CD Odyssey Disc 952: The Kinks

After a month of cooling it on CD purchases the holidays have brought a glut of new albums into the house from various sources. I’ll discuss each in detail when I roll it, but here’s a taster:

• Three in my stocking. Two were solid (“Searching for Sugarman” and the new Band of Horses album “Why Are You OK?”). One did not impress (Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions”).
• One in Sheila’s stocking – a greatest hits compilation of the Thompson Twins that I enjoyed more than I expected I would.
• One gift from my friend Patrick – Scott Fagan’s “South Atlantic Blues”. This record was very cool and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better.
• Five that I purchased with a combination of a gift certificate and cold hard cash. Two albums by modern metal band The Sword (“Age of Winters” and “Gods of the Earth”), Prince’s “1999”, Hard Working Americans’ “Rest in Chaos” and the very hard to find “Live at the West End Cultural Centre” by Scruj MacDuhk.

I’m looking forward to getting to know all these albums better.

Disc 952 is….The Kinks (Self-Titled)

Artist: The Kinks

Year of Release: 1964

What’s up with the Cover? The suits say these young lads are fine upstanding citizens, but just one look at their scandalously long hair should tell you to lock up your daughters. Also, is that orange glow a reflection of hellfire from below? Since this is rock and roll, we must assume so.

How I Came To Know It: When I reviewed the Kinks’ compilation album “Come Dancing” back at Disc 560 it reminded me how great they were and I decided to take a tour of their back catalogue. This album stood out as the best of the bunch.

How It Stacks Up:  Apart from the aforementioned compilation album, this is my only Kinks album, so it can’t really stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

Some albums just feel like the birth of rock and roll, and the Kinks’ debut is one of those.

As I listened to this album I found myself imagining all those future rock icons of the seventies and eighties growing up listening to this record, which holds the seeds of so many styles that would follow.

The album has a restless energy that a decade later helped fuel the punk movement, with short songs that seem to be in a hurry to get in, get on it, and wrap it up and be done with it. On my previous review I noted that five minute Duran Duran songs seemed to drag. Here, songs are over in 2:30 and leave you wanting more almost every time.

The Kinks alternate smoothly between the heavy (for 1964) rock riffs and sprightly pop fare that drive you to hand claps and dancing in your living room.

For all its modern flair, this record is also grounded in what has come before. Classic fifties rock and doo wop are both heavily on display. The first song is a wonderful cover of the 1958 Chuck Berry song “Beautiful Delilah” and Berry’s influence runs deep in the record overall (they also cover “Too Much Monkey Business”). There is also a fair bit of Buddy Holly echoing through the music, although that’s true for most acts at this time. Despite this, the music doesn’t feel derivative. Instead, the Kinks’ restless energy brings a different edge to the sound similar to contemporary acts like the Who.

The number one quality all the songs share is that they are catchy. Principal songwriter Ray Davies has a natural talent for writing a pop hook that makes you want to sing along from the moment you hear it. The guitar sound is light and carefree, although the riffs themselves are grounded in American blues. The combination is a key part of the birth of modern pop and rock music, and it is fun to see it forming.

But if I presented this album as nothing more than a bit of a musical history lesson, I’d be doing it a disservice. This record remains as compelling and enjoyable on its own terms as it was the day it was released over fifty years ago.

My favourite track is “I Took My Baby Home” which has a swing to it that is undeniable, and lyrics that are both playful and sexy, with a forward girl not afraid to invite her man inside after a night on the town:

“She had some pile-drivin' kisses

They really knocked me out

They knocked me oh-oh-over

She had a hug like a vice

She squeezes once or twice and I moan”

Shame about that last line. Next time, think about baseball or something.

Two songs (“Bald Headed Woman” and “I’ve Been Driving on Bald Mountain”) feature references to baldness and specifically a “bald mountain”). I’m not sure if this meant something in 1964 that I’m not aware of, or if I’m reading too much into this and it is just references to losing your hair.

The album has some production issues, most of which I suspect relate to the conversion from mono to stereo. A few songs have weird speaker channel shifts that don’t serve the song. My version of the CD is a special edition and includes a second disc with the original album in mono, but it doesn’t make it better.

Also, there are just too many extra tracks. The original album is 14 songs and 33 minutes long, but the reissue has a bunch of demos doubling both number of tracks and overall duration. A lot of these tracks are great, but as a whole they just add too much content and I’d prefer they had appeared on a separate record.

For those reasons, I’m giving this version only four stars, but if you just had the original 14 songs, and the production issues were cleared up this album could easily score a perfect 5.

Best tracks: So Mystifying, Just Can’t Go To Sleep, I Took My Baby Home, I’m A Lover Not a Fighter, Bald Headed Woman, Stop Your Sobbing