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Retro Spins: The Kinks - UK Jive

As the decade reached its final years, The Kinks released their 1987 live album, The Road. Unfortunately, it would prove to be yet another mainstream flop, causing MCA to start reconsidering the band's future. This was not helped when they ended the decade with 1989's UK Jive, which also failed to produce much success.

Even as sessions for the recording began, things weren't going as planned. Decades of touring had caused severe fatigue for keyboardist Ian Gibbons, causing him to drop out of the band. Though he would later return after their 1993 album, Phobia was released.

UK Jive would only chart in the USA, and at a very unrespectable one hundred twenty-two. It would further produce no hit singles, becoming the band's worst performing album since 1973's Preservation Act 1.

Say what you will, opening track, Aggravation is relatable on every level. Especially for me these days. Personally, I'm so over everything, and this track just really encapsulated all of that.

There were a handful of enjoyable tracks to be found on UK Jive, in addition to the album opener. For me, those were How Do I Get Close, What Are We Doing, Looney Balloon, Perfect Strangers, and War Is Over. The latter has a bit of a sixties vibe to it, territory the band is all too familiar with, having been around since their 1964 self-titled debut.

Admittedly, I was hoping for more based on how things turned around for its predecessor, 1986's Think Visual. Though I'm also not surprised considering the steady decline that I heard throughout their 80's discography. Still, I'm glad for what I did get out of their albums. There were at least a handful of decent tracks from each one, and I can take that as a win. I mean, it's not as bad as Martha And The Muffins...I'm never going to get over that one.

MCA was none to impressed with the album's performance and ended up dropping The Kinks after the its release. Shifting musical landscapes made it difficult for the band to find a new label, and while they would eventually sign with Columbia and release the above noted 1993 album, it would serve as their last. They'd continue on until their last performance in 1996 but hindered by continued commercial failure and ongoing tensions between members, they broke up formally the following year. To date they have not formally reunited for any shows. With surviving members in their late seventies and early eighties, it's doubtful that this will occur at this point.

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Retro Spins: The Kinks - Think Visual

After a brief hiatus, which you'll learn about in two days, I returned to The Kinks to hit their 1986 released Think Visual. With the steady decline I had been experiencing in their albums, I wasn't expecting much, but at least my head was cleared, and I was ready to get back into it.

Its release saw a continued steady decline in their overall mainstream popularity, with Think Visual only peaking at number eighty-one on the Billboard and failing to push enough units to achieve any certifications. As noted yesterday in my post on their 1984 released Word Of Mouth, that album actually included their last Billboard Hot 100 hit for the remainder of their career. As such, the album also doesn't offer any singles to expect.

With low expectations, I fired it up. While opener Working At The Factory felt basic in terms of instrumentation, the lyrics were what hooked me. Basically, it tells the story about how Davies fictionally worked in a factory in his youth, and found music, only to end up in a corporate factory churning out albums. This was followed by the decent Lost And Found.

However, from there, things went South fast. To the point that I started asking myself if perhaps the problem was that The Kinks were simply artistically bankrupt, with nothing further to really give to their albums. Then How Are You came on. Amazing song, and great music video to boot.

From there, the remainder of the album seemed to kick into overdrive, making up for the first half in droves. Think Visual (the song), Natural Gift, Killing Time, and When You Were A Child all punched hard. It kind of reinvigorated me for a band I had all but given up on at this point, and it does make me want to dive into their last release for the decade, 1989's UK Jive.

Before that wears off, let me get running over to that one. See you tomorrow.

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Retro Spins: The Kinks - Word Of Mouth

Today I'm heading into the album, Word Of Mouth. Mind you, not the 1981 album from Jaco Pastorius, nor the 1982 released record from Toni Basil. Instead, I'm talking about The Kink's Word Of Mouth from 1984. Which one is the better of the three that share the same name? Well, I've not heard Pastorius's, nor does it appear to have any Billboard hits from it. Whereas Basil's has the iconic Mickey. Granted, that's no masterpiece by any means. So, I suppose The Kink's have a solid chance to blow it out of the water.

Let's find out, shall we?

As recording for the album began, tensions between Dave Davies and Mick Avory came to a head. The two had gone through numerous clashes since 1965, and after twenty years, the drummer had finally had enough. Avory packed up and left The Kinks. However, he wouldn't sever his ties completely. Instead, he'd take on management duties of Ray Davies Konk Studios. Bob Henrit would step in to take over his role in the band.

In terms of their career as a whole, The Kinks were not known for releasing mass appeal albums that moved enough units to reach sales certifications. However, they had managed to become Platinum and gold selling artists with 1979's Low Budget, 1981's Give The People What They Want, and 1983's State Of Confusion. This would end with 1984's Word Of Mouth, which achieved no sales status. This in turn didn't give me high hopes.

Things are certainly off to a solid start with Do It Again, the bands last single to reach the Billboard Hot 100. Though the title track, which follows, is skippable, Good Day picks up the ball and starts running with it again. However, this wouldn't last.

I actually found myself losing complete interest in Word Of Mouth, virtually tuning it out as I focused on other things. The album features the highly touted hit, Living On A Thin Line, but candidly, it didn't even register for me when it came around. As such, I did actually go back to replay this one. It was okay, but I don't find it to be a masterpiece by any means.

In general, I just don't hear anything deep from The Kinks, such as what came from its predecessors. Instead, this is just filled with generic pop rock. Even when I wanted to say there were tracks that were okay, such as Guilty, and Too Hot, the truth of the matter is that they're relatively forgettable in the long run.

I hate to say it, but I think Toni Basil's Word Of Mouth may be the superior of all three shared titles. Not because her music is amazing by any means, but rather because it manages to have a timeless and iconic hit that will never get old.

