The Kinks album Ray Davies felt was “just too rushed”
It was a hectic time for The Kinks in 1965. After breaking through into the mainstream with ‘You Really Got Me’ the year before, Mick Avory, Pete Quaife, and the Davies brothers entered into a non-stop cycle of touring, promotional appearances, and recording commitments. The band were expected to crank out material at a manic pace, and none of the members had enough sway in the industry to allow for more care or attention to be paid to their recordings.
Although it had only been less than six months since the band’s self-titled debut LP was released, Kinda Kinks still showed a notable progression in the band’s songwriting and performances. With the garage rock stylings of ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ taking a backseat to folk, beat, and R&B influences, The Kinks sought to diversify their sound through tracks like ‘Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight’ and ‘Nothin’ in the World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout that Girl’.
The end result was another top-five album in the UK. Like most LPs at the time, Kinda Kinks was resequenced for its US release, removing the single ‘Tired of Waiting for You’ and the album tracks ‘Naggin’ Woman’ and ‘Come on Now’ in favour of the tracks ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘Ev’rybody’s Gonna Be Happy’. It would be one of two albums the band released in 1965, but Ray Davies wasn’t completely happy with the end result.
“A bit more care should have been taken with it,” Davies later said about the LP, as quoted in John Mendelssohn’s book The Kinks Kronikles. “I think Shel Talmy went too far in trying to keep in the rough edges. Some of the double tracking on that is appalling. It had better songs on it than the first album, but it wasn’t executed in the right way. It was just far too rushed.”
Despite his reservations, ‘Tired of Waiting for You’ went to number one on the UK Singles Chart. The Kinks were still red hot, even if the Davies were already looking to get more time and attention paid to their songs. The band’s follow-up, The Kink Kontroversy, would be another step forward, but it wouldn’t be until 1966’s Face to Face that The Kinks first got a taste of what the studio could do for them.
Check out ‘Nothin’ in the World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout that Girl’ down below.
