Buttmunker

I’ve known about The Kinks all my life, but I have not known them beyond their biggest hits (Lola, Tired of Waiting for You, All Day and All of The Night, Come Dancing, and A Well Respected Man, for example). But out of curiosity, I decided to “go fishing,” as I often do with unexplored bands, and came up with songs that a) I never heard of; b) absolutely love

Here’s an example:
Village Green, Ape Man, Better Things, Victoria, The Village Green Preservation Society, Picture Book, Harry Rag, Animal Farm, Days, Sunny Afternoon, and I’m Not Like Everybody Else

Good stuff. Of course, in my expedition, I found more than that, but some I really didn’t like at all, and some were actually sort of embarrassing.
What’s your take on this group, which never reached the heights of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

cungar

I love... some of the Kinks. Their early singles were great and their 4 or 5 late 60's/early 70's albums Arthur, Village Green Preservation Society, Something Else, Lola Vs Powerman and Muswell Hillbillies rival the Beatles for songwriting brilliance and great pop performances.

Now after that things get rough. Not a fan of Ray's forays into \music hall wackiness. Preservation, A Soap Opera, Schoolboys in Disgrace etc have their moments but mostly dreck. Sleepwalker and Misfits are both pretty good but after that they just became generic stadium rockers.

That said Ray Davies ranks in my top 5 songwriters with Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan.

statcat

I like them more than the Beatles (easily) and Rolling Stones (just a bit). I like all of their 60s output but beyond that not so much. It's kind of the same thing for The Who and Rolling Stones for me.

a couple favorites apart from the singles: I Need You, I Believed You, Come on Now, All Night Stand, Where Have All the Good Times Gone, Party Line, Lazy Old Sun etc.

rw2516

I grew up hearing all the hits but never really got interested them until I saw them. For something to do one night we went to see them in a small hall(3000 capacity). This was summer of 1980 when Low Budget was getting a lot of airplay. A very young Johnny Cougar opened for them. I was suprised how much they rocked. The live album from that tour "One For The Road" is a favorite live album. Although I like the majority of the early Pye material, the later stuff isn't by bag except for the few really great songs and the rockers.

Other good songs:

Superman
20th Century Man
Rock and Roll Fantasy
Celluloid Heroes
Catch Me Now I'm Falling

wendersfan

Here's a (somewhat chronological) favorites listing:

Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me From Worryin' 'Bout That Girl
Set Me Free
Well Respected Man
Till The End Of The Day
Where Have All The Good Times Gone
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
Party Line
Rosie Won't You Please Come Home
Rainy Day In June
Sunny Afternoon
I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Dead End Street
Big Black Smoke
Yes Sir, No Sir
Shangri-La
Plastic Man
David Watts
Death Of A Clown
Harry Rag
Tin Soldier Man
Love Me 'Til The Sun Shines
Waterloo Sunset
Strangers
Powerman
The Village Green Preservation Society
Do You Remember Walter
Picture Book
Johnny Thunder
Last Of The Steam Powered Trains
Big Sky
Village Green
20th Century Man
Holiday
Alcohol
Complicated Life
Have a Cuppa Tea

Obviously I'm a big fan. The Kinks compete with The Small Faces and The Who in terms of who I consider to be my '2nd favorite band', after Big Star.

mickey65

"Give the People What they Want" is a great album. "Destroyer" is my favorite song on that one.

cungar

I liked Destroyer better when it was called Jumping Jack Flash.

You are really missing out if you think this is the best of the Kinks albums.

cungar

Great list.

slop101

I saw Ray Davies do his little solo gig last year. He just ran through a bunch of Kinks stuff (along with a few solo numbers), while telling stories in his charming English manner - it was a fantastic, low-key show. But what struck me was the sheer number of great songs Davies had written - he didn't even get to a lot of my favorites, but it didn't matter because the guy can't write a bad song - good, pure pop/rock songs just flow out of the his ass with seemingly little effort.

