This Strange Effect: A Kink-Sized Obession (Liam)

Sheila, you are the best – thanks for giving me the forum to get some ideas about the Kinks out of my head and out into the world! And so, here is the first entry of:

This Strange Effect: A Kink-Sized Obsession

Ray and Dave Davies, Pete Quaife, and Mick Avory, you’ve got this strange effect on me. There’s too much on my mind to know where to begin really. What aspect of this nearly life-long obsession to begin with? Heck, I will start at the beginning and try to not get too sidetracked.

The first conversation I recall about the Kinks was at my grandparents’ house sometime in the early 70s. My aunt Regina, my uncle Tom and his buddies were going to see the Kinks in concert that night. My brother Mike and I didn’t know who the Kinks were – we were completely obsessed with the Beatles due to Tom’s record collection. Tom insisted that we did know the Kinks and did a bit of air guitar singing ‘You Really Got Me.’ To my still present embarrassment, I did not recognize the song. Mike, however, did – from one of the ubiquitous ‘British Invasion!’ record set commercials that were running at the time -which of course consisted of all the one-hit-wonders and also-rans (no Beatles, Stones, or Who) – and “You Really Got Me” probably was the best number. So Regina and Tom got to see the Kinks live in their alcohol fueled, ramshackle ‘Lola’ days and I completely forgot about them as I went back to ‘Revolver’ and ‘Abbey Road.’

Years later I have become a huge Queen fan. I am still into the Beatles, a little Stones, but I’m in Junior High and trying to get with the new music that the cool guys like. I like Zeppelin’s first album and some of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’, but the guitars, melodies and harmonies of Queen really catch my attention. Exit cool guys. So here I am again at my grandparents house and I’m trying to tell Regina how great Queen is, and I play her a few tracks from ‘A Night at the Opera.’ She hates ‘Death on Two Legs,’ the opener, but does take a shine to ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’ – she says “This is good, it reminds me of the Kinks.” In hindsight, of course it does, the title, the lyrics, the whole performance is a Kinks homage.

Well, now that I know that the Kinks could have possibly influenced my heroes Queen, I go to the record store to buy a Kinks album. Here’s where the obsession proper begins, and it begins in appropriately odd Kinks fashion. As anyone who was introduced to them in the days of vinyl knows, the Kinks have possibly the most incomprehensible discography of any major band in history. They are most certainly outdone in the “shoddy compilations” category only by the Who. Finding their early, or even mid 60s, records was impossible. I think that ‘Low Budget’ was on the charts at this time, but I was interested in the 60s Kinks. So I got the compilation with the most songs, there were like 20: ‘Golden Hour of the Kinks.’ This was one of those crappy thin records that you could fold like an omelette – which is how they fit 20 songs on it.

The track listing, again in retrospect, is completely ridiculous – it is not chronological, there is no theme, three songs from the early days are sandwiched between much later more developed songs – it just makes no sense. But the songs – it truly is a Golden Hour! A great introduction to the Kinks that I played over and over again. “You Really Got Me”, “All Day and All of the Night”, and “Tired of Waiting” are all justifiably on this and five thousand other comps. But this one also had the magnificent “Where Have All the Good Times Gone” – later massacred by Van Halen in similar fashion to their You Really Got Me atrocity. And there was “Till the End of the Day”- one of the better “You Really Got Me” rip-offs with a fantastic guitar solo. But the songs that really got me were “Shangri-la”, “Animal Farm”, and “Autumn Almanac”. These sent me over the edge into full blown Kinks mania. They are perfect songs – the playing, the writing, the sounds, all just perfect.

I played that album over and over. And over. I found that songs like “Victoria” and “Shangri-la” had everything I wanted from rock – great lyrics, harmonies, and most importantly, a rocking beat. “Victoria” is simply one of the greatest rock songs ever written, and the performance is absolutely outstanding. You can feel the excitement in the room – it just builds and builds. The mix of acoustic and electric guitar is genius. The guitar riffs twist in and out around the melody in the verse and crash and bash in chorus. By the time the band reaches the guitar solo, they are on fire – and then they slam it home with the “Canada to India” part with the power chords. Ray’s voice sounds weird, in a different register than usual, but great. But the best part is definitely Dave yelling with excitement after solo and as they take it home: “Aah hah!” “Oh yeah!”. What a song. Oh yeah, and the horn riffs in the middle break. Good lord. I went out and bought “Arthur” – which has “Victoria” and “Shangri-la,” and the brilliant “Yes Sir, No Sir” (some of Dave’s coolest riffs) “Brainwashed,” “Driving,” and the tearjerker “Young and Innocent Days”. I pinched other records from Tom – the most essential being the 2 record set “Kink Kronikles,” which is an awesome collection with a lot of b-sides and such that were impossible to find elsewhere.

