Review #478: Something Else by the Kinks, The Kinks
#478: Something Else by the Kinks, The Kinks
Like other brilliant Kinks albums, this record didn’t sell well — the word “flop” has been tossed around. Not in their native England, and not in the US, in part due to the fact that they were banned. Allegedly the ban was due to bad behavior, but there was also another element: at one particular performance, they weren’t paid afterwards, making them disgruntled and unwilling to play without being paid beforehand. Ray Davies later called the ban “ridiculous,” and said that it “took away the best years of the Kinks’ career when the original band was performing at its peak.”
This record was largely recorded at the same time as The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, a project that the rest of the Kinks’ didn’t have much faith in. But both albums are phenomenal in the same way — which is Ray Davies’ brilliant focus on characters of all kinds, though they’re all extraordinarily British. The protagonist of “David Watts” is a schoolboy with love-hate relationship with his popular and competent classmate. (Who apparently was based on a real-life concert promoter that had a crush on Dave Davies — Ray admitted after the fact that he “tried to do a deal and persuade Dave to marry David Watts cos he was connected with Rutland brewery. … [I’d] be set up for life and get all the ale I want.”) Then there’s “Two Sisters,” about a housewife who is jealous of her more free-spirited sibling; “Tin Soldier Man,” about a family man with a hollow life; “Situation Vacant,” about a newlywed couple who’s marriage is torpedoed by an overbearing mother-in-law. See also the numerous breakup songs: “No Return,” “Afternoon Tea,” and “End of the Season.”
He can be tongue-in-cheek and even a little mean, but my favorite character studies were the ones where Davies can’t hide his compassion. “Funny Face” is about a couple separated by the girlfriend’s mental illness: The doctors won’t let me see her. “Harry Rag” is a little more general, touching on people from all walks of life who can’t get by without a cigarette. Maybe their best characters are themselves: “Death of a Clown” was written by Dave about feeling like his touring schedule was like being in the circus.
But my favorite Kinks’ character? The sun. “Lazy Old Sun” is a love letter to the sun, one with a Mellotron and a trippy, drug-addled vibe. When I was young/ My world was three foot, seven inch tall/ When you were young/ There was no world at all. And “Waterloo Sunset” is about whiling away the hours inside, keeping real life at bay, but still enjoying the pleasures of our closest star. Fun fact, it was originally titled “Liverpool Sunset,” but was altered after the Beatles’ released “Penny Lane,” a song set in Liverpool.
I hate hearing that the Kinks’ career was stymied by silly bureaucracy. They were so great! Luckily, despite being unable to quite achieve commercial success, they were certainly one of the most influential Brit bands of all time.
Wild Card: Amidst all these character studies, Dave wrote and sang “Love Me Till the Sun Shines,” a song about being horny. Good for him!
