Alexis Petridis does it again, but really what an absolutely stunning collection of songs. But where the hell is Big Sky?
Kinks Ranked!
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/30/the-kinks-40-greatest-songs-ranked
Kinda (see what I did there?) gets it right near the end but… he’s a dodger… and obviously has to shoehorn stuff in from things called the 1970s, the dire and the 1990s to justify his existence. Triffic.
How low are ‘Two Sisters’ and ‘See My Friends’??? No ‘Misty Water’ or ‘Pretty Polly’ or ‘I Need You’? P*** off.
Mercifully, doesn’t include my favourite Kinks’ song, I’d be mortified if it had, and I’m not going to tell the dodger what it is (it’s from 67, he almost certainly hasn’t heard it), or those incredible Dave Davies 45s, but then, after all, they are all from the Golden Age.
I don’t much care for dodgers, never have, probably a nice enough guy, wouldn’t want to be downwind of his record collection!
Wow! I can be really ‘catty’. I’m kinda (done it again) happy about that.
Are you a bit “refreshed” again?
Always, with ‘no’ speech marks (I haven’t now got a Beatles box to buy!), and I am right once again.
There is no popular music act that is more obviously 60s than The Kinks, to pretend otherwise is obviously, ‘obvs.’, complete hokum.
‘Berkeley Mews’… ‘Pretty Polly’???
This guy knows nothing about The Kinks. Might know how to prepare a Pot Noddle, knows nothing about the Kinks.
How am I a dodger? (Whatever that is)
Dai’s gone early.
I think I was rather referring to the original post above, but if you identity with the moniker of ‘dodger’, own it, it’s yours.
You edited your post. How clever
For the record I would probably have nearly every track from TKATVGPS in my list. Dave’s songs are good but not quite good enough for this list. I think they deteriorated rapidly after the 60s, but Lola and Muswell Hillbillies have quite a lot of the old magic, Sweet Genevieve is beautiful and Come Dancing was a wonderful late single
I absolutely don’t know what you mean that I edited my post. What’s that?
But I do agree that I am clever.
Tax dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers, draft dodgers, trolley dodgers, corn dodgers, fare dodgers, Roger Dodgers…….??? I think we need to be told.
No, we really don’t…just leave him be.
Does this make you a Dodger dodger?
Logically, I think it makes him a dodger dodger dodger.
There is a distinct whiff of a Catch-22 vibe developing here…
Arf!
Logically, my statement would only make me a dodger dodger if Deramdaze was, in fact, a dodger. I suspect he might – MIGHT – refute that.
Is that a New York Dodger?
Missing from the list are Artful, Jammy and soap
…and coffin
And salad….
Jesu Cristo! I never knew Come Dancing was about his sister dying and the last verse was wishful…
You’ll never get consensus on a list with a band whose catalogue is so deep and rich. This is broadly very good, though I’d like to have seen Wonderboy get a look in, and Shangri-La should be much higher.
Agree, along with my other miss above. But it’s an impossible task really
Complete tosh, the Kinks catalogue isn’t remotely ‘so deep and rich.’
Of all the groups who ever existed, it must be the best example of a group’s catalogue that ISN’T ‘so deep and rich.’
It’s the ultimate example.
Oh mate.
‘Oh mate.’
Are you George?
What a spanner, no offence.
No Holloway Jail.
Guy is a fucking idiot.
As further evidenced by an approving reference to Robert Christgau, possibly the most self-regarding yet ignorant critic in the history of popular music.
Blimey
I do love a poll!!
Let’s do another one..
I’m tempted to do Jimi Hendrix b-sides.
My favourite is the first one, or is it the third one, no, its the fourth one.
What am I like? It’s the 51st one (Jimi joke).
Inevitable No 1. 3 and 4 should be 2 and 3. Dead End Street, at 16 should be higher for me. It was the second single I ever bought, along with I’m A Believer, with a 15s record token from my late Aunty Hazel
Tired Of Waiting is absent. That is wrong.
It is, of course, a magnificent list. How could it not be?
There was a period of about six years when Ray Davies’s songwriting was so brilliant, he both Lennon AND McCartney simultaneously.
Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen “Mindless Child of Motherhood” in there. And “Some Mother’s Son”. And “End of the Season” . And “Where Are They Now”. And “Mirror of Love”. And “Animal Farm”. And “This Man He Weeps Tonight” And “Drivin'”. And “Lincoln County”. And “Sitting in the Midday Sun”. And “All of my Friends were There”.
But … whatever. We should be glad that we lived at the same time as this glorious band. God Save the Kinks!
Oh yes, absolutely re Lincoln County, and definitely re End Of The Season.
I always found Come Dancing quite touching as a kid (I was about 14/15 when it came out, and The Kinks at Hammersmith Palais was one of my earliest gigs in 1984.)
From the same album, I always preferred Don’t Forget To Dance, a gloriously gloopy slow sentimental ballad.
Yes I’ve got a liking for that one as well, it being forever linked in my head with the first proper girlfriend I ever had, who actually came with me to the Kinks gig at the Palais. Awwww.
I wasn’t aware of the original version of I Go To Sleep by Marion Maerz. What a find. Strange The Kinks didn’t have a stab at it, such a beautiful song.
An incredibly rich back catalogue of singles. I can’t stand Autumn Almanac, personally, but so many great tunes in the list.
I always think it’s odd that a lot of their albums seem to have largely sunk without trace. From the mid-60s onwards, most of their albums failed to even chart. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, their best-selling UK album (including re-releases, etc.), got to the giddy heights of number 48 in the charts.