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The Kinks "The Kink Kontroversy"
Milk Cow Blues/Ring The Bells/Gotta Get The First Plane Home/When I
See That Girl Of Mine/I Am Free/Till The End Of The Day//The World Keeps Going
Round/I'm On An Island/Where Have All The Good Times Gone?/It's Too Late/What's
In Store For Me/You Can't Win
Change - it's a theme that will follow the Kinks
through to their dying days, with the band always pushing ahead to the next big
thing and offering up a few detours of their own along the way. In retrospect
it seems very odd to hear The Kinks advocating the need to change as early as
their third album - released just 13 months after their first - but the 1960s
were a decade that changed on a weekly basis and The Kinks sound determined not
to be left behind, a trait they'll still be pursruing at the end 30 years later.
For years 'Kontroversy' has been seen as the last of the Kinks' great
'Merseybeat' albums (well they're Londoners but you know what I mean - even the
Californian Beach Boys had their fair share of 'Merseybeat' records), the last
of their records reflecting the sound and the fury of their R and B roots. That era is there on
the cover in all its splendour: a close-up of Dave Davies in the middle of a
soaring guitar riff, with close-ups of all the band in action. People might
nominate 'London Calling' by the Smiths or the first Elvis sleeve as the
greatest rock and roll action shot of all time but I say it's this one: Dave's
red jumper augmented by a guitar power chord played so fast his hand is still a
blur. That's what the first two Kinks records sounded like a - blur - and so
does 'Till The End Of The Day' (a self-conscious third song written around the
band's famous 'You Really Got Me' riff) and this album's powerful opener, the
band's last ever cover song 'Milk Cow Blues' (till a brief snatch of the Banana
Boat Song in 1972 at least) a final
wonderful blast of adrenalin to remind the world where The Kinks have been.
However everything else that follows Sleepy John
Estes' song (which has never sounded more wide-awake and vibrant) is new-style
Kinks, from a time when the band weren't quite sure what new-style Kinks
consisted of yet. The year 1965 was seriously split in music collecting
circles. After Merseybeat and R and B united so much of the young music
collectors of the world, record buyers now ended up in smaller pockets
collecting folk-rock (as led by The Byrds), Motown (as led by the Supremes), a
kind of softer, balladeer version of R and B (as led by the Rolling Stones) or
pure pop (as led by Herman's Hermits and the Dave Clark Five). The Kinks cover
all of these styles in turn (Dave's 'I Am Free' is more like the next year's
break through act Simon and Garfunkel than The Byrds but is still pure folk;
'The World Keeps Going Round' is white man's soul; 'Ring The Bells' was
deliberately written to sound like the Stones and 'When I See That Girl Of
Mine' is the single poppiest song Ray Davies had yet written). And that's not
all: a lifelong fan of Harry Belafonte, Ray even sneaks in a bit of calypso for
'I'm On An Island' and whatever the hell the complete one-off hybrid 'It's Too
Late' is meant to be (if the likes of Nirvana had ever released a 'grunge-pop'
album it might conceivably have sounded like this!) 'The Kink Kontroversy' is
an eclectic record then, a pic and mix of a whole load of styles done Kinks
style and probably the last thing their fans would have expected when they
brought this record with that cover home. That's very unusual: even The Beatles
nailed their sails to the mast by turning 'Help' and 'Rubber Soul' into
folk-rock records (with a bit of pop and rock thrown in), even if they ended up
as Beatley-sounding folk records. Of all the other bands we collect only The
Kinks' old rivals The Who and The Hollies had similar problems and they simply
divided their material between poppy singles on the one hand and harder R and B
edged material in the former's case and folk-rock sounds in the latter's. Only
The Kinks tried to adopt absolutely everything, which is both this record's
greatest strength and it's weakness: the band still have unlimited horizons by
the end of the record, able to go just about anywhere - but they still sound
just as 'lost' and uncertain about what they're meant to sound like by the end
of the record as the beginning. Ironically the only 'sound' they seem truly at
home on is the one they're leaving behind.
