456 Goodbye The Kinks - Don't Forget To Dance

Chart  entered : 15  October  1983

Chart  peak : 58

I  often  think  there's  something  of  a   disconnect  between  the  London-based music  press  and  the  rest  of  the country  when  it  comes  to The  Kinks. The  former  still  regard  Ray  Davies  as  a  songwriting  genius  who  might  yet  have  something   good  in  the  locker   and  so  Q  gave   his    two  noughties  solo  albums  full-page  reviews  when they  wouldn't  even  mention  a  new  LP  by  Eric  Burdon  or  The Moody  Blues. Outside  that  bubble  I  think  most  regard  The Kinks  as  a  group  who  made  some  decent  records  in  the  sixties  and  then  provided  the  textbook  example  of  not  knowing when  to  quit.

The  Kinks  of  course  were  a  major  force  in  the  sixties  chalking  up  two  more  number  ones  after  "You  Really  Got  Me"  and  coming  pretty  close  with  other  singles. After  "Waterloo  Sunset "  made  number  two  in  the  early  summer  of  1967  their  commercial  fortunes  started  to  slide. The  parent  album  "Something  Else  By  The  Kinks"  peaked  at  35  and  despite  its  immediate  successors  scoring  highly  with  the  critics, they  never  managed  to  chart  in  the  UK  with  a  studio  album  of  new  material  again. The  band's  decision  in  1968    to  stop  touring  and  concentrate  on  studio  work  hastened  their  decline. By  1969  bassist  Pete  Quaife  had  had  enough  and  quit  the  band. His  replacement  was  John  Dalton   who  had  deputised  for   him   in  1966  while  he  recovered  from  a  broken  leg.  John  had  been  playing  since  the  rock  and  roll  era  most  notably  with  The  Mark  Four ,  a  beat  group  who  were  popular  in  North  London  but  failed  to  chart  with  any  of  the  four  rather  generic  singles  they  recorded  in  the  mid-sixties  for  three  different  labels.  When  John  quit  in  1966  to  work  on  a  building  site  they  morphed  into  The  Creation.  The  Kinks   also  brought  in  a  permanent  keyboard  player  John  Gosling  at  this  time.

In  1970  The  Kinks's  fortunes  in  the  singles  chart  revived  in  a  big  way  with  successive  Top  5  hits  in  "Lola"  and  "Apeman"  but  that  still  wasn't  sufficient  to  propel  the  parent  album  "Lola  Versus  Powerman"  into  the  album  charts. Thereafter,  their  decline  in  the  UK  was  rapid  with  1972s   "Supersonic  Rocket  Ship"  their  last  hit  of  the  decade.  Ray  expanded  the  line  up  to  pursue  a  theatrical  bent  on  the  next  four  albums, during  which  time  his  marriage  broke  down  and  he  made  a  suicide  attempt. The  band  struggled  on  and  the  latter  two  "theatrical"  albums  started  selling  well  in  the  US.

Encouraged  by  this  Arista  signed  them  up  and  the  next  album  "Sleepwalker "which  heralded  a  more   heavy  rock  approach  , almost  made  the  Top  20. At  the  end  of  the  sessions  a  disgruntled  John  D  quit  the  band  and  was  replaced  by  former  Blodwyn  Pig  man  Andy  Pyle  but  he  only  lasted  until  the  next  album , after  which  he  and  John  G  left. They  were  replaced  by Jim  Rodford  previously  with  Argent  ( he  is  Rod  Argent's  cousin )  and  session  man  Ian  Gibbons . Despite  the  line  up  changes  the  band  continued  to  do  well  in  America  and  1981 's  "Give  The  People  What  They  Want"  even  yielded  a  minor  UK  hit  in  "Better  Things". In  1983  they  released  "State  of  Confusion "  which  contained  their  biggest  hit  in  years  with  the  nostalgic    "Come  Dancing  "  which   reached  number  6  in  the  US  and  12  in  the  UK  after  a  plug  from  Jonathan  King  on  Top  of  the  Pops.

"Don't  Forget  To  Dance"  was  the  follow-up  single. It  has  to  be  the  most  boring  pedestrian  hit  ever  to  have  the  word  "dance"  in  the  title. The  sentiments  are  worthy, telling  a  middle  aged  woman  to  cheer  up  and  do  what  makes  her  happy  and  the  production  is  smoothly  lush  but  it  never  gets  out  of  first  gear,  just  plods  along  in  its  AOR   rut  for  what  seems  like   much  longer  than  its  four  and  a  half  minutes. I's  not  what  you'd  call  going  out  on  a  high.

