70s Artist Watch:The Kinks

The Kinks and The Zombies bassist Jim Rodford  died aged 76 in Jan 2018. 

The iconic rocker - who had been due to go on tour with The Zombies - passed away on Saturday after falling down the stairs, although the exact details of his death are not yet known.

His cousin and The Zombies' founder Rod Argent announced his tragic death with a heartfelt tribute on the band's official Facebook page.

Formed in London in 1964 by Ray and Dave Davies, other members came and go, but the group hit the 70s music scene still running. The first album in the 70s was " Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoaround,Part One" an album that takes a satirical look at the music industry,and two massive hits came from it the first we will play is the famous "Lola". 

"Lola"  written by Ray was a song about a man and his relationship with a Transvestite in London, and its said to be based on the groups manager  Robert Wace , who had been dancing with a black lady.



A smaller hit in 1972 "Supersonic Rocket Ship"

The second song from from The Kinks album was "Apeman" in which Ray writes about being fed up with the so called modern world, and wants to go back, maybe a little too far.The single was a 70s music fun record.

 

Band member Peter Quaife left, and was replaced by John Dalton, and after a five year ban in the US  to perform, this was the year it was lifted.

By the end of 1971, The Kinks had secured a five-album deal with RCA , which brought them a million dollar advance. Released in late 1971, Muswell Hillbillies, the group's first album for RCA, marked a return to the nostalgia of the Kinks' late-'60s albums, only with more pronounced country and music hall influences.  Reprise released a double-album compilation called The Kink Kronikles, which outsold their RCA debut. Everybody's in Showbiz (1973), a double record set consisting of one album of studio tracks and another of live material.

In 1973, Ray Davies composed a full-blown rock opera called Preservation. When the first installment of the opera finally appeared in late 1973, it was harshly criticized and given a cold reception from the public. Act 2 appeared in the summer of 1974; the sequel received worse treatment than its predecessor. Davies began another musical, Starmaker, for the BBC; the project eventually metamorphosed into Soap Opera, which was released in the spring of 1975. Soap Opera was a more commercially successful record than its predecessor. In 1976, the Kinks recorded Davies' third straight rock opera, Schoolboys in Disgrace, which rocked harder than any album they released on RCA.

 Even though punk rockers like the Jam and the Pretenders were covering Kinks songs in the late '70s, the group was becoming more blatantly commercial with each release, culminating in the heavy rock of Low Budget (1979), which became the group's biggest American success, peaking at number 11.