Customer Reviews

Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One

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Customer reviews are certainly no place for bickering and personalized debate, but I really must dispute the astounding assertions of a few reviews below. There can be no question that this album serves as both a fantastic starting place for novices as well as one of the top 20 rock albums of all time. Never mind the defining single, "Lola." This album also features the fullest sound The Kinks yet achieved with blistering rockers like Dave's "Rats" or Ray's "Top of the Pops" and "Powerman." It is also the band's most varied album; one of the rare moments at which both Dave and Ray were at the top of their games as songwriters and musicians. Equally as engaging as the rockers are Dave's enchantingly fragile "Strangers" -- the best song he ever wrote -- and Ray's striking and forgotten piano ballad, "A Long Way From Home" or the slightly more aggressive "Get Back Into The Line." "Lola Versus Powerman and the Money-go-Round" is the one Kinks album that comprises every aspect of the band's well-deserved reputation: both the rough edges and the gentle heart, the ability of Dave to write with just as much poignancy as his prolific older brother, and Ray's knack for writing an album whose music is not compromised by its focus on a linear narrative. "Schoolboys in Disgrace" and the Preservation Act albums would demonstrate just how delicate a line Ray toted when he gave in to his artistic craving for plot rock: the albums betrayed musicianship in favor of the characters and stories it adorned. But "Lola . . ." and the equally intense "Muswell Hillbillies" extended the unique accomplishments of prior concept albums, "Village Green" and "Arthur." This 1970 landmark is every bit the rock 'n roll destination that so many critics and mature listeners claim it is, and suggestions to the contrary derive only from those who weren't there or fail to connect with the distinctly literary rock Ray and Dave cranked out over the decades.

When Ray Davies decided to write albums (starting with Face to Face), the Kinks began a run of amazing albums that ended with this album (Muswell Hillbillies was good, but didn't hold a candle to this). As a "concept" album, there's none better, but, forget the concept and just appreciate some of the finest songwriting you're ever likely to hear. Great melodies, great themes, humor, pathos, love...Davies proves his mastery of the art of songwriting. It's useless to compare these guys to anyone else - they are so totally unique. Sure, its got Lola, simply one of the coolest songs ever written, but that's only a teaser. A Long Way From Home, Strangers, This Time Tomorrow, etc., are poignant, wonderful songs. If you want love songs, you'll need to look elsewhere. These songs concern themselves with the hypocracy of the music business and the travel, pressure and lonliness that goes with it. Never has been a more poignant commentary, and probably more true today than then.

It's also worth noting that this Ray Davies produced album is sonically very fine, and the band is never tighter.

I don't know how anyone could really expect more from a pop album than this one delivers.

After the kinks invented power rock with "You Really Got Me" and "All of the Day and All of the Night"; and after they established Ray Davies lyrical abilities with social satires like "A Well Respected Man","Sunny Afternnon" & "Dedicated Follower of Fashion"; and after they had fallen out of fashion while creating some of the best and earliest thematic song cycle albums in rock "The Village Green Preservation Society" and "Arthur", and after they created one of the great unknown records in pop history "Waterloo Sunset"; the Davies's brothers, Ray and Dave, made one of the finest records I've ever heard, featuring an unforgetable smash hit single (their first in years) "Lola", one of the best gender bender ditties of all times and a song so good it sounds inevitable. The rest of the record features great songs about work, money, power, the music business and running around the jungle eating bananas. Every cut is pure pop brilliance and the lyrics would do Cole Porter proud. "It's Top of the Pops."

The music here is pretty much exellent which you can tell from most of the other reviews. The one thing that I had trouble finding out about when i was thinking about buying this was the story told w/ in the album. There is a great story here. The basic story is a follows:

