Standing Over By The Record Machine: The Kinks offer a different kind of best-of with The Journey, Part 1

Arranging the band’s greatest hits to “tell a story” may seem like highfalutin’ nonsense, but it actually makes for compelling listening.

THE KINKS The Journey, Part 1 (BMG)

We don’t need to trip backwards to my 1996 Kinks screed I recently reposted from The Austin Chronicle to know Ray/Dave/Mick/Pete poured the concrete into the foundation of this thing we all love around here called punk rock. Without teenage Dave Davies’ abuse of his lil’ green practice amp (DUH-NUH-NUH-DUH-NUH!) and older brother Ray evolving his quest for the Eternal Primordial Riff into sophisticated songwriting neither rock nor roll had seen? We just plain DO NOT HAVE PUNK – no Stooges, no Dolls, no Pistols nor Ramones. It’s a mighty short stumble from "You Really Got Me" to such early Clash goodies as "1977," after all. (Although realistically, that Clash B-side owes more to "All Day And All Of The Night," doesn’t it?) Richard Hell even talks in his autobiography I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp about his and Tom Verlaine’s fealty as they formed The Neon Boys – the precursor to Television – to “driving, crazed, riff-strong music, like what was made in the mid-’60s.” He goes on to name the Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan in his Carnaby-Street-suits-Chelsea-boots-and-Fender-Telecasters glory, and basically the entirety of Nuggets as exemplifying the music he was talking about, where every musician treats his instrument as a drum, pounding on a neanderthal chord progression. Hard to believe Hell didn’t also have the DUH-NUH-NUH-DUH-NUH! Kinks in mind as well, when typing out that sentence.

So, you think we’d be interested in a new two-part Kinks compilation, celebrating their 60th anniversary? Let’s get back to you on that….

Wow – 60 years of the best DUH-NUH-NUH-DUH-NUH! and song craftsmanship on the planet! Hard to fathom. In my mind’s eye, The Kinks are still as they appear on The Journey, Part 1’s cover – forever living in 1965, freshly tossing aside their old red fox hunting suits their original managers fitted them into, slipping on suede Beatle boots, low-slung tartan hipsters and wide white belts. (Well, at least Dave’s wearing those clothes, and he was always the sharpest-looking Kink.) It’s also a good thing Ray Davies devised an overarching concept for this comp. Because if there’s any band who have more greatest hits packages than actually albums-as-albums, it’s The Kinks.

Ray’s never been much of one for straightforwardness. This is the man who could only write his autobiography X-Ray as an “unauthorized autobiography,” framing the straight memoir chapters with a science fiction tale in which the elderly Ray of the future has invited some hapless young writer to Konk Studios to take dictation as he did an as-told-to book of his life story. As if the only way he could be direct was to be indirect. So now, he assembles a career best-of and sequences the lovingly remastered songs “according to themes inspired by the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963,” as the press release puts it. Which may seem awfully conceptual and maybe even a bit pretentious. But it makes for compelling listening.

The Journey begins, as it should, with the very fount of DUH-NUH-NUH-DUH-NUH! itself, “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And All Of The Night.” Shel Talmy’s original mono single mixes, too – none of the reverb-drenched fake “stereo” remasters that American label Reprise forced upon us. In fact, all ‘60s tracks here are the original mono masters, as God and/or Shel Talmy intended. And no ‘60s producer recorded a loud ‘n’ crunchy rock ‘n’ roll band like Shel Talmy! His productions were not exactly lo-fi – he certainly knew the value of tube compressors, judicious use of reverb, and putting 12 mics on a drum kit. Most of all, Talmy knew how to make records sound exciting! And mono, for some reason, sounds more explosive than stereo, when capturing a band as dynamic as the early Kinks. Ask Billy Childish – not only has his every group (Thee Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Headcoats, and loads of other bands with an extra “e” in their definitive article) been modeled on those DUH-NUH-NUH-DUH-NUH! Kinks records, but his production style has always been pure ‘60s Shel Talmy, down to the equipment and recording techniques.

But with “It’s All Right,” “Who’ll Be The Next In Line,” “Tired Of Waiting For You,” “She’s Got Everything,” and other ‘60s Kinks killers and ballads lined up on Side One after The Initial Two Blasts, it’s easy to look upon The Journey as the best Kinks kompilation yet. Yes, ballads - the aforementioned “Tired Of Waiting” (which ‘Stack reader Deniz Tek feels is the source of much of Joey Ramone’s vocal phrasing, and he has a point), plus “Stop Your Sobbing” (as beautifully reinterpreted by The Pretenders 15 years later) proved Ray’s songwriting was capable of greater emotional depth and tenderness than the teen horndog riffing that was The Kinks’ specialty. Which was given full reign as the ‘60s wore on, and Ray increasingly allowed his inner Noël Coward full flower. Admit it – can you resist 1967’s “Waterloo Sunset?” As Ray informed the great Bill Holdship in the pages of Creem Magazine in 1981, not even the greatest rock guitarist of the late ‘60s was immune to its charms.

“(T)he only guy that gave us any credit (in the late ‘60s)  was Jimi Hendrix. He’d come over and say, ‘Yeah, The Kinks do write good stuff.’ I remember doing a show in England called Top Of The Pops. He was doing ‘Purple Haze,’ and we were doing ‘Waterloo Sunset.’ He came over afterward and said he really liked my song, and got a hold of my guitar. It’s one of the big thrills in my life that Jimi Hendrix got a hold of my acoustic guitar and started playing it. I rate him as one of the greatest guitarists. Not a great technician, but he just used it as a weapon. “

As you listen to this two-record set, it’s hard to think of what’s left off, what’s to appear on The Journey Part 2. You think, “Oh yeah?! Where’s ‘Days’?!” But there it is – Track 3, Side 3! “This Is Where I Belong”? Final track on Side 4. “Dead End Street,” “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” “Waterloo Sunset,” Dave’s sublime “Death Of A Clown” – they’re all here, alongside some highlights of their ‘70s era, such as “Celluloid Heroes” and Ray’s “I Can’t Explain” rewrite “The Hard Way.” Then you start thinking of some things like “Lola” or “Picture Book,” or “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,”  and you rest easy – they’ve got to be on Part 2. 

And what of that concept? I dunno. Ray claims these songs are the story of his pursuit of some girl from the beginning of The Kinks’ kareer to the present, but I don’t see it. The Journey Part 1 works purely as an album, as a kollection of The Kinks’ best, which is the only thing I’m interested in. And this is a balanced, well thought out clutch of their stuff, mastered hot and pressed on premium vinyl, sounding as warm and present as you'd want. That’s all that matters to this particular listener. The Journey Part 1 does the job exceptionally well.

P.S. — Speaking of Joey Ramone, how in the holy hell did I manage to sleep through the owners of all his music selling the publishing for $10 million?! And who benefits from this?! I know Joey could’ve used the money while he was alive. Damn, everything’s for sale in the fershlugginner country….

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