by Mott the Dog
re-mastered By Ella Crew
5
Stars *****
In 1979 The Kinks came back ... again.
After finding success in 1964 with their chart topping
hit single “You Really Got Me”, which gave them the template for a
stream of hit singles from the mighty pen of Ray Davies, elder brother of
Dave Davies, who’s guitar style changed the whole face of Rock ‘n’
Roll music with his what were to become known as Heavy Metal riffs.
From
1964 - 1967, The Kinks had twelve consecutive top ten hits in the U.K.
with three number one’s including “Tired of Waiting” and the
immortal “Sunny Afternoon”. Amazingly, “Waterloo Sunset” only got
to number two, a travesty of justice. During this period The Kinks were
considered one of the top contenders, and were always this Dog’s
favorite. The Beatles always seemed a little too managed to be the real
thing, and The Stones sounded like they wanted to come from Detroit not
Dartford, where they did come from. The Kinks loved coming from England,
acted like it, and sung about it.
But somehow in 1967 the hits just dried up and the
British press kicked over the bones, pronouncing The Kinks dead.
In 1970 out of nowhere they came up with “Lola”, a
top ten hit all over Europe and the States. Probably only one of two songs
to be about transsexuals to slip through the tough censorship rules of the
British Broadcasting Company to reach the top ten on the back of massive
radio exposure. (The other one being Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild
side”.) Maybe the man in charge of censorship just thought Lola was a
nice girl with a deep brown voice, and those nice Kink chaps were
perfectly normal. Nice one, Hubert.
Following this up with more hit singles, a hit album,
and lots of goodwill through doing popular soundtrack work for trendy
movies such as the eye-wateringly topical “Percy”, about a very
delicate transplant.
With their newly re-found fame the Davies Brothers
packed their band up and moved lock, stock, and barrel across to the
United States of America, where they were welcomed with open arms, and
proceeded to pump up the coffers with the Yankee dollar. But slowly the
hits dried up and it was time for a bit of a re-think. An attack on
American Stadium Rock was the way the Davies Brothers decided upon and
went back into the studios with original drummer Mick Avory and Jim
Redford, bassist.
Redford, formerly with progressive rock band Argent,
added a lot of bottom end into the Kinks as well as a much-needed
injection of fun and enthusiasm. Keyboard player Gordon Edwards (ex Pretty
Things) had just been fired from the band for indulging too much in the
Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle. So for the purpose of these sessions Ray
Davies doubled up on keyboards, but by the time the band went back on the
road a young man by the name of Ian Gibbons (later a long time member of
the Ian Hunter Band and top session player) had taken over keyboard
duties.
By that time “Low Budget” had given them their
first top ten single in nine years and a top ten album to boot.
The music was perfect, capturing the mood of the times
with Ray’s musing over his observations on life. In “A Gallon of
Gas” the singer rues over the irony now that he has fame, fortune, the
requisite life style, and most importantly a shiny new Cadillac. There is
not a drop of gasoline to power his latest acquisition. (For those of you
too young to remember, there was an oil crisis in 1979.) Even though times
have changed the music is still very relevant today as it was then.
Slip this newly re-mastered version of “Low Budget”
into your CD player and cast yourself back to a time when musicians
actually had to play their instruments and song writing was a real art.
Every song is a gem with elder brother singing with emotion in his own
unique whimsical style. Dave lays down some typically gritty Kinks Rock
‘n’ Roll guitar, whilst the rhythm section locks tightly into the
jumpin’ grooves. Filling out the sound further is Nick Newell on
saxophone on a couple of tracks.
It’s all gone a bit quiet on the Kinks front recently
again, so expect a dramatic comeback at a time zone somewhere in your
region any day now. However, in the mean time...
... go on - treat yourself - get a “Low Budget”.
Musicians
This
week’s review book is from prolific writer Christopher G. Moore. Tokyo
Joe (ISBN 974-91152-8-7) is a re-written, revised and re-released version
of his 1991 published book Enemies of Memory. In the press release that
came from Heaven Lake Press, the publishers, they state that although the
original version received critical acclaim, they felt the book did not
receive the international recognition that it deserves. I have not read
Enemies of Memory, so cannot comment. However, I have now read Tokyo Joe,
so can comment on this one.
Miles
Massey (George Clooney) is a smooth, oh so smooth charmer. His reputation
as a top notch Los Angeles divorce lawyer brings Marylin Rexroth
(Catherine Zeta-Jones) into his world. Miles is hired by Rex Rexroth
(Edward Herrmann), Marylin’s philandering husband, in a divorce action
to make sure that his gold-digging wife does not get her hands on his
millions.
Mott’s CD review: Kinks - Low Budget