The Kinks Kountdown: 50-1

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

5. Sunny Afternoon (1966) - single and also on the Face To Face album

This song knocked Paperback Writer off the #1 spot on the UK singles chart.

Ray Davies suffered a breakdown and was away from the band for 6 weeks. While he was recovering, he wrote this song, putting the music together first and then creating an alter-ego to voice his feelings. The lyrics are a sly satire on Britain's tax policies of the time.

Ray Davies: "The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself." So that people didn't sympathize with this decadent moneybags, "I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty."

I gotta big fat mama trying to break me. Ray Davies: "My mother was quite large. But that also alludes to the government, the British Empire, trying to break people. And they're still doing it… (sighs) How are we going to get out of this ****ing mess?"

The iconic sing-along backing vocals were dubbed in by Dave, Ray's wife Rasa and Pete Quaife. Rasa sang the high harmony, and provided the three-word 'in the summertime' refrain that closed the song. Rasa: "That was the only one where I wrote some words. To this day, my gripe is that he didn’t ever give me a credit."

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

4. Dead End Street (1966) - single

This song was the seasonal opposite to Sunny Afternoon:
On a cold and frosty morning / Wipe my eyes and stop me yawning / And my feet are nearly frozen / Boil the tea and put some toast on

Dead End Street concerns the plight of an unemployed couple who have been stuck in a spiral of poverty with the wolf at the door. They admit they are “deep in debt and now it’s much too late.” They want to work hard but, whatever jobs they are applying for, are getting passed over. There are a number of basic problems with their rental accommodation: ceiling cracks, leaking kitchen sink and not sufficient heating. They’ve run out of options and face a bleak future with the rent collector at their door.

The song was Ray Davies' Dickensian portrait of the misery and poverty that plagued many in the lower classes of English society. Ray Davies: "My whole feeling about the '60s was that it's not as great as everyone thinks it is. Carnaby Street, everybody looking happy, that was all a camouflage. That's what Dead End Street was about. I wrote it around the time I had to buy a house and I was terrified. I never wanted to own anything because my dad had never owned property. He'd inherited from his dad that he had to rent all his life. So I still have inbuilt shame of owning anything. It's guilt."

The song originally had a French horn arrangement but it was replaced with a trombone to achieve the somber sound that Ray Davies wanted. "I wanted 'Dead End Street' to be a bit dour and a bit earthy and a bit working-class, and the trombone fitted beautifully," he explained. The trombone was played by John Matthews who was recruited from a nearby pub, and according to Ray “recorded a perfect solo in one take” with time to spare for another pint before the pub closed.

“I’m gonna die on Dead End Street” - reality crashes down. It's dawning on this impoverished couple that they are stuck in this situation, they can't get out of it and there are lots of others like them. A constant battle to pay the bills is all they have to look forward to. Depressing stuff but desperation rarely sounded so catchy.



This video was originally banned by the BBC as it was seen as being in bad taste

 

[Bostonian]

This video was originally banned by the BBC as it was seen as being in bad taste

Always thought there was something very Monty Python like about this clip. Given the dates I always wondered if perhaps the Python mob drew some inspiration from it.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

3. Days (1968) - single

This was on the original 12-song version of the Village Green album but was ultimately held back and released as a non-album single. The single reached #12 in the UK but didn't chart in the US, perhaps highlighting how much the touring ban had hurt them.

Thank you for the days / Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me / I'm thinking of the days / I won't forget a single day, believe me

Though it sounds like dreamy, uplifting pop straight out of the Summer of Love, it's twist is that it's actually a break up song:

You took my life / But then I knew that very soon you'd leave me / But it's all right / Now I'm not frightened of this world, believe me

Despite all the sleepless, lonely nights spent pining for what he's lost, he considers himself better for the experience:

I wish today could be tomorrow / The night is dark / It just brings sorrow, let it wait

He's not exactly moving on though:

And though you're gone / You're with me every single day, believe me

And I'm not sure he ever will. Who can compare to these perfect memories that only become fonder with the passing of time?

 

[Bostonian]

3. Days (1968) - single

This was on the original 12-song version of the Village Green album but was ultimately held back and released as a non-album single. The single reached #12 in the UK but didn't chart in the US, perhaps highlighting how much the touring ban had hurt them.

