smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | matty karas <mkaras@mindspring.com> |
| Subject | kronikling the kinks |
| Date | Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:22:32 -0400 (EDT) |
[Part 1 text/plain us-ascii (2.9 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
<<does anyone have any insight into the Kinks catalog--particularly, what are people's favorite albums, how do they feel about the band's different eras, etc? Also, does anyone know of a place where you can read up on the story of their three rock operas (ie is there a site online someplace that distills the plot a bit?)>>
jason,
both subjectively (i.e. i say) and objectively (i.e. so does everybody else!), the kinks' absolute pinnacle was the 1967/68 albums "something else by the kinks" and "village green preservation society." those two albums are their "rubber soul" and their "revolver," the reason they existed, the reason that perhaps i myself exist.
going back to the beginning, their first two albums (going by british releases; their catalog in the u.s. was messed up from the beginning) are great british invasion bash-it-out rock and roll with some sweet and weird underpinnings; "the kink kontroversy" is a nice though uneven transitional move into their paradisical pop moment; and "face to face," the album right before "something else," is a near-masterpiece that prefigures the next two albums while rocking significantly harder than either of 'em. it's one of the great garage-rock albums of the '60s, and it's a damn good folk-pop album at the same time.
then came the two pop masterpieces, of which i could write an essay about every single song, from "waterloo sunset" to "no return" to "two sisters" to "people take pictures of each other" to "do you remember walter?" and on and on and on. if only i had the time.
they made consistently good albums for several years after that, meaning the "arthur" (rock opera no. 1), "lola" and "muswell hillbillies" albums, all of which i like very much, and all of which i'd say are a bit overrated. they're all four-star albums that everyone calls five-star albums, but that's just me talking. "the kink kronikles" is a fantastic -- i mean !@#$ing brilliant -- two-disc compilation of all these albums going back to "face to face" with lots of b-sides thrown in, but if you've bought all the reissues of the original albums with all the bonus tracks, then you're not gonna need "kink kronikles."
then came the sucky rock opera period; i can't stand 'em, even if there are good songs scattered randomly through all of 'em. i don't know exactly where you can read up on the particular operas, but you should try snooping around here -- http://kinks.it.rit.edu/ -- which is a fantastic site and the only kinks site that matters.
"sleepwalker," "misfits," "low budget" and "give the people what they want" are big lumbering classic-rock radio albums, which represent the kinks at their most commercially popular but not at all at their best. but they're perfectly decent big lumbering rock records, with the ofter-humorous "low budget" standing half a head above the others.
everything they made after that is absolute, unredeemable dreck.
matty
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.