Prior to moving into their next studio album, Ray Davies opted to broaden his horizons, writing and directing the British made for television movie, Return To Waterloo, featuring Tim Roth, Kenneth Colley, and Claire Parker. The subsequent soundtrack was intended to be the next Kinks album, but when brother Dave Davies refused to participate, Ray opted to release it as a solo project, despite all the other members of the band contributing to it.

Instead, the next full band album would be 1986's Think Visual. That's where I pick up tomorrow. Hopefully, things pick back up. Cause this one was a relative dud.

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Retro Spins: The Kinks - State Of Confusion

When their hit, Come Dancing landed on the charts in May 1983, one couldn't listen to Casey Kasem's Weekly Top Forty without hearing it. I mean, it was on their for seventeen weeks. It was here that I first got exposed to it, and candidly, I wasn't a fan. As such, it's ironic that when I started building my 80's collection that the subsequent album, State Of Confusion landed on my want list. It's odder that I took the plunge because it was a rather pricy used CD, though I suppose 2020 offered a lot of us the opportunity to waste money than we normally would have during a period of house arrest.

Sometime later I would hear the tune Destroyer from their 1981 released, Give The People What They Want. It's mixture of previous Kink hits into a new song really intrigued me, and soon that album made it to my want list as well. However, once again, price was a deterrent. As such, it would be 1984's Word Of Mouth which would get added to my collection in October of 2022, mainly because I found it at a used CD shop and opted to grab it. Otherwise, the purchase wouldn't have happened.

Three months later, in January 2023, I finally grabbed the album with Destroyer, and in my mind, I was kind of done with grabbing albums from the band, especially since I still hadn't listened to any of them. Of course, as it often is the case, I didn't stick with this. While perusing around a used CD shop in November of 2025, I came across a stack of albums from them that someone had turned in. Among them were their final two albums of the decade, 1986's Think Visual, and 1989's UK Jive. Also there was their 1987 live album, The Road, and of course, to add insult to injury, a much cheaper copy of State Of Confusion. With exception of the latter, I picked them all up, and that's the story of how I completed the entire 80's studio discography of The Kinks

Playing through State Of Confusion, it's not as enjoyable as Give The People What They Want. It's noted by Ray Davies as a period of turmoil for the band, represented on the cover with everyone running in different directions, and perhaps this is what leads to a noticeably weaker album from its predecessor.

Things kick off with the title track, and it certainly sets a solid tone for things to come. From there, it's a mish mash of "good" versus "not so good". I only found a handful of actual shuffle worthy tunes, which included Definite Maybe, Property, and Clichés of the World (B Movie).

I can appreciate Come Dancing more knowing the history of the song, and the story behind it. However, it still remains just okay in my book. Still, had it not been for the song, and an itch to add it to my collection, I can acknowledge that I probably wouldn't have gone further down The Kinks rabbit hole. So, in that regard, it turned out to be a positive gateway to a broader world.

The album would be the last from the band to reach a sales certification, going gold in Canada. Come Dancing would peak on the Billboard at number six, and be followed by the minor hit, Don't Forget To Dance, which landed at number twenty-nine. However, it would ironically be the track Long Distance, which only appeared on the cassette version that critics would frequently reference favorably.

Side Note: There are actually two tracks that appear on the cassette version, which were not included on the vinyl or CD releases. Those were the above noted Long Distance, and Noise.

As for me, I'm still intrigued enough by the band that I'm eager to keep going through their albums. That puts my next stop at 1984's Word Of Mouth, which I'll dive into tomorrow.

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Retro Spins: The Kinks - Give the People What They Want

What do I know about The Kinks? Let's see...They sang You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night, Lola, and Come Dancing. Then I came across a song a few years back that took the first three of those, and combined them into Destroyer.

By 1981's Give The People What They Want, the band had already been around for fifteen plus years, having released nineteen albums between 1964 and 1979. Their storied legacy is one the fans take very seriously, so as a newcomer, I won't tread on that ground. Instead, I'll just jump in at my starting point of the 80's.

This isn't the first album from The Kinks I purchased, but I am glad that I get to start from the beginning of the decade, and go through them all in order. It will give me the chance to ebb and flow with the band's transitioning phases throughout the era.

With only Destroyer being familiar to me, I really didn't know what to expect. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a punk album. Turns out, I don't know anything about The Kinks, as this was nowhere near close.

Instead, Give The People What They Want is all hard rock / power pop goodness, and I do mean good. There were only about two tracks that I didn't particularly care for, keeping this one from as near perfect as one could get. Tracks Around The Dial, Give The People What They Want, Killer's Eyes, Predictable, Add It Up, Destroyer, Yo-Yo, Art Lover, and A Little Bit Of Abuse each had their own unique sound, yet somehow cohesively worked together to craft a near masterpiece.

My anticipation for their next record, and expectations of it are way up at this point. I'm on the cusp of yielding to being a new fan of their work. Now 1983's State Of Confusion just has to deliver. Check back tomorrow to see how it all went.

In closing, here are some behind the scenes outtakes from Star Wars.

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Christmas Catalogs - JCPenny 1978

Hey! You want to spend the next two years looking at the fantastic Christmas catalogs produced by Sears, JCPenny, and Montgomery Ward? Cause I do! Yeah, I said two years, cause that's a lot of catalogs! Join me on most Monday's each month as I post up one of those fabulous books starting with 1970, and ending with 1989.

Look through every page, feeling every bit of nostalgia. Chuckle at the look and style of the wardrobes those zanny past decade people wore. Gawk at the toys you used to have, but long since parted ways with. Bring back all those memories of hours spent laying on the floor, combing every inch as your young mind pined over everything you wanted. Reminisce over the Christmas that followed as you unwrapped those lucky few that you got.

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