Mike’s Album #5—SOMETHING ELSE (The Kinks)

We can’t listen to every record out there. Can we? I consider myself a pretty serious aficionado, but still, I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. That’s the lesson I learned as I collected every single Yes album back in the 80s. The progression went like *this:

1) I hit the major albums and enjoyed them immensely
2) I found the hidden gems and deepened my appreciation for the band
3) I suffered through a handful of lesser albums as I forced my way through their catalogue.

I think I may have “overlearned” the lesson, though. Overlearned. That’s an expression I learned recently as a radio commentator discussed Congress’ failure to pass a health care bill. It was said that Obama overlearned Bill and Hilary Clinton’s lesson in 1993, when they pushed hard for health care reform and were seen as responsible for the debacle that ensued. And so Obama stepped back and allowed Congress to take the initiative (and watched the whole thing unravel).
Thankfully, my mistake hasn’t had such an adverse affect on the average American. I overlearned the lesson that eventually the quality of music from a band will wane. And there’s no better example than the near total lack of full-length Kinks albums in my collection.

I’ve been a Kinks fan since the mid 90s, and though I’ve collected a ton of their songs, the only proper album I own is THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY. What’s crazy is that I’m absolutely bonkers about that album, and yet I never dug any further. But how could I overlook the rest of their catalog when they’ve got at least a double album worth of ‘hits?’ I think it simply was a fear of tarnishing my feelings for the band. Let’s face it—anyone who went out and watched the Jerky Boys movie pretty much stopped listening to their tapes from that point on. I did NOT want that to happen with my favorite bands. It turns out that I was being pretty silly.

I decided to go back and check out SOMETHING ELSE this week—clearly an excellent choice. Just like LONDON CALLING, this one started and ended with songs that I knew but was otherwise filled entirely with newcomers to my consciousness. Just like VILLAGE GREEN, this one is filled with fun and sometimes quirky tunes about life and people in suburban England. The pinnacle is “Afternoon Tea,” a sweet love song that’s nearly as happy as “Sunny Afternoon.” But the one song that’s been grabbing me by the collar all week has been “Tin Soldier Man,” a strange tune (see/hear below) like no other by the Kinks, complete with baritone sax and goofy-as-anything lyrics:

...winky wack wacky goo/
and he’s got a little tin lady too/
just to put a little shine on his shoes/
and keep his uniform tidy...

Overall there was only one song that I’d consider tossing off the iTunes list, while I put most of the rest of them into heavy rotation. And as I discovered with Bowie’s STATION TO STATION last month, hearing a song like “Waterloo Sunset” in its proper context gave me a great appreciation for a tune I’d otherwise discounted.
No doubt, I’m going to be checking out a few more of their albums, most likely Arthur, Muswell Hillbillies and Face to Face. It turns out that the Kinks aren’t done stunning me.

* By the way—the Yes albums, by category, were 1) Fragile, 90125, The Yes Album, Close to the Edge 2) Relayer, Time and a Word, Yes, Tales from the Topographic Oceans and 3) Tormato, Drama, Big Generator, Union.