Customer Reviews

Muswell Hillbillies

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Following the international success of "Lola", RCA signed the Kinks to a record deal, anticipating more smash hit singles. What they got was something quite different.

Ray Davies had already produced some fine concept albums ("Village Green Preservation Society" and "Arthur") in the late 60s, and "Muswell Hillbillies" returns to some of those themes: the ordinary man or woman, caught up in forces beyond their control "Holloway Jail", "Uncle Son"; the good old days before technology ("Twentieth Century Man", "Complicated Life"). In passing the Kinks comment on fad diets ("Skin and Bone"), addiction ("Alcohol") and bureaucracy ("Here Come the People in Gray").

There's not a false note or a weak song to be found on this elegant and touching album. The overarching theme is a whimsical view of British fascination with the mythical America of movies ("Take me back to those black hills/That I have never seen", sings Ray in the title track). However, this is not the three-chord power rock of the Kinks' early singles; nor is it the para-metal of their later hits like "Low Budget". While their hard rock albums sold much better, my preference is for the lighter, more whimsical Kinks, with their uniquely British perspective on pop music. I rate this as one the Kinks' four or five best records.

Although it was a relative commercial failure on its release, the years have been kind to the 1970s Kinks, as more people have discovered that this music really rocks ... in its own Kinky way.

This new SACD remaster is nothing short of spectacular. The sound is crystal clear, the stereo separation is almost lifelike; in short, these songs have never sounded better. The disc plays in regular CD players and is a major improvement over previous CD issues.

Do yourself a favor: buy this disc, pour yourself a cuppa tea, and take a trip back to those black hills that most of us have never seen. As Eric Burdon once sang, "It will be worth it!"

Over the last few months, I have been re-acquainting myself with the Kinks, and I have come to the conclusion that they are the most sadly neglected group in Rock History. If you were to ask the average person to name a Kinks song, they will probably get stymied after "Lola" and "You Really Got Me". Most people probably don't even own a Kinks album.

From the fist moment I heard "Muswell Hillbillies" I knew I was hearing one of the very best albums in Rock and Roll. The songs of Ray Davies transcend old-fashioned bluegrass, blues, English vaudeville, and German Beerhall music, delicately making it something urgent and relevant for the new millenium.

Not one of these songs could be considered a pop hit unto itself, but all together they make one of the most original and versatile listening experiences you're likely to hear.

At the start of the seventies, the Kinks changed labels (from Pye to RCA) in the wake of their biggest hit in several years, the glammed-up anthem "Lola." But instead of capitalizing on "Lola"'s success by delivering more of the same, the band reinvented their sound for "Muswell Hillbillies"-- an utterly unique blend of music hall, jazz, and country. Twangy acoustic guitars and rollicking piano prevail, with a jazz horn ensemble guest-starring on a couple of songs. Ray sings while chomping a cigar on "Holiday"; the title track features the Davies brothers' hilariously inept hillbilly accents as they croon about "old West Virginia." It's a strange mix, but it all works beautifully, and it's the perfect vehicle for Ray Davies' exploration of the improbable spiritual link between working-class London and the American frontier.

Thematically, "Muswell Hillbillies" is a loose concept album about the gentrification of the Muswell Hill neighborhood. More generally, it's about ordinary, tradition-minded English people finding themselves thrust against their will into the modern world. Ray rants against technology, conformity, and intrusive government-- some of the same sentiments that would suffocate later Kinks albums like "UK Jive"-- but here, crucially, he never lets the vitriol obscure his empathy and sense of humor.

Smart, angry, funny, and surprising, "Muswell Hillbillies" is the Kinks at their very best. If you like rock music at all, don't hesitate to add this album to your collection.

The Kinks are one of the better bands to come out of the 1960's. Their catalogue is somewhat uneven, but at their best this band has produced some really first-rate music. As someone once said of them: when they're good they're very, very good and when they're bad... On MUSWELL HILLBILLIES they are very, very good and this LP/CD is another of my all-time favorites.
The album finds Ray Davies going back to his old neighborhood and writing character sketches based on people he finds there. It is similar to "Village Green..." in this respect, but this isn't a quiet rural town. Instead, it is an urban area undergoing urban renewal, so while there is a strong element of nostalgia, the music also has a harder edge to it. The Kinks pub-rock style also has some American hillbilly influence grafted on to it in places. The result is an set of catchy songs with homey lyrics that evoke scenes and people that, in some cases, might seem familiar. I know the folks in "Have A Cuppa Tea" very well.

Overall, this set of songs is littered with gems. My personal favorites are "20th Century Man", "Holiday", "Complicated Life", "Here Come The People In Grey", "Holloway Jail", "Uncle Son" and "Kentucky Moon". In particular, "20th Century Man" is a classic rock song. There isn't a clinker in the whole set, though. This is one of those rare albums that you can play straight through without hitting at least one or two songs that you wish they'd left out.

It doesn't get much better than this. Buy this one. Listen to it. Let it grow on you. You won't be sorry.

