Posted on 04/16/2021 5:56:29 AM PDT by hardspunned
https://youtu.be/O5jfmLPE1mQ
https://youtu.be/nK0MxYu-EG8
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
Ray Davies gets overlooked when songwriters are discussed. IMO, he’s on the level of Paul Simon and ahead of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A tremendous amount of very solid output over many years. Wife and I saw him in Atlanta about 12 years back, he played for 2 hours and still didn’t get to much of his better known songs. Also, he’s a natural ham, someone that loves entertaining and really tries to put on a good show.
The Kinks don’t get mentioned often enough when discussing rock and roll history. They’ve been together almost forever putting out solid, clever eminently listenable music.
L
The Kinks got banned in the US for years in the 60s by the music union and it set back their career in the American market.
I did not know that.
Thanks.
L
Could someone, at their idle convenience, explain what this thread is about?
I would not go as far as that but I agree he is a very underrated song writer and the Kinks were a very underrated band. For some reason, starting in the early-mid 70s they got dismissed as "just another" British AM type pop band. Nothing was farther from the truth. This song, in fact the whole album is proof positive of this. (As was "Arthur" "Lola" "Village Green Preservation" , etc. etc.) These lyrics ring truer today than they did 50+ years ago when this song was written. Every boomer age conservative can relate to 20th Century Man.
On an related note, I have always maintained that "You Really Got Me Now" was the first hard rock song of all time and was the pre-cursor to what we now call Heavy Metal (Of which I am NOT a fan)It was Ray's brother Dave who developed the way that guitar sounded in that song.
All in all great stuff!
In my humble opinion, Muswell hillbillies is arguably the best kinks album.
My wife and I saw them in the 1980 one for the road tour at the Curtis hixon Hall in tampa. Excellent show.
“The tax man’s taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
And I can’t sail my yacht
He’s taken everything I got
All I’ve got’s this sunny afternoon”
“I think I’m so educated
And I’m so civilized
‘Cause I’m a strict vegetarian
And with the over population
And inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an apeman”
See my tag line
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