Thank you for the days / Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me / I'm thinking of the days / I won't forget a single day, believe me

Though it sounds like dreamy, uplifting pop straight out of the Summer of Love, it's twist is that it's actually a break up song:

You took my life / But then I knew that very soon you'd leave me / But it's all right / Now I'm not frightened of this world, believe me

Despite all the sleepless, lonely nights spent pining for what he's lost, he considers himself better for the experience:

I wish today could be tomorrow / The night is dark / It just brings sorrow, let it wait

He's not exactly moving on though:

And though you're gone / You're with me every single day, believe me

And I'm not sure he ever will. Who can compare to these perfect memories that only become fonder with the passing of time?

I've told the family I want this as the song to be played when they are dragging me out of the church in a coffin.

Just a beautiful tune and one of the best pop songs ever created.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I've told the family I want this as the song to be played when they are dragging me out of the church in a coffin.

Just a beautiful tune and one of the best pop songs ever created.

Can almost apply to any memory of the past. Looking back fondly on childhood, or teenage years, friends, loved ones. Anything that has been and gone that has left you with warm memories. Genius wrapped up in pop.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

2. I'm Not Like Everybody Else (1966) - B side

Released as the B-side to Sunny Afternoon.

A rare Kinks song in that it was written by Ray but sung by Dave. Usually whoever wrote a song led the vocals. Ray actually wrote the song for the Animals but they turned it down so the Kinks recorded their own version. Ray also says he wrote I'm Not Like Everybody Else for Dave, often introducing it at shows by saying, "You know, Dave really is not like everybody else."

Dave Davies: "It was never a hit for The Kinks, but over the years every true Kinks fan relates to that particular song, and it's funny, because that particular version is one of the only songs where Ray and I actually swap lead vocals. Elsewhere, when he sings lead I do the octave harmonies, or where I sing lead he's doing background vocals. Ray and I have very different ranges, fortunately, and our textures are different, which really helps for distinctive harmonies."

Every kid when starting high school should have this song played to them each morning. Don't give in to peer pressure, don't conform.

I won't take all that they hand me down
And make out a smile though I wear a frown
And I'm not gonna take this all lying down
'Cause once I get started I go to town
'Cause I'm not like everybody else...

In the more tender second verse, the lyrics underline that this is a rebellious youth you are dealing with who will NOT be tied down:
But darling, you know that I love you true / Do anything that you want me to / Confess all my sins like you want me to / But there's one thing that I will say to you... / I'M NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!

The song itself has endured with Kinks fans and lives on through both Ray and Dave's solo sets. In a way, it has become almost a motto for the band itself. The Kinks certainly weren't like every other band.

 

[Bostonian]

An excellent choice for #2. The only other song in their catalogue that could rival Days for coming second behind Waterloo Sunset. Lyrically this could be the first punk song ever.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

1. Waterloo Sunset (1967) - single and also on the Something Else By The Kinks album

Ray initially held off sharing the lyrics — about a loner who "don't need no friends" — with the rest of the band. "I was embarrassed by how personal [the lyrics] were. It was like an extract from a diary nobody was allowed to read. I’d had a breakdown. At first, I didn’t show the lyrics to the band in case they sfellowed."

The single reached No 2 in the UK charts (behind the Tremeloes' Silence Is Golden) but failed to chart in the US.

The tension between the lonely observer and the teeming metropolis is the bittersweet heart of this song. Ray Davies: "Waterloo is a part of London that has always had a lot of significance for me. When I was a kid, my father took me there to see the 1951 Festival of Britain. As we looked at the Skylon tower, he said: “I think that’s meant to be the future.” Then, when I was 13, I had a bad injury and my ward in St Thomas’ hospital overlooked the river and Parliament. It’s a very vivid memory. Also, as a student at Croydon College of Art, I used to change trains at Waterloo. There was a romantic element too: as a teenager, I used to walk along Waterloo Bridge with my girlfriend. I carried these thoughts around in my head for years, then suddenly the song popped out. The tune and the lyrics came together very quickly, almost like the song was writing me, not the other way round. "

Mick Avory: "We had a lot of ruckuses in the Kinks but, funnily enough, when we finally recorded Waterloo Sunset, everyone was in harmony."

It came in at #42 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list. For me it sits on a pedestal with songs like God Only Knows and A Day In The Life as examples of musical perfection.

Ray Davies: "My work is better than I am. I just don't live up to it. I'd love to be as good as Waterloo Sunset."

 

[worbod]

An enjoyable read although I am surprised there was no room for Plastic Man, Wonder Boy or Come Dancing.