Most bands in 1965 are straining at the leash to
adopt whatever new sound they've adopted. After years of plugging away at R and
B covers in tiny clubs, the fact that they suddenly have a nationwide,
sometimes global audience and their managers on at them to write original
material changes the whole game plan. The Kinks, as always, aren't playing by
the same rules. Ray Davies started writing his own material earlier than most
and has already abandoned the poppier, simpler material bands like The Stones
and co are coming up with. Forced to follow a new road before the band are
quite ready - whilst knowing that the band have to move into something new -
Ray spends the entire album looking over his shoulder at what's just been and
sighing. Nostalgia is not a major part of the 1960s rock and roll psyche: there
are so many wonderful colourful new things happening every tomorrow why waste
times looking back over the past? But Ray Davies has always been a writer as
interested in preserving as experimenting and this record is the start of
another life-long favourite theme: that the past was a better place than the
present. Many recent critics reviewing Kinks Kompilations have looked back at a
song like 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?' and said 'how dare they - 1965
was one of the most exciting musical years ever!' But unsure of quite where he
'fits' in this new fragmented world Ray spends the record wishing it was 1964,
the year of The Kinks' 'breakthrough'. (There's a fascinating BBC radio
interview towards the end of 1964 when Brian Matthew tries to suck up to Ray by
saying what an amazing, brilliant year it's been for The Kinks: two number one
records and two hit albums virtually from nowhere. Most other musicians would
boast, talk about things being even better the next year and waxing lyrical on
how their styles will never go out of fashion. Ray simply sighs and talks about
his worries over what might happen in 1965). Hence songs like not just 'Good
Times' but the timid 'I Wonder What's In Store For Me' - the complete opposite
of the sure and aggressive narrators of the 'great three' singles: 'You Really
Got Me' 'All Day and All Of The Night' and 'Till The End Of The Day'
(deliberately written as the last possible moment The Kinks can get away with
returning to their 'signature sound' before it becomes old hat), the frustrated
'It's Too Late' rueing becoming stuck in a rut and one of the most depressing
of all the 1960s recordings made by anyone: the
what's-the-point-in-suiciode-because-my-problems-will-just-carry-on-when-I'm-dead
song 'The World Keeps Going Round'. I've always felt that The Kinks exist in a
kind of 'parallel 60s' that exists alongside the other inhabited by every other
band of the era: in monochrome not colour, full of wicked conmen and fake
advertising rather than flower children and drug-fuelled adventures into the
unknown, the museum on the corner where everything from the past is preserved
and filed away for future reference which has set up shop in the middle of the
psychedelic road full of exotic boutiques and brightly coloured carnivals.
While the first two albums found The Kinks more or less on the same road as
everyone else, this is where they find their own sound - and they do so by
following many different roads.
Much of 'The Kink Kontroversy' was written on tour.
That's not new for The Kinks - most of 'Kinda' kinda had been too - but this is
the album where you can feel the pressure beginning to 'get' to Ray Davies in
particular. That second album had been a whirlwind rush of adrenalin: 'Come On
Now' 'So Tired Of Waiting For You' 'Look For Me Baby' - the song titles alone
have a feeling of adrenalin and urgency to them. 'Kink Kontroversy' has similar
themes: 'Tell the world I'm in love!' shrieks 'Ring The Bells', 'Gotta Get The
First Plane Home' runs another, 'When I See That Girl Of Mine' runs a third,
all desperate to get home from tour and back into the arms of security and
home. But all three are relaxed bordering on sleepy; 'Ring The Bells' sounds
like it was recorded in the middle of the night (which, given Ray's insomnia
and the band's growing recording hours seems possible), not so much a
celebration of impending marriage as quiet reflection of happier times (for the
record Ray married Rasa on December 12th 1964, making this the first record
since the wedding; interestingly this is the only song of his that ever makes
any real reference to marriage - and then it's on a song deliberately designed
to 'copy' another's sound - not that the Rolling Stones ever sang about
marriage much either except running away to avoid it, it has to be said).
'Gotta Get' tries to nail an R and B groove, but compared to the hurried sound
of the first two records it sounds like its playing in slow-motion. 'Girl Of
Mine' is happy-go-lucky pop and sounds like many a 1964 track in demo form (as
heard as an extra on the 'Kinda Kinks' deluxe set): happy-go-lucky, bouncy,
jolly and a little bit silly. On the album it sounds slow and stately, a
relaxed groove that oozes a warm glow rather than a shriek of joy. Add in the
sleepy 'I Am Free' (which has the slowest tempo of any Kinks track thus far),
the slow calypso of 'I'm On An Island' and the laidback groove of 'You Can't
Win' and suddenly that album sleeve of wild fury and untamed violence seems
like it's been put on the wrong record.
