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RollingFreak
I've never actually thought about it that way, but yeah it really is like the Kinks Beggars Banquet. Its an absolutely phenomenal album. I think I rediscovered it when they put out a deluxe box version of it a few years ago. But 20th Century Man is a great rocker, one I rediscovered when I saw Ray Davies like 15 years ago and he did a cracking version of it. He also did a great version of Oklahoma USA at that show. But strange little numbers like Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues and Alcohol never tire, and then just silly songs like Here Come The People In Gray To Take Me Away and Uncle Son. Complicated Life, Cuppa Tea and the title track regularly get stuck in my head.
Its a terrific album, but then I love most Kinks stuff. Face To Face all the way through Muswell is pretty flawless (when you discount Percy), and all of that stuff is pretty underrated in its own way, as the Kinks always are. Muswell was the last gasp for a little while, and then I didn't really pick them back up till A Soap Opera and Schoolboys which I personally love but I get some of the critical nature of them. I think Schoolboys is a far more cohesive album than Opera, but Opera has its moments and I applaud his swinging for the fences. I think it works for the most part. And then Sleepwalker is an underrated excellent later era work for them. I think they'd kinda lost everyone by then but it was a fantastic return to form. I was ashamed to not know it till many years later.
In short, the Kinks are just phenomenal. Even though they are always listed amongst the greats, they still never get the respect they deserve. Every bit as good as the Stones, the Beatles, The Who, Zeppelin, etc.
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batcave
I remember reading a story once of a fan who ran into Ray Davies and asked him what his favorite Kinks album was. Ray replied that he loved them all and turned to walk away. Then Ray turned back and with a smile on his face said, "But it's Muswell Hillbillies"....
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HouseBoyKnows
Just adding my Kinks love going back to the beginning. Plus, I'm one of the outliers that loved and still play Schoolboys to this day. The riffage on that is classic Dave and to me does not sound as dated as a couple of their other LPS from those years.
HBK
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RollingFreak
Schoolboys is such a great album. The Hard Way and I'm In Disgrace have some great guitar work from Dave. Headmaster, No More Looking Back and Education are up there with some of their best IMO. Unassuming but fantastic tracks. And seriously the rest of the album: The Last Assembly, Schooldays and even Jack The Idiot Dunce and First Time We Fall In Love. I get it not being everyone's cup of tea, but front to back its classic Kinks and its a great record.
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timmyj3
It is really a crime how poorly the majority of their LP catalog sold. They really struggled for all that they have achieved.
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RollingFreakQuote
timmyj3
It is really a crime how poorly the majority of their LP catalog sold. They really struggled for all that they have achieved.
It never ceases to amaze me. Even with everything, it still seems like they never REALLY broke. Which obviously isn't true, but how some people call Rush the biggest cult band (and I'm a big Rush fan), The Kinks are the forgotten face on Mt. Rushmore. But then you see everyone they influenced, and everyone who speaks so highly of them. I guess its so many reasons. They were so instinctively British, which I'm not, but it still resonates. But maybe that didn't translate to everyone.
Ray's live album Storytellers is masterful at telling their early story (to me its far superior to Bruce Springsteen's recent Broadway run, and I'm a Springsteen devotee being from NJ), and he could have done a ton more about their other eras. Their being banned from America for years and other struggles. I highly recommend that and the Village Green Doc, called Echoes Of A World. The Kinks were always up against everyone, when Ray and Dave were some of the best out there at their respective positions. You're right that they never really were bad, they just got forgotten at times. Even later stuff like Hatred and Low Budget later on were fantastic tracks. Their final live album To The Bone, also criminally unknown, is a tremendous one. You'd think they were done but its arguably the best they ever sounded. The version of I'm Not Like Everyone Else on there (later made famous on The Sopranos) is an instant classic, particularly for the choruses when Ray sings NOTHING like Ray Davies. For years I remember people thinking the Sopranos version was a cover by someone else.
Anyway, I could talk about them forever but won't bore anyone. My top 5 is probably this, but it literally changes by the week:
1. Something Else by the Kinks - the first album of theirs I fell in love with. My brother and I listened to David Watts, Tin Solider Man, Harry Rag endlessly as children.
2. Village Green - tremendous album, front to back
3. Schoolboys In Disgrace - Love it, revisit it often. That wasn't MY schoolboy experience but Ray in his masterful wisdom seemed to nail everyone's to some extent. Its a perfect picture memory of growing up, particularly No More Looking Back.
4. Lola - every song's a winner
5. Arthur - Victoria is maybe my favorite Kinks song and some of the album took a little while to really hit (Australia, Mr Churchill Says, Arthur) but truly every song is amazing. So brilliantly Kinks. Oddly enough, I always loved Shangri-La which seems like one that would grow on most people lol.
But seriously, Muswell, Face To face, Sleepwalker could all creep into there at any moment.
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johnnythunders
Oh dear
I don't like it and never did
Partly it is the brass - the Mike Cotton Sound just sound too trad, too dull
And I don't think the songwriting is great
So I stop at the Lola LP, apart from a few subsequent singles eg Celluloid Heroes, Sitting In My Hotel
Sorry
(I like the photo on the sleeve)