The Kinks are iconic and one of the best British bands of all time. Leader/lead vocalist Ray Davies is a songwriting genius, and his brother Dave Davies is an incredible (and underrated) guitarist.
@@ivanjulian2532 Page was still a session man at that point. He made fun of the song until it was a hit and then he tried to take credit. The brothers, notorious for fistfighting with each other and others, had to shut him up. He still Coyly let people think he something to do with the song when he had nothing to do with it. He was finally forced to say that. He's a strange man, with his occult interests, and interest in underage girls, and extreme fame, to still want credit for Dave Davies' guitar part on The Kinks' first hit.
@@chrisbloomfield3350 As brothers, and with Ray being bipolar at a time when there was no proper treatment, they made it through with alcohol, fistfighting and as Dave Davies said, "I hate Ray and I love Ray." They kept the band together from the '60s through the '90s, both having lots of kids to support, and they still get together for holidays and exchange gifts, just like most siblings who aren't millionaires! Oasis and Blur both owe them a lot! (Dead End Street video, House In The Country, listen to them talk about The Kinks)
Hey guys, that song ,"You Really Got Me", was the birth of hard/heavy rock. The Kinks were true rock and roll innovators. Lex you were spot on about this being a precursor to metal. 1964 was 5 years before Woodstock. Check out "Waterloo Sunset", "Sunny Afternoon", "Shangri-La", "Days", "See My Friends" or "Dead End Street".
This song was the birth of guitar distortion. Dave Davies the lead guitarist took a razor to the speaker of his amplifier to get that sound in 1964. The rest is history.
@@edsmith3461-z7m One early example was (believe it or not) Marty Robbins 1961 hit DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME ... If you skip to the 1:26 mark . . . . ruclips.net/video/Q2WBBcH6OPU/видео.html
Next, we'll be challenging him to interpret St Cecilia's classic hit , "LEAP UP AND DOWN, WAVE YOUR KNICKERS IN THE AIR" OR anything by Hunt Lunt and Cunningham. (I've never actually HEARD anything by Hunt Lunt & Cunningham but I did keep stumbling on their adverts in NME but couldn;t find them on You Tube so I have no idea what they sound like. I thought it was law firm.
The Kinks! Love this band...there are many more to listen to. Lola, Father Christmas, A Well Respected Man...They started up in 1963 and are pretty much a legendary band.
Your ear and instincts are spot on, again. “You Really Got Me” not only brought distorted guitar to the masses it’s the genesis of all things hard and heavy in rock and, as the legend goes, it was an act of aggression from Kinks guitarist Dave Davies (by slashing the speaker cone) that created the gnarlier tone and started an amplifier revolution in the process. Try VAN HALEN's version, it's kick-ass!
Hey, my favorite band! Alot of people give these guys credit for innovating and being the first band to use the "power chord", something heard in most rock songs.
B&L, you'll love their "All Day And All Of The Night", "Better Things" and many more. They are music pioneers. Great guitar riffs on this one and "All Day..."
The Kinks were a fantastic band that had many hits over many years!!! I've loved this song since I was around 3 or 4. They were Hugh part of the early-mid 60's British Invasion with the Rolling Stone, The Beatles, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Hollies, The Who, The Zombies and a few others. I saw them at The Fabulous Forum in 1980 and then I saw Ray Davies at The House of Blues on Sunset in Hollywood in around 1995. They are incredible entertaining!!!👌👍✌😁
I felt a right birk thinking I'd put SUNNY AFTERNOON in on karaoke, only to realize I'd written LAZY SUNDAY - dunno why i get those two mixed up - one's easy to sing - the other is not and requires a convincing Cockney accent - which I don;t have (my name is NOT Michael Caine) - you don't half feel a DH trying to sing a song you've never even tried before and doing the worst Cockney accent since Dick Van Dyke.
Lex and many comments are right, this song is often cited as a main springboard to hard rock and heavy metal to come. For a similar influence track, try the extended version of Kick Out the Jams by the MC5, it is a pioneering track that is absolute fire. Enjoy! 🎸
@@cjhere2224 That extended version of Kick Out the Jams is epic and a big influense for hard rock, heavy metal and punk to come. Amazing stuff they need to hear. Rock On! 🎸
@@cjhere2224 That extended version of Kick Out the Jams is epic and a springboard for hard rock, heavy metal and punk to come. Amazing stuff they need to hear. Rock On! 🎸
It's hard not to have heard this one, at some point lol. On Van Halen's first album they have a dual track of Eruption & a cover of this song together (Eruption/You Really Got Me Now), & it was super popular. I know you've done the live extended Eruption reaction, but the studio version is a lot more condensed and planned out and along with this was it totally ROCKS! I know some will say it's blasphemous, but I like the VH version of this song better. Amazing dual track & def worth checking out. Cheers!
@@alanskidadomdom3748 The thing is, in a vacuum, sure, Van Halen's sounds better, after rock playing and production had gone through a frenzied decade of evolution. And Van Halen WAS doing something pretty new at the time (Akkerman and some jazz dudes paved the way, but Eddie brought that style of playing into mainstream rock). But the original, in the context of 1964, blew the goddamn roof off of the genre. We're talking about most people''s first exposure to power chords. At all.