Geofferson

I'll add This Time Tomorrow and Strangers to the songs I like. The Kinks have always been underrated, imo.

cungar

Strangers is on the list

I'd add Get Back in Line

starman9000

Have been listening to This Time Tomorrow and VGPS over and over the past week. Nice to see all these lists.

mickey65

Well, I've never liked "Come Dancing" and "Lola" I'm sick of since it's over-played on the radio.

I only have two Kinks albums - GTPWTW and Low Budget. "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" is another great tune.

cungar

Please do yourself a great favor and listen to these 5 albums

1967 Something Else by The Kinks
1968 The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
1969 Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
1970 Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
1971 Muswell Hillbillies

Or at least get the great complilation The Kinks Kronicles

You guys are really missing out if you think those albums are even close to the best things the Kinks ever did.

statcat

wow someone who likes the kinks, who, small faces, and big star. Good taste, some of my faves too. I think the small faces are my favorite of the bunch.

I noticed hardly any songs from the kinks beat/blues era get mentioned though, it always starts with late 60s songs.

wendersfan

For me at least, other than the singles/b-sides, the pre-Face To Face material isn't quite as good, since they did a lot of covers and that wasn't playing to their strength, IMO. The Beatles, the Stones, and The Who were all great covers bands. I don't think the same thing applies for The Kinks. Everything from Face To Face through Muswell Hillbillies is a masterpiece, IMO.

Re: The Small Faces - I was listening to selections from Ogden's Nut Gone Flake while walking around at lunch.

cungar

Their strength has always been Ray's songwriting and he matured tremendously as a songwriter during that string of classic albums we're talking about. Basically he went from singing about getting laid to becoming the voice of the average bloke living an aimless life in suburbia. Even Pete Townshend has said he conseiders Davies a better songwriter than he is.

Supermallet

I love the Kinks, and wenders is correct, Face to Face through Muswell Hilbillies is an amazing run of albums, although I still prefer The Who.

statcat

yeah but it's got that raw rock n roll element to it I like, kind of like a garage band. I consider their best album Kontroversy but I'm probably the only one in the world who thinks that. It is where they became more unique songwriting and music wise I think, face to face wasn't the start of it.

The early Who covers like Please Please Please are kind of lame in my opinion. It's like Daltrey is trying to sound like James Brown, whereas with Steve Marriott, Steve Winwood, Reg King (of the Action) it works to me because they aren't strictly imitating.

porieux

Lazy Old Sun is a highly underrated track IMO.

Andalusia

"Destroyer" lifted from "All Day and All of the Night". I think you're referring to "Catch Me Now I'm Falling".

I love the Kinks, and I consider Arthur to be one of my favorite albums of all time.

Franchot

One of the amazing things about Ray Davies and the Kinks is their sheer output and longevity in the business. I've followed them for years and years and years and you could pretty much count on them releasing an album/LP/CD each year. Many a time I figured that they had finally burned out and were ready to become an oldies band, but then they would reinvent themselves with new material and ideas. And their live shows were truly entertaining as each year they went out on the road to support their new recordings.

If you want a great overview of the Kinks music, try this:

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/sear...ok%2FThe-Kinks

But, of course, it's in no way as complete as a Kink fanatic would want it to be.

(Several of the Kinks CDs were remastered into the SACD format when SACD was going to be the next big thing.)

wendersfan

The Who covers off My Generation are not so great. I should have prefaced my remarks by pointing out that, for the last several months, close to 100% of my music listening has been live Who bootlegs, so I'm talking about covers they did live like "Fortune Teller", "Summertime Blues", Young Man's Blues", etc.

Buttmunker

The song Arthur actually has a great "lost" Kinks riff that could have been a decent hit for them, had they released it or played it on the radio! A great find.

bobert3

Back in 1996, I got to see the Kinks, the energy that Ray had was awesome. Easily one of the best bands that I have ever seen live.