However for the first time Ray Davies is not the
only writing member of The Kinks. Dave Davies gets his first ever composition
for the band with 'I Am Free', which - in typical brother style - sounds like
what Ray's been trying to write for this album but more so. 'I Am Free' is a
fascinating first composition: it has a slower tempo than just about any Kinks
song thus far and completely ignores tries and tested Kinks templates like a
strong hookline, a bright sunny melody and lyrics about still largely physical
matters (usually boy v girl, occasionally boy v society). Dave's song takes
place all in his mind: a world-weary shrug that's even more lethargic than his
brother's insomniac songs, it's a nice bit of folk-rock debating what it is to
be free, with Dylanesque lyrics his brother hasn't touched on yet and the
distinctly troubled statement that 'I am free'. With lyrics about 'refusing to
be a machine' and 'I won't convalesce when society doesn't need me' it sets the
tones for just about every Dave Davies song to come: the man apart, trapped
into something he doesn't want to be and which society wants less, working
things out in his own mind rather than taking action the way Ray would (which
is interesting in itself: most people who know The Kinks would say that Dave is
the more confident, 'doing' brother and that Ray is the 'thinker'). This song
could have slotted in nicely on any of Dave's softer-edged solo work like
'Chosen People' or 'Bug' and is a very impressive debut. Sadly Dave will only
get a single co-write on the album's flimsiest song the next time around (the
superb 'Face To Face' from mid 1966), but will really hit his stride in 1967,
giving the band a second writer with a style sympathetic to but different to
what his brother is writing. Frankly it's The Kinks' loss that his writing
isn't encouraged more: given the age-gap between the brothers, Ray and Dave
were more or less the same age when they began writing songs and in any other
band the younger brother would have been a fine lead writer for any band.
So far so unusual, but there's been nothing here
really to match this album's name 'The Kink Kontroversy'. Was this just a
groovy name that Pye's publicity department came up with to give themselves
another excuse to use lots of kinky-booted 'K's on the album cover? Well,
possibly, but Ray Davies has given a few interesting insights into that name
down the years. About the only point agreed in both Ray's and Dave's
autobiographies (the playful imaginative 'X-Ray' and the straight-as-a-dye
'Kink', which couldn't be less different or more like each brother) is that
1965 was a rotten year. The band suffered calamity after calamity leading to
the cancelling of several shows due to injury and illness - some inflicted
(like the time Mick Avory tried to kill Dave on-stage and fled the stage after
throwing a cymbal, convinced the brother was dead and he was going to prison with
several hundred witnesses in the crowd to testify against him). The Kinks were
getting a reputation for being 'unreliable', something that wasn't always their
fault (crowd control was poor in 1965 and still a few years away from catching
up with the sudden interest in live music; for some reason The Kinks - perhaps
booked into hotels and venues after the Beatles and Stones et al - always got
the short end of the straw). Ray also mentions something interesting in the
sleevenotes for Castle's 1990s re-issue of this album, murmuring something
about 'publishing disputes'. More usually its the beginning of 1966 that's'
cited as the 'breaking point', with the band's split away from producer Shel
Talmy (who claimed part of their royalties as recompense for the termination of
his contract) dragged out into a year-long court case, the pressure of which on
top of all the Kinks responsibilities end up in Ray having a nervous breakdown
and storming into his music publisher's office with an axe. Did Ray simply
misremember when asked about this album? Or did the troubles start earlier? If
the latter then that gives this album an interesting twist: no wonder Ray's
yearning for the 'good old days' so soon in his career; already music has moved
from being his last refuge to the source of most of his troubles. Sadly we
don't really know anymore - this was the period when bands were routinely asked
about their favourite colours and taste in girls rather than their hopes and
fears, but there's no getting away from the fact that 'Kink Kontroversy' is a
much more 'down' album than its two predecessors, beginning with a row between
two lovers (expertly played without much acting from a 'love-hate' relationship
point of view by Ray and Dave) and ending with a weary cry of stubborness.
In a way this is the perennial 'difficult third
album', a relatively modern term for a band who've spent years preparing their
first album and are driven to their second by a combination of adrenalin and
stardom. The Kinks, of course, aren't
that simple: the truth was Ray had almost nothing ready for the band's first
album and many of the 'cover' choices on the first two records were specially
prepared for the album - only half a dozen or so were played by The Kinks (or
their 'original' name 'The Ravens') live. However it does sound like a third
album: it's world-weary, the band stuck on a revolving door of TV-radio-touring
commitments that leave them little time for rehearsal and less time for songs.
What's more, it was an important album: The Kinks' first attempt to extend
their sound with the more awkward sounding single 'Everybody's Gonna Be Happy'
had blown their strong sales record and even the follow-ups 'Set Me Free'
(deliberately written to sound commercial, though no worse for that) and 'See My
Friends' (brilliantly inventive and new) had only rescued sales a little bit.