Ray Davies is a genius songwriter. It's difficult to overstate the influence of The Kinks and this song in particular - "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" are arguably two of the reasons punk and heavy metal exist. The Kinks moved on from this style and they often get overlooked, but their influence was enormous.
Lex, for a first time listening to these tunes, your ear and your insights really are remarkable. "...they're leading up to metal..." This riff apparently was the first intentional use of guitar distortion on a record. So you were absolutely right! The kinks are an amazing band. Fun and clever and creative and full of surprises in their songs. I hope you'll be checking out more from them.
This makes me think how wild the Stooges must have sounded at the time '69 with I wanna be your dog. - You guys will be surprised how wild that song is for its time.
So happy to see you two continuing to listen to some of the recommendations from the stream. Kinks were a big influence in creating the punk genre. Courtney Love (Cobain's wife) from Hole (considered more alt/grunge/post-punk) sounds like she sings with the same kind of phrasing. Their song 'Doll Parts' I think it's a good example.
It was great to be a kid back then. We all gathered around the TV and watched the Beatles first appearance in America. Then the Kinks, Stones, and the Who all became big shortly thereafter. Then, in the second half of the 60s the music started reflecting drugs and the war while I had little idea of what the world was really like as I rode my bike around the neighborhood and played football in the streets. :)
Kinks 1963-1996 "You Really Got Me" was written by Ray Davies, the Kinks' vocalist and main songwriter, sometime between 9 and 12 March 1964! He was a Guitarist and the father of "Distortion" which many use to this day!
This is the first metal song ever and was absolutely revolutionary in its time. The Kinks were teenagers when they wrote and recorded this. It was a number 1 hit and launched their legendary career. They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and leader Ray Davies was eventually knighted for his contribution to music so now he's Sir Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE.
British Invasion! Some credit then session player Jimmy Page with the solo on this, but I'm not keeping score. Whatever the case, that solo still totally screams with energy fifty plus years later. When you're ready for more from The Kinks, check out "Waterloo Sunset", "Victoria", "Tired of Waiting for You", "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" (Van Halen covered this one too!), and from 1977, their evergreen holiday banger, "Father Christmas" -- the video for that is a good one to see what the band looked like back then.
@@craigplatel813 i was about to say the same. Page didnt play on this and has said as much on many occasions. Dave Davies was a great guitar player in his own right and deserves the respect for the solo.
1964 was one of the most productive years for music. Great, amazing songs in every genre like British Invasion(Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks), Jazz(Getz and Gilberto), Motown(Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops) , Soul,(Otis Redding, Sam Cooke) Beach Boys/surf music, C&W(Buck Owens, Johnny Cash)---it was a great time to grow up, and listening to the radio was a delight.
Sir Ray Davies wrote so many great songs. Brother Dave was 15 when this was recorded. This song was WAY ahead of its time. A tribute to the Kinks' influence is how many bands have covered their material.
Their manager at the time suggested the name The Kinks but I can't remember why. There was an explanation given in the musical about the band which is called 'Sunny Afternoon' (named after one of their songs). Apparently Ray Davies (lead singer and songwriter) said he never liked the name. They didn't want to be thought of as kinky but it was good for publicity.
I was a little girl, maybe 5 or 6, when this song came out. I remember hearing it on the radio and I loved it. Who knew that 10+ yrs later, I would still be jamming to their later music in the 80's that was also fantastic!
The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" (1964) has been covered by many bands; here are some: Mott the Hoople (1969), Oingo Boingo (1981), Van Halen (1978), even Alvin & The Chipmunks (2009). I didn't look to see what movies the song has been used in. Love the syncopation and off-beat accentuations in the lyrics. Lex just loves to rock out!!! GO, GAL!!!
According to Ray Davies, they had one shot at recording this, and they did it live for the most part. When the time for the guitar solo came, he looked (or shouted, depending on which version he tells) across the studio at his brother Dave, to encourage him before his big solo. As Ray says it on the fantastic "The Storyteller" album: "Halfway through the song it was time for Dave's guitar solo. This moment had to be right. So I shouted across the studio to Dave, to give him encouragement. But I seemed to spoil his concentration. He looked at me with a dazed expression and yelled, "F*ck off!!!" If you doubt me, if you doubt what I'm saying, I challenge you to listen to the original Kinks recording of 'You Really Got Me'. Halfway through the song, after the second chorus, before the guitar solo, there's a drum break. Boo ka, boo boo ka, boo ka, boo boo. And in the background you can hear "f*ck off!!" (Laughing) You can, you can! When I did the vocal I tried to cover it up by going "Oh no", but in the background you still hear it: "f*ck off!!". And it's even clearer on CD, it's really embarrassing."
The Kinks and The Troggs were two of the first punk bands in the UK. The meaning behind their names? Kinky may have been around in the modern meaning, it usually meant quirky, off the wall, or even rebellious. Troggs? All I can think of is cave dwellers. They wrote the classics Wild Thing and Love Is All Around. The song writer, Reg Presly (no relation to Carl Registration), became very involved in the study of corn circles and aliens.
