Kink-y New Year! (part 1)

Hey all- 

As I mentioned last week, I'm still trying to find out a way to be Apple-friendly.  Despite their inability to support the Flash Player that my storage site (Box.net) uses, those of you with the iPad and the iPhone and iFill-in-the-Blank should be able to cut and past these links and then listen or download.  Do lemme know:

Waterloo:               http://www.box.com/s/gsp4gm0mj557z0dk0dox
Village Green:        http://www.box.com/s/9oq5o16lnv30sd5q63b3

Anyway--- Hope you all done rung '12 in with style, or at least are planning on proceeding with gusto and joie de vivre from here out.  Along with all the other things to resolve for the young year-- along with travel and seeing friends and living right and such-- I recommend taking a tiny sliver of time to listen to one of my all time favorite bands: the Kinks.  To that end, I thought I'd supply you with a few covers I finished in '11 after starting in summer of '10.

I really could go on and on about the Kinks but the long and short is that, even after the late '90's reissues and a bit of deserved praise over the past couple years, they're a band that's never quite gotten their due.  On account of bum luck, bad timing, union problems, self-destruction and their incurable baseline Britishness, they missed their biggest shot and never really caught on here.  They remain regarded as a second-tier British Invasion band, and most people's knowledge stops at "You Really Got Me" or maybe "Lola" or "Come Dancing" from their '80's revival or (heaven help us) a Van Halen cover or a TV commercial.  It's a damn shame.  Matter of fact, the Giants-Cowboys NFL game I'm watching just went to a TV timeout with NBC playing 1st quarter highlights to an instrumental cover of "Picture Book" and nobody knows...

I look past the fact that big brother Ray seems to be a flaming A-hole and younger brother Dave an absolute moonshot.  I love Ray Davies' songs, and Dave's as well.  I love the harmonies and the characters and the wistful and weird details.   There's something to love in all their eras, including the interminable rock operas of the mid-'70's. I love the way they overextend, and re-tool and triumph and drop the ball again.

So here are a couple of the cornerstones.  My only hope is that I've not done any significant damage to "Waterloo Sunset", which to me is one of the absolute finest songs ever written.

JK

Waterloo Sunset:


The Village Green Preservation Society: