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Re: (TV) Ray / Marc /Ziggy



OK, let's set the record straight, as you say. The three records in a row 
you cite are indeed miraculous, but were not released in the sequence you so
authoritatively suppose: Village Green Preservation Society (1968) follows
Something Else (67), which followed Face To Face (66). All of these records
easily match the Beatles for writing and musicianship, as do all of the
contemporaneous non-album singles, such as "Dead End Street"/"Big Black
Smoke" (perhaps one of the darkest, most strangely beautiful and literate
singles ever released in pop music, an incredible sleeper as influential in
it's way as "Strawberry Fields"/"Penny Lane", but thankfully without any of
the insipid sappiness of Paul McCartney), but also "Mr. Pleasant"/"This Is
Where I Belong", "Autumn Almanac", "Days"/"She's Got Everything",
"Wonderboy"/"Polly", as well as Dave Davies' non-LP solo singles,
"Suzannah's Still Alive", "Lincoln County"/"There Is No Life Without Love",
and "Hold My Hand"/"Creeping Jean". Plenty of other cuts which were later
released on "The Great Lost Kinks Album" and "The Kinks Kronikles", such as
"Rosemary Rose", "Misty Water", or "Till Death Us Do Part" easily match the
great songs on "Revolver" or "Rubber Soul". One could go so far as to say
that these songs surpass such filler as "Yellow Submarine" or "When I'm 64".
I'm sure John Lennon, a huge Ray Davies fan, would have been far more
generous in his appraisal of the Kinks. To say that there are but two songs
that "might" rank with the Beatles is absurd.
Also, "Days" is a bit of an over-rated song, I think, built up to legendary
status by John Mendelsohn's ecstatic liner notes to the Kinks Kronikles, as
well as Elvis Costello's choice to play it as a cover. A fine song, no
doubt, but does it deserve to outshine "Till The End Of The Day", "Sunny
Afternoon", I in fact think "Wonderboy" is a more memorable single. "Days"
could certainly stand reevaluation from the place in the pantheon it now
occupies in the collective consciousness.

Scott

----------
>From: Jeff Strell <jeff.strell@usa.net>
>To: tv@obbard.com
>Subject: Re: (TV) Ray / Marc /Ziggy
>Date: Mon, May 22, 2000, 7:30 PM
>

> Aw, c'mon.  I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but let's set the record
> straight here.  Lennon/McCartney shaped a culture, defined a generation, and,
> combined, never wrote a less than memorable song.
>
> Ray Davies and his spunky little band rode the wave.  They put out three
> miraculous LPs in a row (Village Green, Face to Face, and Something Else), and
> several other memorable ones.  That's more than most other British Invasion
> bands can say.  But the only Davies tunes that might rank with the Beatles are
> "Waterloo Sunset" and "Days."
>
> - Jeff Strell
>
>
>
>
>
>
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