Today (at least in my timezone) is Ray Davies' 75th birthday, and so to celebrate I've decided to reconstruct a debut album for the Kinks. The Kinks' early albums are a bit of a mess, many of their best tracks were left on singles and EPs and their first two albums were overall mediocre and not ideal for beginning Kinks fans. I've decided to compile the best of the Kinks into two albums, one of their rock/blues material and the other of the more matured personal material. These albums use material from their first three albums, singles and EPs, and for me could be considered replacements for those albums. On this album, their are only two cover songs (the two I think are the strongest) with the rest being original compositions, which was certainly their strong point, compared to the covers which are often okay to complete filler.
Track 1: Milk Cow Blues
This is the one track from 'The Kink Kontroversy,' whilst I love the track and think its a great opener, I believe it doesn't fit the album especially being the one cover of that album, so I've moved to a better home as the opener of their first album. Whilst I love 'Beautiful Delilah,' as an opener, this song feels more worthy as an opener.
Track 2: So Mystifying
The second track of their debut album, I feel is this a great highlight and a sign of Ray's developing songwriting so I left it in it's place.
Track 3: Nothin’ In This World Will Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl
A track from their second album, again a great Ray Davies original that I used as a break from the rock of the first two tracks much the same this tracks' role in their second album.
Track 4: I Gotta Move
A great rocker that was originally used as the B-side to 'All Day And All Of The Night,' one of my favourite Kinks flip sides.
Track 5: Tired Of Waiting For You
You'll notice that many of their hit singles are found on this album, many were spilt between albums and singles, in fact the songs were even spread out on the American albums being featured on four of them. Great song, very deserving of number one.
Track 6: All Day And All Of The Night To end of the side, is their second hit single, which I think is a fitting closer.
Track 7: Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy
Here is the one single on the album that was considered a bit of a failure, all though I wanted to put the 'You Still Want Me' single on here, considering that this album is set in early 1965, this single would make a lot more sense.
Track 8: You Really Got Me
To end the row of A-sides is the song that started it all, 'You Really Got Me.' Was originally going to put it at track 7, but figured the intro to the previous song was more fitting.
Track 9: Something Better Beginning
I decided to make this side of the record a bit softer, this was the closing track to their second album and again I used it to break up the rockers of the album.
Track 10: Who'll Be The Next In Line
Depending on where you live, this was either an A-side or a B-side, but still a great early Kinks song.
Track 11: Stop Your Sobbing
I've decided to keep the last two tracks the same as their debut album since I really like them. This song is often considered the highlight of that album after 'You Really Got Me.'
Track 12: Got Love If You Want It
The final track of the album, I made it 12 tracks to get rid of a problem that plagues their first two albums, filler. This is a great track and one of the few times on this new album that they get to show their blues playing skills. Great closer.
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