We're Not Who You Think We Are
Album: The Great Lost Kinks Album
Year: 1966
BRIAN
“Look, you’ve got it all wrong!
You don’t NEED to follow ME, You don’t NEED to follow ANYBODY! You’ve got to think for yourselves!
You’re all individuals!”
THE CROWD
“YES! WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!”
BRIAN
“You’re all different!”
THE CROWD
“WE’RE ALL DIFFERENT!”
RANDOM GUY
I’m not.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #847: The Kinks – “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”
Album: The Kinks Greatest Hits
Year: 1966
In late 1965 and early 1966, The Kinks released a pair of singles that were as unlike their earliest material as “Till The End of The Day” was (superficially) like it. Both songs featured prominent acoustic guitars, social commentary and an definite country influence, to boot.
The first one, “A Well Respected Man,” wasn’t even released as a single in the U.K. because it confused their record company so much. But the second one, “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” was such an arrow aimed at the heart of swinging London (and maybe even their rivals who were pretending to be mods), it went top 5 in the U.K.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #846: The Kinks – “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”
Album: The Kink Kontroversy
Year: 1965
While it was still clearly a transitional album, 1965’s The Kink Kontroversy feels like it was the first time The Kinks stepped into the studio with the intent of making an album full of their own songs and their ideas.
I mean, it still started with the hoary old “Milk Cow Blues,” but once they got that out of the way, it was all Ray, with Dave making his songwriting debut as well. That said, Ray wasn’t quite there yet in terms of being an album artist — so the best songs on The Kink Kontroversy were also available on the “Till The End of The Day” single, which sported “Where Have All The Good Times Gone?” as the b-side.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #845: The Kinks – “Where Have All The Good Times Gone?”
Album: The Kink Kontroversy
Year: 1965
The last of the early hard-rocking Kinks singles, “Till The End of The Day” definitely showed that they were kind of getting tired of the formula, so the riff isn’t quite as narsty, and the guitar solo isn’t quite as wild.
It’s also definitely more sophisticated than “You Really Got Me” or “All Day and All of The Night,” as Ray Davies growing by leaps and bounds as a songwriter, and you can almost feel him chafing at having to dumb it down even this much.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #844: The Kinks – “Till The End of The Day”
Single, 1965
Let’s remember something: in July 1965 it had only been a year since the seminal riff-rock of “You Really Got Me.” And The Kinks were already dabbling — ahead of just about all of their peers — in weird raga-influenced psychedelia.
Weird and beautiful, as “See My Friends” is one of the first times that it was obvious that what Ray Davies wanted was kinda of beyond his band’s capabilities.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #843: The Kinks – “See My Friends”
Album: Kinda Kinks (U.K.) / Kinks-Size (U.S.)
Year: 1965
Like The Beatles, Rolling Stones and (to a lesser extent) The Who, the early albums of The Kinks were different in their U.S. and U.K. versions. For example, the U.S. debut was called You Really Got Me (for obvious reasons) and in 1965 Reprise made two full compilation albums — Kinks-Size and Kinks Kingdom — from U.K. EPs, b-sides and non-album singles.
I had no idea about any of this in 1981 when I borrowed the two aforementioned albums plus the U.S. version of Kinda Kinks (which differed from the U.K. version because of course it did) which at the time were just considered the second, third and fourth Kinks albums here in the U.S.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #842: The Kinks – “Tired of Waiting For You”
Album: The Kinks Greatest Hits
Year: 1964
Given the massive success of “You Really Got Me,” it kinda made sense that all of The Kinks’ handlers would basically demand they do it again, do it again.
So it’s not really surprising that the follow-up single was another piledriving crunchmonster.
What is surprising is that they were basically able to take the “You Really Got Me” template — fuzz-dripping power chords, simple drumbeats, “ahhhhhhhhhhhs” building to the chorus and a crazed guitar solo — and improve upon it.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #841: The Kinks – “All Day and All of The Night”
Album: The Kinks
Year: 1964
Funnily enough, I’m pretty sure that the first time that “You Really Got Me” burrowed its way into my head wasn’t The Kinks version, or even Van Halen’s version.
Rather, it was Rick Derrigner’s version. And that was in the live version of “Rock and Roll, Hootchie Koo,” from Derringer Live, which was a standard on Rock 96FM. At some point, after a very long guitar solo — because this was the mid-1970s, and it was Federal law that the live version of your one single have a very long guitar solo, especially if you were a gunslinger guitarist by trade — the song breaks down and Derringer launches into that famous riff and opening verse.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #840: The Kinks – “You Really Got Me”