 

[Bostonian]

Well done to @Drugs Are Bad Mackay? on a brilliant bit of work.

Thoroughly enjoyed the countdown.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

An enjoyable read although I am surprised there was no room for Plastic Man, Wonder Boy or Come Dancing.

Plastic Man has always sounded a bit "novelty" to me. I know a lot of their songs are a bit like that but it just doesn't have that edge that I like about most of their music. Wonderboy was closer. Apparently was John Lennon's favorite Kinks track! A bit like Plastic Man though all the La, La-la-la-la, La-la-la-la's put me off. A bit twee. Again, I know a lot of their songs are a bit like that but it just crosses the line of acceptable twee-ness for me!

Would love to see other people's iists though.

I only got one of their later tracks in. Nothing off Misfits, Sleepwalker or even Muswell Hillbillies. Though I like some songs from that period I just don't get into those albums in the same was as I do their 1964-70 output.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Couple of cool Ray Davies tracks that he wrote for other artists:



There's a scratchy demo the Kinks recorded at some stage but I don't know if they ever did a proper version of it.



Only Kinks recording I can find of this is off the BBC Sessions

 

[worbod]

I can recall about 25 years ago browsing through some magazines in a local newsagent. I noticed a music magazine which had as one of its headlines "The 50 Heaviest Guitar Riffs of all Time." I decided to have a quick look through the main article but expected it would be full of heavy metal songs. I was therefore delighted to see some older acts in the top 10, including Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin twice, and there at number one was The Kinks with All Day and All of the Night.

 

[Marcel Proust]

The day they knocked down the pally

 

[stax on the mull]

There's kind of a pt 2 of Waterloo Sunset called Lavender Lane. I heard as one of the bonus tracks on the re-issue of Muswell Hillbillies - which is pretty good Kinks album in its original form - kind of like a folk/jug band/americana version of Village Green with darker themes. It has the top song Oklahoma USA that was covered on Yo La Tengo's Facebook album.

 

[Partridge]

8. Death Of A Clown (1967) - off the Something Else By The Kinks album (originally a Dave Davies solo release)

Dave Davies' first great song. Ray had been the group's chief songwriter up until this point but Dave contributed three songs on Something Else... and started to emerge from his brother's shadow.

In an unusual decision the song was initially released in July of 1967 as a Dave Davies solo single but also appeared on the Something Else... album released by The Kinks in September of that year. The single hit #3 in the UK, prompting Dave to consider embarking on a solo career. When subsequent singles were met with less success, the idea was set aside.

The song caused a stir of jealousy in his older brother. Ray pettily tried to take him down a peg by introducing him in concert at times as "Dave 'Death of a Clown' Davies."

In the July 2011 documentary (Dave Davies: Kinkdom Come), Dave said this song resulted from him sitting at the piano and feeling unhappy with his life, that there should be something else. It was about disillusion, even though at the time he had fame, fortune, drugs and beautiful girls, there was something missing. He drew the analogy with a clown who makes everyone laugh but is really crying.

Dave Davies: "One night I nodded off at a party and woke up and saw all these decadent people running around. I had a vision of being a circus clown. I thought, “What are we doing?” We were going from day to day to day like performing seals. And that’s where I got the idea for 'Death of a Clown.' I went back to me mum’s house with the same old out-of-tune piano and I plunked out three notes, and it turned into the song."

Nicky Hopkins (who appeared regularly on Kinks' recordings) played the distinctive intro, using fingerpicks on the strings of a piano.

Yep. He was on every album from Kontroversy to Village Green, until Ray in his infinite wisdom decided to give himself all the keyboard credit for Village Green. The normally extremely mild-mannered Hopkins stopped working with them (read him) after that. Letting him slot in rather nicely with the Stones at almost exactly the same time.

 

[Partridge]

Yeah banned from touring from 1966-69 in the USA. Reasons still a bit vague ("a union thing" the most likely) and some conspiracy theories around I will explore later.

Basically cut them off at the knees. And when the ban was lifted they were largely performing social commentaries on English life that didn't translate.

Missing the road didn't help either. I think it was X-Ray where Davies said they supported the Who in 1969 (after of course being the headliner five years before) and being stunned by how incredible the Who had become as a live act and realising what they'd missed by not touring as much. Davies kind of losing his mind and focus for a few years in the early 1970s (endlessly trying to remake the Preservation album) was another factor.

