebel cry, 20th Century Man:

 

 

No matter which way you look at it, you have to conclude that The Kinks were at least a big, big influence on punk. Their early discs definately influenced the garage music scene heavily in mid 1960's America, they were thought to be a particularly big influence on The Doors, so much so that, in fact, Ray Davies alledgedly sued the Doors for ripping off his song All Day And All Of The Night! (Hello I Love You was the Doors song in question). And The Doors are certainly seen by many as a proto-punk band.

They brought power chords into play, they made fast moving energetic and attitude inspired early records, they sounded more aggressive than any British band up until The Who came along, they simply made shedloads of records that were later revered by punks.

 

Their line of influence stretches from The Doors to The Who, to David Bowie, to Alice Cooper, to The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, The Killers, Greenday, The Kaiser Chiefs, all of whom have been associated at one time or another with a kind of punky sound or, in the case of acts like Bowie, The Who, The Clash, they have had a direct influence on punk's formation in the UK.

 

Its exactly the same as the heavy metal argument - The Kinks have not been given full credit for their influence on a particular genre of music here. And if you want to ask an authority on the subject about The Kinks impact on punk, look no further than film director Julien Temple, director of various Sex Pistols films and documentaries. Julian will tell you quick enough about The Kinks influence on punk rock, because he, like me, is a lifelong Kinks fan.

 

Right, next post will concentrate on something that The Kinks are at least sometimes given credit for, and quite rightly, the invention and development of Britpop. Might take a while to construct though, as this one took bloody ages! LOL!!!

 

Thanks for your patience, one and all,

 

GOD SAVE THE KINKS

Edited September 4, 201113 yr by blackcat

Now many on here will consider britpop to be a 1990's phenomenon, invented by the British bands of that time. I think it dates from well, well, before that time, and its initial origins can be traced directly back to one band, and one band only.

 

The internet sites tend to define britpop as per the description below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

======================================= What is Britpop?

 

 

 

The term Britpop primarily refers to alternative rock music that began in the U.K. in the 1990s. The style was heavily influenced by British guitar music of the 1960s and 1970s, and was considered by many British artists to be a form of backlash against the American grunge bands like Nirvana that had become immensely popular in the U.K. The British bands Suede and Blur are generally credited with launching Britpop, but they were very soon in the company of bands like Oasis, Elastica, and Pulp.

 

Some music critics point to the 1992 release of the songs "Popscene" by Blur and "The Drowners" by Suede as the beginning of Britpop, both of which were very Brit-centric. Suede was the first of the 1990s bands in the UK to be considered as Britains answer to Seattle grunge rock. The band's self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut album ever in the UK.

 

Britpop pulled British alternative rock into the musical mainstream in the UK. It was considered part of the structure of the 1990s British cultural movement Cool Britannia (a goof on the patriotic British song Rule, Britannia!). A few bands of this era were able to translate their success overseas, particularly in the U.S. The Cool Britannia period largely corresponded with the New Labour movement championed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, though it corresponded more closely with the American presidential terms of Bill Clinton, who was very popular in the U.K. Cool Britannia largely fizzled out by the last couple of years of the 20th century, although Blair remained Prime Minister until June 2007.

 

Britpop associated itself with Britain's working class, was unabashedly male, and made heavy use of the Union Jack. Because of its references to British "lad culture" and its close association with the working man of Britain, the genre did not achieve a high level of success in the U.S., though most Britpop bands would consider that a very minor point. ================================================================

 

Well the way I define the term is, quite simply, British rock acts singing about England with a heavy English accent! And on that basis, there was only one band who seemed to pioneer that approach with any kind of consistency, and that was The Kinks.

 

The above youtube link is the first example of this from the Kinks, a mid-sixties bit of britpop, with Ray singing about a middle to upper class Englishman, Ray singing with an English accent, a song full of references to English culture, as you can tell by the lyrics above. Ironically this song was a reasonably sized hit in the USA at the time.

 

Certainly there were plenty of English acts who sang with English accents before Ray Davies, such as Anthony Newley, for example. There were even acts who made passing references to England and English things in their rock songs, such as Lonnie Donegan, in My Old Man's A Dustman, for example.

 

But I cannot think of any one act in the rock and roll era who consistently, time and time again, sang about the British way of life, with a very English accent, until Ray Davies and the Kinks came along. And there are dozens of examples of this from the sixties. The song above, Well Respected Man, is just one such example.

