KINKS ORDINAIRE

Back around the time of Waterloo Sunset and Sunny Afternoon when the Kinks were one of my favorite cult groups, one of my favorite cult things about them was the literary/theatrical quality of their songs. Lots of which had characters and plots with the singer taking one role in the drama or standing outside it as the third person narrator.

Others might sing of people outside themselves who were a part of their scene. And of course there was always the technique of putting down outsiders to develop one's own identity. But the Kinks also included "ordinary" characters in their repertoire who seemed to be there just because thej Kinks found them interesting, that's all.® Effortlessly, it seemed, broadening the rock and roll aesthetic to include the J mundane back when more divisive elitist concepts like Counter-Culture and Generation-Gap still had a lot of power.

ThVwas and still is a rather unusual technique*in the world of Rock, which tends rtnd/e towards the Projection of Personality than plain Narration. But using it didn't undercut the Kinks" own rock and roll identity, just transmute it. Peering over the natural edifices of Rock Ego at other types of lives embellished rather than destroyed 'these edifices. It made the Kinks seem more eccentric, not less.

Unhappy housewives, bankrupt playboys, and uptight young men on the way up were additional fascinating poses for the Kinks, not realistic bringdowns. Waterloo Sunset, about getting turned on by the; sunset in an ugly neighborhood was an achievement of aesthetic will, not a cop-out.

But when I went to see them live, back then, this eccentricity and charm wasn't a part of their stage act. Instead they seemed to be trying to bank on the big hits British Invasion pre-cult part of their career. "You Really Got Me" and "All of the Day and All of the Night." Great songs, great sounds. But much less special than the other material they had developed.

And so I dropped them as a cult group and even included a description of the concert in a generally disillusioned-with-rock-and-roll article I wrote. It was a terrible thing to do, because if ever a group deserved a cult following it was the Kinks, who soon dropped from sight. I'm sure it had less to do with my obscure but nasty article and more to do with the times and lack Q£ attention from their record company (which they later dropped, moving to RCA). But I was poor and could only afford one cult group at the time.

The next time I saw them they were returning to prominence on the strength of their fabled drunken stage show. Of coyrse, by now it was the Seventies, and a rock star who enjoyed himself and didn't treat himself like a big deal was a much' needed antidote to the awesome proportions Rock Stars had attained. Able to wipe out starvation in Bangladesh with a single concert. But it wasn't just that Ray Davies appeared drunk on stage. It was sloppiness, which I might add skillfully executed, doesn't undercut their authority. It isn't pose —"Rock Stars are shit-heads their audiences are morons." doesn't come across as a nothing - more - than -aband music projection. Instead, it Kinks the space to play at The Fantasy rather than be trapped

The ordinary person living in tasy is a greatly respected Kinks literature. From the English working woman who side the movie Oklahoma, Davies himself, walking down wood Boulevard fantasizing lives of movie stars.

On stage the Kinks themselves these ordinary people—i.e. playing at being Rock Stars. One ute pretending to be Johnny Harry Belafdnte, the Flash, a Hillbilly, or "Ray Davies."

And if the Rock Life is just pose, like Ordinary Life, within the Kinks, then maybe Rock Life the Kinks can be within reach of

audience. Or as they hopefully pressed it in the album that contained hunk of one of these concerts—Everybody's in Show Biz.

In Soap Opera, both their album and the second set of their U.S. tour, Ray Davies plays a star Starmaker who takes the place ordinary man Norman to research life "for art." In the process he that he himself is an ordinary man

As performed before the volved Kinks audiences I saw York it allowed Ray Davies tend" beings Superstar and nary Man, two of his favorite as well-as play at being Ray

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one of the roles in the production. Play means fun in this case, way, like the play you used to you were a kid. Not like Cultural Event on Broadway. audience was howling and booing and applauding as Ray through his changes orhstage,

they were involved with what playing with. And enjoyed whole campy," playful, posturing mess. When I interviewed him for icle Ray Davies claimed that he ordinary person, but I'll have agree. It was only the second interviewed anybody famous, first time I'd interviewed someone spected. (Revered? Idolized?) If Davies was actually an ordinaryk

When I interviewed him for this article Ray Davies claimed that he was an ordinary person, but I'll have to disagree. It was only the second time I'd interviewed anybody famous, and the first time I'd interviewed someone I respected. (Revered? Idolized?) If Ray Davies was actually an ordinary perunusual, and he seemed like a guy. Maybe he was an ordinary person and I just couldn't tell it. What does mean? Maybe there's something about me.

But no. Ray Davies is extraordinary. An innovator, and a creator, as Starmaker boasts in Soap Opera. cept. . .the most interesting and unusual thing about him is his fascination ordinary life and his assertion everybody is a star.

"Ordinary people are the most esting," he told me, which I suspect less a populist sentiment than an ic judgement. But 1 would push it step further. Ordinary Life is just unusual and fun and bizarre as other pose.

This is a crucial step more affectionate and humotous than the common and more alienated Rock timents of the Stones" "They don't real to me, in fact they all look strange" or Dylan's "You think thing is happening but you don't what it is/do you/Mr. Jones?"

Because it can cut back7 the way. If ordinary people are interesting, interesting people are ordinary. And the usual is Kinky the kinky is usual. Gracing eccentricity with the assurance that it is also just mundane.

After all, in a scene where straight performers have paraded as gay shock value, it isn't surprising that Kinks had a whimsical hit about a whoN falls in love with a transvestite. Sexual roles are just one more role play. Not shockeroos. And falling love with Lola is just another curious thing that happens. Like living on potatoes, or being ah alcoholic, or accountant, or a rock star.

It's an affectionate and very individualistic view, perfect for a great,cult group with a devoted following. But with the Kinks" persistent touring, and what 1 think is the greater accessibility of the Soap Opera album, their following may be about to swell beyond the" sizes of a cult.

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My most withering criticism of the Kinks, if I do say so myself, in that long ago disillusioned article, was that there was too much to remember about them when they came on stage. Rock history was getting so long it got in the way of the music. But by ebmpressing their own past into a series of accessible and disposable poses the curent Kinks have managed to have their history and spontaneity too.

Soap Opera reveals a group with a history that is neither disparaged nor burdensome, and allows a kind of rock and roll that is aware of its own references without having to trip over them. It's a tribute to the flowering of Ray Davies" sense of humor that it all ends up so much fun. ^