Ray must have breathed a sigh of relief when back-to-basics single 'Till The
End Of The Day' went top three, despite being adamant that it would be the
'last' in that style. What's more rock and roll's most dysfunctional band after
The Who had reached their first truly sticky point, exacerbated by so many long
hours of travelling and playing when all small mistakes are inevitably
magnified. Ray and Dave bickered; Pete and Mick got fed up of having to
intervene. Dave got mad at Mick for always taking Ray's side; Mick fought back
- often physically. Tales of Kink in-fighting are rife in this period, the
biggest single year of Kinky arguments until the 1980s - with the incident of Mick
and Dave on stage only the peak of a brittle and unforgiving year. No wonder
this album often sounds as tired and resigned as it does: while The Beatles and
even The Stones were still largely best friends and on the same message, The
Kinks were a band held together with a bit of glue, a lot of hope and more than
a bit of praying. The fact that there still was a Kinks going by album three
seems nothing short of incredible when you read all the stories - the fact that
there'll still be a Kinks going in 30 years nothing short of a miracle.
Overall, then, 'Kink Kontroversy' is a mixed little
album, understandable given the circumstances if perhaps a little disappointing
given their peaks. The last great returns to the 'old' sound on 'Till The End
Of The Day' and 'Milk Cow Blues' are superb, two of the greatest band
performances the original line-up of the band ever gave. Songs like 'Where Have
All The Good Times Gone' and 'The World Keeps Going Round' are huge
break-throughs for Ray as a writer, weary resigned songs that no one else was
writing and few authors would have managed to make as pretty. Dave's 'I Am
Free' is a promising first song, sounding slightly out of place here but adding
to the record's impressive eclectic sound. With just eight months between
records though - a gap filled by two singles, endless touring and a whole host
of TV and radio appearances - 'Kink Kontroversy' was always going to struggle
in the consistency stakes and so it proves, with the rest of this album's
material lagging behind even 'Kinda Kinks' for the most part, rushed and rather
average by the band's high standards. Also many of the avenues explored on
'Kontroversy' will be deemed null and void once the band discover their 'true'
calling on their next single 'Dedicated Follower Of Fashion', a sideways look
at the 60s culture through more acerbic eyes, keeping the 60s generation honest
with a dry wit and sharp eye that will last across their 'first' masterpiece
'Face By Face' and - ooh - for very nearly a year (a long time in the 1960s!)
However just because the Kinks never returned to many of the ideas and style
raised in 'Kontroversy' that doesn't mean they're worthless. This is still half
an excellent LP from a band who are already ploughing their own furrow and
going somewhere new - and far from being kontroversial, that's exactly what the
Kinks should be doing and will do brilliantly from here-on in.
'Milk Cow Blues' is one of the greatest album
openers ever. It takes just ten seconds a magnificent swirl of Dave's
aggressive guitar to get you straight into the song, an angry song about a
bitter betrayal. Channelling all of the pent up rage that's been building for
the past year The Kinks turn in one of their greatest band performances here,
transforming the haunting blues original by Sleepy John Estes into a screaming
fit. Not that this is just demented noise: it's a tightly controlled piece that
plays cat and mouse throughout the song, using every trick in the book of the
band's early sound when they were particularly strong on dynamics (see any live
version of 'Got Love If You Want It). A chugging rhythm guitar part from Ray
sounds like a nagging wife - the piercing wild shrieks of Dave's lead the
narrator's desperate urge to run, his single greatest guitar part outside the
'big three' singles of 'You Really Got Me' 'All Day and All Night' and 'Till
The End Of The Day', packed with more distortion than had probably ever been
heard on record up to this point (most bands would have included a sticker
saying 'its' not the fault of your record player' - but Pye seems to have
assumed that Kinks fans are use to such distortion by now). However, believable
though the song and its maddening fury is, we never really find out what the
narrator's 'girl' has done wrong - the only thing mentioned is that 'I'm sick
of all your crying', which puts us back into 'Stop Your Sobbing' territory,
with the band terrified to the point of instability over the sign of tears.
There's also no mention of milking cows or being on a farm, which is a shame
(unless this is one of those risque blues songs that can't come out and say
what its 'actually' about!) The original features one voice throughout, but by
turning this into a duet for Ray and Dave to sing the Kinks must surely be
talking about themselves here: that the 'sun looks good going down'. The irony
is that they've never sounded better - or tighter - than here, with this track about
a break-up the early Kinks at their absolute best. That's especially true of
the killer finale which reaches a real peak of wrath, with a guesting Nicky
Hopkins suddenly popping up out of nowhere on piano until gradually winding
down into gentle seething fury again, the argument avoided once again - for the
time being.
