Customer Reviews

Come Dancing: The Best of The Kinks 1977-1986

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A scintillating remaster of a terrific collection of songs, "Come Dancing" sounds glorious.
For a group that usually comes in fourth on the list of the greatest British rock bands (Beatles, Stones, Who...), this disc collates their later period.

As you'll see, however, they manage to "cover" their earlier hits as well.

They have a number of killer singles here, opening with "Come Dancing". The Kinks have always excelled in bringing witty little 'slices of life' to their tunes, in a way we didn't see until the earlier Squeeze records.

Their rock songs have a surprising crunch to them, and it is a testament to their quality that Green Day could cover "Do It Again" note for note, and the youngsters in the crowd wouldn't know the difference.

Then again, The Kinks sorta cover themselves throughout this disc. There are the live versions of "Lola" and "You Really Got Me". Then there are the chords from the aforementioned "Do It Again"...
...but it reaches an apex with "Destroyer", which cribs liberally from "All Day and All of The Night", mentions "Lola" and pretty much introduces the Sixties half of the Kinks' career to the Seventies' fans...
...it's a total party of a song...

"Low Budget", "Misfits", "Don't Forget To Dance"...all great spins.

And then we get "Father Christmas"! One of the great modern Christmas rockers.

Sweet liner notes and a gatefold LP-like cover make this uncommonly easy to recommend.

I had forgotten just how much fun the Kinks were, then I purchased the CD for the song Come Dancing and had no idea that I would know all the other songs on the CD. My 14-18 year old art students pick this CD over rap and current artists to listen to whiile creating art works. It is just plain old fun!

The 70's-80's Kink era was considered the weaker material but when you listen to this compilation, they still put out lots of quality material.

Their sound and approach changed a bit, they obviously went more commercial, and they lacked some of their original identity yet these are still great songs. 30 years later, this was not a weak era and they put out a lot more good stuff then most other bands.

Rock and Roll fantasy, Detroyer, Celluloid Heroes, Don't forger to dance, Superman are all killer songs.

I would like to see one day when they get a boxed set w/You Really Got me era, Lola era and their hard rocking Destroyer era.

Clive Davis personally signed the Kinks to his then relatively new Arista label, when he was trying to establish a rock and roll foothold. Till then, Arista was known primarily as a home to the likes of Barry Manilow and The Bay City Rollers. The Kinks, under Davis' tutelage, staged a comeback that brought them to a whole new audience who looked at Ray and Dave Davies as Punk Rock Godfathers, even as the band suddenly found themselves successful enough to tour American Sports Arenas.

"Sleepwalker" was the first album of that batch, and heralded that The Kinks were back. In retrospect, the songs sound very much of their time, heavy on the synths and radio friendly. When "Misfits" arrived, it contained a bonafide Davies' masterpiece, the melancholy "A Rock and Roll Fantasy." It singled the introspective streak that became a running strength for the following albums.

In between was the successful "Low Budget." It had an almost hit with the disco-fied "Superman," even if the title track and "A Gallon Of Gas" sound dated. But is sure was weird hearing The Kinks in dance clubs along with The Bee Gees. "Give the People What They Want" was the radio breakthrough, as Album Rockers began giving heavy spins to "Destroyer." Quoting the riff from "All The Day and All Of The Night" and referencing "Lola," it brought fans old and new to the band. But even better is "Better Things," which even Davies lamented had not become a more well known song.

Radio and MTV really came forth when "State of Confusion" arrived. "Come Dancing" became the biggest hit The Kinks had on Arista, and it was followed by the nostalgic "Don't Forget To Dance." They were the lightest songs on an album filled with anger and disillusionment. Ray was ending a marriage and Dave was having problems. By "Word of Mouth," Mick Avory had left and the album sounded disjointed. The terrific "Do It Again" still sounds great (and it would have been nice to have "Summer's Gone"), but that was it for this era.

"Come Dancing With The Kinks" gets a few bonus licks in via a pair of live cuts. Both "Lola" and "You Really Got Me" from "One for the Road" fill in an earlier chapter. The anti-Christmas classic "Father Christmas" is here, too. All in all, a solid package.

This review is for the SACD edition of this album. As many of you know, this is a high definition sound format occasionally available in multi-channel encoding. This particular title is SACD Stereo.

I almost universally give 4 or 5 stars merely for being available on SACD. I appreciate when any artist chooses to take advantage of SACD or DVD-Audio. Unfortunately this release has a major flaw...it's not the same Come Dancing album released in 1986! Yes the music is great, and it originally was one of the best Kinks compilations. However, the artist or record label meddled with the track list from the regular CD version, which was better in my opinion. The order has changed, and several of the best tracks were deleted. A few new tracks were added in compensation. Perhaps this was a rights issue with the record label.

The most significant omission is "Celluloid Heroes (live)". You'll have to buy the SACD version of One for the Road to get that track now. Also missing is "Juke Box Music", "Long Distance", and "Heart of Gold".

The new tracks are "Catch Me Now I'm Falling", "A Gallon of Gas", "Sleepwalker", "Full Moon", "Misfits", and "Good Day".

Apparently the greatest hits of '77 to '86 were different in 1986 when the original compilation was released than they are now for this 2004 reissue. Fine, but count me disappointed that I didn't get the same album.

The Kinks may not have had the same overwhelming media coverage that other extraordinary British bands (i.e. Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who, Pink Floyd et al) had in their moments of biggest glory, but even though they're a very good band.

This Come Dancing is a nice compilation of their greatest hits, including their Tour De Force live performance of "Lola", as well as "Come Dancing" and a nice Rock piece "Destroyer", among other great songs.

Nice cover, full detailed booklet... This album is worth to be included in any serious Brit Rock fan collection.

When I was in high school, I loved the hard-edged sound of the Kinks, the Who, etc. Much later, the Don't Forget to Dance video really touched me for some reason.

I noticed that most Kinks collection lack this masterpiece. Now, it is my all-time favorite Kinks song. Although I still love the more hard-edged songs by them and Lola which defies description, I plan to buy this collection to have Don't Forget to Dance along with many other fine songs.

I beleive the Kinks peaked in the 60's and "Lola" in 1970 so this "1977-1986 best of" falls short to me. Two of the best songs on this collection are live versions of older songs pre-1977("Lola" and "You Really Got Me"). "Come Dancing",and "Father Christmas" are the true hits on this collection, besides the live versions of the older songs. "Destroyer" is a stand out rocker that sounds alot like there hit from 1964 "All Day and All of the Night". So you have five excellent songs and a bunch of so-so songs. In the 60's these guys were huge and really way ahead of there time so if you want there best get a compilation with their earlier songs and maybe just download "Come Dancing", "Father Christmas".

I bought this about two years before I actually started listening to it. Oops. I picked it up used somewhere for 2-3 bucks just to have Lola and Come Dancing on hand. As many casual fans do, once I gave it a few real plays I realized I knew nearly half the songs, some I forgot I knew. The other songs are good to ok. Favorites of mine are "Living On A Thin Line", "Don't Forget To Dance" and "A Rock n Roll Fantasy". Some versions of this disc have "Celluloid Heroes" live. That's a good one too. Overall a decent collection of hits with a few live cuts. I suspect there's a better Best Of out there. This is still kinky though.

It's easy to swayed by how simple the songs by the Davies brothers are but a great pop song is still the hardest to write. Ray's vocals and Dave's playing are top notch.