The Kinks are, and always will be, my favourite band. I guess you have to have one, and they are mine. I will write more about them on another page later, but for now, I want to write about their very first album, which was released in 1964 and was self-titled. This is my new cd copy with extra tracks. I actually have two LP copies, one an original Astor label from the Sixties, the other a more modern re-release. I guess I’m kind of Kinky about it! It’s still a pretty ordinary album with a shitty production care of that con artist Shel Talmy. Ray’s songwriting is still embyonic. There’s the classic You Really Got Me, and the discovered-later classic (thanks to the Pretenders’ version) Stop Your Sobbing, but not much else. Of the original album I like those two songs plus I Took My Baby Home (the b-side to the very first single, Long Tall Sally) and the great rave up cover of Got Love If You Want. I have amazing stereo versions of that one and Sobbing from the Golden Hour of the Kinks Vol 2 album. I especially love the stereo Sobbing because Ray’s wife Rasa’s backing vocals are much further up in the mix, where they belong. Oh, I guess I like the instrumental called Revenge, which probably comes closest in sound to You Really Got Me. The added credit given to Larry Page, who had nothing to do with it and probably put the credit there himself, always brings a smile. Ray had some fun with it later on the song Moneygoround (‘Robert gave half to Larry, who adored my instrumentals’). The rest is competent but pretty average covers of Chuck Berry songs and second string Ray tunes, plus possibly their nadir, the awful Bald Headed Woman.
The cd has another twelve extra songs that weren’t on the album. They consist mostly of the next single, the first two singles and a couple of EPs. The best of which is, of course, their classic All Day and All of the Night, but there are some other nice ones. I really like It’s Alright (another rave up), I Gotta Move (cool bass line), and the piano-led I’ve Got That Feeling. I’m also warming to I Gotta Go Now, with its sly rhythm. Previously unreleased song I Don’t Need You Anymore needs more listening from me to register. Anyway, this album was the humble start of the journey that was the awesome band The Kinks. It, like them, will always have a place in my heart.