Recorded before guitar distortion was invented, they damaged the front cone of the amp to get this distorted guitar sound and all of a sudden every guitar player wanted that sound.
good ear Lex. yes one could consider this the birthplace of hard rock/heavy metal. the distorted power cords created from the mutilated amp was adopted by virtually all the hard rock / metal bands and is the basis to the heavy sound of the genre. many have falsely claimed over the years that it was actually done by jimmy page in the studio before he joined the yardbirds and formed led zeppelin. Page did a lot of work on the kinks albums when he was a studio musician and even though he was heavily experimenting with distortion at the time , he did not do this particular one. he has confirmed this again and again in interviews.
"Lola" was the biggest hit of "The Kinks"...But my personal favourite "The Kinks" song is "Pictures of matchstick men" and a melody section of that song was then used 2002 by the group "Death in Vegas feat Liam Gallagher" as song melody for their song "Scorpio Rising" which also a great song.
This is 1964, the last year of what I'd call early or pre-modern rock. They're still singing about teen life to teens. Starting in 1965, rock begins a transformation, into a more mature musical style for adults.
The Kinks were a radically different sound, their beat from the 60's became punk rock in the 80's with the new bands, the Ramones, and the Clash. "Lola" is one of my all time favorite songs.
I see The Kinks,i push like.One of the most significant and influential British bands ever! They poured out rythm and they became the front liners of their musical era.Pure talent and a unique and pioneering pop rock sound from both the Davies brothers and the whole band, coming from a poor family.They changed music..
We used to sing this on the bus on trips and the driver did too! When school was fun and people weren't so touchy. 💜 This was the 80's so life was good.
There are soooo many great Kinks songs. Lola is their biggest hit, but also try: This Time Tomorrow, Sunny Afternoon, Wish I Could Fly Like Superman, Celluloid Heroes, Jack the Idiot Dunce, Waterloo Sunset, Muswell Hillbillies, etc.
1964 was pre-hippy era. I don't know that you can pick a date or even a year, but I have always considered the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival in Monterrey, Ca. as the the first Hippy concert.
The first use of a distorted guitar in a rock song. The effect was produced by cutting into the walls of a speaker cone. It changed everything! Definitely ahead of its time.
I became familiar with this song only after Van Halen covered it in 1978 on their eponymous debut album. Oingo Boingo also covered it on their 1981 album Only a Lad.
What Dave Davies lead guitarist did was revolutionary at the time . He sliced his speaker with a razor blade to create that distorted guitar sound that changed the game. He was 17 years old at the time.
Check out the Van Halen version of this song that they play after Eruption on their first album. (Eruption/You Really Got Me Now) It's only the 2 minute version of Eruption that leads into You Really Got Me Now.
I remember my parents giving me a staking single record player when I was 6yrs old along with a waste paper basket full of singles that they had collected. I went through that pile of records and found this gem. It has always been one of my favourite songs from the '60s and was probably the benchmark for all the music I got into growing up...,Which is why I'm such a huge Metalhead!
This song came out the same year The Beatles exploded onto the American Music Scene; the Kinks were part of "The British Invasion." Just by listening, you can see how The Kinks probably had a greater influence on what happened to "Rock & Roll" over the next decade than The Beatles. The Beatles were unique, featured vocal harmonies that few succeeding bands were able to match. But The Kinks were able to produce that raw energy from guitar chords you can dance to at, starting a trend..
The Kinks were not just around in the 60's. They played and made many more hits into current years. Check out 'Come dancing' from the 80's. A few decades from this and still good.
This is the birth of hard rock right here. First record EVER to feature a distorted guitar sound. Dave Davies wanted to change the tone of his guitar on this so he took a razor blade to the speaker cone of his amp to make it sound this way. The rest was rock n roll history.
This was before us guitarists had fantastic outboard equipment to spice things up. They had wonderful tube amps but most were single channel and designed for clean guitar. Then the fuzz pedal was invented and everything changed and has continued changing.
1964 is before the hippies. They came around not too long after. The Kinks have a lot of great tunes. Everyone will ask for "Lola" (from 1970, I think). "All Day and All of the Night" is another garage rock classic. "Sunny Afternoon", "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lazy Old Sun" are some favourites. "Come Dancing" is a bop from 1980.
This song came out at least three years before hippies were even a thing. This was right after the Beatles came to America for the first time. This is straight up British Invasion rock.
A masterpiece by one of the greatest bands of the sixties. This was a time when all your talent and creativity had to be compressed into 2 minutes and 50 seconds or less or NO RADIO PLAY. Do it and get out. That in itself is was an incredible challenge. And once again, Lex's intuition and insight is remarkable. To be the "kinks" in the sixties had to be incredibly kinky. Amen.
Great reaction, This is the beginning of the 'distorted guitar' sound, (The guitar player cut the speaker in his amp with a knife) You should try, ("All of the day and all of the night" from the same era. "Give the people what they want" later kinks. "Come Dancing" for a little bit of fun. and "Lola")
They took razor blades to their speakers/amps to get that distorted/fuzz guitar sound! Plus they were the original band with the warring/hating brothers in. At 15 alongside Smells Like Teen Spirits, couple of Sex Pistols numbers, this and 'All day and all of the night', plus Enter Sandman, were the 5 songs my band played. The UK roots of indie, punk and metal here folks! This shit inspired, and will inspire, countless bands from here to infinity!
