A Rare Discussion of Things I Find Interesting

[Kinetic 0]

I want to get a lot of different opinions on a lot different things, but don't want to go to the trouble of starting a lot of different threads about stuff that maybe five people know anything about. So here goes:

 

My current dual musical obsessions are with the Kinks and David Bowie. How can anyone familiar with the stuff the Kinks recorded in their prime not think The Who are a complete fucking joke? I mean, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are unimpeachable and I accept that, although I secretly suspect that their continued dominance in "best-of-all-time" lists is part of a shadowy baby boomer conspiracy to feed that particular age group's sense of self-importance. And, shit, I love the Beatles and Stones, but how they've managed to completely overwhelm all other British Invasion bands (with the exception of the aforementioned Who, a complete fucking joke) in terms of long-term popularity has to be the result of some sort of media ploy. And the Kinks are essentially forgotten with the exception of "You Really Got Me" and "Lola," when anyone discerning enough to pick up their records from the period beginning with Face to Face and ending with, arguably, Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround, although Muswell Hillbillies has a few good songs, would realize that Ray Davies was easily the equal of Lennon or McCartney during that time period, and that Dave Davies wipes the fucking floor with George Harrison. So get out your fucking Ipods, yuppie motherfuckers, and download goddamn "Waterloo Sunset" and "Shangri-La" and "Do You Remember Walter?" and anythings else Ray Davies wrote during the brief period in which he was the world's greatest popular musician.

 

Speaking of overlooked genius, how come no one on this board has ever mentioned T. Rex? I defy anyone to pick up Electric Warrior and not totally fall in love with it, as well as proclaim it easily equal to any of Bowie or Roxy Music's glitter rock records from the early 70s. Everyone knows "Get it On (Bang a Gong)" but the real meat of that record exists elsewhere. Seek out "Mambo Sun," "Jeepster," and "Cosmic Dancer" at once.

 

Oh, and Saturnmark was deadly accurate in his praising of Sparks. The two I would suggest specifically are Kimono My House and Propaganda. A good primer to the band's sound at that time would be "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us."

 

Discuss.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

How can anyone familiar with the stuff the Kinks recorded in their prime not think The Who are a complete fucking joke?

I can draw no other conclusion than you must've experienced some sort of head trauma since moving to Asheville.

[Kinetic 0]

Woah! Magic bus.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

T. Rex? Oh christ. Electric Warrior is full of some gorgeous hooks, and all kinds of supersexual "Ow"s and "ooooohhhh.....ssssskkkkkkk"s, but it just turns into gaytime when you research the stuff they released as Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Bolan's solo material. It does however make Electric Warrior seem all that much better.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Woah! Magic bus.

I hope you're kidding.

[Guest Homeless Guy Spare Some Change]

please explain how the who are a fucking joke, i'm very interested in your views and would like to subscribe to your newsgroup

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

FINALLY someone listened. You heard Lil Beethoven Kinetic? Sparks' 2002 opus. Only sparks could do anything that awesome.

[Anorak 0]

And the Kinks are essentially forgotten with the exception of "You Really Got Me" and "Lola," when anyone discerning enough to pick

I'd say Waterloo Sunset is another song they are linked with, it finished 2nd in a 100 greatest singles of all time list a few years back (i think it was MOJO so nobody under 30 would have voted). I've been listening to The Village Green Preservation Society a lot recently and i'm enjoying it like new because its timelessly good pop music. I'd be here all day listing my favourite songs. As for T. Rex, i've always liked every single song i've heard, not just the big hits, but i've never got round to getting an album even though i'm 99.9% sure i'd love it.

 

I like The Who, they definately did some great things but they did some pretty ropey stuff as well IMO. They were a great band straight from their early singles and although i like certain stuff from well past the 70's they never captured me in the same way The Kinks did. I think it lay in how Ray Davies was one of those gifted songwriters who songs existed in their own little world, musically and lyrically those songs were perfectly formed gems, clever but not smug and regularly mixed humor with pathos.

[MrRant 0]

Van Halen's You Really Got Me > The Kinks' You Really Got Me

[Henry Spencer 0]

No way. The Van Halen version is slick and lifeless, much like everything else they've ever done.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

I enjoy the Sparks because the remixes with Faith No More do indeed kick ass. They seem respect them overall by themselves too. They're interesting.

[BX 0]

Wait, Kinetic is in Asheville?

 

RIGHT FUCKING ON DUDE.

 

Best. City. For a long ways.

 

EDIT: In fact, I'm headed up there this weekend. Gonna raid Green Eggs N Jam, then go burn down the Grove Park Inn.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

My current dual musical obsessions are with the Kinks and David Bowie.

What periods of Bowie are you getting obsessed with? If it's lining up with the Kinks, I'm guessing you're thinking sorta Hunky Dory through Aladdin Sane type Bowie.

 

I ask because I love Bowie, but I really have trouble sticking with him for very long. Ziggy Stardust is great. I really like Hunky Dory. And I like the Berlin albums, even if I think the instrumental halves play out more like a Brian Eno training ground than anything Bowie really has his hands on. But when I picked up the 2-disc best of, I felt like I had pretty much everything I could ever want.

