The Kinks / Kitchensink Drama’s 1964 - 1993
1964 - 1968
1. You Really Got Me / Single A Side August 1964
2. Stop Your Sobbing / The Kinks LP October 1964
3. All Day And All Of The Night / Single A Side October 1964
4. Nothing In The World Can Stop Me / Kinda Kinks LP March 1965
5. Tired Of Waiting For You / Single A Side January 1965
6. See My Friend / Single A Side July 1965
7. A Well Respected Man / Single A Side November 1965
8. Till The End Of The Day / The Kinks Kontroversy LP November 1965
9. Where Have All The Good Times Gone / The Kinks Kontroversy LP November 1965
10. Sunny Afternoon / Single A Side June 1966
11. I’ m Not Like Everybody Else / Single B Side June 1966
12. Rosie Won’t You Please Come Home / Face To Face LP October 1966
13. Dandy / Face To Face LP October 1966
14. Too Much On My Mind / Face To Face LP October 1966
15. A House In The Country / Face To Face LP October 1966
16. Fancy / Face To Face LP October 1966
17. Dead End Street / Single A Side November 1966
18. Big Black Smoke / Single B Side November 1966
19. Waterloo Sunset / Single A Side September 1967
20. David Watts / Something Else LP October 1967
21. Two Sisters / Something Else LP October 1967
22. Situation Vacant / Something Else LP October 1967
23. End Of The Season / Something Else LP October 1967
24. Autumn Almanac / Single A Side October 1967
25. Days / Single A Side July 1968
26. Do You Remember Walter? / Village Green Preservation Society LP July 1968
27. Picture Book / Village Green Preservation Society LP July 1968
28. Johnny Thunder / Village Green Preservation Society LP July 1968
29. Big Sky / Village Green Preservation Society LP July 1968
30. Village Green / Village Green Preservation Society LP July 1968
1969 - 1993
1. Shangri La / Single A Side September 1969
2. Victoria / Arthur LP October 1969
3. Lola / Single A Side June 1970
4. This Time Tomorrow / Lola Versus Powerman LP November 1970
5. Gods Children / Percy Soundtrack LP March 1971
6. Moments / Percy Soundtrack LP March 1971
7. 20th Century Man / Muswell Hillbillies LP November 1971
8. Sitting In My Hotel / Everybody’s In Show Biz LP August 1972
9. Celluloid Heroes / Everybody’s In Show Biz LP August 1972
10. Sweet Lady Genevieve / Preservation Act 1 LP December 1973
11. Money Talks / Preservation Act 2 LP June 1974
12. (A) Face In The Crowd / A Soap Opera LP May 1975
13. I’m In Disgrace / Schoolboys In Disgrace LP November 1975
14. Juke Box Music / Sleepwalker LP February 1977
15. Out Of The Wardrobe / Misfits LP May 1978
16. Better Things / Give The People What They Want LP June 1981
17. Come Dancing / State Of Confusion LP June 1983
18. Do It Again / Word Of Mouth LP November 1984
19. Working At The Factory / Think Visual LP November 1986
20. Did Ya / Phobia LP March 1993
While this may well be heresy, once upon a time I thought The Kinks were just another one of those sixties groups held up as genius Gods. And yet the more I got to know them the more I realised just how out of step and unique they really were. Even in the midst of those halcyon days, Ray Davies was writing wistfully of his idyllic fifties childhood in weird old Albion; of bowler hatted city gents, the magic of steam, everlasting summers, beautiful sunsets and dancing at the Palais. Rather than submerging himself in the prevalent psychedelic freakiness, he chose to go his own way. While everyone was writing song cycles of Far Eastern mysticism, he was writing about a two up two down on the edge of suburbia. He invented his own world and gave it life and in that world, no-one was wearing flowers in their hair, smoking dope or zonking out in a Technicolor 24 hour dream coat. Arguably, the finest example of that imagination was the Village Green Preservation Society LP despite being more Railway Children than kitchen sink drama.
In the early eighties an Australian Kinks nut of my acquaintance visited the old country to experience for himself Davies childhood ‘village’ of Muswell Hill; the gorgeous vistas, the thwack of bat on ball, real ale and the ducks quacking on the pond like an opening scene from Trumpton. Of course, what he got was grimy reality and although we laughed about it after, I could tell he felt cheated. What he’d missed, like so many others, was the album was never intended as a realistic portrayal of sixties Blighty but more of an appeal to preserve all those wonderful sentimental objects, experiences, and fictional characters from the inevitable march of progress and modern indifference. As the man himself sang; "God save little shops, china cups, and virginity". Genius?
As great as albums like Village Green, Face to Face and Something Else were, more often than not they were spectacular commercial failures hardly befitting a group who had once been mainstays of the British charts. The Kinks had become a critics group, the fantastic ‘Lola’ and not so fantastic ‘Apeman’ successful blips in an otherwise bereft seventies. Incredibly they kept at it for another 20 years or so producing a complicated litany of rock operas and stage shows soundtracks. For a while they even became bonafide American rock Gods. Over here they had already been consigned to the past.
So, unlike The Who or The Stones who smashed their way in through the front, The Kinks had to creep into rock history through the back door. With a little help from Britpop, for whom he was a slightly crumbly grandfather figure, Ray Davies is now a very well respected man indeed, albeit a shy, insecure, old fashioned one. The only songwriter of his time to consistently document such a peculiarly English life, I reckon he deserves every accolade he can get.
January 2013