 

I will build this theme a bit more in future posts, I don't want to keep flooding this thread with youtube clips in one post, like I did with previous posts. So I will give more audio and visual examples as we go along.

 

In the meantime,

 

God save the Kinks! (and God preserve the spirit of britpop!).

What an awesome songwriter Ray was ( is ) and lets remember he did both the lyrics

and melody ... cant think he did much collaboration....back in the 60s and 70s .

His lyric writing is brilliant in itself !

He obviously had great discipline back in the 60s to get down to work.

 

Dave on the other hand seems to have been a big party animal and lived it large

throughout the 60s....and 70s..... but Death of a Clown is proof that he too had been touched with

a great songwriting talent... if only he had got down to it , like his brother Ray.

Indeed, madonnaslave, agree with everything you say, of course.

 

Sounds like Ray Davies will only be really appreciated when..............well, when the worst happens. :angel:

 

And that is a shame.

 

 

Ray is keeping active, he always seems to be on concert tours, he does TV , I saw him on

a show on Belgium TV.... he did that big TV documentary on himself with that

guy who used to be head of the BBC .

Maybe the songwriting is nt there anymore, but he is not slowing down.

 

Contrast Ray with Bowie ..... nada from the thin white duke these days .

Ray is keeping active, he always seems to be on concert tours, he does TV , I saw him on

a show on Belgium TV.... he did that big TV documentary on himself with that

guy who used to be head of the BBC .

Maybe the songwriting is nt there anymore, but he is not slowing down.

 

Contrast Ray with Bowie ..... nada from the thin white duke these days .

Since when has Bowie had to do ANYTHING.

 

He is more than assured his place in rock n' roll history and is possibly one of the only people to eclipse and have even more influence than Ray Davies.

 

Bowie has essentially retired since he had his heart trouble about 10 years ago (was it that long ago?)

Not disagreeing with your basic point on The Kinks helping to inspire Britpop but 'only one band '?? What about The Small Faces, The Who, and of course The Beatles. Sure there may have been the odd dabbling with Eastern sounds for example (and as you've stated The Kinks did this too) but they were all always quality and quintessentially British

Not disagreeing with your basic point on The Kinks helping to inspire Britpop but 'only one band '?? What about The Small Faces, The Who, and of course The Beatles. Sure there may have been the odd dabbling with Eastern sounds for example (and as you've stated The Kinks did this too) but they were all always quality and quintessentially British

 

 

Yes, fair point. Perhaps I will rephrase the terminology, and say that The Kinks were The MAIN influence on Britpop from the sixties. Of course, all the other groups you mentioned were a big influence as well, but I would contend that The Kinks used British subject matter, and in the case of Ray, sang with British accents, more often than any other sixties British rock band.

My fave Kinks single has to be Days - surprised that it only made #12 in 1968

 

The single version of Lola has the words Cherry Cola

On the album it was Coca Cola

 

Not forgetting that Dave Davies had 2 hits and one near miss

Death Of A Clown - #3 in 1967

Susannah's Still Alive #20 in 1968

Lincoln County - 1968 near miss

(unfortunately no YouTube videos available)

 

 

 

 

Can't claim to be a big fan of The Kinks but Lola is a fantastic piece of work.

Thanks for your contributions, euro music and vincenzo, I will be continuing with this thread at some stage, just a question of finding time to do it, I am a busy body these days.

 

I suggest, for those who are not that familiar with their studio album stuff, to check out some of them, and that will, I am sure, get you more into The Kinks. Their 1975 studio album, Schoolboys In Disgrace, for example, has excellent tracks on it. It was kinda like Grease..........years before Grease came out!

 

If you like, type in Schoolboys In Disgrace by The Kinks on youtube, and check out some of the music. I am sure that you will be impressed. Ray Davies was just a brilliant song writer, all through the decades.

Enjoy!

 

There's a series of programmes devoted to the Kinks on Friday night (19 Oct) on BBC4

Kinks: One of the greatest and most influential British acts of the 60's, very British, poetic lyrics, lovely toons, top-notch quality.

 

The Beatles: the most influential, successful, prolific, inventive band of all-time. A 7-year career. The biggest-selling world-wide album of the 21st Century is "1". They haven't existed for 43 years. It's very difficult to credibly challenge the view that there is a more important band, but I'll enjoy/am enjoying the counter-arguments!

 

cheers!