Muswell Hillbillies [Vinyl]

The Kinks | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (September 16, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Velvel Records
• ASIN: B001CW7MRO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,125 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. 20th Century Man

2. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues

3. Holiday

4. Skin and Bone

5. Alcohol

6. Complicated Life

7. Here Come the People in Grey

8. Have a Cuppa Tea

9. Holloway Jail

10. Oklahoma U.S.a.

11. Uncle Son

12. Muswell Hillbilly

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The first album in the Kinks' RCA phase, this 1971 aggregation stands as one of the pivotal titles in the group's extensive oeuvre. Check out the cover for a sense where this collection is rooted: the five longhaired lads mill about at a sunlit working-class pub where the regulars go about their libationary affairs. The album's keynote tracks--"20th Century Man," "Holiday," "Here Come the People in Grey"--focus on proletariat proceedings that were familiar to frontman Ray Davies and his guitar-slinging sibling, Dave. Indeed, the title track's name is concocted from of the name of the north London community where the Davies brothers grew up and the then-popular Beverly Hillbillies TV show. Musically, Muswell Hillbillies draws on country and pub-jazz elements; check out the trad-band brass that adorns the intoxicating "Alcohol." Ray Davies called this album his "existentialist-type record," noting that he resisted the temptation to design a radio-friendly single to succeed "Lola" in favor of devising a conceptual collection of tunes. For better or worse, it would be some time before he'd abandon his predilection for plots. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

Limited Edition. 180 Gram Vinyl. 12 tracks from The Kinks' 1971 album which went to # 100 in the US. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and where the band formed in the early 1960s. The album is a wide-ranging collection of Ray Davies compositions which focus on the frustrations and stresses of modern life. Davies had addressed this theme in many previous songs, but it reached maturity on this album and forms a unifying theme.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have a "Holiday" with the Kinks........, March 11, 2000

By 

kevin march (NW Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Muswell Hillbillies (Audio CD)

Take it from an ancient Kinks fan...this is certainly one of their very best. I consider "Muswell" a masterpiece that stands confidently next to the other generally "accepted" Ray Davies masterworks ,i.e., "Lola vs..." , "Village Green Preservation Society", and the UNDISPUTED GIANT of Kinks works...."Arthur". I fully appreciate the common criticism that always seems to attend any meaningful discussion regarding "Muswell" among Kinks fans: that the album lacks the "English-pop" intensity of their previous works, so therefore it's "not quite" the Kinks...Well, boys and girls, THATS THE POINT of this LP ! It was a CONSCIOUS change of direction. Every great artist in history has experimented with the limits of his or her talents...and Raymond Douglas Davies is no different. Any TRUE Kinks purist would understand this and embrace this 1971 gem with open arms. Granted, it might take several listenings before this worthy disc endears itself to you but it's well worth the effort. However many spins it takes, eventually you'll sit up in your chair and exclaim loudly....Oh yeah, ...NOW I GET IT..! "Muswell Hillbillies" is an ACQUIRED taste. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Ray teases us with delectible little country-flavored ditties like the Title tune (an effective ode to his hometown suburb in North London)or the heavily horned and witty "Holiday" and "Alcohol". When you first encounter these particular tunes (as I did in the early 70's), you might make the error of dismissing them out of hand as campy novelty tunes far below Ray's abilities. This couldn't be further from the truth.... if you LISTEN, I mean truly LISTEN to the lyrical content you'll detect the desperate sadness that he was trying to convey about the struggles of the English working class to maintain any semblance of sanity in the face of the modern technological society that was threatening to oppress them even more. Ray Davies WAS (and still is) very sensitive to this. Many would scoff at this...the world famous wealthy pop legend? how could he possibly relate to the poor? Easy, his fame aside Ray NEVER lost the common touch. Of all the pop icons, he never forgot his roots. Its a recorded fact that Ray always lamented the passing of a more simpler time. Recall his odes to "Victoria" and the magnificent "Waterloo Sunset" (which I always felt was Ray's greatest single composition, on a par with Lennon's "Day in the Life" on "Pepper') Just listen to the opening rocker on "Muswell" ,"20th Century Man" with it's vehement jabs at modern life and the painfully poignant line "I'm a 20th century man but I don't want to be here......" This seems to be Ray's personal philosophy in an aural nutshell, if you will, and this brilliant album captures this ethos perfectly. Ray is a walking anachronism, a man out of place in his time ...he has stated many times that he feels he was born too late. As far as I can tell he's adjusted pretty well and enriched the world with his genius. I highly recommend this cd, for any serious Kinks fan. GOD SAVE THE KINKS

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest albums ever recorded, October 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Muswell Hillbillies (Audio CD)

There are a zillion Kinks albums, and yet only five or six songs--if that many--have ever been touched by radio. After getting sick of those songs before 1985, I had *no* interest in the Kinks by 1998.

I listened to Muswell Hillbillies on a whim and I was shocked. It has nothing to do with the sound of Lola or the handful of mid 60s tunes I've always associated with the Kinks. This is a deep, listenable, folk/blues record that's best dissaociated with the Kinks radio-pop franchise. There are some brilliant songs here--Holiday, Holloway Jail, Complicated Life, the title track--without any weaklings in the bunch. And if I were compiling a list of the ten most stick-in-your-head songs of all time, Skin and Bone would be near the top.

Highly recommended, even if you never pictured yourself buying a Kinks CD.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Kinks, December 30, 2003

By 

gesegnet (Boise, Id United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Muswell Hillbillies (Audio CD)

When you first listen to Muswell Hillbillies you might be taken aback. Here is one of the greatest bands in rock putting out what seems to be a country/folk album. But give the album a second and third listen and you'll be glad you did. As with all albums, it has it's ups and downs but each song is solid and the album has a sense of continuity that sometimes eluded the Kinks. The album starts out with Ray bemoaning the 20th century ("I was born in a welfare state, ruled by bureaucracy, controlled by civil servants and people dressed in gray"), one of the greatest protest songs ever written and even though it is from the last century, it has even more relevant today. Don't miss the harder version on One for the Road. The theme is picked up again in "Here Come the People in Grey," another great number. The second song goes right into a Dixie land jazz number, Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues, a hilarious ditty about a man so paranoid he can't leave his front door.
The humor throughout the whole album is some of the Kinks best, Ray even teases himself as he sings about places he's never been to. The album also stresses Ray's favorite theme, getting back to a simpler life, while echo's are heard throughout the album (as well as many Kinks albums) nowhere is it more pronounced as in Complicated Life, just try singing the la de da chorus without smiling. Oklahoma USA reminds us that dreaming is one of life's true pleasures.
I could on but suffice it to say, there is not one weak song on this album, which makes Muswell Hillbillies, in my opinion, the best album the Kinks ever made.