KINKS KULTURE THEN AND NOW
Clearly, the Kinks’ cult days are over.
Last summer I was checking out some tote bags at my local K-Mart. These were no ordinary tote bags; in fact, each was a collectable cultural artifact with the name of a pop group gaily emblazoned across it. As I went through the pile I tried to note who was who in the pop tote bag game...Doobie Brothers, Bee Gees, Jacksons, Kinks...
Kinks? Not Kinks as in Roy Davies And The?! What were they doing in there? The thought of 13-year-olds hanging around the malls with their Kinks tote bags, singing “Dead End Street” does have a certain charm, I’ll admit. And coming soon, Big Bill Broonzy American Tour windbreakers!
Well, it’s a summer later and the Kinks are justifying their tote bag status. Low Budget, last year’s opus, was their 24th album and, incredibly, their first gold album in the United States. Other, bigger (i.e., worse), bands have gone on a binge of covering Ray Davies tunes lately, notably Van Halen (“You Really Got Me”), the Pretenders (“Stop Your Sobbing”), and the Knack (“The Hard Way.”) A new doublelive album, One For The Road, has just been issued, with a complementary video cassette available for monied Kinks’ fans.