A group or artist is trying to make it big in the music buisness because he/they are frustrated w/ all of the other options and wants to "get out of this world" (intro/contenders). He then meets either other members of the band or a girlfriend when he comes to the city to try to make it big (Strangers). After this he tries to get a publisher where is amazed by the lack of intrist by them and they way they don't care about music at all (Denmark Street). Now, he tries to make a hit but keeps getting knocked down by the high ups in the buisness (Get Back In Line). Then one day he his down and goes to a bar where he gets his insperation for his big hit, a cross dresser named lola (Lola). Lola becomes a hit and the song climbs the charts w/ other normal hit makers (Top Of The Pops). He/they is/are now rich. This causes more problems as everyone from old friends to soliciters are bugging him for money (moneygoround). He now worries about what will happen to him and the pressure that the music buis is putting on him (this time tomorrow). he realizes that he is actually a long war away from his original goal (lonh way from home) now he becomes very cynical and sees all of the horrible people in the world as well as the horrible record execs trying to make him only make pop music and nothing creative(rats) he wants to get away from all of civilazation w/ his girl and live happily ever after (apeman) he tries to get out of his contract but gets knocked down by his publisher (powerman) he now realizes that he all he wants is to be free and will try anything to get it (got to be free) we are not shown if and how he will achieve his gola but the end of the song has a line from the first songs saying "got to get out of this life...got to be free"

This story amazed me when i first heard it (it sounds a lot better from the songs then from my words)the music is amazing the story is entertaining and this goes up as one of the best concept albums every made...enjoy this for its variety and its smart use of imagination

It's amazing: My favorite Kinks album happens to be which ever one from the 1966-1970 "golden age" I listened to last. Right now, it's Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part 1.

Where to begin? With the "Introduction", which neatly and succinctly sets the stage for the drama of the Davies' brothers departure into the world to seek fame and fortune.

"The Contenders" is a declaration of the goal of the journey: "I don't want to be like a facist dictator\a saint or a sinner\I wanna be a winner."

"Strangers" can be seen as Dave Davies' idealistic, heart-full-to-bursting extended helping hand to "share this road we walk", "all the things I own I will share with you\and if I feel tomorrow what we feel today\we'll take what we want and give the rest away." It's the wide-eyed, unspoiled idealism of youth--before the real world has had a chance to sink it's talons in.

The first inkling that the road they walk won't be so smooth rears its head in "Denmark Street", Ray's delightful introduction into the world of music publishing. But before his song can be recorded and fortune (hopefully) achieved, there's still the little matter of surviving: "Get Back in Line" shows just how vulnerable one can be out in the cold, cruel world.

Then, it happens. The hit. "Lola" is the hit that happens. The ambiguous tale of a rube in the big city who, unlike the admirer of "David Watts", apparently can tell water from champagne; only now, the champagne tastes like coca-cola. What he can't discern: Is Lola a man or a girl? Well, either he's glad he's a man and Lola is glad along with him, or...Lola is a man, too!

"Top of the Pops" is the Kinks' own little version of Kinkamania: The gladhanders and backslappers, a place in the charts of "the NME"(the British pop paper New Musical Express, or, as Ray Davies refers to them, the "ENEMY"). "Lola" gets them to #1.

Then, the fit REALLY hits the shan.

Robert, Grenville, Larry, and the foreign publishers all take naive little Ray for a ride on "The Moneygoround". "Do they all deserve\money from a song that they never heard? The don't know the tune\and the don't know the words\but they don't give a damn."

Then, the lawyers get involved. "I went to see a solicitor\and the story was heard\and the writs were served\On the verge of a nervous breakdown, I decided to fight right to the end. But if I ever get my money, I'll be too old and grey to spend it" surely stands as one of the BEST, CLEVEREST bits of lyric ever put on wax, vinyl, or CD.

Then, the flight to the promised land, assumedly America. "This Time Tomorrow" is the new pop idol's trip across the pond where he muses about how "seven miles below me, I can see the world and it ain't so big at all." A simply lovely chorus, delicate (especially the 2nd time around) and...wonderful. As the rest of the song is.

How success and time changes people. "A Long Way from Home" finds Ray singing to a friend who, it seems, has gotten a bit big for his breeches. Still, he is wished well. "I hope\you find what you are looking for", with perhaps a warning: "But your wealth\will never make you stronger." Or is it someone singing to HIM?

"Rats" is Dave's manifesto that it's really every man for himself out there. The world has made its presence known, the talons have sunk in, and all idealistic promises made in "Strangers" are now null and void. "Walk over\all the people you can't see\If they die, there's more food for me":whatever happened to the misty-eyed helping hand? The world, REAL LIFE happened. Welcome!

