{"id":2857,"date":"2026-06-21T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/the-sunday-dozen-the-kinks-2-0\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:00:00","slug":"the-sunday-dozen-the-kinks-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/the-sunday-dozen-the-kinks-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sunday Dozen: The Kinks 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

It’s Ray Davies’ 81st birthday hence the rare Sunday Dozen repeat<\/a>. Anyone who knows anything about me understands how important Ray and The Kinks are to me: They’ve been the soundtrack for vast swaths of my life.<\/p>\n

My motto as a blogger has long been: When in doubt post a Kinks tune. I’m about to repost 12 of them as well as some lagniappe.<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday, Ray.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ve been listening to The Kinks since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. The exact meaning of that phrase eludes me, but it scans well.<\/p>\n

My true Kinks love is Muswell Hillbillies<\/em>. I attended high school in Athens, Greece for the first semester of my sophomore year. I bought my first copy of my favorite Kinks album in Athens. My friend Paul Kinney and I spent hours listening to and discussing this great album. We lost touch long ago. Hopefully, he’ll read this and leave a comment. It’s happened before with another long-lost friend so it could happen again. Odd things happen to Kinks fans.<\/p>\n

I’m particularly fond of Seventies era Kinks. That’s when I saw them in concert the most. It’s one reason two of their concept albums Soap Opera<\/em> and Schoolboys In Disgrac<\/em>e have a special place in my heart. I saw both tours and was blown away as I was by the Sleepwalker<\/em> and Misfits<\/em> tours. I even went to San Jose, California for the latter. It was not one of the tech capitols of the world in those days. It was a sleepy mid-sized city jealous of its sophisticated older sister, San Francisco.<\/p>\n

I’m a hardcore Kinks fan who doesn’t deride the so-called arena era. I like the albums and they were still great live. There was something special about the creative tension between Ray and Dave Davies. It was sibling rivalry in its purest form. That’s why I’m always skeptical when reunion rumors are floated. Been there, done that.<\/p>\n

Another reason I dig latter day Kinks is Dave’s evolution as a lead guitar player. He went from being bumped in favor of Jimmy Page on early recording sessions to being introduced mockingly by Ray as Dave “Death of a Clown” Davies to being an instrumental force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

Some readers are convinced the Page story is apocryphal. It’s the one I’ve always heard. It’s hard to tell because of many people’s extreme pro-Ray or pro-Dave biases. Another thing that makes the band so interesting. They’re folk heroes not just a rock band.<\/p>\n

For first timers to the Sunday Dozen<\/a>, I always begin with 30+ songs before winnowing. My tendency is to skip the biggest radio hits and concert warhorses and dig into the back catalog for lesser-known numbers. Trust me, I love Waterloo Sunset, Sunny Afternoon, Picture Book, Victoria, Lola, Celluloid Heroes, and Do It Again<\/em> as much as the next Kinks fan. The hardest cut for me was one of the band’s zaniest tunes, Ducks On The Wall. <\/em>The dozens are about making difficult choices for no particular reason.<\/p>\n

In mulling over the songs, I focused on which tunes summed up the band’s life and times best. The Kinks have always felt like outsiders and outliers. That’s what attracts so many of us to Ray’s lyrics and music. Plus, they’re a great rock and roll band.<\/p>\n

As always, the songs are arranged in chronological order and reflect my own personal taste.<\/p>\n

It’s time to rock, sleepwalk, shed our phobias, and try to stay out of disgrace.<\/p>\n

I’m Not Like Everybody Else<\/em> is the outsider’s anthem. It began as a B-side then took on a life of its own. The live version from To The Bone<\/em> is introduced by Ray as follows: “It’s a song that kind of sums up everything we’re about, The Kinks. Because everybody’s expecting us to do wonderful things and then we mess it up.”<\/p>\n

Someone with a thick Scottish (an educated guess) accent in the crowd yells, “Oh, no you don’t.”<\/p>\n

I concur as does David Chase who used several Kinks klassics in The Sopranos<\/em> including this one.<\/p>\n