To put this song in context, five years earlier, the biggest songs were things like "Venus," by Frankie Avalon, or "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin, or anything by The Everly Brothers. When people thought about the genre that would become rock, they thought of stuff like Rock around the Clock, which is a long ways from this. Relatively speaking, to people back then, this would have sounded like punk did, to people in the 80's, who were coming out of disco.
I haven't seen it mentioned so i'll mention this; this is the very first recording of guitar distortion (there was previously 1 recording with a distorted bass called "Don't Worry" by Marty Robbins). If it was intentional is a matter of debate but Davies' amp speaker got slashed and that created that flubby distortion sound. The Rolling Stones achieved a similar effect when they accidentally plugged the guitar directly into the sound board instead of the amp on "Can't Get no Satisfaction" and then everyone from the Yardbirds to Jimi Hendrix chased that sound.
Songs were very simple in the 60's a catchy tune and amazing guitar riff or solo maybe an organ and it was all about love fun and dance, freedom being the main theme; they literally could make a catchy chorus the whole damn song!
Some songs you know are precursors to heavy rock. They aren't the fathers of heavy, rock but you know without them heavy rock would never have been born. The Kinks "You Really Got Me", is part of that evolution. Another track that is a part of that precursor lineage is The Kingsmen, "Louie Louie".
The reason it sounds so familiar to most people is Van Halen did a cover of it in 1978 on their debut album...so besides the mass coverage after the original in 1964, it was reborn again 14 years later in 1978. So it charted twice. Classic rock at its finest.......distortion on a guitar in 1964? they were ahead of their time!
This song is special because there is no distortion on the guitar, but the guitarist cut the membrane of the amplifier with a knife to get the distortion of sound
The KINKS had some songs that even today people are singing along to, often with amusing lyrics - you must have heard "Lola", for example. Another band ofthe era would be "The Troggs", with "Wild Thing" - which you may alo have heard of?
Part of the "British Invasion" of the mid 60's, I remember it well. The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five and dozens more great groups.
If you were to compare this song to every other song popular in 1964, this was the heavy metal/ grunge introduction. Ozzy Osborne said he was blown away by this song when he heard it.
This is like the original punk rock song. I love this one so much.
So "punky" that the Hammersmith Gorillas did a cover of it. : )
1964. Dave Davies introduces the power chord to rock n rollers.
I think The Kinks are considered by many to be the roots of punk rock.
Definitely the first pop punk song to be aired on the radio.
I came here to say this but you put it better
The Kinks are iconic and one of the best British bands of all time. Leader/lead vocalist Ray Davies is a songwriting genius, and his brother Dave Davies is an incredible (and underrated) guitarist.
Let's not add that Ray and Dave kinda hated each other. The original "Oasis"....
@@ivanjulian2532 Page was still a session man at that point. He made fun of the song until it was a hit and then he tried to take credit. The brothers, notorious for fistfighting with each other and others, had to shut him up. He still Coyly let people think he something to do with the song when he had nothing to do with it. He was finally forced to say that. He's a strange man, with his occult interests, and interest in underage girls, and extreme fame, to still want credit for Dave Davies' guitar part on The Kinks' first hit.
@@chrisbloomfield3350 As brothers, and with Ray being bipolar at a time when there was no proper treatment, they made it through with alcohol, fistfighting and as Dave Davies said, "I hate Ray and I love Ray." They kept the band together from the '60s through the '90s, both having lots of kids to support, and they still get together for holidays and exchange gifts, just like most siblings who aren't millionaires! Oasis and Blur both owe them a lot! (Dead End Street video, House In The Country, listen to them talk about The Kinks)
@@ivanjulian2532 Incorrect
Hey guys, that song ,"You Really Got Me", was the birth of hard/heavy rock. The Kinks were true rock and roll innovators. Lex you were spot on about this being a precursor to metal.
1964 was 5 years before Woodstock.
Check out "Waterloo Sunset", "Sunny Afternoon", "Shangri-La", "Days", "See My Friends" or "Dead End Street".
More like the early era of swinging London
love how Ray would intro the song by calling it Van Halens biggest hit. lol
This song was the birth of guitar distortion. Dave Davies the lead guitarist took a razor to the speaker of his amplifier to get that sound in 1964. The rest is history.
^ this
@@drcornelius8275 I'll need to check that out, cheers!
You think i should quit RUclips lol?..
No it wasn't, distortion dates back to the 40's. Others cut their speakers before that.
@@edsmith3461-z7m One early example was (believe it or not) Marty Robbins 1961 hit DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME ... If you skip to the 1:26 mark . . . .
ruclips.net/video/Q2WBBcH6OPU/видео.html
Great tune!
I'd also like to see Brad's reaction to "Lola" by the same band - "So, what's this one about???"
lmao🤣
Next, we'll be challenging him to interpret St Cecilia's classic hit , "LEAP UP AND DOWN, WAVE YOUR KNICKERS IN THE AIR" OR anything by Hunt Lunt and Cunningham. (I've never actually HEARD anything by Hunt Lunt & Cunningham but I did keep stumbling on their adverts in NME but couldn;t find them on You Tube so I have no idea what they sound like. I thought it was law firm.
Or Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side”.
Lola great song
Definitely, the College Students didn't get it haha!