'Ring The Bells' is a calming influence, mentioned
in more than one musical paper as the band's next single. Borrowing heavily
from the Stones (the chord changes sound like 'The Last Time' combined with
'It's All Over Now') and a touch of Beatles (the lyrical references to 'I Feel
Fine'), this is a sweet song that starts off as heartfelt pretty ballad before
gradually becoming something harder-edged. Ray's doey-eyed narrator has just proposed
and been accepted and wants the whole world to know both about his wedding and
the fact that he's 'in love'. Already we're heading into Ray's last overt love
songs for teenage bride Rasa, whose presence hovers over this and the next two
tracks but then largely disappears till things start going wrong circa 1970.
Ray is clearly in a happy mood, but sadly doesn't sound as inspired as usually
does: 'Can you hear the bells are ringing, can you hear what they're singing?'
goes the middle eight as if borrowed from a musical, while the verse is
repeated a few too many times for comfort - unusual for The Kinks. The end
result is nice, with a pretty band performance that features the quartet
lighter on their toes than normal and correctly realising that swamping the
song with a thunderous heavy attack is probably a bad idea. There's even a
delightful high pitched wordless harmony vocal way in the distance which helps
'lift' the song and makes it even more 'top' heavy (fittingly, it sounds as if
it's sung by Rasa, perhaps calling Ray on towards her). However this is very
much a '1964' style song, full of the cliches of the era and a general
clumsiness about it. Thankfully 'Ring The Bells' stayed as a so-so album track;
it might have sank the band's career again had it been released as a single.
The energetic R and B-style 'Gotta Get The First
Plane Home' sounds at one with the 'urgent' Kinks of the previous year -
especially 'Come On Now' and 'It's Alright!' which both share a similarly
tricky angular riff driving the song relentlessly on. Ray's narrator is at the
airport looking at his watch, desperate to fly home to the arms of his new
wife, wanting this 'wing thing to fly high over the sea...'. Ray may well have
written the song doing just that - this sounds very similar to his memories of
recording 'Kinda Kinks' in his book 'X-Ray' where he spent hours in transit
dreaming of home and just a few short snatched precious hours with his beloved
when he got there. Once again The Kinks turn in a dynamic performance, with
Dave nailing the riff and Mick Avory doing a good job of an aeroplane hitting
turbulence and rocking from side to side. However Nick Hopkins is off the boil
for once and simply tinkles away oblivious to what everyone else plays. The
result is a fun but short 1:45 minutes that the band clearly relish playing
(Dave's yell of delight at getting the start right suggests that we're a few
takes into this song's difficult opening!) but creatively speaking is more of a
'low budget' aircraft.
'When I See That Girl Of Mine' is another
surprisingly old-fashioned song. First attempted at the tail end of 'Kinda
Kinks' but not taken any further, it's a pretty but also rather false song
about the narrator wanting to dress up properly to see his girl for the first time
in a while. The fact that Ray rhymes the title with 'the sun will shine' tells
you everything you need to know about this Buddy Holly-style crib. However the
middle eight comes to the song's rescue. Dropping to a growly register Ray
sounds even more like John Lennon than ever, recycling the fab four's 'I can't
hide' middle to 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' for a powerful soar of 'They can
see'. Once again a tighter-than-it-needs-to-be band performance comes to the
rescue, highlighted by Dave's sensitive backing vocals and Pete's fabulously
busy Paul McCartney-style bass. The result is rather anachronistic filler, but
pretty anachronistic filler.
Dave's first song 'I Am Free' is, as we've seen
already, a fascinating song. As the sleevenotes trying to keep track of which
Kink is singing what puts it 'Dave wails on his own' and wails is the word -
this song doesn't have a fully designed melody so much as a floaty line that
features the narrator barely rising out of his stupor. Not for the last time,
Dave's music and words tell us different things: this is a song about the power
of the mind, that here away from the touring entrapment 'the doors are open
wide' and Dave can go anywhere, free to wander wherever he chooses. However the
music doesn't agree: a listless melody
hops about from one foot to another in apoplectic misery, too tired and too
weighed down to do anything or go anywhere. In a way this song sounds like an
angry response to the band's strenuous touring diary: 'I don't care to be a
symbolised machine' a full year before Ray catches up with similar thoughts. By
the end of the song Dave comes to the conclusion that actually he is free but only
because 'society doesn't need me' - who'd care or miss him anyway? Dave shows
off a distinctly poetic touch quite unlike his brother's empathetic realism and
musically breaks boundaries too: half the speed of most Kinks tracks and held
together by a simple jazz shuffle from Avory and some fat chords from Nicky
Hopkins, this would be considered the 'slowie' even on a folk album, never mind
a rock one. Dave fits in a great solo though, resisting the temptation to play
at his usual power and speed. Long dismissed as an odd song by a beginner
writer, 'I Am Free' is actually one of the highlights of the album - a
confrontational wolf in humble sheep's clothing that only bares it's teeth if
you listen properly. Your first thought on hearing this song is that if this is
'freedom' then put me back in the cage! (Ray will be obsessed with the idea of
'freedom' circa 1970, writing songs about it for both 'Lola v Powerman' and
'Percy').
