To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this blog in 2022, I might compile a Top Ten Beatles Songs. Before that, there are far more important acts who deserve my attention...
10. End of the Season
If this wasn't an influence on Everyday Is Like Sunday, I'll eat Morrissey's hearing aid.
9. Death Of A Clown
Released as a Dave Davies solo single (though it was co-written by Dave). Anything that involves drinking to the death of clowns is a hit with me. I do hate me some clowns.
8. The Village Green Preservation Society
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups and virginity
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliate
God save tudor houses, antique tables and billiards
7. You Really Got Me
The world's first Heavy Metal record?
6. Days
Superceded in many of our memories by Kirsty's version, but the original is still ace.
5. All Day And All Of The Night
The world's second Heavy Metal record? The Stranglers did a mean version in the 80s, but by then we'd all heard hundreds of records that sounded like this. Back in 1964, nobody had ever heard anything like it.
4. Sunny Afternoon
One of those "woe is me, I'm a poor millionaire pop star" songs, forgivable because of Davies' playful lyrics. Take that, Jimmy Carr and, erm, Take That.
3. Come Dancing
The second Kinks song I ever truly loved, their 1983 comeback record and final UK chart hit. The band were much bigger abroad in the 70s and 80s, nobody seemed that bothered back home. Which is a shame, because much of their later material stands up really well.
A truly great story song.
2. Lola
The first Kinks song I ever truly loved, as Ray takes a walk on the wild side and ends up upsetting the BBC. Not for writing a song about a transvestite, but for rhyming the title character's name with Coca Cola. No advertising on the BBC, Ray - change it to Cherry Cola or else!
The way I remember it, we didn't actually get Cherry Cola in the UK until the mid-80s... a good decade and a half after this song was a hit.
1. Waterloo Sunset
Although I do get a bit tired of the whole "in't London brilliant" brigade who claim this as an anthem, you can't deny it's a timeless classic. Just beautiful.
Stop your sobbing - many great Kinks songs were rejected during the compilation of this Top Ten. I know, everybody's (not) gonna be happy. I never claimed to be a dedicated follower of fashion. Did I leave out one of your kinky favourites?
Nope, you got 'em all, Rol. You ought to get into Pokemon.
ReplyDeleteLike I don't have enough pointless crap to fill my days!
DeleteI am perfectly satisfied and felt good about the order too. Had a lovely singsong : didn't sound too metal \m/
ReplyDeleteNah, but apparently that's where it came from. Says people much smarter than me.
DeleteNow yer talkin' Rol.
ReplyDeleteEvocative, humorous, heartfelt genius.
Can't disagree with those either.
Didn't need an excuse, but used your prompt to spend most of today re-visiting their back catalogue.
As a result, (another) fave 10 of mine would be:
Autumn Almanac
Dead End Street
Victoria
Shangri La
Get Back In Line
Low Budget
Do You Remember Walter
Young & Innocent Days
This Time Tomorrow
Tired Of Waiting For You
Yep, most of those would be in my 11-20... though there's a couple I need to investigate further.
DeleteRay Davies was so prolific that I still seem to find the odd song I've not heard before.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky are those who are discovering the gems above for the first time.
Just played Shangri La again. Possibly the finest song ever ever.
(You can see where Weller picked up many of his ideas)
Get lost ... in you tube!
I can see where Weller picked up MOST of his ideas.
Delete