Re: covers in general

[mleaman@.sccoast.net (Mark Leaman)]

>>(which is no more than The Kinks did to The
>> > Beatles with their version of Long Tall Sally, their first single). You
>
>There's a big difference--neither the Beatles nor the Kinks wrote "Long Tall
>Sally".  You might want to use a different analogy...

Mike:
The analogy is perfect. The point being that The Kinks (who did the Beatles
version rather than the Little Richard version) were copying a popular band
to get into the charts. Ditto with The Who. On the BBC interviews, Townshend
said that he wrote I Can't Explain to get noticed, and Anyway Anywhere
Anywhere was the song that accurately reflected their "sound."

>
>}> > could say the same about Polly being lifted from Happy Jack...
>}> 
>}> Polly = Happy Jack?  I have to listen to Polly again.  In Marsh's
>}> "Before I Get Old" book he mentions Pete's two upward key changes in
>}> My Generation being "pinched" from the Kinks.  There is nothing
>}> wrong with any of this, it's just that Pete did build on the Kinks
>}> early singles and made them better.  
>
>That is most definitely a matter of opinion, which I do NOT share.  In my
>opinion, neither "I Can't Explain" nor "My Generation" had anywhere *near*
>the influence that "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night"
>had on rock music.  It's an easily supported case that the Kinks, with
>those two singles, "invented" hard rock.  (You know, guitar-based, heavy
>chorded fuzz-box-turn-it-up-loud-thrash-punk unh-unh-unh-unh...  But I
>digress. :-)  As much as I like MG & ICE (and I do, I do), I don't think
>either of them are better than YRGM and ADAAOTN.  As far as I can recall,
>neither of the Who singles made as much impact as the two Kinks hits, not
>in North America, anyway.  For anyone who was listening to their transistor
>radios back then, if they were like me, those first awesome chords of "You
>Really Got Me" and/or "All Day and All of the Night" were truly eye-opening
>and mind-blowing...

I don't know that I can agree with that, either. The Who didn't "improve" on
The Kinks sound, they went in an entirely different direction. The Kinks
didn't change the structure of their songs until much later, and The Who
were changing the very face of Rock music from the first album. The Kinks
(like The Stones) stayed pretty much in the Blues-based British Rock until
`66. AFTER, I should point out, MY GEN was released.
The Kinks might have invented Hard Rock, but if so The Who invented Heavy
Metal & Punk & Alternative.
As for any of the songs being "better," that's a matter of opinion and isn't
really an argument. If I get more jazzed listening to I Can't Explain (which
is far superior to You Really Got Me as far as structure goes), that's me.
ADAAOTN is a recycled You Really Got Me, and so is Till The End Of The Day &
Set Me Free & I Need You & so on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Kinks fan. I think Davies' best writing came
later, though.
       Cheers                         ML