 

I think you can pick out 15 or 20 songs of Bowie's and put them up against anything else and still have them come off as being really fucking great, but I get tired listening to more than 30 or 40 minutes from the same period.

[Anorak 0]

Van Halen's You Really Got Me > The Kinks' You Really Got Me

Don't be silly

 

Van Halen covering The Kinks is just wrong.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Van Halen's You Really Got Me > The Kinks' You Really Got Me

Don't be silly

 

Van Halen covering The Kinks is just wrong.

Mark this day down.

 

I'm joining Anorak in the beatdown of MrRant...

 

[Kinetic 0]

Wait, Kinetic is in Asheville?

 

RIGHT FUCKING ON DUDE.

 

Best. City. For a long ways.

 

EDIT: In fact, I'm headed up there this weekend. Gonna raid Green Eggs N Jam, then go burn down the Grove Park Inn.

Yeah, I've been in Asheville for a little over a year now. If you're around this weekend, you should come to Vincent's Ear on Saturday night and see my personal favorite local band, Congratulations. I'll be the one in the suit.

[Kinetic 0]

My current dual musical obsessions are with the Kinks and David Bowie.

What periods of Bowie are you getting obsessed with? If it's lining up with the Kinks, I'm guessing you're thinking sorta Hunky Dory through Aladdin Sane type Bowie.

 

I ask because I love Bowie, but I really have trouble sticking with him for very long. Ziggy Stardust is great. I really like Hunky Dory. And I like the Berlin albums, even if I think the instrumental halves play out more like a Brian Eno training ground than anything Bowie really has his hands on. But when I picked up the 2-disc best of, I felt like I had pretty much everything I could ever want.

 

I think you can pick out 15 or 20 songs of Bowie's and put them up against anything else and still have them come off as being really fucking great, but I get tired listening to more than 30 or 40 minutes from the same period.

I really only like a few songs from Hunky Dory, truth be told. I think it's a fine album, but 9 times out of 10 I'll just listen to "Changes," "Oh! You Pretty Things," "Life on Mars," and "Queen Bitch." A lot of it seems sort of wishy-washy to me; sort of the last vestige of early David Bowie before he found his voice on Ziggy Stardust. That said, my favorite of the three glitter rock records is probably Diamond Dogs. Ignoring the half-assed Orwell song cycle nonsense, it really has the best set of songs of those three records. I'm not all that keen on the sequel-to-the-theme-from-"Shaft" sound on "!984," but everything is else is pretty brilliant, especially the "Sweet Thing" suite and "Rebel Rebel." Aside from that, I'm partial to Station to Station and Scary Monsters moreso than any of the Berlin albums. In fact, Lodger is my favorite of those three simply because it's noticably devoid of any of Brian Eno's ambient bullshit. A better set of David Bowie projects from the Berlin period are the two Iggy Pop albums, especially Lust for Life.

 

Discuss.

 

Another topic of interest to me: Television's Marquee Moon is a rare masterpiece, but Adventure is a total piece of unlistenable shit. Why?

[5_moves_of_doom 0]

Another topic of interest to me:  Television's Marquee Moon is a rare masterpiece, but Adventure is a total piece of unlistenable shit.  Why?

Huh, you really think so? I haven't heard it, but a lot of people list it as only slightly less brilliant than their first album. Certainly not terrible, at least.

 

 

As for Bowie, I absolutely adore him (especially after seeing him in concert early this year) but like Edwin a lot of the time by the end of one of his albums, I've gotten kind of tired of him. I don't know what it is, but for some reason too much Bowie in a row just doesn't hold up for me. Granted, I can listen to Ziggy Stardust twice in a row and still love it, but for most of the other stuff... I don't know, it just really seems that I'm all Bowie'd out by the end of it all. Which is really strange, because unlike a lot of my friends, I'm usually very good at listening to albums all the way through.

 

Nonetheless, he's brilliant, and I prefer the glam rock period to anything else.

 

 

EDIT: Oh, and I love the Kinks, but... well, I like the Who a lot less than a lot of people (I still love them; they're just not the best evar,) but they are most definitely no joke.

Edited April 6, 2004 by 5_moves_of_doom

[Kinetic 0]

Another topic of interest to me:  Television's Marquee Moon is a rare masterpiece, but Adventure is a total piece of unlistenable shit.  Why?

Huh, you really think so? I haven't heard it, but a lot of people list it as only slightly less brilliant than their first album. Certainly not terrible, at least.

 

 

No, it really isn't any good. One of the explanations for this that I've heard but don't really subscribe to is that the Marquee Moon material was fairly old and had been played out and perfected long before the actual recording, while the Adventure material was all stuff that Tom Verlaine had come up with in the last year. But regardless of why it's bad, the fact remains that it really isn't any good at all and represents one of the more significant "sophomore slumps" from which the band (and particularly the primary songwriter, Verlaine) never really recovered.