 

[Spearman]

Went to downtown Seattle in 78 to catch the Kinks supporting the Beach Boys; outdoor show in a soccer stadium. Despite the lack of atmosphere, still a good presentation of their music. Kicked the Boys' butts at least. I saw BBs a couple years earlier for my first real concert, and they were one of, if not the best rock-n-roll show I've ever seen.
A favorite song and rendition of Celluloid Heroes, mostly for Dave's guitar intro, great LP tone.


some punky Kinks from 1964

 

[Noel Gallagher]

Went to downtown Seattle in 78 to catch the Kinks supporting the Beach Boys; outdoor show in a soccer stadium. Despite the lack of atmosphere, still a good presentation of their music. Kicked the Boys' butts at least. I saw BBs a couple years earlier for my first real concert, and they were one of, if not the best rock-n-roll show I've ever seen.
A favorite song and rendition of Celluloid Heroes, mostly for Dave's guitar intro, great LP tone.


some punky Kinks from 1964

Great taste in music mate, Beach Boys and Kinks on the same bill, amazing

 

[rocker_oz33]

She walked like a woman ,but talked like a man ...
When he squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine.

 

[Fossie 32]

46. Wait Till The Summer Comes Along (1965) - Kwyet Kinks EP

A largely forgotten Dave Davies composition, it was also released on the US-only Kinkdom album. It is now included on the expanded edition of their second album, Kinda Kinks. The longing, plaintive nature of this song is quite haunting and it is an example of the type of songwriting the group was moving towards - away from their early rock sound.

 

[Fossie 32]

45. Picture Book (1968) - off The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society album

Releasing a 'nostalgic concept album' during the cultural upheaval of the late 60s didn't really strike a chord with the public. The album was critically acclaimed at the time of release but sold poorly. However, it has stood the test of time and is regarded by many as The Kinks finest album. It appears in the Rolling Stone magazine Best 500 albums of all-time (at 255).

Picture Book was tucked away as an album track for 36 years, but in 2004 the song was cleverly used in an ad by Hewlett-Packard which coincided with the release of a deluxe version of this album.

Ray Davies: "I always knew that song would have its day. Sometimes you just know. It was never a hit, but it’s become a hit in another way.”

Hah Wiki says it was only released as a single in Australia. Good for us! I got it soon after it came out [still have it.]

 

[Fossie 32]

40. Mindless Child of Motherhood (1969) - B side to the Drivin' single

Another killer Dave Davies composition, it outshines the A-side by a considerable margin. This one got kicked off the Arthur... album. Didn't fit in with the concept of the album? Or a power play by Ray?

When he was 15, Dave got a girl pregnant, followed by his mother lying to him by telling him that the girl wanted nothing to do with him, so he never saw his daughter. It was clearly a key incident in his life, as it came out in more than one song.

I know that it’s not fair
To bear a bastard son
But why do you hide there
When we could have shared a love?

Swirling guitars and rolling bass suddenly lurch into drum rolls and power chords. Anguished, haunting lyrics surrounded by uplifting music which has quite a strange effect.

The song also appeared on the 1972 compilation album, Kink Kronikles (designed for the American market), which included various singles and unreleased tracks.

Dave finally met his daughter in 1993.

 

[Fossie 32]

36. Brainwashed (1969) - off the Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire) album

Ray Davies constructed this concept album as the soundtrack to a television play. However, the television program was cancelled and never produced. The rough plot revolved around Arthur Morgan, a carpet-layer, who was based on Ray and Dave's brother-in-law. Arthur Anning.

The Davies brothers' older sister Rose emigrated to Australia in 1964 with her husband, Arthur. The lead character in the album, the fictional Arthur Morgan—modelled after Anning—is a carpet layer whose family's plight in the opportunity-poor setting of post-war England is depicted. Ray Davies would later comment that Anning later "told me that he ... knew it [Arthur] had been partly inspired by him ... [it] reminded him of home ... I told Arthur that I felt guilty for using him as a subject for a song, but he shrugged off my apology, saying that he was flattered."

This was the first album recorded without their original bassist, Pete Quaife. He was replaced by John Dalton.

You look like a real human being
But you don't have a mind of your own
Yeah, you can talk, you can breathe
You can work, you can stitch, you can sew
But you're brainwashed
Yes you are, yes you are
Get down on your knees
You've got a job and a house
And a wife, and your kids and a car
Yeah, you're conditioned to be
What they want you to be
And be happy to be where you are

not very flattering