As if to draw a line in the sand between phases of their career, 1976 was the first year in the Kinks history without a new studio album. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the things I really like in an artist is prolificness, and The Kinks — Ray Davies, really — were more so than most.
To make a comparison with their surviving British Invasion peers, The Who had started skipping years in 1968 (skipping ’68, ’70, ’72,’74 & ’76) and the Rolling Stones in 1970 (skipping ’70 & ’75), but not only had The Kinks put out 14 studio albums from 1964-1976 (compared to 13 by the Stones and, er, seven by The Who), they would put out eight more between 1977-1989, when they finally started slowing down. By comparison, The Who only put out three albums in that period, and the Rolling Stones six.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #871: The Kinks – “Juke Box Music”