'Till The End Of The Day' roars out of the blocks
with such rage and passion it's hard to reconcile the finished product with the
malaise that went into writing it. Worries about whether he still 'had' the
magic touch after three lesser selling singles, Ray called into his music
publisher's office and poured out his heart. The pressure was getting to him,
he said, he wasn't enjoying writing any more and it was becoming the job he's
always vowed never to take rather than the glorious hobby it had always been
for him. Luckily Ray's publisher, used to dealing with paranoid teenagers, sent
Ray packing with the best advice he could have given: 'Don't write for the band
- write for yourself using chords you enjoy'. This is the result, a third song
squeezed from the 'You Really Got Me' template and using the same fierce energy
and commitment. Skirting lyrically very close to 'All Day And All Of The
Night', this song delights in the idea that having married someone you get to
spend all day with them - well in between tours and recordings and things. Once
again this song is about 'freedom' and the joyous prospect that 'we do as we
please' with no parents or chaperones getting in the way of this newly-wed
couple. Ray gets up and sees the 'sun up' -
a symbol used many times across many albums as an totem of his
'inspiration' - and 'I feel good because my life has begun'. Tapping into the
same frenzied ball of energy and adrenalin as 'Got Me' and 'All Day', as a song
'End Of The Day' is arguably the weaker of the three because it runs out of
things to say a bit quicker, but against all odds lightning really does strike
three times: this is still a fabulous track from a band happy to be back on
familiar territory again. Dave's solo may well be his best of the lot, a
maddened little squeal of delight that's positively infectious. An excellent
arrangement then gets better still with a sudden unexpected double-time rhythm
suddenly thrown into the mix at the two minute mark (just when things have
finally settled down) pushing the song headlong into a wonderful frenzy of
noise and feedback, collapsing exhausted into bed at the end of one heck of a
busy day.
That song - released a few months before the album -
sits in stark contrast to 'The World Keeps Going Round', the most lethargic
song on The Kinks' most lethargic album. An early sign of the strain Ray was under
(explored more later in songs such as 'Too Much On My Mind' and 'All Of My
Friends Were There') this song finds Ray's troubled narrator worrying about
everything: his job, his girl, even the weather, despite feeling slightly silly
because none of these things have ever let him down before. Then again that's
only if you take this song literally: I'm convinced that, yet again, the 'sun'
is Ray's inspiration, now burning at a slightly less intense wattage than in
the 'good old days' of last year, that suddenly seem like a lifetime ago.
Elsewhere the lyrics on this song are brutal: we think that Ray's offering
himself comfort with the repeated line 'what's the use of worrying...' but
listen to those lyrics! Ray's advice to worrying about his girl running off
with someone else is 'what does it matter 'cause you'll die alone!' Elsewhere
'Rain will fall, times will be hard and you'll feel mighty low'. Throughout the
song the world carries on, oblivious to Ray's problems, an unstoppable force
that won't slow down or give him time to recover, the time that once stretched
out endlessly on 'Till The End Of The Day' laughing at him and the small amount
of time he has left to fix his problems. The Kinks once again turn in an
excellent performance, with Mick Avory's time-keeping superb across a tricky
irregular metre and waking the song 'up' every few bars with a noisy drum roll
that sounds like an alarm clock. The backing vocals too are most unusual:
structures to sound like a Motown band, they're heavily treated with echo and
feature Rasa once more as the 'lead' singer at the back. The Kinks as The
Supremes? Unlikely but true. The result is one of Ray's real breakthrough
songs, ironically coming along just at the point when he's describing how
uninspired he feels, a sorrowful piece well out of step with everything
everybody else is doing but all the better for that. 'The World Keeps Going
Round' sounds like a well kept secret, a small window into the 'real' Kinks
behind the hit singles and noisy calypsos, a testament to both the skill and
bravery of writer and band. Another album highlight.