Ray's disillusioned, too. Unbowed, and unbeaten, but disillusioned: "Powerman". The facist dictator he didn't want to be--but now has to deal with. The man who has his money and publishing rights--HIS sweat, blood, toil and effort--lining all pockets except, it seems, his OWN. So THAT'S why he wanted to sail away to a distant shore, and make like an "Apeman"!

But now there's a family to feed, and a future to think about. It's about freedom now! "Got to Be Free" to do what you want; walk if you want and talk if you want. Stand up straight, let people see you ain't nobody's slave. I just gotta be free, because we are right, and they are wrong. Good luck to you!

Besides the story, which in my opinion makes it by far the most coherent and linear concept album ever made, there's the music. The songs. The melodies, the musicianship. All are first rate.

While Ray Davies doesn't have the pipes of a Lennon or McCartney, and while they didn't have the bottomless budgets to record that their more famous rivals had at the time, this album is far above the previous year's "Abbey Road", the same year's "Let it Be", and anything around the same time by the Stones and Who, who where, at that time at their peaks.

"Lola vs. Powerman" can be rated as "1C" when rating the best Kinks albums, 1A being "VGPS" and 1B being "Arthur...". As a song cycle, it is unmatched: and all the songs stand on their own, unlike their later rock operas or the previous year's overrated "Tommy", which might have made a really good single LP without all the dross, flotsam and jetsam.

As rock 'n' roll, it's their top effort. "The Contenders", "Top of the Pops", "Rats", and "Powerman" all rock with authority. There's music hall ("Denmark Street" is downright vaudvillian in sound, as is "The Moneygoround"), gentle folk ("Strangers") with a typically impassioned Dave Davies vocal--probably one of his 3 finest songs, of which I include the rollicking "Rats".

There's the precious calypso-styled "Apeman", the balladry of "Get Back in Line" and "A Long Way from Home", the lovely pop of "This Time Tomorrow", the anthemic "Got to Be Free."

This is probably the most accessible of the Kinks' classic albums, which is why some music fans say it is their best. And they're not far wrong.

The 1998 remastered import version has a superior alternate version of "Apeman" as a bonus track, so get that instead.

This album is brilliant, and has become one of my favourite and most frequently played albums. In some ways it is even better than many of the Beatles' albums - it is rock'n'roll that is so original and catchy while maintaining some depth, rather than Beatles-style "boy-meets-girl" pop. The album features brilliantly insightful lyrics focusing on the corporate world, the music industry and society in general, and is put together wonderfully with styles ranging from hard rock to soft guitar & piano ballads to bouncy music hall. My favourite tracks include "Strangers", "Denmark", "Lola", "Top of the Pops" and "The Moneygoround", but there are no weak songs on this album.

For me, Lola vs Powerman is in my top 3 with the Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the Clash's "London Calling". I'm not a hardcore Kinks fan or anything (just a 16 year old girl!), in fact this is my first and currently only album from them but this is great stuff. You won't be disappointed - Ray Davies is an absolute genius! I'll definitely be buying more of their albums soon.

As the 1970's rolled around, The Kinks moved on past their powerful, riff-driven hard rock songs such "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of Night" and started to explore different sounds. The Kinks were alwaysone of the most distinctly British of all their contemporaries (this is self-evident on the album "Something Else") but this album found them experimenting with ideas borrowed from American country music as well as Broadway. The best known song on the album is of course "Lola" (in which Ray Davies uses a transvestite as a metaphor for the music business' tendency to play tricks on innocent artists) but the greatest song on the record I would say is actually Dave Davies' desolate ballad "Strangers" (I would buy the album for that song alone). Ray Davies' humour in songs such as "Apeman," "Lola," "Top of the Pops" and "Denmark Street" lightens up the serious message of the album, which is a criticism of the corruption of any kind of business, the music business included. This album is a unique and inventive record, a worthwhile listening experience from a reliable band.

