THE KINKS

I resisted this band for a long, long time. I figured any group that finds favor with fans of both Van Halen and Journey had to be dangerous. It was Ira Kaplan's naming them as his favorite rock group that led me to investigate. A year later, I've decided they're far too well-kept a secret.

In the history books, the Kinks are only immortalized as the least important of the four major British invasion bands, supposedly upstaged by the Who, as such upstaged by you-know-who and you-really-know-who. Turn on the oldies radio and you'll hear their roaring, protopunk hits: "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night," which prove them to be the most raw and insane of the big four if not the most intense, plus the "Beginning to See the Light"-prelude "Tired of Waiting for You" and the incredibly hard "Till the End of the Day." Turn on classic rock radio and you're likely to hear "Lola" and possibly "Apeman." Turn on those retro pop stations and you'll hear "Come Dancing," the early-'80s comeback hit. But in the general public's eyes, there's not much to separate this band from the massive amount of lower-tier (but consistently underrated) first-gen Brit acts: the Animals, the Troggs, etc. It's ironic, then, that the Kinks are by far the most distinctly British of any of these bands. The Beatles, the Stones, and the Who made music obviously derived from the forces of black America. After their initial wave of destruction, the Kinks, banned from touring in the U.S. retreated into introspection to become a critics' band and a cultists-only act at almost exactly the same time the Beach Boys suffered the same fate.

Their hits, good as they are, hide the truth -- the Kinks' work in the late '60s and much of it beyond that is music of startling grace and humble beauty, full of humor, sarcasm, intelligence that reaches beyond the willing naivete of rock & roll. The Velvet Underground, another cult band from the period, retained a faint glimmer of artificial superiority because they were and are looked upon as "cool." The Beach Boys and the Kinks were the true underground headliners because they were anything but. Both were as far away from the ideology of late-'60s rock & roll -- the tortuous I'd-rather-kill-myself-than-play-my-geetar of the Doors, the fakery of Jefferson Airplane, the mindnumbing boredom of the Grateful Dead, the obvious posturing of the guitar heroes.

In fact, if you look closer you'll notice that England was primarily excluded from a lot of this drudgery. The Rolling Stones hardly dabbled in psychedelia, the Beatles were more a myth than a band by this point, and the Who was... the Who. It just proves that "scenes" are not the place for good music, but the Kinks still seemed to be from a different world than any other rock band. Their work had a literacy, a reflection, a yearning for the past rather than the moment. Instead of hoping they'd die before they'd get old, the Kinks were wishing for the years before American tourists were invading village greens. But their work also had joy. "God save little shops, china cups, and virginity," they sang while Hendrix was burning his phallus on stage and Morrison was showing everybody his.

I'll grant you this: one reason I became such an instant addict to the Kinks is the obvious degree to which they are forerunners to a band I completely and unapologetically worship, Talking Heads. ("Mojique thinks of days before Americans came," comprende?) Like the Heads they were not worried about the off-putting qualities of their image, and indeed were interested only in image as a vehicle for communicating truth. Sometimes the Kinks' truth is the three-chord attack of "You Really Got Me," and sometimes it's the spectacular "Strawberry Fields"-fucking-"Heroes and Villains" of "Autumn Almanac." It is, either way, identifiably truth, and that's something you don't hear everyday -- then or now.

ANNOTATED DISCOGRAPHY

ALBUMS REVIEWED:
The Kinks (1964)
Kinda Kinks (1965)
The Kink Kontroversy (1965) [A-]
Face to Face (1966) [A]
Something Else by the Kinks (1967) [A+]
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968) [A+]
Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969) [A]
Lola vs. Powerman & the Moneygoround, Part One (1970) [A-]
Muswell Hillbillies (1971) ]
Everybody's in Showbiz (1972)
Preservation Act 1 (1973)
Preservation Act 2 (1974)
A Soap Opera (1975)
Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975)
Sleepwalker (1977)
Misfits (1978) [B+]
Low Budget (1979) [A-] (review pending)
Give the People What They Want (1981)
State of Confusion (1983) [A] (review pending)
Word of Mouth (1984)
Think Visual (1986)
UK Jive (1989)
Phobia (1993)
To the Bone (1994) [A-] (review pending)

LIVE ALBUMS
The Live Kinks at Kelvin Hall (1968)
One for the Road (1980) [B+] (review pending)
The Road (1988)

COMPILATIONS
Greatest Hits (1966) [A-]
The Kink Kronikles (1972) [A+]
Celluloid Heroes (1976) [A]
Come Dancing with the Kinks (1986) [A]
Lost and Found 1986-89 (1991) [B+]
The Story of the Kinks (1995) [A+]

RARITIES COLLECTIONS
The Great Lost Kinks Album (1973)
The Songs We Sang for Auntie: Live at the BBC (2001) [B+]>


EP'S
Kinksize Session (1964)
Kinksize Hits (1965)
Kwyet Kinks (1965)
Dedicated Kinks (1966)
Dave Davies' Hits (1968)
The Kinks (1968)
Did Ya (1991)
Waterloo Sunset '94 (1994)
Days (1996)

SINGLES & misc. tracks (to come)

OTHER WRITING
Village Green Preservation Society revisited

WEBBLOG ARCHIVE:
(Boldfaced links actually contain Kinks-related material; others are just passing mentions.)
Old 97's: Hit by a Train
Wuzzon #9
The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet
Sgt. Pepper 40th anniversary
The Rolling Stones: Between the Buttons
current music
anybody want a mix
Love / Zombies
Yo La Tengo in Carrboro
Yo La Tengo in Carrboro
best CDs of year
Brian Wilson: Smile
do you remember walter
Yo La Tengo review
unimportant mention in Cars review
The Clash: Sandinista!
another look at Beatles & Beach Boys
Wuzzon #4
current music
Kinks in year in music
Radiohead: The Bends - juke box jury
Tiger Beat & such
Ray Davies doc on Ovation
Kinks so totally 2003
writing & happiness
forthcoming site stuff
Liana reviews everything
Sitting on My Sofa
Wuzzon #2
Kinks reissues
website grand opening
the best cd's I own
feelings of inferiority
open letter to music industry
Face to Face & Muswell Hillbillies capsules
music emotions survey
200 bands assessed III
200 bands assessed I
Nirvana rant