(TV) Recent threads, my $0.02

["Philip P. Obbard" <pobbard@yahoo.com>]

Ok, gang, I've been living in a bunker for the last few months (well, almost),
and it's time I came out to respond to a few threads:

1. I, too, hate HTML in email.

2. The Soft Boys are great - I don't know whether I prefer UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT
or INVISIBLE HITS more, and then there's "Sandra's Having Her Brains Out" from
A CAN OF BEES, etc. All good stuff. My only disappointment was the 2CD
compilation - seemed anticlimatic and uneven, but maybe that's because I bought
it after getting the rest of the albums. I rarely play it.

3. Hitchcock. Hmmmm. I have and like FEGMANIA, but despite borrowing heavily
from a friend's CD collection, I never really got into much more Hitchcock.
Maybe I should give it another try.

4. RAY DAVIES IS NOT FIT TO CARRY JOHN LENNON'S JOCKSTRAP?! People, get a grip
and listen to some of the Kinks albums! I'll admit they're not as catchy as
most Beatle albums (not after the early singles, anyhow), but I think they're
artistically equal. 

Almost single-handedly, Ray wrote (and produced many of the following)
top-notch albums: FACE TO FACE, SOMETHING ELSE, MUSWELL HILLBILLIES, VILLAGE
GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY, etc. And don't just use REVOLVER, RUBBER SOUL,
ABBEY ROAD, etc., as points of comparison - be fair and try comparing the Kinks
much-maligned but commercially successful late 70s output to some of Lennon's
post-IMAGINE stuff - and tell me that MIND GAMES, WALLS & BRIDGES, or ROCK 'N'
ROLL isn't pounded into mince meat by SLEEPWALKER, MISFITS, LOW BUDGET, or GIVE
THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT. And I'm saying this despite my sentimental
attachment to WALLS & BRIDGES, the first Lennon album I ever bought/heard, and
a mainstay for me throughout Jr. High School.

I won't go into this at length because both Ray Gorman and Scott Aldrich did a
great job of making the arguments I would. But, honestly, if every Lennon solo
albums from PLASTIC ONO BAND onwards disappeared forever, I could live with one
of the best-of compilations, easily. Even DOUBLE FANTASY - those seven Lennon
tracks are dynamite, but come on - it took him five years to write them! -
Davies was cranking out almost an album a year at this point, and even if you
only allow him one or two great songs per LP, he still comes out ahead.

On the same criteria, Davies beats McCartney, too - although in the last ten+
years, I'll admit they're running even, with occasional Davies highpoints (the
studio tracks on TO THE BONE, the STORYTELLER stuff) matched by McCartney's
sporadic successes (parts of FLAMING PIE, FLOWERS IN THE DIRT, etc).

Honestly, critics lose perspective when they talk about the Beatles. They were
a gifted foursome, no doubt, but the parts don't equal the sum, and with the
exception of a handful of solo albums (ALL THINGS MUST PASS, PLASTIC ONO BAND,
RAM, possible BAND ON THE RUN or TUG OF WAR) they never really equalled their
work as a whole. 

--Philip


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