Question I had
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Topic: Question I had
Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Subject: Question I had
Date Posted: June 27 2008 at 19:23
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Both are legendary song writers from two of the leading British invasion bands of the 60's. In my opinion one is criminally underrated and the other criminally overrated.
I take Ray Davies by a long shot. Aside from Ringo I've always felt Lennon to be the weakest of the Beatles members. Davies has such a great ear for melody, exceptional voice to tell a story, and really rather innovative doing many things the Beatles would do a few years later. Wondering how big of a blow out this will be. ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Replies:
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: June 27 2008 at 19:50
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can't vote - rate them as equal. ------------- What? |
Posted By: BroSpence
Date Posted: June 28 2008 at 19:23
| Welll if we're talking Beatles vs. Kinks time I might say Ray, but since its their names only I take solo careers into account and thus voted for Lennon as he had quite a few great solo albums, while Ray hasn't put out much and they have been alright. I liked the Other People's Stories or whatever the actual title was, but it didn't grab my ears in a way that Plastic Ono Band, or Imagine do. |
Posted By: febus
Date Posted: June 28 2008 at 21:15
Quite a strong statement you got here! Lennon the weakest link??
I would say Ray Davis never had the luxury and chance to work in tandem with Paul McCartney who was the perfect complement...and competition to Lennon, pushing each other limits ,thus bringing us masterpieces after masterpieces.
Ray Davis on the other hand was the sole composer of the Kinks, except the very occasional song penned by little bro' Dave and considering the huge amount of work produced by them in the sixties and seventies, we can say Ray Davis was maybe more productive than J. Lennon.and for sure was very talented as well. I do own a lot of CDs from the Kinks going from Preservation Society to Sleepwalker....and yes some of them are excellent like Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody's ...and some very average (remember Schools boys In Disgrace).....but that's the norm for every artist.
One point for you: J. Lennon (and Sir PaulMc) were never as good in their solo careers as when they were working together besides the occasional good album or song here and there.
Ray Davies knew (knows?) how to write wonderful melodies, lyrics, was not afraid to go sometimes overboard or being ambitious depending how you feel about it(Preservation part2 !!) .
Lennon had the magical touch to create powerful magnificent songs like Strawberry Fields, I am The Walrus, She is so heavy for example, but yes he knew Paul was around to fill up the other half of the album they were recording, so maybe he had less to compose than Ray, but he had to be brilliant as Paul would come up with brillant songs as well.....................not the same working environment !
So let's be nice to everybody and vote for a tie
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Equality 7-2521 wrote:Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: June 29 2008 at 12:49
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I don't like John Lennon's songs except for a few exceptions. I don't like his singing except for a few exceptional songs. And I find his solo work to be deplorable. So I think Lennon was the weakest link besides poor Ringo.
On another note I think Schoolboy's is easily a 4 star album. ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: debrewguy
Date Posted: June 29 2008 at 17:26
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Please take the following with a grain of salt, as it is not my own opinion, but one that I read when I building my Kinks collection - Basically, the idea was that while Davies belongs to the rock pantheon as lyricist, his musical palette was very limited compared to most others. Compared to Lennon, and this includes their entire careers, band & solo, Lennon went through a number of styles and genres. Davies never or rarely went into much outside pop & standard rock arrangements. Maybe that's why he so often, and undeservedly overlooked. ------------- "Here I am talking to some of the smartest people in the world and I didn't even notice,” Lieutenant Columbo, episode The Bye-Bye Sky-High I.Q. Murder Case. |