Saw them live at the BBC once in Maida Vale. They were on with my hero Kevin Ayers. Dave Davis kept teasing us with Lola licks, which they finally performed as an encore. Wonderful stuff. Weren't we spoilt in those days!
One of the greatest British bands. There is a band called the Kast off Kinks doing the ciruit, made up of ex members from their later years, although Mick Avory the original drummer plays with them. They're well worth catching if you get a chance.
I grew up listening to my Dad's Kinks LPs and they're my favourite of those 60s/70s bands he used to play me. Contrary to what Chrpy said above, I would argue a lot of their best stuff is also their less well known stuff. I have to admit, Ray Davis can come across a bit smug at times, but there's a beautiful poetry to his lyrics and he has a great sense for what's great about the simple things in life. Saw him do a solo gig at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and couple of years back and he was great.
Their music is understated and for a long time underated and I think that's what attracts me to them instead of more brash/publicity seeking bands like the Beatles/The Stones/and The Who, although they all banged out some cracking tunes in their own ways.
Also, because of my Old Man, the Kinks' songs will always have a certain sentimental attraction to me.
The kinks were never my favourite band, but they did write some excellent songs. Amongst some pretty turgid pop songs of the mid 60s Davis wrote some important and classic tunes.
They always seemed to rely on songwriting, but never delivered the killer album. But then they were in a time of immense competition with Dylan, the Beatles, Stones,Hendrix, too name a few.
Hopefully they will be remembered for a little more than Waterloo Sunset, but that still stacks up against most songs of any era, including the examples I have given above. Like the small faces, with Lazy Sunday, and Harem with whiter shade of pale, although they both went on to produce some decent albums. People forget that it was singles that up the late 60s was the platform for 'stardom' at least in a popular sense.
I'd seen the Yentob special on Ray before, but the Julian Temple special on Dave was new.
Fascinating stuff and incredibly beautiful settings in the Devon countryside.
Still think Dave overplays the "nasty old Ray" bit and I always think he comes across a tad cuckoo when he gets into his spiritual stuff.
Seems to be recovering well from his Stroke from a couple of years back.
The Kinks have always been my favourite band even when they were virtually pariahs in the UK in the 70's and 80's.
Now Ray is lauded as a national treasure!
Even if I hadn't seen Temple's name attached to it, I'd know it was his work. Very similar in style to his biogs of Strummer, The Feelgoods and Weller.
IMHO Ray Davies has become a bit of a Luvvy but looking at the comments above what strikes me about the kinks from a retrospective is the originality and britishness of their songs .You can sense the influences of Beatles,Stones ,Animals etc but you cant to the Kinks music ....my other half has a best of the kinks CD in the car and i have got a little bored with it ,"originality and britishness" is turning a little into"simplistic and dated"
and of course many, many, more..... I know Ray can be a little left field, I am told difficult, but then any artist worth there salt get's that levelled against them........
Love the Kinks. Sorry chirpy but you're talking out of your arse on this one. Yeah, they're not the Who, but that don't make them any worse. Same as the Who wern't the stones, who wern't the Beatles etc........... Fortunately i love all four of these bands so I win all round. :-)
Favourite kinks album for me has to be Arthur or the rise and fall of the british empire. Top quality writing that tells fantastic tale.
Comments
Kinks - Crap
Bloody Ray Davies is so up his own arse it's untrue.
They made a couple of half decent Pop tunes.
They are NOT The Who!
Always liked the Kinks Ray Davis is a great song writer quitassentialy British.
Another superb band and South Londoners are Squeeze
We were spoilt for choice wern't we!
Their music is understated and for a long time underated and I think that's what attracts me to them instead of more brash/publicity seeking bands like the Beatles/The Stones/and The Who, although they all banged out some cracking tunes in their own ways.
Also, because of my Old Man, the Kinks' songs will always have a certain sentimental attraction to me.
good prog though
Favourite kinks album for me has to be Arthur or the rise and fall of the british empire. Top quality writing that tells fantastic tale.