The Kinks - "State of Confusion" (1983)

The 80's weren't necessarily a kind decade to rock stars who came of age in the 60's.

(McCartney & Wonder's "Ebony & Ivory", Bowie's "Blue Jean", Lou Reed & Sam Moore's "Soul Man" cover, Elton John's "I'm Still Standing", Rod Stewart's "Some Guys Have All The Luck", The Stones' Dirty Work LP, pretty much anything released by Clapton, to name just a few.)

The Kinks were definitely an exception (for the most part).

Here's a 1983 video for "State of Confusion" featuring a very-confused looking Ray Davies in a muscle shirt.  Will he make the gig on time?  Hmm.

State of Confusion

The Kinks - "State of Confusion" (1983) - Arista Records

Hello Friends,

The Kinks have, in our opinion, never done a bad record. 

Sure, they can't all be Something Else, but in general, even mediocre Kinks is still better than pretty much everything else.

1983's State of Confusion definitely falls along the more mediocre side of the spectrum, but its still a very, very good listen.

The biggest complaint is probably that it suffers from sounding slightly dated.  I mean they released stuff in the 60's that could pass for a song from this year or last, but there's no mistaking this album is from the early 80's.

Ray Davies is in fine form throughout the record. The album kicks off with three solid, fists-in-the-air rockers, "State of Confusion", "Definite Maybe" and "Labour of Love" all with plenty of Davies' tongue-in-cheek cynicism right from the get go.

Songs like the heartbreaking "Property" (about sifting through your stuff after a bad breakup) and the surprisingly-sweet "Heart of Gold" can almost pass for Pretenders' songs (Davies was dating Chrissie Hynde at the time.)

Side Two is home to a nice ballad, "Don't Forget to Dance"; a couple of more decent rockers, "Young Conservatives" & "Cliches of the World (B-Movie); and the record ends with the Dave Davies-sung 12-bar screecher, "Bernadette".

The album's standout track is, of course, "Come Dancing", which would oddly enough become one of the band's biggest hits!  (It would reach # 6 on the Billboard Charts, their highest since 1965's "Tired of Waiting for You".)  The song got a lot of radio play in the 80's and is, at its core, a heart-breaking remembrance of a young Ray Davies, who would lie awake in bed on Saturday nights, waiting for his older sister to come home from the local dance hall where the "big bands used to play".  To young Davies, every one of these late Saturday nights represented an epic tale of young lovers acting out with reckless abandon, unattainable fun, broken hearts, shattered dreams, disappointments and bright-eyed hope for what was to come. The song reeks of nostalgia, but not without a hint of cynicism.  In typical Ray Davies' fashion, the dance hall closed down years ago; it became a bowling alley for a little while, then a supermarket.  Now, its a parking lot.    

Guess they paved paradise.

RATING: 4 days they knocked down the pally out of 5

The Kinks - "Got Love If You Want It" (1964)

Happy Friday Friends!

Here's a clip of The Kinks performing their version of the Slim Harpo classic, "Got Love If You Want It".

Some great early footage of the band, plus a couple of killer harmonica solo by Ray Davies!

We count at least 6 or 7 different camera angles being used in this footage which was pretty ahead of its time in 1964!

Enjoy!

You Really Got Me

The Kinks - "Kinks" (1964) - Sanctuary Records

Hello Friends,

In the early 1960's, a bunch of British pasty white kids with bad teeth and shaggy haircuts picked up some instruments and tried to learn (and emulate) black American R&B tunes. What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, everything went completely right and the rest went down as rock & roll history! No shit. Who woulda thunk it?

One of the greatest of the British Invasion bands is, of course, The Kinks.  Hailing from the North London hamlet of Muswell Hill, The Kinks were founded by the infamous brothers Davies, Ray & Dave.  Ray, 20, would do most of the singing and songwriting, while younger brother Dave (only 17) would provide the perfect foil with his punk-tinged lead guitar stylings. Their debut album (simply named Kinks in the U.K and re-titled You Really Got Me here in the States) captures a bunch of gangly, pasty British boys with more attitude than talent.  

The album, produced by the great Shel Talmy, would be an above average debut for any band. However there was one standout on the album that really catapulted to band into a stratosphere that most young musicians can only dream of!

"You Really Got Me" was a career-maker, full of distortion, attitude & power chords. A self-described "love song for street kids" and arguably the world's first punk song.  It would reach Number One in the U.K. and Number Seven in the U.S.  It would give the band International success and acclaim.  Luckily for us, the story didn't end there and The Kinks enjoyed a 30+ year career with dozens of amazing songs and albums.

