From the Nov 18 – Nov 24, 2004 issue

Music

Konceptual

Reissuing the Kinks' Weird Period

by Sean Nelson

If 1980's One for the Road had been the first Kinks record you ever heard, you could be forgiven for thinking they were just a dumb-ass arena rock band, complete with sing-alongs, handclaps, and protracted instrumental solos. By the time this live album was released, the grace notes and rough edges of the band's historic career had been mercilessly pruned in favor of least-common-denominator crowd-pleasing antics, witless banter, and big dumb rawk tones for the big dumb rawk crowd. But if One for the Road is a disgrace, it's also the apex of the most bizarre period in one of rock 'n' roll history's most bizarre careers.

By 1968, the Kinks were basically finished. After a great run as leader of a massively successful singles band, Ray Davies faced the same challenge that threatened to ruin his peers the Who and the Stones--namely, the challenge of making full-length records for the increasingly sophisticated rock audience. Davies' response to the LP question was The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, a thematically linked collection of gentle anti-psychedelia more concerned with preserving the old way of life than with breaking down any social barriers. And though Sanctuary's recent three-disc reissue proves that Village Green is a towering work, the rock world of 1968 couldn't have cared less; the album's commercial failure sent Davies and the band into a tailspin. Two years later, however, they reemerged with a worldwide hit called "Lola" and set about to take full advantage of their second chance at world domination. They changed labels, toured endlessly (especially in America, where they had been banned for most of the '60s due to a musician's union dispute) and, most importantly, made a series of mind-blowingly weird concept records designed to make the most of the LP format--and Davies' growing obsession with the marriage of rock and theater. (Most of these albums were reissued on CD this year, in a pristine series of remastered releases from Koch Records.)

The first '70s-era Kinks LP was the best. Muswell Hillbillies (1971) is a gentle giant that brings together the very best of Davies' urban pastoralia with a discernible country-western influence that reinforces, rather than contradicts, the utter Britishness of the whole record. Though only loosely conceptual (songs for and about working-class London dreamers), the album's thematic consistency nonetheless set the stage for the releases that followed.

Preservation Act 1 (1973) was the first sign that the little birdies were beginning to fly from Mr. Davies' tree. A musical based on the Kinks' own Village Green LP, Preservation is a great album in the sheep's clothing of a concept record. Gems like "Sweet Lady Genevieve" and "One of the Survivors" would be perfectly at home on any Kinks LP or 45. Were it not for the stage directions on the sleeve (and the increasingly elaborate stage show the band was mounting at the time), you might not have guessed at the songs' connection. Preservation passes the crucial concept album test: You can listen to the whole thing and not know you're being told a story. The same, alas, cannot be said for its sequel, Preservation Act 2 (1974), a double-album of songs, none of which would have made the cut for Act 1.

Though neither Preservation did very well, they were nonetheless followed by two further concept efforts, Soap Opera (1974) and Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975), both of which were more concise than their sprawling predecessors, but which still shared their author's perverse fascination with theater rock role-play. Also notable is the fact that all four of these records had characters in common--specifically the villainous Mr. Flash, whose "origin" is told on the retro-rocking Schoolboys--again lending the unshakeable sense that Davies was operating from deep within some weird obsession, which, by mid-decade, had again cost him his dedicated hit-based following.

Facing a dwindling audience, Davies then led his band back into the light with the easily digested (if occasionally inspired) releases Sleepwalker (1977) and Misfits (1978). And then, later in 1978, came Low Budget, a big hit in America despite, or because of, its narrow sonic and musical scope. Two years later, the Kinks were playing a new role: Headlining sold-out arenas, discovering a new mass audience, and--if the lyrics on '80s albums like Give the People What They Want (1981) and State of Confusion (1983) are any indication--wondering where all the good times had gone.

sean@thestranger.com

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