Talking of noisy calypso, the slab of escapism 'I'm
On An Island' is up next and features an early example of Ray Davies trying to
sound like his idol Harry Belafonte - and sounding drunk instead. Given his
later penchant for writing songs about imagination and his current problems, it
seems perfectly plausible for Ray to suddenly be on a desert island. A belated
attempt to turn this into a love song is better, Ray adding that 'there's
nowhere on earth I'd rather be...' with a sudden rush to the head of warmth and
affection. This section is much more likeable than the doo-dum-doo-dum *smash*
rhythm the band have got going in the verses and which sounds about as
convincing a picture of the Hawaiian experience as the fake holiday and grass
skirts made of pvc on next album 'Face To Face'. Once again Mick Avory comes to
the rescue of lacklustre material with some exciting drum frills. Give that
drummer a coconut!
The most substantial song on the album by a country
mile is 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?', a head-hanging tirade of a song
that's always been popular with fans since appearing as the B-side of 'Till The
End Of The Day'. People have read everything into these lyrics: Ray's relationship
with Rasa growing cold after their marriage or even the decline of the 1960s
spirit as Merseybeat fizzled out (before The Beatles bounced back with 'Rubber
Soul' a fortnight after this record, there was a feeling in the air that the
leading band of the era had perhaps peaked and an expectation that other bands
would soon follow). However I've always taken this song as being about the band
again: The narrator 'never used to worry about a thing' - see 'Going Round' for
how much he worries now - and admits that 'Once we had an easy ride and always
felt the same': the Kinks were a far more fractious band than the strong unit
they'd been in 1964 and while it wasn't 'easy' at the start of the year (with
two flop singles) the band got three top two hits in a row - a performance only
The Beatles could match. Ray adds a twist of the knife in further in the third
verse and a thought that's clearly been troubling him for a long time. The
Davies family was made up of six sisters all born before Ray and then Dave came
along and with quite a gap before they arrived. The family was already complete
before they got there and Ray was shipped out to his much elder sister Rose's
for much of his childhood. 'Daddy didn't have no toys' he sighs, with perhaps
everything suitable thrown out long before his birth on the assumption they'd
never be needed again; 'Mummy didn't need no boys'. Even the idea that 'let's
face it - things are so much easier today' is no consolation to him: Ray wants
life to be hard, to return to how things used to be because then he had a sense
of purpose as part of a family unit that had to pull together; now splintered,
with Ray still awfully young to get married and live away from home, Ray feels
inadequate, in 'need of some bring-me-down'. The result is sombre and sober,
with one of the most personal songs of Ray's career matched by an impassioned
vocal on the verge of tears throughout (he can only get through it in later
concerts by affecting a 'comedy' vocal - this song may still be too raw for him
to sing 'straight'. Or perhaps he likes sounding like a comedy punk?!) With a
nagging riff that seems to forever look back over its shoulder, this is a blues
song attached to a rock and roll beat, Ray beginning each verse with a sighed
extended 'weeeeell' and ending each and
every verse and chorus musically looking at his feet, curling the lines off at
the end. Dave's awkward electric guitar rattles weave in and out of the track
cleverly, sometimes sounding supportive of his brother, sometimes mocking him.
The result is an exquisite, intelligent, heartfelt song that once again far
from suggesting what an inadequate uninspired hack that Ray Davies is shows
that he was one of the poets of his age, able to convey real emotion in a way
that manages to touch the heart of any empathetic listener. Won't you tell me,
why have all the good songs like this gone - not just in The Kinks kanon but in
everyone's?
Anything would sound like an anti-climax after that
and 'It's Too Late' sounds like one more than most songs would. The same
churning blues riff is played throughout the track, come chorus verse or middle
eight, and repeats the same album trick of using repetition for urgency. Despite
all that, though, this song doesn't sound urgent at all: it's bluster, only
coming alive for the singalong chorus. For once The Kinks are sleepwalking,
though, giving this song a throwaway ramshackle performance that's sloppy and
messy, with each section sounding the same. Easily the worst song on the album,
at least 'It's Too Late' fits the half-album theme of wanting to go back to the
past ('The wheel of time grinds against your brain, now'), the girl in the song
apologising after a lot of prompting but admitting her fault 'too late'. Ray's
narrator comes across as rather cold and distant, ignoring his girl even when
she's admitting her faults - could it be that actually her was wrong in the
first place, not her? This song sounds like a sulk - possibly the sulk of a
newly wed finding out married life isn't as fun as it sounded.