Besides "You Really Got Me", the other Davies compositions on this record include the Stones-y "So Mystifying", "You Can't Go To Sleep" (a typical merseybeat number with a very Kinks-ian middle eight), "I Took My Baby Home", "Revenge" and the great, great, great "Stop Your Sobbing" (famously covered by The Pretenders as their first single, a couple of years before Chrissie Hynde & Ray Davies would actually start dating!  You go Ray!)

There's also the obligatory R&B covers here as well (all good by the way!) including two Chuck Berry tunes ("Beautiful Delilah", "Too Much Monkey Business"), "Long Tall Shorty", "I'm A Lover Not A Fighter", a Bo Diddley call-and-response rager ("Cadillac") and a Slim Harpo classic ("Got Love If You Want It").  

Producer Talmy even contributes two songs, his arrangement of the bluesy "Bald Headed Woman" and "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain"... geez, did the guy have an obsession with losing his hair? 

On most of these early tracks, what would become Ray Davies distinctive vocals are hardly recognizable.  Also, there's a raucous, sneering speed to most of the songs. The arrangements are pretty straightforward and the acoustic guitar work* is sparse. The closest the album gets to a ballad is Davies beautiful and fragile-sounding, "Sobbing".*** Let's face it though kids, The Kinks didn't pull off the American R&B sound as well, or as convincingly as, bands like The Stones, The Yardbirds or even The Who did.  It didn't matter.  The stories and songs swirling around in young Ray Davies mind would provide the soundtrack to one of rock & roll's most beloved bands!     


* It should also be mentioned that for years there have been a slew of rumors that Jimmy Page played guitar throughout the album.  What seems to be confirmed is that Page, who played as a hired session guitarist** on almost everybody's record recorded in London at the time, played acoustic and 12-string guitar on a couple of tracks.

** In addition to Page, the legendary keyboardist Jon Lord (Deep Purple) was also rumored to be in these sessions as well.

*** The two most well-known songs on this record are, of course, "You Really Got Me" and "Stop Your Sobbing", which sort of become a yin and yang of the record.  One is abrasive, punkish and full of 'tude; the other is more contemplative, apologetic and is performed in more of a 1950's teen idol style.  One is written by Davies as a streetwise Angry Young Man; the other still has plenty of bite, but is written by a sweeter, more nostalgic young man. Both are great and both even had great success while being covered by bands in the late 70's (Van Halen & The Pretenders, respectively!) 

Finally, it should be mentioned that the record we've been spinning tonight is part of a Kinks' reissue series to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  Its beautifully remastered and restored to its original Mono.  On 180 gram vinyl, its doubtful that this album ever sounded so goddamned good!

RATING: 4.5 bald headed women gonna make me mean, yes, love, it'll make me mean out of 5

Give the People What They Want

The Kinks - "Give The People What They Want" (1981) - Arista

Hello Friends,

Its amazing how good this record is considering it was the Kinks' 18th record and one would think that after 18 years of putting out songs that Ray Davies and company would grow redundant and stale.  Quite the opposite.  This record, along with 1979's Low Budget, would mark the band's renaissance (especially in the U.S. where they spent most of the 70's way under the mainstream radar!)

Its a hard rocking, arena rock-sounding record from the first track, the punky "Around the Dial" through the last, the absolutely perfect power pop song, "Better Things".

After the opener, Side One contains the title track, the creepy "Killers Eyes", the single, "Predictable", and the New Wave-sounding, "Add it Up" (featuring Davies' wife-at-the-time, Chrissie Hynde on sultry background vocals!)

Side Two opens with the album's lead single, "Destroyer", a nod to two earlier Kinks' classics, "All Day and All of the Night" (the guitar riff) and the protagonist from "Lola"-- who since that fated rendezvous has sunk into a deeply paranoid state! 

Side Two continues with "Yo-Yo", "Back to Front" and the super-super creepy, "Art Lover" about a guy who sits in the park and watches young girls frolicking claiming he's an artist and has to study their nubile forms for purposes of his "art".  Nice!

I'm not a flasher in a rain coat

I'm not a dirty old man
I'm not gonna snatch you from your mother

I'm an art lover, come to daddy
Ah, come to daddy, come to daddy

The album closes out with the sad, but hard-rocking "A Little Bit of Abuse" (which may or may not be about Ray & Dave Davies' sister) and the aforementioned "classic", "Better Things". 

Overall a great-- and terribly underrated-- rock & roll record! 

RATING: 4.5 Pretty little legs like a Degas Ballerina out of 5

The One With Kid

The Pretenders - "The Pretenders" (1980) - Sire

Hello Friends,

For some reason, Spring seems to put us in a Pretenders kind of mood and tonight we've got their debut record on the turntable.

