Here is some more good news: The Kinks are getting this reunion thing into full swing, starting with a new album. Dave Davies is doing better after his stroke, and the band’s taking it nice and slow. Quoth Ray Davies: “It depends if there’s good music. We want good new music. I’d like to do it as a more collaborative thing than we used to do.” Hmm. Cool, I guess. I admire the pragmatism, but let’s stick to your 60s/early 70s definition of “good music” because the rest of the Kinks’ oeuvre? Problematic. And, no, I will not seriously entertain any arguments about the 80s output being overlooked or misunderstood. This is the band that wrote “Big Sky” and “Waterloo Sunset” and “I Need You”. They could have done so much better.
He’s tried John Cougar Mellencamp. He’s tried Chuck Berry. He’s even tried ABBA (sez McCain: “”Nobody likes them, but they sold more records than anybody in the history of the world, including The Beatles. But everybody hates them. You’re a no-class guy if you like ABBA. Why does everybody go see ‘Mamma Mia?’ Hypocrisy! Rank hypocrisy! I’m not embarassed to say I like ABBA, ‘Dancing Queen.'”) But nobody seems to want John McCain using their music as his campaign theme. What, doesn’t one of those Hillary Clinton fans who swear they’d rather vote Republican than for Obama own a worthwhile copyright?
MSNBC has a piece about “terrible songs from great albums.” Immediately, we decided it was bullshit. “Long And Winding Road” sucks, sure, but is Let It Be a classic album? Isn’t it frequently considered the Beatles’ worst? Even though Maura wasn’t like “‘My World’ isn’t terrible” in my IM window , who thinks Use Your Illusion II is the GNR album to grab? (I wouldn’t know, I don’t buy albums with “Estranged” on them.) “Endless, Nameless” wasn’t even on my cassette copy of Nevermind, and plenty of people love it. Calling just one song on Synchronicity embarrassing seems like a cheat, and I think “EXP” is cute as hell. So here are a few truly disgusting tracks from otherwise excellent albums.
