Kinks (Official Thread)

[Sweaty]

By pure luck I managed to get the Deluxe Edition of Village Green today. Naturally I paid an arm and an leg for it, though given it was the only copy in store, it maybe hard to find another one like it (except on Internet maybe). Definitely an unusual album, will have to listen to it a few times, the tracks which stuck out for me from that album are "Do You Remember Walter", "Picture Book","Last of the Steam Powered Trains", "Animal Farm", "Village Green" & "All My Friends Were There". My favourite track from the album bit is probably "Village Green", and the Orchestra Overdub on Disc 3 of it is quite interesting, I think of that song as Davies interpretation of the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby".

Glad you like it, was it on Vinyl or CD? I think the album has a flow to it and is written very well. I picked mine up from Amazon for about £11 I think, well worth it.

 

[CP/M User]

I got the CD.

 

[analoggal]

This is a great thread. However, I didn't find my favorite Kinks' tune... Lola, so gotta rectify the situation. Back in the late 60's I got all of my record money by babysitting... at one of my jobs, the gal worked at a store and she "tipped" me with the latest 45s... Lola was just one of my tips. It was the greatest babysitting job a music-crazed teen could have!

 

[Phil B.]

I got the CD.

Great pick-up! It will grow on you, believe me.

 

[CP/M User]

So with the Village Green album, does anyone have a preference. I maybe biased cause I've only listened to the Stereo version, just wondered if I need to listen to the Mono version just in case it stands out.

 

[Sweaty]

No you don't need to listen to the mono version IMHO. I have had mono and stereo versions of some albums and the stereo version was much much better, that's what I found anyways..

 

[CP/M User]

No you don't need to listen to the mono version IMHO. I have had mono and stereo versions of some albums and the stereo version was much much better, that's what I found anyways..

Hmmm, well I just had a listen. I set the Equaliser to Classical which made it sound really Grungy and tracks like "Wicked Annabella" & "Big Sky" really have an edge. Will have to go back to the Stereo to compare.

 

[METALPRIEST]

35 Years Ago: The Kinks’ ‘Misfits’ Album Released



SOURCE LINK

By the mid ‘70s, Ray Davies was so immersed in theatrical rock operas, he probably hadn’t noticed that he had lost all but the most devoted of the Kinks’ fans. The band’s string of albums in the first half of the decade was steady and, for the most part, forgettable: ‘Everybody’s in Show-Biz,’ the two-act ‘Preservation’ series, ‘Soap Opera,’ ‘Schoolboys in Disgrace.’ Can anyone name more than two songs from these five records?

So when the Kinks released ‘Sleepwalker’ in 1977, fans were excited and relieved to hear the group returning to the power-chord crunch that made them famous back in the ‘60s. No more concept records about long-forgotten mores or soggy musical experiments that dipped into vaudeville and post-war nostalgia. They were on a new label, entering a new era and ready to sell records in the U.S. again. ‘Sleepwalker’ became the Kinks’ highest-charting album to date, just missing the Top 20.

So when they returned a year later with ‘Misfits,’ Davies had learned his lesson. The album sounded like a direct sequel to ‘Sleepwalker.’ Power chords, three-minute songs and arena-ready rockers filled the 10-track LP. None of the cuts pack the visceral punch of so many of the band’s ‘60s classics, but none of them sound like stuffy and dusted-off throwbacks your grandpa would like either. The best songs – like the title cut and ‘A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy’ – take the Kinks’ ‘60s formula and spins it through a ‘70s filter. The result is a bit on the obvious side but that was the point: It’s a rock ‘n’ roll record that fans, old and new, could get behind.

While ‘Misfits,’ which was released on May 18, 1978, didn’t climb as high as ‘Sleepwalker,’ it did make it to No. 40, their second-best showing since 1970’s ‘Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.’ It also includes their first hit single since ‘Lola’ made it to the Top 10 eight years earlier, ‘A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy,’ which hit No. 30. The following year, ‘Low Budget’ became the Kinks’ highest-charting album ever and one of their biggest sellers. ‘Misfits’ helped set it up. It’s a significant record in their career and, more importantly, in their commercial rebirth.
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[CP/M User]

Interesting I think I read about the Kinks going into the 80s (bit like The Who), but in terms of what they were during that punk/disco era of the 70s, it's a blank.
Sadly I know more about another 60s group with the Hollies which had some interesting later 70s songs including some subtle Disco influences only because I found an interesting compilation CD which had a bit of everything, sadly "Too Young To Be Married" is a track which escapes my 2 Hollies CD, but not the radio station.

 

[Phil B.]

Hmmm, well I just had a listen. I set the Equaliser to Classical which made it sound really Grungy and tracks like "Wicked Annabella" & "Big Sky" really have an edge. Will have to go back to the Stereo to compare.

I agree, some of the best production was in the original mono mixes. Some bands could afford a good engineer to mix the tracks to Stereo, but some bands seemed to suffer. I think the Kink's original mono mixes sound better, but that's just an opinion. I also like several of the Beatles early hit's in Mono only.