THE KINKS Give The People What They Want (Arista)

by Jeff Nesin

Like the ad copy says, there are only three left. The Who at their peak—alas, in the mid-60’s—were the absolute embodiment of adolescent kineticism. The celebrated Tommy was the beginning of the long road down as R. Meltzer, the Karnack of rock, said at the time. (Of course Who’s Next was a great and memorable album, but so were Electric Warrior and Killer, and who weeps for them?) And who could have predicted that Pete Townshend would try to build ah entire career out of maundering aloud that the “initial concept” would not support “mature development” and wondering—set to music—what to do. I wonder why it sells.

The Rolling Stones have used all sorts of canny strategems to divert attention from the fact that they have a fail-safe foundation—the blues. A good blues band, even on a bad night, can usually show me something—“Miss You” and “Start Me Up,” for example. Still, one’s expectations tend to get cramped from years on end of hunkering down and what’s great rock ’n’ roll without great expectations?