Five Faves From the Kinkdom

"You Can't Win," The Kink Kontroversy

I love the intro. It's kind of misleading in a way; the song seems to take a different direction after that. Mick Avory's pounding drums with the deceptively simple Dave Davies vamp just does something to me every time I hear it. If you listen close, there is a piano chugging in the background, pushing it along, which makes the pace seem faster than it actually is. One of our all-time favorites.

"Everybody's Gonna Be Happy," Kinda Kinks

Just a perfect dance song. A great rave-up with a beat that is totally different from anything around that time.

"I Gotta Move," Kinks

I love the way this song progresses so simply. The great riff by Dave, sort of familiar but done in his special way. I love the ending on this song. The Kinks did that really well on other songs as well, building the intensity at the end but very subtly.

"Two Sisters," Something Else

Kind of an oddball from an album that took awhile to grow on me. It's about a sibling rivalry, and it's a sad song but has this sense of humor in the lyrics that props it up the whole time.

"Cadillac," Kinks: BBC Sessions 1964-1977

Not the album version [1964's Kinks] but the recording they did for the BBC Sessions. It's much heavier and has this really big reverb. It sounds so menacing, even though it's just a song about one of Bo Diddley's impulse buys. The Kinks did this kind of homage/cover better than any of their contemporaries. A lot of bands were padding their albums with covers, but the Kinks had a way of playing other people's music that kicked the others' asses.