Disco de The Kinks: “Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1 [Bonus Tracks]”

Ray has always managed to turn personal disaster into potent musical poetry. Having mined his own nervous break down and jealousy of brother Dave for classic material, he spun his bitterness at the music industry, the experience of endless touring and his close encounter with a transsexual into music gold.

The playing is sharp throughout but the demo version of Apeman demonstrated that some of the best material never made it to LP. Dave's guitar solo gives the song bite and it's actually superior to the album version. Originally released on a single in Europe, this version of Apeman hasn't been heard in the US before.

Dave contributes two strong tracks with Strangers every bit the equal of Ray's best material on the album. After Lola the band's albums would show a sharp decline in quality. Both Everybody's in Showbiz and Muswell Hillbillies have their moments equal to the best the band ever produced, but both are inconsistent.

The mastering is an improvement here over some of the other Castle reissues (particularly Something Else) but not quite as good as the Japanese import released in 2000.

Side A is the best side to any Kinks album, and taken together the two sides rank it among the best rock and roll albums ever. "Lola" is perfect -- the riff, the chorus, but also the teasing ambiguity of the lyric, its double entendres capturing the essence of the subject matter. But then "Lola" is followed by "Top of the Pops", without doubt the funniest great three-chord rocker ever, and it's surrounded by a lot of other superb songs in a wide variety of styles, from Dave's obligatory hard rockers, to calypso ("Apeman"), to English music hall ("Denmark Street" and "Money-Go-Round"), and even the country-folk sound later explored in "Muswell Hillbillies" ("Intro" and "Got to be Free"). The pacing of the track selection, especially on side A, is particularly satisfying.

There's a hint of a storyline (poor young man comes to big city and, after struggling as a day laborer, finds unexpected success as rock singer, only to find it doesn't solve life's problems), which is clearer than the story behind "Arthur" but not nearly as intrusive as that of "Preservation" or even "Schoolboys in Disgrace". And it's very, very funny -- how many rock and roll albums can you say that about?

I own every single studio album that The Kinks ever made, and I would have to say that this album is my absolute favorite ("Think Visual" follows a close second).

So...what's so darn good about this album? Practically everything! You want some nice pretty melodic ballads? Check out "Get Back In Line" and "A Long Way From Home". You want some out and out raucous heavy metal tunes? Listen to "Rats" and "Powerman". You want a nice, fun calypso tune? Listen to "Apeman", one of the funniest songs Ray Davies ever wrote. The country and bluegrass like guitar playing on "The Contenders" and "Got To Be Free" pointed the way toward their next album Muswell Hillbillies. And if acoustic folk is your cup of tea, then there's "This Time Tomorrow".

LOLA may be Ray Davies and The Kinks at their most angry. Throughout the album, Ray rants and raves about the music business and how bad he's been ripped off by his publishers. For "The Moneygoround", another hilarious song, Ray actually mentions the names of people who have ripped him off. If he REALLY wanted to be nasty, he would have given out their addresses and phone numbers as well! Even Dave gets in on the act, with the aforementioned "Rats". Speaking of Dave, this song and the wonderful ballad "Strangers" may be the two best songs he has ever written..at least in my not so humble opinion.

Elsewhere, Ray speaks of how "people want you when your record's hot, but when it drops down they just pass you by" in the crunch rocker "Top Of The Pops", which is another favorite tune of mine from this album. There are some very catchy and way cool guitar riffs on this song. And..I can't talk about this album without mentioning our dear friend "Lola", which became The Kinks' biggest hit in the U.S. in many a year. What more can be said about this enjoyable tune that hasn't been said before, except that it is a fun, upbeat song about a transvestite that you just can't get out of your noggin! The only tune on the album that I can live without is "Denmark Street". Both lyrically and musically, I find this a rather unappealing tune.

But golly...only one bad song on the whole album? That's mighty good for this band! This is a great album and it has not dated one bit. A must have for Kinks' fans...at least for this one!

Most of the album "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround" deals the cynicism of the music-business; as always there is a good portion of humour in Ray Davies` lyrics.

My favourites on this album though, are amongs the songs that do not directly refer to the music business.

"Get Back in the Line" is outstanding - I`ll never forget my delight when the band played the song in Viborg ( Denmark ) back in 1974. Other favourites are "This Time Tomorrow", "A Long Way From Home" and Dave`s "Strangers".

And of course the two hits "Lola" and "Apeman"

Unfortunately there are only 3 bonus-tracks here. The single versions of "Lola" and "Apeman" ( rougher Danish single release) are logic additions, but it would have been nice if there had been some previously unreleased tracks, or some from "The Great Lost Kinks Album".

As an avid Kinks fan, I can say that this is one of the bands best pieces of work. Musically very different from ARTHUR, this album blends very well and every song is entertaining. From the deliciously scathing DENMARK STREET to the gentle A LONG WAY FROM HOME and of course LOLA her(or HIM?)self. This album is a vicious attack on the pretentious pop machine that in just five or six short years after this album would bring on (AAAGH!) disco. STRANGERS (definately one of Dave's more poignant compositions) helps distinguish the album's friends from its enemies. Like VILLAGE GREEN, LOLA is a must-have for any Kinks fan, and if you don't know a lot about the Kinks, this disc is a good introduction.