Featuring their first single, a cover of the Kinks' song "Stop Your Sobbing" and their first chart-topper, "Brass In Pocket", The Pretenders eponymous record is the perfect balance of punk rock 'tude with big arena rock sounds and production. Raven-haired hottie Chrissie Hynde writes and sings songs with a sneering sexuality that are both radio-friendly and subversive.  Punk rock for the yet-to-be-named MTV Generation.

The manic-sounding "Precious" gets things off to a fast start.  With Hynde's sultry vocals front and center and James Honeyman-Scott's noodling lead guitar providing a gritty counterpoint, the stage is set for one of the defining rock sounds of the 1980's.

"Up the Neck" is a New Wave ballad that sounds like early R.E.M. covering Blondie!

There's a definite Clash influence on "The Wait".

At six and half minutes, "Private Life" is a little meandering.

The heartbreaking ballad, "Lovers of Today" has a nice Beatles/McCartney-esque feel to it (think: "Maybe I'm Amazed").

"Mystery Achievement" sounds like it was a big influence on early U2.

And then there's "Kid"...

Perhaps our all-time favorite Pretenders song!   Its one of those perfect songs... sad & hopeful, nostalgic & haunting.. is it about a prostitute?  Infidelity? A break-up?  All of the above?  Who cares, its awesome, has a great riff and you can dance to it!  Full of grace, you cover your face...  

RATING: 4 Tattooed Love Boys out of 5

Pretenders Deux

The Pretenders - "The Pretenders II" (1981) - Sire

Hello Friends,

We're listening to some early 1980's New Wave courtesy of the Pretenders tonight.  Notable because (a) its the second LP by the Pretenders and (b) the last Pretenders record to feature the original line up of Chrissie Hynde, Pete Farndon (bass), James Honeyman-Scott (guitar) and Martin Chambers (drums).  (By the time Learning To Crawl would be released in 1984, both Farndon and Honeyman-Scott would die of drug overdoses!  Just say No, kids!)

A great album overall, although Tiki T. and I both prefer Learning to Crawl.  

The album's opener-- "The Adultress"-- is one of those Chrissie Hynde as homewrecker/femme fatale songs.  This idea is taken to its extreme on the very next song, "Bad Boys Get Spanked" complete with sneers, grunts and whipping sounds.  Whats not to love about a sexy brunette rock star who likes to get into some rough stuff?

Side One also includes the singles "Message of Love" (like Brigitte Bardot!) and "Talk of the Town", as well as a second great Ray Davies/Kinks cover in as many albums with the lucid "I Go To Sleep"  (Hynde and Davies would have a baby girl together in 1983... Scandalous!)

Also on Side One is the sad and mysterious ballad, "Birds of Paradise" about a childhood romance with jangly, argpeggio guitars and the great lyric:

When I was a little girl

With clay horses and lambs on the shelf

I caught frogs in ditches, listened for elves

Side Two doesn't quite live up to Side One.

"Pack it Up" is a decent punk song; "Waste Not Want Not" is a forgettable reggae-ish tune.  

"Day After Day" is some good pop and if you listen with just the right ears you can hear a little bit of early R.E.M. in there.   

"Jealous Dogs" kind of sucks, however "The English Roses" is pretty amazing.  Some great lyrics and some shredding guitar solos.

"Louie Louie" closes out the album (not the famous Richard Berry/Kingsmen song)-- a horn-laden, dance number with some guitar fills reminiscent of "London Calling".  

Because of the deaths of Farndon and Honeyman-Scott, in retrospect, Pretenders II is a melancholy affair.  Listening to some of the guitar work on the album its really sad to think about what James Honeyman-Scott might have accomplished either in this band or some other one if he just took it easy with the booger sugar!    
  
RATING: 4.5 skies closing on the English roses out of 5

Way to go, Ohio!

Learning to Crawl (1984) is the third Pretenders LP and pretty much every song is good.   The album's title probably refers to the baby Chrissie Hynde recently had with Kinks frontman, Ray Davies.  A lot of the songs (especially "Back in the Chain Gang") contain hints of longing & regret most likely due to the fact that two former members of the band had recently passed away from drug overdoses.  Just say no kids!

Besides "Chain Gang", there's "Middle of the Road", "Show Me", "My City was Gone" and the xmasy, "2000 Miles."  This is Chrissie Hynde at her peak.  Her voice is gritty and sultry, oozing her devil-may-care sexiness.  Her lyrics poignant and nostalgic.  Great riffs throughout.  

RATING: 4.5 black eyeliners out of a possible 5