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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 33, Number 7. 27 May, 1970

The Kinks—Arthur, Pye

The Kinks—Arthur, Pye

The Kinks sounding like Canned Heat is rather like listening to Wilson Pickett singing the Archies. But with Pickett on Cashbox in the States souling Sugar Sugar and anything going, it's not surprising that a statement like that can be made without any raising of eyebrows. For the Kinks singing Victoria reproduce an authentic Canned Heat Goin' Up The Country sound. Mind you, they couldn't keep it up long-Ray Davies is too distinctive an artist to let the Kinks be influenced by any bubblegum blues outfit like Canned Heat.

The whole album is pure Kinks-lyrical genius and lyrical nonsense and still that deliberately dated instrumental backing that occasionally sounds like a drunk banging around in the dustbins. The Sad Story of Arthur, the little Englishman, is related by Davies with a lot of cynicism, but not without understanding. The music is very imaginative and also very commercial, which will no doubt scare off all Led Zeppelin and Archies fans. Of course the album exudes the pervading image of Ray Davies standing there with a sly grin on his face singing

Well Mr Montgomery says
And Mr Mountbatten says
We gotta fight the bloody battle
to the very end.
As Vera Lynn would say
Well meet again some day
But all the sacrifices we must make
Before the end.

Footnote: Davies finally lost faith in the British, the music scene, and the whole bloody lot when the LP failed to make the charts.