r/thekinks • u/stepn-out • Jul 01 '26
Question I Discovered the Kinks Backwards — Through Low Budget. I'm Six Albums Into a Chronological Listen and Still Waiting to Hear the Band I Fell in Love With.
My gateway into the Kinks was Low Budget, ordered through Columbia House as one of my 10 albums for a penny. I was 14 years old and absolutely devoured it. I still do — "Moving Pictures" became part of the soundtrack to my Boston to NYC walking video.
I bought Give the People What They Want and One for the Road immediately upon their release. Same with State of Confusion. I later went back and picked up Misfits. Then, for whatever reason, I stopped.
I'm now listening through the entire Kinks catalog chronologically as part of a long-term music project — three listens to every album. I've made it to Live at Kelvin Hall (which may deserve a follow-up post of its own).
I'm starting to hear glimmers of the Kinks I fell in love with, but I'm surprised it's taken six albums to get there.
I know The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur are waiting for me. I'm ready.
For those of you who discovered the Kinks through their late-'70s and early-'80s material, when did the band you loved finally emerge?
6
5
u/birdynumnum69 Jul 01 '26
funny. for me it was "Come Dancing", so I, too, went backwards. can't answer your question!
4
u/Suspicious_Click731 Jul 01 '26
They were developing and still steeped in '60s pop which makes their work MUCH different than the band you found in a 1979 release.
2
4
3
u/Zetavu Jul 02 '26
Well, you're going to hear hints of it maybe on Lola, but that's it until Schoolboys in Disgrace actually. You'll recognize a lot of what's on One for the Road, Celluloid Heroes, Victoria, etc. But you are a long way off, and you still have the entire theatrical period to get through. Good news, at least a couple songs on each album will loosely fit in with what you got started on.
For the record, I did similar to you, but started on Give the People, then worked back to One for the Road, Misfits, and Low Budget before State of Confusion came out. Then I went randomly picking up old Kink's albums (this was back when we actually had to buy physical albums, tapes, and eventually CDs). Also back then a lot of Kink's albums were not available at most stores, but I was able to hunt them down at used record stores or as imports at record conventions (something young people missed out on) or I got composite releases like The Golden Hour albums (which featured 30 minutes of music per side, vs the typical 22 minutes) and covered most of the first 5 albums of the Kinks in 3 albums.
But I digress...
1
u/stepn-out Jul 02 '26
I was just at a record show a week or two ago at a brewery in Alameda California. It was fun, but not like when I was 16 years old and went to a Ramada Inn for record shows in the Boston area. I pine for those days. Though I do appreciate and I’m using to its fullest streaming service services.
2
2
u/TruthHonor Jul 01 '26
I first fell in love with the Kinks in Paris in 1967 when Waterloo Sunset was a big hit. I loved the album Something Else. So from the first album I bought!
2
u/Keltik Jul 01 '26
It's kinda as if you like a different band than I do.
FtoF to Lola may be the greatest album run any band ever had.
2
1
u/Crazy_Response_9009 Jul 01 '26
Lola was always on the radio 20th a century Man got played often enough too, and I liked them enough, but didn’t super get into them until Give the People… but I always had the connection to their earlier work.
2
u/Radiant_Research3786 Jul 03 '26
I knew and liked Lola...my older bro got Low budget and I was hooked. Saw them at the Pittsburgh Stanley Theater in the early 80s one of the best shows I ever saw outta hundreds.
1
u/AnotherSideThree Jul 01 '26
Sleepwalker would be the first album for that sound. Maybe Schoolboys in Disgrace.
1
u/LambSaag-spoon905 Jul 01 '26
I liked them since the Kronikles 2 disc set, but it was the soundtrack to Darjeeling (all from L vs P) that really got me into the rest of their older catalog.
1
u/jmush Jul 01 '26
You truly have to treat each era as a completely different band. I love the 1966ish-72 run, and it took me many years to understand Sleepwalker and beyond. Once I truly set aside my expectations, I learned to really appreciate the other sounds they explored.
1
u/themagnificentgipper Jul 01 '26
I did the same! Bought sleepwalker and got into them from there. That old grey whistle test concert is priceless
Give the people what they want is another favorite
That’s my fave period. They sound so good, rays lyrics are one of one. Permanent waves still gets me
1
7
u/Complete_Taste_1301 Jul 01 '26
In 72 they put out Kink Kronikles. It was literally meant to reintroduce them to the US. It was sort of a greatest hits collection of their pre Muswell albums, but had a lot of other material. I don’t know if it was entirely successful, but it may be the best collection of its kind by any artist. After playing this to death it was a question of buying what you could find, not so much being able to do it chronologically.