They  tried  for  a  third  hit  with  the  title  track  from  "State  of  Confusion",  a  scream  of  mundane  distress  a  la  Buzzcocks'  Something's  Gone  Wrong  Again   set  to  their  now-customary  hard  rock  sound  but  it's  nothing  to  write  home  about.

The  rot  really  set  in  with  their  next  album  "Word  of  Mouth"  in  1984. The  relationship  between  drummer  Mick  Avory  and  guitarist  Dave  Davies   got  so  bad  that  the  former  finally  ( he'd  contemplated  leaving  with  John  G )  quit  the  band  leaving  the  Davies  brothers  the  only  original  members. He  only  played  on  three  tracks with  Ray  using  a  drum  machine  to  fill  the  gaps. They  led  with  different  singles  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic. We  got  "Good  Day"  a  pleasant  enough  rumination  on  the  recent  death  of  Diana  Dors  which  might  have  done  something  if  it  had  any  airplay.  In  the  US   they  got  the  rockier  but  instantly  forgettable  "Do  It  Again "  which  became  their  last  hit  anywhere  in  the  world  when  it  reached  number  41  in  the  US. The  album , an  uneasy  blend  of   dated  British  pop  and   US  AOR  muscle,  not  helped  by  the  ugly  drum  sounds,  peaked  at  57 , a  sharp  contraction  after  four  successive Top  20  placings. Arista  let  them  go after  that  one.

Ray  then  took  a  short  break  from  the  group  to  play  a  small  role  as  the  hero's  father  in  the  film  Absolute  Beginners  which  included   a  sequence  performing  the  song,  "Quiet  Life" , that  he  contributed  to  the  soundtrack. One  review  said  he  was  the  best  thing  in  it.

At  the  tail   end  of   1986   they  released  the  LP  " Think  Visual"  which  started  out  as  a  concept  LP  about  a  guy  working  at  a  video  store.  The  band's  new  deal  saw  them  record  for  London  in  the  UK  and  MCA  in  the  States. "Think  Visual"  isn't  awful, just  crushingly  dull with  meagre  imagination  in  either  the  music  or  the  lyrics which  offer  little more  than  mild  unoriginal  observations  on  consumerism  or  attempts  at  sub-Springsteen  empathy  for  the  blue  collar  employee. The  two  singles  "How  Are  You "  and  "Lost  And  Found "  ( the best  track  possibly  because  it  has  melodic  echoes  of  The  Smiths ' The  Boy  With  The  Thorn  In  His  Side )  are  passable  AOR  pop  in  a  Mike  and  The  Mechanics  vein  but  neither  demand  to  be  heard  again. The  album  scraped  into  the  US  Top  100  reaching  number  100.

At  the  beginning  of  1988  with  The  Stranglers'  cover  of  "All  Day  and All  Of  The  Night"  riding  high  in  the  charts  , the  band  released  a  new  single  "The  Road"  a  self-referential  ode  to  the  touring  life,  namechecking  the  former  members  as  well  as  their  contemporaries. It's  quite  touching  in  a  way  but  musically  it's  a  real  dog's  dinner of  half-realised  ideas. It  was  a  new  studio  track  tacked  on  to  to  an  uninteresting  live  album,  recorded  on  a  1987  US  tour and  featuring  only  "Apeman"  as  a  reminder  of  past  glories. Ian  left  the  band  at  this  point.

After  that  the  band  turned  their  back  on  America  for  their  next  album  "UK  Jive" in  1989  which  is  stuffed  full  of  middle-aged  angst  at  modern  British  society. Another  leaf  was  taken  out  of  Morrissey's  book  with  a  closing  track  about  Mrs  T  , Dave's  dire  "Dear  Margaret"  , a  turgid  metal  stomper  which  has  nothing  new  to  say. Not  that  Ray's  songs  are  much  better; his  pro-EU  anthem   "Down  All  The  Days  Till  1992" , released  as  the  first  single, is  based  on  the  synth  riff  from  Van  Halen's  Jump   and   has  no  real  chorus  . His  voice  sounds  over-strained  as  well. The  follow  up  "How  Do  I  Get  Close ? "  bemoaning  superficiality  would  have  more  purchase  if  it  didn't  sound  like  Whitesnake.

