The Kinks (Compilation Album)

This 20-track Anthology Was Released By Disky In 1996. It Gives A Very Good Overview Of The Kink's Early Successes.

This 20-track Anthology Was Released By Disky In 1996. It Gives A Very Good Overview Of The Kink's Early Successes.

Issued by Disky in 1996 and named merely “The Kinks”, this CD anthologizes their early hits right up to the “Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1” album. There is not a lot to dislike and not that much to change either.

The CD has everything from their early smashes “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And All Of The Night” to cuts like “Waterloo Sunset”, “Lola” and “Apeman”. Moreover, non-album sides that are key to the band’s appeal like “Days” and “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” are featured. The one and only blemish is the inclusion of “Dandy” at the expense of tunes like “See My Friends”, “A Well Respected Man” or “Set Me Free”. Continue reading

The Kinks – General Introduction

The Kinks Were Ray Davies (Guitar, Lead Vocals), Dave Davies (Lead Guitar), Pete Quaife (Bass) & Mick Avory (Drums).

The Kinks Were Ray Davies (Guitar, Lead Vocals), Dave Davies (Lead Guitar), Pete Quaife (Bass) & Mick Avory (Drums).

Some call the Kinks “the original punks” because of the dirty sound of their early records, others go as far as to call them the fathers of heavy rock. They were a quartet in which tensions were constant among its members, with the two brothers that led the band eventually becoming estranged from each other. The Kinks were actually banned from performing in the States owing to their riotous onstage behavior. And people like Pete Townshend have said that Ray Davies (the band’s main composer) should have been a poet laureate. And I think most people who listen to “Waterloo Sunset” is inclined to feel the same way.

Aggression, volume, wit, profoundness and delicacy. These are the adjectives you can extract from the above. And these adjectives apply either in part or in whole to my favorite bands, and to every band that has marked me – The Who, The Jam, Oasis…  The Kinks were simply one of the most influential bands in the history of British music.

They were part of the initial wave of British Invasion bands, with their third single being a hit everywhere it started spinning. Dave Davies’ guitar insinuated the power that harder-rocking outfits were to unleash a decade later into the airwaves. He had sliced the amplifier with a blade in order to get the gritty sound. The song was called “You Really Got Me”, and it was to influence The Who both structurally and thematically, and the most realized punk and new wave acts of the late 70s such as The Clash, The Jam and XTC always expressed that they either dearly respected or even worshipped The Kinks. Continue reading