You called it once again, Lex! This is widely regarded as one of the seminal influences of what eventually became heavy metal. 👍
Absolutely! Jimi Page said they hung around with the Kinks cause that is where the hot chicks were!
And punk as well.
@@MadSlantedPowers Absolutely
More so punk.
Not heavy metal, you can make out the lyrics😎
The Kinks are one of the greatest bands of all time, with dozens of hits into the 1980's. Ray Davies is a song writing master.
And dozens of other great songs that weren't hits.
Destroyer!
So many great songs to choose from...please take a listen to "Lola" or "All Day and all of the Night"!!!
"Come Dancing" is one of my favorites from them. But ...yeah... Lola would blow their minds. Would love to see that.
Destroyer, Superman, Low Budget.
@@stevend3753 I saw them in concert for the Low Budget tour . Great concert.
@@thancrow Nice!
@@stevend3753 It was. It was great to see one of the og original rockers
The Kinks! Love this band...there are many more to listen to. Lola, Father Christmas, A Well Respected Man...They started up in 1963 and are pretty much a legendary band.
“The Kinks are the Preservation Society” a favorite.
Your ear and instincts are spot on, again. “You Really Got Me” not only brought distorted guitar to the masses it’s the genesis of all things hard and heavy in rock and, as the legend goes, it was an act of aggression from Kinks guitarist Dave Davies (by slashing the speaker cone) that created the gnarlier tone and started an amplifier revolution in the process. Try VAN HALEN's version, it's kick-ass!
Keeping it in the 60s and Lex's head is bopping
Hey, my favorite band!
Alot of people give these guys credit for innovating and being the first band to use the "power chord", something heard in most rock songs.
One of my very favorites, too. I feel very lucky to have gotten to see them live!
The Kinks, a great band, loved in Britain at the time and very influential.
B&L, you'll love their "All Day And All Of The Night", "Better Things" and many more. They are music pioneers. Great guitar riffs on this one and "All Day..."
The Kinks were a fantastic band that had many hits over many years!!! I've loved this song since I was around 3 or 4. They were Hugh part of the early-mid 60's British Invasion with the Rolling Stone, The Beatles, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Hollies, The Who, The Zombies and a few others. I saw them at The Fabulous Forum in 1980 and then I saw Ray Davies at The House of Blues on Sunset in Hollywood in around 1995. They are incredible entertaining!!!👌👍✌😁
Saw them in the sixties and again in the 80s in L.A. Ray Davies a legend….
Try "Days," "Waterloo Sunset," "Sunny Afternoon," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," "Dead End Street," "Lola," so many to choose from ...
God's Children from Arthur. Ah ha ha ha ha. Strange movie.
I felt a right birk thinking I'd put SUNNY AFTERNOON in on karaoke, only to realize I'd written LAZY SUNDAY - dunno why i get those two mixed up - one's easy to sing - the other is not and requires a convincing Cockney accent - which I don;t have (my name is NOT Michael Caine) - you don't half feel a DH trying to sing a song you've never even tried before and doing the worst Cockney accent since Dick Van Dyke.
Lex and many comments are right, this song is often cited as a main springboard to hard rock and heavy metal to come. For a similar influence track, try the extended version of Kick Out the Jams by the MC5, it is a pioneering track that is absolute fire. Enjoy! 🎸
I tried pushing MC5 in the past. Hopefully it makes it one day. Pioneers.
@@cjhere2224 That extended version of Kick Out the Jams is epic and a big influense for hard rock, heavy metal and punk to come. Amazing stuff they need to hear. Rock On! 🎸
@@cjhere2224 That extended version of Kick Out the Jams is epic and a springboard for hard rock, heavy metal and punk to come. Amazing stuff they need to hear. Rock On! 🎸
Early experiments with guitar distortion. It rocks!
The evolution of Rock in the 60's astounds me. 5 years later we had Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Must have been LSD LOL.
It's hard not to have heard this one, at some point lol. On Van Halen's first album they have a dual track of Eruption & a cover of this song together (Eruption/You Really Got Me Now), & it was super popular. I know you've done the live extended Eruption reaction, but the studio version is a lot more condensed and planned out and along with this was it totally ROCKS! I know some will say it's blasphemous, but I like the VH version of this song better. Amazing dual track & def worth checking out. Cheers!
Oh the VH version is world's better, IMO. I find this one boring and monotonous.
@@unholydriver4987 This was also, depending on who you ask, literally the first "hard rock" song. Ever.
Yep. That's definitely blasphemous!😁😁😁
@@alanskidadomdom3748 The thing is, in a vacuum, sure, Van Halen's sounds better, after rock playing and production had gone through a frenzied decade of evolution. And Van Halen WAS doing something pretty new at the time (Akkerman and some jazz dudes paved the way, but Eddie brought that style of playing into mainstream rock).
But the original, in the context of 1964, blew the goddamn roof off of the genre. We're talking about most people''s first exposure to power chords. At all.
@@unholydriver4987 Same with White Lion's version of Radar Love. SO much better than the original by Golden Earring.
Guitarist Dave Davies (brother of front man and writer Ray) got his sound on this track by taking a razor blade to the cones on the speakers.
I love some golden oldies! Makes you want to move! My dad ensured that I knew all of these by heart!