MCA  dropped  them  after  the  album's  failure  but  Columbia  took  them  on. They  released  a  standalone  single  "Did  Ya"  in  1991,  an  interminable  busker's  whinge  about  the  good  old  days  with  deliberate  echoes  of  " Sunny  Afternoon"   that  fail  to  distract  from  how  wretched   the  song  is. A  new  LP  "Phobia"  duly  followed  in  1992.  It  follows  the  same  formula  of  contemporary  commentary  set  to  either  whimsical  pop  or,  more  usually,  muscular  hard  rock. The   most  interesting  track  is  the  rockabilly-tinged  "Hatred ( A  Duet )"  on  which  Dave  and  Ray  send  up  their  long-standing  reputation  for  fraternal  strife, a  neat  idea  but  it  goes on  far  too  long, a  criticism   that's  also  apt  for  the  album  itself  that  clocks  in  at  a  wearying  one  hour  and ten  minutes.   The  single  "Only  A  Dream"  a  semi-spoken  , synth-washed  tale  of  middle-aged  delusion  is  pretty  dreary. The  folksy  closer  "Scattered " was  lined  up  as  a  follow up  but  Columbia  had  realised  their  mistake  and  cancelled  it.

Having  now  been  dumped  by  three  major  labels  The  Kinks ( with  Ian  back  in  the fold )  were  forced  to  record  their  last  LP  "To  The  Bone"  on  their  own  label  Konk  despite  having  their  profile  raised  as  a  key  influence  on  Britpop. It  only  contained  two  new  songs  "Animal"  and  the  title  track  on  both  of  which  they  sound  like  Tom  Petty  and  the  Heartbreakers; the  latter  track  sounds  very  similar  to  Refugee. Otherwise  its  basically  an  Unplugged-style  trawl
 through  their  greatest  hits. After  both  Dave  and  Ray  released  their  autobiographies  the  band  finally  threw  in  the  towel  in  1996.

Ray  next  surfaced  in  1977   with  a  solo  show  called "The  Storyteller"   which  featured  acoustic  renditions  of  Kinks  songs  interspersed  by   Ray  telling  the  stories  behind  them. It  inspired  the  VH-1  show  of  the  same  name  which  the  channel  acknowledged  by  giving  Ray  the  first  episode. An  album  was  released  the  following  year.

Ray  was  out  of  the  headlines  until  the  beginning  of  2004. Now  living  in  New  Orleans  Ray  chased  after  a  mugger  who  stole  his  girlfriend's  purse  and  got  shot  in  the  leg  for  his  troubles; a  radiologist  asked  him  for  his  autograph. The  guy  got  away  with  it  because  Ray  couldn't  be  bothered  going  to  court  to  testify  against  him.

He  didn't  release  any  new  material  until  2005  with  the   "The  Tourist  "  EP.  The  lead  track  is  a  desperately  dull  critique  of  international  tourism  with  a  boringly  basic  riff  that  goes   absolutely  nowhere. The  musical  paucity  puts  me  in  mind  of  Roger  Waters.  It  featured  on  his  first  real  solo  album  ( i.e. of  new  material  )  "Other  People's  Lives"  released  the  following  year. Thankfully  there  is  better  stuff  on  it  with  Ray  conjuring  up  some  half-decent  guitar  pop  tunes  to  go  with   his  musings  on  encroaching  mortality  and  the  evils  of  the  modern  media. It  goes  on  far  too  long   and  none  of  it's  essential   but  it  was  good  enough  to   earn  a  couple  of  weeks  in  the  UK  album  charts  peaking  at  number  36.

His  next  one  " Working  Man's  Cafe"  followed  eighteen  months  later  and  was  given  away  free  with  The  Sunday  Times   hence  its  non- appearance  in  the  now-devalued  album  chart.  At  ten  tracks  it's  leaner  than  its  immediate  predecessor  but  that's  unfortunately  the  best  thing  about  it. "No  One  Listen"  a  tale  of   Everyman  frustration  still  has  a  spark  but  elsewhere  it  sounds  really  tired,  offering  little  more  than  re-heated  Dire  Straits  ( "The  Voodoo  Walk " )  or tiresome  tiebacks  to  Kinks  hits  ( "Don't  Ask  Me", "Peace  In  Our  Time"). I  wouldn't  like  to  guess  how  many  copies  ended  up  in  landfill  by  the  end  of  the  week.

