Do It Again Archives

Album: Can’t Buy a Thrill
Year: 1972

. . .

I’m not gonna lie: it’s kinda weird that I’m doing two artists in a row that started out as a band and ended up as a duo. Though, obviously Donald Fagen and Walter Becker figured out how to stay together like after Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan went their separate ways.

I should also point out that outside of their early batch of singles, I have far more respect for Steely Dan than I have love, and so both lovers and haters should know that after 1974, they felt more of a menace than a pleasure, dominating the radio with incredibly high-quality songs that just didn’t do it for me.

Album: Word of Mouth
Year: 1984

So while I was glad that The Kinks had their biggest single in nearly two decades — number 6 in the U.S. — with “Come Dancing,” outside of the killer bridge, I didn’t feel any particularly affinity for it as a song.

And I really didn’t like the album it featured on, 1983’s anonymously-rocking State of Confusion, which I probably should have revisited for this, but I didn’t. Much better was the follow-up, 1984’s Word of Mouth, which had a pair of stellar tracks: Dave Davies’ lament “Living on a Thin Line” and Ray Davies’ umpteenth song about life on the road, “Do It Again.”

Do It Again

Certain Songs #2456: Steely Dan – “Do It Again”

Certain Songs #876: The Kinks – “Do It Again”