I’ve seen them half a dozen times live and they never fail to deliver!!! My favourite group. 👍😎
Ray Davies is a genius songwriter. It's difficult to overstate the influence of The Kinks and this song in particular - "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" are arguably two of the reasons punk and heavy metal exist. The Kinks moved on from this style and they often get overlooked, but their influence was enormous.
Lex, for a first time listening to these tunes, your ear and your insights really are remarkable.
"...they're leading up to metal..."
This riff apparently was the first intentional use of guitar distortion on a record.
So you were absolutely right!
The kinks are an amazing band. Fun and clever and creative and full of surprises in their songs. I hope you'll be checking out more from them.
This and the Beatles Helter Skelter both prefigure metal by a few years
This makes me think how wild the Stooges must have sounded at the time '69 with I wanna be your dog. - You guys will be surprised how wild that song is for its time.
The Kinks were the garage band of the British Invasion. That's not a bad thing. Great raw sound on this and other songs.
So happy to see you two continuing to listen to some of the recommendations from the stream. Kinks were a big influence in creating the punk genre. Courtney Love (Cobain's wife) from Hole (considered more alt/grunge/post-punk) sounds like she sings with the same kind of phrasing. Their song 'Doll Parts' I think it's a good example.
It was great to be a kid back then. We all gathered around the TV and watched the Beatles first appearance in America. Then the Kinks, Stones, and the Who all became big shortly thereafter. Then, in the second half of the 60s the music started reflecting drugs and the war while I had little idea of what the world was really like as I rode my bike around the neighborhood and played football in the streets. :)
I remember telling my older sisters I'd just seen an old man and woman on READY STEADY GO -it was sonny & cher. I was only about 6.
Kinks 1963-1996 "You Really Got Me" was written by Ray Davies, the Kinks' vocalist and main songwriter, sometime between 9 and 12 March 1964! He was a Guitarist and the father of "Distortion" which many use to this day!
This is the first metal song ever and was absolutely revolutionary in its time. The Kinks were teenagers when they wrote and recorded this. It was a number 1 hit and launched their legendary career. They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and leader Ray Davies was eventually knighted for his contribution to music so now he's Sir Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE.
The Kinks are truly fantastic!!! I would love to hear this band for the first time again!
British Invasion! Some credit then session player Jimmy Page with the solo on this, but I'm not keeping score. Whatever the case, that solo still totally screams with energy fifty plus years later. When you're ready for more from The Kinks, check out "Waterloo Sunset", "Victoria", "Tired of Waiting for You", "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" (Van Halen covered this one too!), and from 1977, their evergreen holiday banger, "Father Christmas" -- the video for that is a good one to see what the band looked like back then.
Jimmy didn't do the solo. As a session musician he did some bass work on a couple earlier songs. He has definitely stated he didn't do the solo.
@@craigplatel813 i was about to say the same. Page didnt play on this and has said as much on many occasions. Dave Davies was a great guitar player in his own right and deserves the respect for the solo.
1964 was one of the most productive years for music. Great, amazing songs in every genre like British Invasion(Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks), Jazz(Getz and Gilberto), Motown(Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops) , Soul,(Otis Redding, Sam Cooke) Beach Boys/surf music, C&W(Buck Owens, Johnny Cash)---it was a great time to grow up, and listening to the radio was a delight.
The beginning of raunchy with a capital R! Raw and balls-to-the-wall recording! A guitar solo out beyond Pluto! Whoo! What a band!
Sir Ray Davies wrote so many great songs. Brother Dave was 15 when this was recorded. This song was WAY ahead of its time. A tribute to the Kinks' influence is how many bands have covered their material.
Their manager at the time suggested the name The Kinks but I can't remember why. There was an explanation given in the musical about the band which is called 'Sunny Afternoon' (named after one of their songs). Apparently Ray Davies (lead singer and songwriter) said he never liked the name. They didn't want to be thought of as kinky but it was good for publicity.
Ok we need Brad to react to Lola, with the lyrics up, it will be amazing to witness lol
This was a huge hit when it came out
Awesome!! Now Brad can decipher the lyrics to Lola from same band. It will be a hoot.
I was a little girl, maybe 5 or 6, when this song came out. I remember hearing it on the radio and I loved it. Who knew that 10+ yrs later, I would still be jamming to their later music in the 80's that was also fantastic!
The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" (1964) has been covered by many bands; here are some: Mott the Hoople (1969), Oingo Boingo (1981), Van Halen (1978), even Alvin & The Chipmunks (2009). I didn't look to see what movies the song has been used in. Love the syncopation and off-beat accentuations in the lyrics. Lex just loves to rock out!!! GO, GAL!!!
Thanks for this - I love the Kinks and their originality. Especially Ray Davies' voice. Try Waterloo Sunset - it's very pretty.
Days
According to Ray Davies, they had one shot at recording this, and they did it live for the most part. When the time for the guitar solo came, he looked (or shouted, depending on which version he tells) across the studio at his brother Dave, to encourage him before his big solo. As Ray says it on the fantastic "The Storyteller" album: "Halfway through the song it was time for Dave's guitar solo. This moment had to be right. So I shouted across the studio to Dave, to give him encouragement. But I seemed to spoil his concentration. He looked at me with a dazed expression and yelled, "F*ck off!!!"