It  is  to  date  his  last  collection  of  original  material. In  2009  he  got  together  with  the  Crouch  End  Festival  Chorus  to  re-work  Kinks  songs  yet  again  for  an  album  "The  Kinks  Choral  Collection"   which  reached  number  28  in  the  album  charts. At  the  end  of  the  year  they  released  a  passable  Christmas  single  "Postcard  from  London"  with  former  beau  Chrissie  Hynde  but  it's  no  Fairytale  of  New  York.  

In  the  summer  of  2010  he  played  Glastonbury  and  dedicated  his  set  to  the  recently  deceased  Pete  Quaife. Six  months  later  he  released  what  is  currently  his  last  album  "See  My  Friends "  where  he  gathered  together  famous  pals  ( including  Springsteen, Jon  Bon  Jovi  and  Jackson  Browne )  for  yet  another   assault  on  the  likes  of  "Waterloo  Sunset"  and  "Days" . This  time  he  reached  number  12.  Since  then  he's  been  out  on  the  road  playing  the  hits.

Dave  re-emerged  with  the  album  "Bug"  in  2002. Dave  clearly  had  more  interest  in  contemporary  music  than  his  brother  as  most  of  the  tracks  have  a  fat  Queens  of  the  Stone  Age  guitar  sound  and  lyrics  filled  with  Muse-ish  paranoia. There  are  a  couple  of  notable  diversions. Halfway  through  you  have  a  lovely  piano  ballad  "Flowers  in  the  Rain" ( not  The  Move  song )  which  is  better  than  anything  Ray's  come  up  with  in  the  past  three  decades  and  the  final  track  "Life  After  Life  ( Transformation ) "  dives  head  first  into  electronica. Dave  doesn't  have  a  particularly  mellifluous  voice  which  makes  it  a  strain  to  listen  to  in  one  dose  but  at  least  it's  interesting.

In  2004  Dave  was  hit  by  an  incapacitating  stroke  but  three  years  later  managed   to  put  out  another  album  "Fractured  Mindz ". Bearing  in  mind  that  Dave  made  the  album  in  considerably  adverse  circumstances  it's  hard  to  be  too  condemnatory  but  there's  precious  little  to  recommend  here. There 's  the  odd  guitar  melody  that's  pleasant  but  the  musical  gaps  have  been  filled  in  with  uninteresting  synthesiser  work  and  Dave  sings  like  he's  on  medication  ( as  he  probably  was ). Lyrically  there's  a  leaning  towards  Eastern  mysticism  particularly  on  the  final   title  track  which  is  near-unlistenable.

Three  years  later  he  and  son   Russ  put  out  an  album  of  Eastern-inspired  electronica   "Two  Worlds  as  The  Aschere  Project. It  sounds  like  Jean-Michel  Jarre  to  me  but  it's  not  unpleasant  to  have  on  in  the  background. In  2013  he  released  a  more  conventional  LP  " I  Will  Be  Me". By  this  time  he  had  pretty  much  recovered  so  it's  back  to  crunching  hard  rock   with  the  occasional diversions  into  pop  such  as  "The  Healing  Boy",  a  touching  tribute  to  his  son. Dave  was  able  to  do  some  dates  in  the  US  and  UK  to  promote  it. After  that  he  was  straight  back  in  the  studio  to  crank  out  another  LP  "Rippin'  Up  Time"  released  in  October  2014. It  wasn't  time  well  spent. Dave's  voice  sounds  like  it's  on  its  last  legs, there  isn't  a  decent  melody  on  the  album  and  for  the  first  time  he  sounds  like  he's  trying  to  ape  big  brother  on  tracks  like  "Front  Room"  which  sounds  like  his  cohorts  are  just  strumming  along  while  he  reads  out  extracts  from  his  autobiography. Dave  did  another  small  tour  in  the  US  on  which  he  said  he'd  be  playing  three  or  four  songs  from  the  album  alongside  Kinks  classics  which  suggests   that  even  he  realises  it's  not  much  cop.