Imagine this: you're Ray Davies. The 60s are over. You just had a hit with "Lola," putting your name back on the charts. You switch record labels, get a deal, all that, and what do you do? Release a country-roots-rock album about urban redevelopment in England. What??? The guy is out of his mind.

What Ray did says so much for the man. Instead of bowing to commercial pressures, he created one of the most fully-actualized concept albums I have ever heard. It's unpretentious, funny, disturbing, honest, and catchy all at the same time. It's also become a complete obscurity. Nobody knows or cares that this disc exists. Fact is though, it's something everybody should hear, and it is as relevant to life in 2005 America as it was in its own time.

I drive past miles of tract housing on a daily basis. All these homes look the same. "No character, just uniformity." Ray nailed it so perfectly, there ain't much more to say. Western society is losing the little things that make life interesting, the small shops, the odd homes, the truly quirky people. What we get is bland, generic mega-stores, sitcoms, etc. Ray picked up on this way back in 1971. As far as I know, nobody else in rock ever touched the subject.

One of the highlights of my life was sharing a beer with Ray Davies in a small bar in Tottenville,NY at the southernmost tip of Staten Island in the late '70's. He stopped in to say hello to the owner who was his bodyguard several years earlier. I've been giddy ever since and can't listen to The Kinks without that memory filling my head. Muswell Hillbillies was the first Kinks album I ever bought and it was a cutout with a drilled hole in the corner and I paid a whole 99 cents for it. After catching up and owning almost every Kinks album prior to 1980, I still consider this one my favorite Kinks LP. Each song is great in it's own way, but my favorites are "20th Century Man", "Skin and Bone", "Holiday", "Alcohol" and "Complicated Life". I guess it took an effort to turn it over and listen to side 2, which is also great, just more collectively than individually. My next favorite album is "Kinks Kronikles" although being a compilation, it spent a lot of time on my cheap KLH record player. To me, Muswell Hillbillies is the most American LP ever made by guys from England.

The Kinks went through many ups and downs in both popularity and quality. "Turbulent" is a good adjective for almost every facet of the Kinks.

This album is a great example of Ray Davies' talent for commercial self-destruction (or, at least, indifference) and artistic greatness. Along with Arthur and Village Green Preservation Society, what we have here is a criminally underrated gem.

After the band's second peak with the single, "Lola," Ray chooses to follow up with an album of wonderful, funny and poignant vignettes, but an un-hip (at the time) sound. Listen to this album as a tribute to American "country" music, with that genre's conceits adapted for commentary on British life. Brilliant! Just one commercial single might have sent this one through the roof. But forget that, and let the poetry and emotion carry you through. Fun, sad, whimsical, amazingly insightful, funny... Ray Davies possessed by the genius spirit of Cole Porter.

This 1971 masterpiece chronicles the absurdities of life by paradoxically presenting the music in a somewhat loose,delirius,early Louis Armstrong fashion in tones of country,vaudeville,rock,folk and urban blues unlike the lyrics of the songs which deal with the maladies effecting 20th and now 21st century man.
The Kinks have always been the keenest observers of the human condition of any rock group I heard, and this CD upped the ante by branching out into the before mentioned accoustic sense without the guitar chords of the early UK invasion Kinks and even went further than the social commentary and critiques of social life best portrayed on Village Green,Arthur, Face To Face,Something Else and the the vagaries of exploitative business practices portrayed on the Lola CD.
Doing an about face, coming out with this overtly American sounding roots classic, the Kinks pioneered a classic set of songs dealing with UK places and mannerisms,but ranks like Dylan's Basement Tapes at a look at the ordinary man somewhat estranged from it all but finds consolation somehow in his universe.
If Life's For Living,Whats Living For?
This review applies not to the SACD version but the regular Cd release.

I'm so thrilled that one of my most treasured albums has finally been released on CD. Muswell Hillbillies is probably the best Kinks album ever released. Unfortunately few had the opportunity to hear it at the time and I've searched record stores for years hoping for either a CD or even an old album that wasn't as worn as mine. This CD shows the absolute genius humor and madness, of Ray Davies. Tracks like "20th Century Man", "Skin and Bones" and "Acute Schizophrenia" display the timeless and prophectic quality of his lyrics. The first side of the original album included the tracks "20th Century Man", "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues"," Holiday", "Skin & Bone", "Alcohol", and "Complicated Life". I hear these songs again and am amazed at how great they still are. I rate this as one of my favorite albums of all time.

The Kinks got the shaft. In an era that produced a ridiculous amount of great rock'n'roll music, they were never appreciated like their peers, such as the Stones, Who, etc.

Muswell Hillbillies reveals Ray Davies at his best. Big record deal debut, and he delivers with a swift kick in the arse of the entire industry. Without Davies' incredibe wit & sarcasm, we never would've seen the birth of many other great goofball rock/power pop bands that came much later. But, the joke is on anyone not appreciating the songwriting and hooky strengths of the Kinks. I think this is their best of many fine albums.