'What's In Store For Me' is 'Good Times Gone' with a
twist: Dave's unprecedented third vocal on the album (this time on Ray's song)
wonders about the future with a little hope and a lot of trepidation. Sighing
that he's going to have to wait to see 'what life's cut for me', this is
another narrator who knows 'I've done wrong' and anxiously waits to see if he
could put it right. Is this Ray regretting a row with Rasa? Or could it be that
a cheeky brother is putting lines like 'I've done some right - but also lots of
wrong' into the mouth of his own brother to sing?! (and if you think Ray might
be writing directly for Dave then listen out for yet another line about the
elder Davies' legendary insomnia - 'I'll
live the life I've got, then I might sleep at night'). Dave's the star of this
recording once again, with an expressive vocal that's quite unlike the normal
material Ray gives him and some excellent juddery electric guitar that strains
at the leash to get on with things (in a neat mirror of real life his guitar
and Mick's drums seem to be in a constant fight in this song, each one trying
to musically 'stab' the other). One of the more overlooked early Kinks
recordings, this is no classic and what the future has in store in real life
turns out to be a lot more exciting than anything this song can imagine, but
it's a likeable track that offers a highly fitting stepping stone between the
poppier Kinks of yester-year and the growing complexities to come.
The album ends with 'You Can't Win' - effectively
'It's Too Late' part two and another song that sounds inspired by a marital
tiff. This song features another tough riff that sounds as if its spitting
feathers of indignation (in fact its a very Who-sounding backing track all
round this one). Over and over again Ray keeps returning to the title phrase as
if he's sulking and muttering under his breath: You say you 'don't understand?
Huh what's there to understand? I'm right! You make the same mistakes? Huh -
don't you learn? You can't win! What else can I say? You've lost! Give Up! I'm
boss! A nice middle eight - sung first by a double-tracked Dave and then a
double-tracked Ray before the pair join in some rare and belated unity - offers
this song's lone crumb of comfort, that 'there's no need to be sad' just as
long as you agree with me! A very unusual song for The Kinks there's no warmth
in this song, just fire and fury, with the stubborn narrator simply refusing to
believe that he might be wrong and that there might be another point of view
(usually Ray is a genius at understanding other people's points of view - then
again he's never had to adopt to marriage and babies and in-laws and juggling
family and career before - it's the sort of thing that's broken lesser man than
him before now). However, at least unlike 'It's Too Late' there's a strong
hookline to this song, with some clearly cut lines between each section of the
song and a cracking band performance that features the rhythm section holding
the brothers and Nicky Hopkins' best work on the album (chirruping on
regardless, like a nattering girlfriend) at bay. Dave's stinging guitar sounds
like it has the final word, brittle and harder-edged even compared to normal
and once again he's in danger of upstaging his brother.
Overall, though, it's Ray who benefits most from the
dramas that went on behind the scenes during the making of 'Kink
Kontroversy'. No longer a mere teenage
pop star but an 'adult' family man, Ray's experiences and changing world view
will benefit his band for many a long year to come. Take the three 'pop' songs
from side one and the two 'angry' songs from side two away and you have a
ridiculously accomplished set of songs for one so young, already honing his own
sound. Unlike the rather rushed recordings on the first two albums, 'The Kink
Kontroversy' is also a major step forward for the band, who now sound every bit
as good as their material with much tighter performances all round (especially
the double-tracking). Yes this is a minor and rather patchy work by Kink
standards, without the exuberance of the earliest years of the concepts of the
later years and rather lacking in direction as the band's original style
becomes more and more used up and the Kinks long to go somewhere 'new'. However
its a very important step in the Kinks story in terms of what comes next and in
'Milk Cow Blues' 'Till The End Of The Day' 'The World Keeps Going Round' and
'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?' positively nails four possible ways
forward (some old, some new) which all sound pretty darn good to me. After this
album's temporary breathing space the sky is truly the limit from here until at
least the end of the 1960s (some would say the end of the Kinks' Kareer).
A NOW COMPLETE LIST OF KINKS ARTICLES TO READ AT ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:
‘The Kinks’ (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-kinks-1964.html
‘Kinda Kinks’ (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-kinks-kinda-kinks-1965.html
'Muswell Hillbillies' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-kinks-muswell-hillbillies-1971.html
‘Everybody’s In Showbiz’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-kinks-everybodys-in-showbiz-1972.htm
‘Misfits’ (1978) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-kinks-misfits-1978.html
The Best Unreleased Kinks Songs 1963-1992 (Ish!) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-kinks-best-unreleased-songs-1963.html
Non-Album Recordings 1963-1991 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-kinks-non-album-recordings-1963-1991.html
The Kinks Part One: Solo/Live/Compilation/US Albums
1964-1996 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-kinks-part-one-solo-dave.html
The Kinks Part Two: Solo/Live/Compilation Albums
1998-2014 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-kinks-part-two-ray-and-dave-davies.html
Abandoned Albums and Outside Productions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/aaa-extra-kinks-abandoned-projects-and.html
Landmark concerts and key cover versions
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-kinks-five-landmark-concerts-and.html
