Something Else by The Kinks

The Kinks - The Way Love Used to Be
The Kinks - Two Sisters
The Kinks - Lola (Instrumental)
The Kinks - Australia

I've been a fan of The Kinks for as long as I remember but only in a greatest hits kind of way. When I was nineteen and on my first big trip away from home I found myself paying them homage one Friday night. I hopped on a tube to Waterloo Station around sunset time but arrived just a little late and missed Terry and Julie, unless, that is, they're homeless and live in cardboard boxes. Recently I've had the pleasure of diving deeper into The Kinks musical pool and today I bring you a few of the gems I've found.

From the soundtrack to the movie 'Percy' comes this brief but beautifully played and emotionally sang sad string-laden tune, 'The Way Love Used To Be. Like all the songs posted today this one was written by brother Ray who is, eerily, the seventh son of a seventh son.

'Two Sisters' -- taken from 'Something Else' which also features the incredible 'Waterloo Sunset' -- is a thinly veiled metaphor about Ray's relationship with his brother and fellow band member, Dave Davies. Ray was, at the time, experiencing the drudgery of being wed, while young Dave enjoyed all the liberties of singledom.

Though you could never accuse The Kinks of not taking themselves seriously, I love that they chose to include a hammed up instrumental version of their biggest hit on the soundtrack to 'Percy'. 'Lola (Instrumental)' is a super rendition of a song about a transvestite that is just perfect for a film about a penis transplant.

'Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire' is an Lp of music meant for the (unfortunately never realised) rock opera written by Ray just prior to the release of The Who's 'Tommy' -- often cited as the first of its kind. Based on Ray's brother-in-law, 'Arthur' is the story of an ordinary man who, disillusioned with the British Empire after WW2, decides to move to Australia. The lyrics of 'Australia' very much see the country through rose coloured glasses with lines like "Australia, no class distinction/Australia, no drug addiction" and "Everyone walks around with a perpetual smile across their face...Everyone gets around and nobody can ever get you down". I find this tune endlessly amusing and am surprised that I never came across it in the twenty odd years I lived down under. I also dig the way it ends with a four minute wig out, perhaps signifying the long journey from Blighty.

The Kinks lyrics