What’s the point of dumb lost 80s Friday or whatever if all my previous posts are pretty much the same theme? A man who can’t change his mind has a mind made of biscuit, goes some such quote by Capote or whomever. Let’s just make Friday Lost Friday. 80s, 90s, whenever, just something in need of a revisit.
The 80s Kinks are mostly a joke, especially compared to their output from the mid-sixties to the mid seventies. Cocaine has a real bad effect on some bands. At least that’s what I think when videos of the Kinks around this era.
But Low Budget and Give the People What They Want hide some nice gems, making them worth grabbing a vinyl copy of each if you see ’em for less than $5 each, which is quite possible. The later’s “Better Things” is one of Ray Davies’s best songs, and that’s saying an enormous lot, becuase he might be a better songwriter than his peers McCartney, Lennon, Richards, or Jagger. Hell, they all had to collaborate — to my knowledge, Ray Davies didn’t need no one. He punched his brother rather than collaborate with him. No, Ray Davies is more like Elvis Costello, who wishes he could be Davies.
And he’s funny. Get this weird funkish take on healthcare from Low Budget, a (the only?) concept album about the early 80s recession:
And just to debunk the “lost” genre of blogging, plenty goes lost that was released only months or years ago, stuff that goes missing right before our eyes; makes me wonder if my daughter will one day blog on one of her ‘ol dad’s crusty CDs. Hopefully, she’ll have a real job.
To me, Supergrass is a greatest hits band, akin to Tom Petty, or the Cars – there’s relatively little reason to recommend individual albums to the un-indoctrinated. Supergrass might be better than most greatest hits bands, and their Road to Rouen, released late last year, is a swell effort by a band approaching early middle age. Here’s the best song:
Stop Loving Everything 
I’m also partial to State of Confusion and Word of Mouth … I think the Kinks were actually better in the ’80s than they were in the ’70s, at least the mid- to late-70s, although Think Visual is horrible except for “Waiting at the Factory.”I have heard several songs from the new Ray Davies record … not too shabby, although I wouldn’t spend any hard- or soft-earned cash on it. Soft-earned cash being the kind you win in a lottery, find on the street, inherit or earn by eating ants or goldfish on a dare.
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You could maybe argue for the songs on state of Confusion and Word of Mouth, but oh, the production values. Cocaine again. I’m with you on Mid-to late seventies — they all should have had strokes then, instead of recently.Hard earned cash is when you rob a bank wiht Jeff Reardon.
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