If you doubt me, if you doubt what I'm saying, I challenge you to listen to the original Kinks recording of 'You Really Got Me'. Halfway through the song, after the second chorus, before the guitar solo, there's a drum break. Boo ka, boo boo ka, boo ka, boo boo. And in the background you can hear "f*ck off!!" (Laughing) You can, you can! When I did the vocal I tried to cover it up by going "Oh no", but in the background you still hear it: "f*ck off!!". And it's even clearer on CD, it's really embarrassing."
The Kinks and The Troggs were two of the first punk bands in the UK.
The meaning behind their names?
Kinky may have been around in the modern meaning, it usually meant quirky, off the wall, or even rebellious.
Troggs?
All I can think of is cave dwellers.
They wrote the classics Wild Thing and Love Is All Around.
The song writer, Reg Presly (no relation to Carl Registration), became very involved in the study of corn circles and aliens.
Lovin it! Haven't heard this in years!
We had so many bands in the 70's it's hard to keep up with all of them. You guys really been rocking out lately.
Also from The Kinks, Destroyer, Superman, and Low Budget!
Recorded before guitar distortion was invented, they damaged the front cone of the amp to get this distorted guitar sound and all of a sudden every guitar player wanted that sound.
Thanks so much for that bit of information. I'd never heard this before.
good ear Lex. yes one could consider this the birthplace of hard rock/heavy metal. the distorted power cords created from the mutilated amp was adopted by virtually all the hard rock / metal bands and is the basis to the heavy sound of the genre. many have falsely claimed over the years that it was actually done by jimmy page in the studio before he joined the yardbirds and formed led zeppelin. Page did a lot of work on the kinks albums when he was a studio musician and even though he was heavily experimenting with distortion at the time , he did not do this particular one. he has confirmed this again and again in interviews.
"Lola" was the biggest hit of "The Kinks"...But my personal favourite "The Kinks" song is "Pictures of matchstick men" and a melody section of that song was then used 2002 by the group "Death in Vegas feat Liam Gallagher" as song melody for their song "Scorpio Rising" which also a great song.
This is 1964, the last year of what I'd call early or pre-modern rock. They're still singing about teen life to teens. Starting in 1965, rock begins a transformation, into a more mature musical style for adults.
The Kinks were a radically different sound, their beat from the 60's became punk rock in the 80's with the new bands, the Ramones, and the Clash. "Lola" is one of my all time favorite songs.
I see The Kinks,i push like.One of the most significant and influential British bands ever! They poured out rythm and they became the front liners of their musical era.Pure talent and a unique and pioneering pop rock sound from both the Davies brothers and the whole band, coming from a poor family.They changed music..
Ray Davies is one of the greatest and prolific song writers of all time. He deserves much more recognition for his contribution to rock.
Yes Lex is right, it's the precursor of the metal. The original source: a riff
We used to sing this on the bus on trips and the driver did too! When school was fun and people weren't so touchy. 💜 This was the 80's so life was good.
Good Reaction Guys.
One of a zillion great groups to come out of London in The 1960s onwards....:)
5 years before Woodstock :)
There are soooo many great Kinks songs. Lola is their biggest hit, but also try: This Time Tomorrow, Sunny Afternoon, Wish I Could Fly Like Superman, Celluloid Heroes, Jack the Idiot Dunce, Waterloo Sunset, Muswell Hillbillies, etc.
1964 was pre-hippy era. I don't know that you can pick a date or even a year, but I have always considered the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival in Monterrey, Ca. as the the first Hippy concert.
Years ago (when I was young & at a party) and this song came = DANCE SONG == Grab a Girl and DANCE 😁😁😁😁😁😁
The first use of a distorted guitar in a rock song. The effect was produced by cutting into the walls of a speaker cone. It changed everything! Definitely ahead of its time.
All the 60s Kinks singles are magic , See My Friends , Tired Of Waiting , Dead End Street , heaps of others . 60s Who was also great .
I became familiar with this song only after Van Halen covered it in 1978 on their eponymous debut album. Oingo Boingo also covered it on their 1981 album Only a Lad.
What Dave Davies lead guitarist did was revolutionary at the time . He sliced his speaker with a razor blade to create that distorted guitar sound that changed the game. He was 17 years old at the time.
Dave Daviess, inventor of guitar distortion! He slashed the speaker cone on a cheap amplifier with a razor blade to get that sound.
My second favourite band of all time! So many classics
Check out the Van Halen version of this song that they play after Eruption on their first album. (Eruption/You Really Got Me Now) It's only the 2 minute version of Eruption that leads into You Really Got Me Now.
Loved this song as a kid. Van Halen's excellent 1978 cover blew my 12 year old mind!
Another great live band. Yes, I'm that old boys and girls. The Kinks are incredible
I remember my parents giving me a staking single record player when I was 6yrs old along with a waste paper basket full of singles that they had collected. I went through that pile of records and found this gem.
It has always been one of my favourite songs from the '60s and was probably the benchmark for all the music I got into growing up...,Which is why I'm such a huge Metalhead!
But what flavor is it Lex?? Love you guys and thanks for sharing!! You bring a smile to my day!
1964 was a little before the hippies, which was 1967...Very close...You look at the video of the Kinks in 1964 for the band uniforms.
