God Save The Kinks, Pt.1

Rounding out the month of August and into early September, I'll be showcasing the song craft of Ray Davies and the music of The Kinks. Select tracks from their extensive, though spotty catalog will be presented over three installments with a focus on Davies keen wit and astute portrayal of the common man. The selections I've compiled are not intended to be considered a definitive Kinks collection as there will be holes large enough to drive a semi-truck through. They'll merely reflect my own personal favorites from the mind and pen of songwriter, Ray Davies. Additionally, they will not be presented in any organized fashion ie: chronological, top 100, etcetera. The only real criteria applied is my liking for the song and arranged in a flow that sounds good to my ear, and hopefully to yours as well.

Artists who embrace change and growth will end up fashioning careers that are marked in several distinct phases, some good, others bad. The Kinks were no exception to this rule. From their early beginnings as a ruckus beat group, their first recordings were steeped in American blues which slid easily into the gritty rock and roll of early hits like, 'You Really Got Me' and 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?' Releasing no less than 4 LP's in 1965 alone should give one an idea of the temporal nature of those early sides, recordings that resulted in a kind of raw excitement both on and off stage. That excitement also served to banish them from American shores for several years, a subject which the band likely would sooner forget. This may have been a blessing in disguise however, as the belligerent guitar work and sneering vocals (and who could forget the red velvet hunting garb?) that accompanied these dates quickly gave way to the more mature, experimental, and quasi-psychedelic recordings of 'Face To Face,' 'Something Else,' and 'The Village Green Preservation Society.' Perhaps it was precisely because they were not spending their time endlessly traversing the highways of America that The Kinks were able to reinvent themselves so completely and gracefully. Additionally, it was also during this period that Ray Davies' songwriting genius became increasingly apparent, as his compositions reached new heights by virtue of his ability to linger in his own thoughts for more than a few hours at a time. And for a time, what noble thoughts they were. Always wary of emotional entanglement, and prone to observing people from afar, this became an opportunity for Davies to craft meaningful music from the results of his societal study and that of his own inner world --- a world in which he longed for an England that had ceased to exist --- and in the process he became rock music's "most loyal advocate of the little working people who are marooned by virtue of humble birth on the dead end streets, and whose existence the architects of the great middle-class refuse to own up to."* As The Kink's principle songwriter, Ray Davies became the socially conscious champion of England's simple, ordinary, and forgotten people while creating some of the strongest and most memorable music of his career. With an acute insight to human nature and a wit like that of a "bastard child of Oscar Wilde,"* Davies wrote with incisive perception, biting humor and profound humanism. Demonstrating his love for the British music hall form, his compositions began to echo the sound of working class pubs as he crafted wonderful character sketches of the English 'everyman.' Always the satirist, he also took occasional aim at the empty lives of the idly rich with merciless results. These familiar themes continued into The Kinks next phase of recordings beginning with, 'Arthur ...Or The Decline Of The British Empire,' through 'Lola vs. Powerman and The Moneygoround,' and his back-to-the-roots, 'Muswell Hillbillies.' But before discussing those, we'll begin with the first set of the series, God Save The Kinks.

Again, as a heads up for those expecting to find something resembling a Kinks career boxed set, the majority of the selections featured in the God Save The Kinks series are taken primarily from the releases pictured below, although a few others predate these titles. These nine recordings I believe, represent the golden years for Ray Davies and The Kinks.

God Save The Kinks, Pt.1

1) Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
2) Apeman
3) Animals In The Zoo
4) When I Turn Off The Living Room Light
5) The Village Green Preservation Society
6) Do You Remember Walter?
7) Days
8) Oklahoma U.S.A.
9) Shangri-La
10) Pictures In The Sand
11) Dandy
12) Lola
13) 20th Century Man
14) The Way Love Used To Be
15) Alcohol
16) Holiday
17) Sitting By The Riverside
18) I'm On An Island
19) Mr. Songbird
20) End Of The Season
21) No Return
22) Village Green
23) Afternoon Tea
24) Where Did My Spring Go?
25) Misty Water
26) Little Miss Queen Of Darkness
27) Picture Book
28) Kentucky Moon
29) Sunny Afternoon
30) Funny Face

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*Courtesy of Kinks Kronikler, John Mendelssohn.