Something Kinks

My fascination for the Kinks happened early on. Remember that odd 8-track I found in my dads music collection? There was a Kinks song on that 8-track too. I did not play it over and over like the Deep Purple or the Eric Burdon and The Animals, but I waited for it to be on. I loved the fact they were loud and noisy and I could sing along to. The Kinks were a band that everyone seemed to like. All through my life I had friends who liked them. I had of a lot of their tapes. I had the old Kinks Kronikles and used to play that too many times.

Even in high school I would make mix tapes for my Walkman and put a Kinks song from Kronikles and it would be so much better mix because of that one song. I tried to buy some of the Kinks albums, but that was a problem because even then some of the ones I wanted were high in price. I went to tag sales and found two albums of the Kinks. One was a greatest hits package and the other was Lola Vs. the Powerman & the Moneyman Goaround. Both were great, but did not have enough Kink's material for me. Over the next few years I bought three different greatest hits collection. None of them really went to deep for me, but then again I was happy on what I got.



My Kinks love was shown some light in 1998. Ray Davies was on VH1 Storytellers. A few months after that I picked up the CD of that night. It was a lot longer then the TV show I watched, plus their were more great Kink songs. Also around that time he was touring. Since I never saw the Kinks, I figure this was a great time to see him. It's a good thing I seized that moment to see him. It was not the last time I saw him. I saw him a total of five times and each performance was great. I do wish I was around in the 60's to see the full band play, but I was happy with this. Each song was great and was an eager flashback to the time when the Kinks were a great Rock and Roll band.

Around the same time I tried to get some Kink's albums. I wanted the 60's classics. I could only find the straight issues. I knew I could find better editions. It was a good thing, because do to the Storyteller and a Kink's live special, the CD's were getting re-issued. I was in luck, I picked up a few and was very happy with what I got. Then I realized later on that I made an error. I forgot to get some of the important ones. On the other hand some of the important ones did not even get re-issued. The ones I wanted to get I forgot to get. I told myself that I would pick them up when I had the time. I never did till this year. I do regret it, but on the other hand I might have missed a few things along the way.



Just this year I did miss some great gems, but not the gem of Something Else. A great album. In the year 1967 when there was so much great music around. The Kinks slid into the radar with a classic. It maybe the one that very few Kinks fans go to for an album, but the album had three classic Kinks songs. The music was great and the album as full of wonderful pop gems. I always felt their albums as a whole was the prize. There music was always wonderful to hear. They sadly did not play a lot of their album songs on the radio. I wondered if I would have been a Kinks fan if I lived during that time period?

With so many albums to talk about I chose Something Else for the reason of it's time it came out. With so many great albums of 1967 the Kinks made a bold and wonderful statement. I mean for me I could have easily chose Village Green or Face to Face. Each are great classics, but the with a starter album I would chose Something Else. Songs like "Death of a Clown" and "David Watts" are true gems. The classic cookie as it were is "Waterloo Sunset." "Love Me Till the Sun Shines" does not even feel like a Kinks song. Full of Bluesy rock and is quite a treat. The Kinks never rock very hard on the album, preferring acoustic ballads, music hall numbers, and tempered R&B to full-out guitar attacks. Part of the album's power lies in its calm music, since it provides an elegant support for Davies' character portraits and vignettes. Ray Davies songwriting becomes more refined, he becomes more nostalgic and sentimental, retreating from the psychedelic and mod posturings that had dominated the rock world. Enjoy the classic that is mostly overlooked. This album, like myself got me to become the great Kinks fan. Have a blast!