The Kinks
 

If anyone has got any opinions about them, I would be thankful if he/she shared them.

I have always thought that while The Kinks are very well appreciated by other musicians, they have never quite get that attention they would deserve

They were highly influential, if you think about it. On the other hand, their early hits like 'You Got Me' pioneered both hard rock and punk. Really, even nowadays 'You Really Got Me' kicks ass.
And think about that riff. I wonder how many time it has been used after that. Also I believe that without that song we wouldn't have the Ramones not to mention many other punk bands... Or maybe not. Somebody had to invent something like that back then.

Anyway, their place in the rock n roll history would have been deserved even if 'You Really Got Me' was their only recording but fortunately it was not.
I deeply believe that Ray Davies invented the whole Britpop genre by himself. Taking influences from British music hall and mixing then with rock was something he did first. And how influential The Kinks really were?
Bands like Blur and Jam are, in some degree, completely Kinks rip-offs. Also I believe many indie pop bands are influenced by them.

Albums from Face To Face to Arthur were pretty revolutionary back then. Music was good but also Ray's lyrics were always very great. Just like little novels, always funny, critical, yet not very poetic and let's face it: very naive.

But we can't rate music if we talk about it's influence. Being that does not exactly mean being good.
Anyway, since this text sucks and is probably very boring, I hope we'll get some kind of discussion about them.

Oh, also one thing. Ray also wrote the greatest song ever about transvestite and how cool is that? I wonder if anyone really knew what those lyrics meant. I mean, I think those lyrics are sympathizing, not accusing or anything, so while Ray seems to be old fashioned, he really is one of the most liberal musicians in his generation.

Im a huge fan of Arthur and Something Else. For some reason their other albums that ive heard, while good enough, havent really hit me as hard as those two.

Probably my fav song by them:



or Harry Rag. Thats also a gooder

For a beginner I would recommend maybe Face To Face since it also have more rocking songs on it or Arthur. Maybe Arthur would be a good starting point. At least I started with it.
If you are not familiar with them, do not choose Something Else or Muswell Hillbillies for your first listen. Both are great albums but Hillbillies is very untypical Kinks album and while something else is very good album, for a beginner it would be maybe a little bit hard album to get in to cos it's occasionally boring and very calm and quiet.

If you want to know more about them or know what you should listen from them, this page is a good place to start:

The Kinks

Interesting. I love Arthur, Face To Face and Village Green, but I have never really loved Something Else. It's just too slow, too boring and that production is not that good, in my opinion.

My fav from them is maybe 'Some Mother's Son or Dandy (it's so funny).

And of course Waterloo Sunset. It must be one of the most beautifuls ballads ever recorder

Also it's interesting how the story goes. I mean, it song sounds so dreamy and relaxed but when you listen to those lyrics, you see that it's actually very sad song. The protagonist has no his own life so he have to spend his life to watching other ones life.

Probably my favourite The Kinks song:



Are they really not that appreciated? I thought they were and have seen a number of documentaries devoted to them.

Well, I know that. They are very appreciated and all, but it depends where you are living. I guess they are very popular in Britain, but are they very popular, for example, in U.S.A?

And here in Finland they are very unknown. Usually everybody knows that name but when they should name a song by them, they usually don't know any song.

Ahh, I see. I don't know how popular they are elsewhere but, as you say, they're very well known and much loved here in Britain and deservedly so. Great songs and a great sound.

Also I can see why they are so loved in Britain- after all, they were one of the most English bands ever, if you see what I mean.

Also back in sixties one of the biggest reasons they never made it in America was that they were banned from touring in the U.S.
And yes, Kinks probably were too British for American people...