Saw Ray Davies, lead singer of The Kinks at the Taste of Chicago 4th of July concert. (What? You thought this post would be about something else?)
I generally try to avoid the Taste on the 4th because of the mass of humanity, but Davies is pretty much the last of my rock n roll heroes still living that I had not yet seen perform (Elvis Costello, you're the only one left!)
My friends and I thought we'd be consigned to the lawn, but happily much of the crowd was there only for the opening act, My Morning Jacket. They were fine - basically one power ballad away from becoming the Goo Goo Dolls. When they finished, half the pavilion emptied out and we made it to the fourth row.
The Kinks might be the most underrated of the great sixties bands. Even though they inventing the power cord and the rock opera, Ray and Dave Davies dont get the credit of their peers. Of course, as part of the British Invasion, their peers were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.
The concert was fun, despite the absence of some of my favorite Kinks tunes. Everyone was shocked that he didnt do Lola, but other classics were there: Where Have All the Good Times Gone, All Day and All of the Night, You Really Got Me. Also, a few obscure gems from their creative peak: 20th Century Man, Low Budget, and best of all an acoustic Sunny Afternoon.
Half the show was devoted to Ray's new album, Other People's Lives. Definitely quality material, but as he kept saying, "you can't escape from your back catalog." Davies' genius is for writing about other people's lives. Unlike the universal appeal of other great songwriters, his songs are usually about simple pleasures, very working class and very British.
Their first rock opera, Arthur or the Decline of the British Empire is about a middle aged man just wants to smoke a cigar, sit in a comfy chair and probably doesn't even like rock music. It also pre-dated The Who's Tommy by a few months.
That Davies wrote like a bit of a cranky old man when he was in his twenties makes seeing him in his sixties not quite so jarring. The concert was solid, but I can't rave about it. I can only suggest that you check out The Kinks' classic albums like Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-go-Round and Muswell Hillbillies.
I generally try to avoid the Taste on the 4th because of the mass of humanity, but Davies is pretty much the last of my rock n roll heroes still living that I had not yet seen perform (Elvis Costello, you're the only one left!)
My friends and I thought we'd be consigned to the lawn, but happily much of the crowd was there only for the opening act, My Morning Jacket. They were fine - basically one power ballad away from becoming the Goo Goo Dolls. When they finished, half the pavilion emptied out and we made it to the fourth row.
The Kinks might be the most underrated of the great sixties bands. Even though they inventing the power cord and the rock opera, Ray and Dave Davies dont get the credit of their peers. Of course, as part of the British Invasion, their peers were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.
The concert was fun, despite the absence of some of my favorite Kinks tunes. Everyone was shocked that he didnt do Lola, but other classics were there: Where Have All the Good Times Gone, All Day and All of the Night, You Really Got Me. Also, a few obscure gems from their creative peak: 20th Century Man, Low Budget, and best of all an acoustic Sunny Afternoon.
Half the show was devoted to Ray's new album, Other People's Lives. Definitely quality material, but as he kept saying, "you can't escape from your back catalog." Davies' genius is for writing about other people's lives. Unlike the universal appeal of other great songwriters, his songs are usually about simple pleasures, very working class and very British.
Their first rock opera, Arthur or the Decline of the British Empire is about a middle aged man just wants to smoke a cigar, sit in a comfy chair and probably doesn't even like rock music. It also pre-dated The Who's Tommy by a few months.
That Davies wrote like a bit of a cranky old man when he was in his twenties makes seeing him in his sixties not quite so jarring. The concert was solid, but I can't rave about it. I can only suggest that you check out The Kinks' classic albums like Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-go-Round and Muswell Hillbillies.
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