This song came out the same year The Beatles exploded onto the American Music Scene; the Kinks were part of "The British Invasion." Just by listening, you can see how The Kinks probably had a greater influence on what happened to "Rock & Roll" over the next decade than The Beatles. The Beatles were unique, featured vocal harmonies that few succeeding bands were able to match. But The Kinks were able to produce that raw energy from guitar chords you can dance to at, starting a trend..
The Kinks were not just around in the 60's. They played and made many more hits into current years. Check out 'Come dancing' from the 80's. A few decades from this and still good.
This is the birth of hard rock right here. First record EVER to feature a distorted guitar sound. Dave Davies wanted to change the tone of his guitar on this so he took a razor blade to the speaker cone of his amp to make it sound this way. The rest was rock n roll history.
Love these guys
This was before us guitarists had fantastic outboard equipment to spice things up. They had wonderful tube amps but most were single channel and designed for clean guitar. Then the fuzz pedal was invented and everything changed and has continued changing.
One of the first records to introduce a form of distortion .e. Dave Davies sliced the speaker cone for that unique sound
1964 is before the hippies. They came around not too long after.
The Kinks have a lot of great tunes. Everyone will ask for "Lola" (from 1970, I think). "All Day and All of the Night" is another garage rock classic. "Sunny Afternoon", "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lazy Old Sun" are some favourites. "Come Dancing" is a bop from 1980.
This song came out at least three years before hippies were even a thing. This was right after the Beatles came to America for the first time. This is straight up British Invasion rock.
This and all day and the night
A masterpiece by one of the greatest bands of the sixties. This was a time when all your talent and creativity had to be compressed into 2 minutes and 50 seconds or less or NO RADIO PLAY. Do it and get out. That in itself is was an incredible challenge. And once again, Lex's intuition and insight is remarkable. To be the "kinks" in the sixties had to be incredibly kinky. Amen.
Issued in 1964 on Pye. Records also got the LP “You really got me “🇬🇧
Great reaction, This is the beginning of the 'distorted guitar' sound, (The guitar player cut the speaker in his amp with a knife) You should try, ("All of the day and all of the night" from the same era. "Give the people what they want" later kinks. "Come Dancing" for a little bit of fun. and "Lola")
A Well Respected Man is a must do song for reaction, yeah the Kinks have many great songs or picture book...do it, do it, do it, do it
They took razor blades to their speakers/amps to get that distorted/fuzz guitar sound! Plus they were the original band with the warring/hating brothers in. At 15 alongside Smells Like Teen Spirits, couple of Sex Pistols numbers, this and 'All day and all of the night', plus Enter Sandman, were the 5 songs my band played. The UK roots of indie, punk and metal here folks! This shit inspired, and will inspire, countless bands from here to infinity!
To put this song in context, five years earlier, the biggest songs were things like "Venus," by Frankie Avalon, or "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin, or anything by The Everly Brothers. When people thought about the genre that would become rock, they thought of stuff like Rock around the Clock, which is a long ways from this. Relatively speaking, to people back then, this would have sounded like punk did, to people in the 80's, who were coming out of disco.
"Lazing On A Sunny Afternoon" and "Waterloo Sunset" also by the Kinks are worthy of a listen
Supersonic ship by the kinks. Just found it and it's a chill vibe
I haven't seen it mentioned so i'll mention this; this is the very first recording of guitar distortion (there was previously 1 recording with a distorted bass called "Don't Worry" by Marty Robbins). If it was intentional is a matter of debate but Davies' amp speaker got slashed and that created that flubby distortion sound. The Rolling Stones achieved a similar effect when they accidentally plugged the guitar directly into the sound board instead of the amp on "Can't Get no Satisfaction" and then everyone from the Yardbirds to Jimi Hendrix chased that sound.
Songs were very simple in the 60's a catchy tune and amazing guitar riff or solo maybe an organ and it was all about love fun and dance, freedom being the main theme; they literally could make a catchy chorus the whole damn song!
Some songs you know are precursors to heavy rock. They aren't the fathers of heavy, rock but you know without them heavy rock would never have been born. The Kinks "You Really Got Me", is part of that evolution. Another track that is a part of that precursor lineage is The Kingsmen, "Louie Louie".
The reason it sounds so familiar to most people is Van Halen did a cover of it in 1978 on their debut album...so besides the mass coverage after the original in 1964, it was reborn again 14 years later in 1978. So it charted twice. Classic rock at its finest.......distortion on a guitar in 1964? they were ahead of their time!
Brilliant blast from the past
that guitar short solo is so perfect
This song is special because there is no distortion on the guitar, but the guitarist cut the membrane of the amplifier with a knife to get the distortion of sound
Great sounds great music great live
The KINKS had some songs that even today people are singing along to, often with amusing lyrics - you must have heard "Lola", for example.
Another band ofthe era would be "The Troggs", with "Wild Thing" - which you may alo have heard of?
Another great kinks song “Strangers” that you guys should check that out if you’re planning on doing them again ! Love your reactions guys!
Lola from them is my favorite
Part of the "British Invasion" of the mid 60's, I remember it well. The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five and dozens more great groups.
If you were to compare this song to every other song popular in 1964, this was the heavy metal/ grunge introduction. Ozzy Osborne said he was blown away by this song when he heard it.