The Kinks were on BBC4, here in the UK, last night (15th July 2011) in four documentaries: 'Kinkdom Come: Dave Davies', 'The Kinks at the BBC', 'Brothers in Arms' (about rock bands fronted by brothers) and 'Imagine: Ray Davies - Imaginary Man'. All except 'Brothers in Arms' are being repeated on Sunday night, starting at 11:50pm. I am not sure if these are available in the US.
The documentaries look at the extremely complex relationship between the brothers, Ray's influences and the enduring influence of the band. These are interspersed with a lot of performance footage of the group.
My favourite album is the most well known, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Ray's lyrics are often very sentimental combined with despair at unnecessary modern developments. At one point in the 'Imaginary Man' documentary he asks, "Why are there so many big buses in London? Why can't they replace them with more smaller buses?"
The documentaries look at the extremely complex relationship between the brothers, Ray's influences and the enduring influence of the band. These are interspersed with a lot of performance footage of the group.
My favourite album is the most well known, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Ray's lyrics are often very sentimental combined with despair at unnecessary modern developments. At one point in the 'Imaginary Man' documentary he asks, "Why are there so many big buses in London? Why can't they replace them with more smaller buses?"
Although often in the shadow of the Beatles, The Who and the Rolling Stones, there cannot be a rock group in the world that is not influenced by the Kinks' You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night. Reflective and profoundly English songs like Waterloo Sunset certainly had an influence on British progressive rock bands like Genesis, King Crimson and ELP. Pete Townshend famously said, "Village Green is the Kinks' Sergeant Pepper". From him, it was high praise indeed.
Originally posted on 16th July 2011
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