And I started a band. Being a guitar player, I was very excited to learn that even with my limited abilities, I could bash out a decent version of “Where Have All the Good Times Gone” – whereas a convincing version of “And Your Bird Can Sing” or “She Said, She Said” was out of my league – and 20 years later, remains so.

And so: “This Strange Effect.” This song I was just introduced to a couple of months ago, when I bought the fairly recent “Live at the BBC” compilation. A genius composition that Ray gave to some fella named Dave Barry, who had an international hit with it. Great moody minor chords and beautiful guitar lines from Dave. And the title is so appropriate for what the Davies brothers have done to me.

The la la las, the ba ba bas. The descending bass lines, used over and over in so many songs, but oh so nicely. The “You Really Got Me” chord stutter, used over and over and over in maybe even more songs, but to such great effect every time. The beautiful backing oohs and aahs from Ray’s wife Rasa. Dave’s solos – some manic, over the top, completely insane, others perfectly mapped out to the note. The lyrics, which remain so touching, humorous and surprising. The way the vocals of both Ray and Dave have this unbearable sadness to them sometimes, at other times such glee. And the rhythm section of Pete Quaife and Mick Avory that made sure the Kinks were still a rock and roll band. you know, with a damn rock beat. The Kinks. What a band.

The latest objects of my obsession are the BBC comp, a bootleg called “The Great Lost Kinks Album” (which is mostly the “Great Lost Dave Davies Solo Album as Backed by the Kinks), and the two insanely great mid sixties albums “Face to Face” and “Something Else.” Of course 2 weeks cannot go by without a complete listen to “Village Green” – but that’s another story. So that’s how I got into the Kinks and can’t get out. Obsessive details about aforementioned descending bass lines, guitar riffs, song similarities, lyrical subject matter and Dave’s interest in UFOS to follow.

Thank you Sheila, I had to get that off my chest!

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9 Responses to This Strange Effect: A Kink-Sized Obession (Liam)

  1. red says:

    Yay, Liam! That is SO great!!! I loved every word.

    Great job! Look forward to reading more.

  2. Liam says:

    Couldn’t have done without YOU babe! Thanks a million!
    More to come!

  3. Lisa says:

    I know people sometimes get all in a huff when a song is commercialized, literally, in a commercial. They think the group or person has somehow sold out by attaching their art to a product.

    But take “Picture Book.” From the first moment I saw that commercial, I loved that song. But I’d never heard it before, so I asked my boss, who is quite the 60s and 70s rock historian for all his judicial-ness, who sang it and he said, “The Kinks.”

    And that made me want to listen to more of The Kinks, more beyond “You Really Got Me”. Isn’t that a good thing, naysayers of commercials?

    So, yay Kinks!

  4. red says:

    I think I need to listen to “Victoria” again.

  5. Liam says:

    Right on Lisa! You know I was just thinking about that very commercial this weekend – and I thought, this is great, if it turns people on to the Kinks. Especially because the record was a complete commercial flop when it came out. Ba ba ba ba ba!

  6. Wes says:

    Liam, you’ve said it all.

    Interestingly, my first Kinks album was a copy of “The Great Lost Kinks Album” my parents had on reel-to-reel tape! I still have never seen an *actual* copy of that album, but it remains one of my favorites, and even though I now know it was just a hodgepodge of b-sides and singles, I still think of it as a concept album as strong as anything they ever did! There are only a couple of tracks that aren’t on the latest series of rereleases, and hopefully that will be remedied soon.

    I’m a big Who fan, too, but Kinks fans (esp. of the middle-era stuff) are harder to come by.

    See you at the village green sometime,

    Wes

  7. don says:

    i first became aware of the kinks with their song LOLA. then i found out how many great songs they had put out. the remakes are not half as good as the originals. i have their greatest hits that is put out by rhino records. besides the songs everyone is familar with. my faves are SUNNY AFTERNOON and A WELL RESPECTED MAN

  8. mere says:

    love it! My favorites- Victoria..and their Christmas song..Father Christmas i think its called.

  9. Hank says:

    Liam,

    I am really enjoying your posts on the
    Kinks. Celluloid Heroes has always been one of
    my favorite albums. Your posts compell
    me to look into buying more. Thanks for taking
    the time to write. Red, thanks for giving Liam
    the opportunity.

    Regards,
    Hank

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