This Week in the Mercury
Monday, November 2, 2009
CD Reviews God Save the Kinks. Please, Save Them.
Posted by Ned Lannamann on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 1:15 PM
No, no, no, no, no. This should not have happened. Ray Davies has re-recorded a bunch of (wonderful, amazing) Kinks songs. With a choir. Have you ever wanted to hear "You Really Got Me" sung by a 65-piece choir? Well then, (1) The Kinks Choral Collection is the album for you, and (2) fuck you.
Ray Davies has not ultimately side-stepped the geezer syndrome that almost every rocker his age has succumbed to, but he hasn't tarnished his damn-near unbeatable legacy nearly as bad as some of his peers. In fact, his Portland show last year was one of the best concerts in recent memory, sounding vital and alive. But this... this has happened.
I don't know who this record is for. Kinks fans? Chorus fans? A song like "Waterloo Sunset" can't be entirely killed by a Christmassy sounding choir ooh-ing in the background, but some of the other songs don't fare so well.
LISTEN:
Ray Davies & The Crouch End Festival Chorus - "Picture Book"
Ugh. I need a hot bath and an original copy of Village Green Preservation Society, stat.
Showing 1-4 of 4
AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Ned, you have ruined my day! RUINED IT!
He did get shot in the head, you know. At least that's my theory of why this happened.
You guys are stupid. Ray did a choral concert for the BBC earlier this year and it was awesome. So what that some songs don't translate? Most do. You really got me and all the day all the night aren't good choices, I agree. But Waterloo Sunset, Celluliod Heroes and so many others are. Oh wait, you guys haven't heard those songs before? Figures...you probably think The Kinks stopped making records in the late sixties.
Try picking up Arthur, Preservation: Act One or Muswell Hillbillies if you care to see Ray's genious in all it's glory. Oh yeah, you probably think Dave just played the guitar, too.
-Weav, Proud member of the Davies-Brothers Protectorate
Hi, Weav. Thanks for commenting! Of course I have listened (many times) to Arthur, Preservation (Acts 1 and 2), and Muswell Hillbillies. Not to mention Dave's many excellent songs like "Lincoln County," "Strangers," "Living on a Thin Line," and "There Is No Life Without Love," to name just a few. And I think some of big brother Ray's best songs--"Better Things," "Did Ya?"--came decades after the Kinks' '60s heyday. In fact, we even ran an article after he came out with Working Man's Cafe last year; you can read it here.
These reasons, and more, are why I am so utterly disappointed with The Kinks Choral Collection. It is not a good album. At all. It trounces their marvelous legacy, which, up 'til now, Ray Davies has otherwise done little to diminish. Maybe you still think I am stupid, but I hope not.
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