After  the  band  broke  up  Jim  joined  Hilton  Valentine  and  John  Steel  in  The  Animals  II  and  toured  with  them  until  2003. He  also  started  working  with  Colin  Blunstone  and  Rod  Argent  and  played  on  their  2001  album  "Out  of  the  Shadows". The  following  year  he  and  drummer  Steve  were  invited  to  join  the  pair  in  the  new  line  up  of  The  Zombies. He's  played  on  all  three  of  their  subsequent  studio  albums  , "As  Far  As  I  Can  See", "Breathe  Out  Breathe  In"  and  "Still  Got  That  Hunger". I  haven't  explored  them  in  full  but  the  tracks  I've  heard   sound  OK  if  you  like  seventies-style  soft  rock,  with  Colin  Blunstone's  golden  voice  remarkably  intact. Jim  also  replaced  John  D  in  The  Kast  Off  Kinks.

Pete  had  formed  a  new  group , the  Anglo-Canadian  quartet  Mapleoak  before  his  departure  from  The  Kinks  was  confirmed. He  made  one  single  with  them, the  unexceptional  chugging  blues  rock  of  "Son  of  A  Gun"  in  1970,  and  played  a  number  of  gigs  in  Denmark  and  the  UK  but  disillusionment  quickly  set  in  and  he  quit  the  group  in  the  middle  of  1970. They  recorded  their  one  album  without  him . He  left  the  music  industry  and  started  working  as  a  graphic  artist,  first  in  Denmark  then  in  Canada  from  1980. He  made  a  brief  appearance during  an  encore  when The  Kinks  played  Toronto  in  1981.  He  was  a  keen  amateur  astronomer  who  popularised  the  pastime  in  Canada. Pete  started  suffering  from  kidney  failure  in  1998. He  returned  to  Denmark  after  his  marriage  failed  in  2005. He  died  in  June  2010. His  fictionalised  account  of  his  time  in  The  Kinks,  Veritas,  was  published   after  his  death  with  the  proceeds  going  to  the  Pete  Quaife  Foundation  which  provides  sterilised  Kindles  to  children  undergoing  dialysis  treatment.  

John  D  disappeared  from  view  until  1994  when  he,  Mick  and  John G  formed  The  Kast-Off  Kinks  , two  years  before  the  original  band  confirmed  their  dissolution. The  name's  a  bit  cheeky  since  most  of  the  ex-Kinks  left  of  their  own  volition. He  was  the  front  man  for  the  group  until  he  retired  in  2008 ( though  he  has  made  the  odd  appearance  with  them  when  Jim's  had  Zombies  commitments  ). He  also  played  in  a  rock  and  roll  outfit  5%  Volume  from  2003  to  2008.

John  G  and  Andy  Pyle  formed  a  band   called  Network  . They  recorded  an  album  for  Phonogram  but  it  never  got  released. He  played  with  John  D  in  a  rock  and  roll  outfit  called  The  Bullettes  and  a  country  rock  outfit  called  Warm  Gloves  but  was  musically  inactive  for  some  time  before  the  Kast-Off  Kinks  formed. John   retired  at  the  same  time  as  John  D.

Ray  was  very  disappointed  at  Mick  leaving  the  band  and  kept  him  semi-involved  as  manager  of  the  Konk  studios  hence  his  occasional  contributions  to  later  Kinks  albums.  Besides  playing  in  Kast-Off  Kinks   Mick  also  toured  with  a  group  called  Shut  Up  Frank  which  included  Noel  Redding  and  ex-Animal  Dave  Rowberry  ( both  of  whom  died  in  2003 ). They  recorded  some  obscure  CDs  which  included  some  new   material  alongside  renditions  from  their  various  back  catalogues. Mick  has  also  played  in  similar  survivors  collectives,  The  Class  of  64, The  Legends  of  the  Sixties  and  The  Sixties  All  Stars.

Ian  went  back  to  session  work  with  the  likes  of  Roger  Chapman, Ian  Hunter  ( with  both  of  whom  he's  also  toured ) Suzi  Quatro,  Chris  Farlowe  and  Andy Scott. He  joined  the  Kast-Off  Kinks  when  John  G  retired.

All  the ex-Kinks  have  been  continually  pestered  about  a  possible  reunion  over  the  past  decade   and  have  made  the  odd  appearance  with  each  other  thus  stoking  the  fire. Even  the  Davies  brothers  appeared  on  stage  together  last  month  so  watch  this  space.