We are heading off to London in the Swinging Sixties and to Muswell Hill in particular to touch base with The Kinks.
Ray and Dave Davies, Mick Avory and Pete Quaife were one of the best ever singles bands to come out of the UK and here are two fine examples.
David Watts was the b-side to 1967's Autumn Almanac peaking at number 3. It was faithfully covered in 1978 by The Jam a band who were obviously heavily influenced by the Davies brothers.
Somewhat surprisingly Victoria only reached number 33 in January 1970 two places higher than The Fall managed with their cover in 1988
I am assuming that you are all familiar with the cover versions.
The Kinks - David Watts
The Kinks - Victoria
The covers are great but these are the real deal.
ReplyDeleteThe Kinks! Now you're talkin'. One of the biggest crimes in music is that Victoria was not a massive hit.
ReplyDeleteVictoria - what a good song, CC. It's also nice to be able to preview the songs on Zippy, and I notice that they can now actually be embedded on the blog page. (Didn't know that!)
ReplyDeleteGreat choices. They were pretty special, weren't they?
ReplyDeleteTerrific selections. What a band they were.
ReplyDeleteThere are 24 songs on Spotlight on The Kinks - all of a similar standard
ReplyDeleteA band that should have done much better in America during the '60s. At least everyone realizes that now. Wonderful selections, CC. Autumn Almanac didn't even crack to top 40 here, and Victoria was way too British to stand a chance. Pitiful.
ReplyDeleteThis is so unfair... it's 4:30 in the morning and now you're talking about the Kinks, my favourite group ever and I'm therefore hardly in a position to do 'em justice. Suffice to say, The Kinks were the backdrop to my late 60s adolescence, scorned (inexplicably) by my mates, leaving me, as it seemed, their lone supporter. I've carried that burden ever since. Other peoples problems I know, not mine! All their albuns up to at least 1980 are worth a listen
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, the likes of Apeman and Lola were great fun as they were so catchy and silly sounding. I didn't pay the band much attention till The Jam cover - but then I picked up a compilation album and discovered what a cracking singles band they had been. One of the greatest English bands of all time - always thought that XTC were their post-punk equivalent...
ReplyDeleteA good comparison JC
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