I notice from the Amazon.com review that your man Steve considers The Kinks work 1966-'70 just a notch below Bob Dylan, The Beatles (I pause to yawn), The Rolling Stones and......Elvis Costello! You cannot be serious, as a famous American once said. I am English through and through, living in London but born and brought up in the West Country. I can tell you-from this side of the Pond-that one band sums up the English psyche better than any other. The Kinks wrote good English, performed as if instruments really matter, and had a genius for melody. The songs summed up everything we care about/have difficulties with: conservation, class, race, the Empire, politics, the American influence on pop music. (I should just pause to mention that "Muswell Hillbillies" and "Olklahoma USA" are two of the most moving tributes ever written by an English band to the great American musical styles and influences-this, of course,is country music.)

The Beatles never reached this level of writing-they were stuck with the need to please the commercial demands of a teenage market. The Kinks wrote outside that-partly because Ray Davies is a natural outsider (I've met him) and partly because their market shrank when they were banned from playing in the States.

But Elvis Costello-there's nothing in his entire catalogue that doesn't owe a little to The Kinks. The day Elvis Costello writes a "Shangri-La," a "Some Mother's Son," a "Lola" or a "Come Dancing," I'll eat my hat.

While we're on the "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround" LP, it's worth mentioning that "The Moneygoround" track is one of the best satires on the music industry in pop. It's also one of the tightest pop songs ever written. Think about how short it is, and then think about how the band makes it sound almost symphonic.

Very few of your reviews mention Ray Davies'most recent work. It's fair to say that "London Song," "The Ballad of Julie Finkle," "To The Bone," "Animal" and "Scattered" are better than anything that Costello, Paul McCartney and Jagger/Richards have done for years. Which just leaves Bob Dylan....To my mind, ears, balls and everything else, it would be a great day for mankind if Dylan and Davies could share a stage together just once! Isn't it funny that their surnames both begin with the letter D?

There are two distinct impressions of "Lola Vs.Powerman And The Moneygoround" in Kinkdom: the first holds that it is the next in a long string of album masterpieces which began in 1966 with "Face To Face" and lasted through 1971's "Muswell Hillbillies", while the second maintains that although it has its moments, it is a step below the two previous works "Village Green" and "Arthur". I tend to agree with the first impression; "Lola...Pt.1" is a solid concept album that surrounds its two brilliant hits "Lola" and "Apeman" with a plethora of classics which found the group returning to a more mainstream, US rock-oriented sound after the mild-mannered Britpop of their 60s work. Ray Davies' unique sense of social observation was still largely in evidence, however, and "Lola Pt.1" exudes an air of supreme cynicism directed towards the record industry which makes it one of his angriest, bitterest statements (perhaps one of the reasons why it leaves a somewhat sour taste in the mouths of some fans).

The concept is a largely autobiographical account of a young group's attempt to break into the business: it begins with their early struggles to obtain a record contract ("Denmark Street", "Get Back In Line"), the breakthrough hit (the all-time classic "Lola", which was itself a comeback record for The Kinks in both the UK and US), the subsequent mania of fame and attempts by the industry to milk them for all they're worth ("Top Of The Pops", the hilarious "Moneygoround"), the emotional strain this puts on our heroes ("A Long Way From Home", the second hit and ecological rant "Apeman"), and a final lashing back at the industry and attempt to gain some sense of personal freedom ("Rats", "Powerman", "Got To Be Free"). Contrary to the belief of some critics, the narrative is quite clear and the emotions on display are multi-faceted and real. Davies presents this fable of a group's rise and fall from fame as a parable for life itself, where humans are caught in the struggle to eke a living at the expense of their emotional sanity and sense of spiritual freedom. The musical styles are diverse and show the group willing to rock out for the first time since 1965; the hooks on "Lola", "Apeman" and "Powerman" are powerful, the acoustic melody on brother Dave's "Strangers" comes straight from the heart and there are also humorous attempts to deliberately rip-off classic rock riffs and music-hall styles on "Top Of The Pops" and "Moneygoround". Nearly every song bursts with focus, energy and tunefulness, and the more mainstream sound (yet still quirky enough in places) was just what the group needed at that point in their career. That it yielded two hit singles and peaked at #35 on the US charts--their highest placing in years, making it the most commercially successful of their classic period-- only proved the album's bitter point: the record execs who had shunned them during the brilliant "Village Green" era were now all too ready to cash in. It would be no surprise that the next studio album would appear on a different label.