As the logo suggests the name may derive from ‘kinky boots.’ I have been following the Kinks since the late 1970s and they hail from Muswell Hill in North London not far from where I was born. In the 1960s, they conspicuously eschewed the rock’n’roll antics of their peers and their songs focused instead on the quirkiness of English lifestyle and culture. At the same time, they were noted for their audaciously androgynous attire (well before David Bowie arrived on the scene). In recent years, the band (which disbanded in 1996 after 32 years), have had some deserved recognition and were inducted in the rock’n’roll hall of fame in 1990. However, arguably lead singer and songwriter Ray Davies (b. 1944) is one of the most talented of all lyricists, right up there with Lennon and McCartney and one of the greatest living Englishmen. Ray’s younger brother Dave (b. 1947), the lead guitarist, was the other mainstay of the band and has recovered from a stroke in 2004. The original bassist Peter Quaife died in 2010 aged 66.
Here is an esoteric selection of 20 of my favourite Kinks songs. The list does not include their three most famous hits - You Really Got Me, Lola and Waterloo Sunset - and many other great songs. As much as with the Stones and the Beatles there really is an embarrassment of riches.
20) I Go To Sleep – just an early demo in October 1964 it was later covered by the Pretenders and others.
19) Mr Reporter – this is a 1966 demo and an attack on the pop press. It was released as a bonus track on the 2004 re-release of the 1966 album Face to Face.
18) This Time Tomorrow – from the 1970 album Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround.
17) Property from the 1983 album State of Confusion a track which chronicles the sadness of divorce.
16) 20th Century Man – the opening track from the 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies. It is a rant against the modern world, which starts languidly and builds up angrily and relentlessly.
15) Live Life – from the 1978 album Misfits. By now the Kinks had transmogrified into a hard rock band, almost full circle from You Really Got Me. Some of it wasn’t pretty but this hard-hitting track song is a lucid commentary on the turmoil of the late 1970s.
14) Destroyer – from the 1981 album Give the People What They Want. This is a tongue-in-cheek hard rocker, which borrows unashamedly from Lola and All Day and All of the Night. It is about the paranoid ‘City boy’ who takes Lola (the transvestite) back to his place...
13) Til’ the End of the Day – an early hit which appeared on the 1965 album Kink Kontroversy
12) Set Me Free – along with the similarly fashioned So Tired of waiting For You another hauntingly beautiful early hit from 1965.
11) Shangri-La – from the 1969 Album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)...A seminal commentary on English society and another song that starts of sedately and then really picks up the tempo.
10) People Take Pictures of Each Other – the last track on the 1968 album Village Green Preservation Society, and a jolly little sing along.
9) Afternoon Tea – from the 1967 album Something Else by the Kinks. A catchy but sad song as Donna doesn’t turn up for her afternoon tea.
8) Lost and Found – from the 1986 album Think Visual. This showed that Davies could still write stirring songs in the 1980s.
7) Days – released in 1968 originally on the Village Green Preservation Society album – it is a lament about a long lost lover.
6) Victoria – the opening track on Arthur, which builds up tempo to a searing climax and is, at the same time, a wry commentary on the inherent contradictions between the drudgery of Victorian society and the paternalistic outreach of the British Empire.
5) All Day and All of the Night – the second Dave Davies power riff from 1964, which is even more brutal than the seminal You Really Got Me.
4) Autumn Almanac – a 1967 hit later added as a bonus track to Something Else by the Kinks. This is Ray Davies the commentator at his brilliant best.
3) Mr Pleasant – another brilliantly witty and satirical composition penned in 1966. This was also added as a bonus track to Something Else by the Kinks.
2) Celluloid Heroes – this is the live version recorded in Switzerland in 1979 for the One For the Road album. The original studio version was recorded in 1972 for the album Everybody’s in Showbiz. Both versions are inspirational and this song is one of Davies’s finest achievements.
1) Sunny Afternoon – Released in June 1966 and later added to the Face to Face album what can you say? It is quintessentially Ray Davies and the Kinks. This song is now deservedly recognised and popular in the 21st century (and nearly got dropped from this selection as a result).
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