Track Listing

1. The Contenders
2. Strangers
3. Denmark Street
4. Get Back In The Line
5. Lola
6. Top of the Pops
7. The Moneygoround
8. This Time Tomorrow
9. A Long Way From Home
10. Rats
11. Apeman
12. Powerman
13. Got To Be Free
14. Lola
15. Apeman
16. Powerman

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6993 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 52 minutes

CD Description
This 1970 album serves as the final installment in the Kinks' string of '60s masterpieces. In an age when most rockers were capitalizing on the new sound inspired by The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER, Ray Davies and the Kinks were looking back in time for musical inspiration on records like ARTHUR and VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY. Mixing classic rock & roll, blues, American country, and English dance hall music, The Kinks were ahead of and behind the times all at once. LOLA VERSUS POWERMAN AND THE MONEY-GO-ROUND merges some of Davies's highbrow stylistic concepts with the edgier rock & roll of the band's early years on some of the finest songs of the group's career.
The 14-track disc features the irresistible radio hits "Lola" and "Apeman"--the first a confused love song to a transvestite, the second a tongue-in-cheek celebration of primitivism. Both songs have rightfully become part ofthe rock song canon. Equally impressive are Ray Davies's countryish ballad "Denmark Street", the edgier "Get Back In Line", and music industry satire "Top of the Pops". Guitarist Dave Davies also contributes one of his most beautiful songs, the delicate "Strangers". The Kinks were among the all-time masters of the smartly crafted, idiosyncratic pop song. LOLA VERSUS POWERMAN AND THE MONEY-GO-ROUND is a great collection, ranking just behind their brightest moments in the '60s.

Customer Reviews

Strangers on this road we are on, we are not two we are one.
This 1970 release includes the Kink's most popular hit, the trannny-date anthem 'Lola'. Seeing Ray Davies,O.B.E, perform this song at the Queen's Golden Jubilee, with thousands of Brits of all ages and classes singing along, showed how gracefully the song and the writer (and the country) had weathered the previous twenty-five years.

This album is one of their finest, and continues the 'concept-album' themes of 'Arthur', 'Village Green', 'Something Else' and 'Face To Face', i.e. life in late 20th century England interpreted by Ray and Dave Davies and band. 'Lola Vs. the Powerman' is also more biographical and self-referential than any Kinks album before or since.

Many of the the songs are pointed satirical ditties about the the greed and corrruption inside the British pop music machine-'Denmark Street', 'Money-Go-Round', 'Top of The Pops'- and the rest are loosely related to that world- life on the road, the problems and alienation that come with too much money and fame.

The album's more modest hit single 'Apeman', and the Dave Davies penned and sung proto-punk raver 'Rats' are about escaping from a polluted and over-crowded industrialized world, among other things. These two strong songs highlight the different styles and talents of the Davies brothers.

But it's the low-key, almost folky songs like 'The Contenders', 'Strangers', 'This Time Tomorrow' and 'A Long Way From Home' that are most affecting. They don't rock like 'Lola' or 'Victoria' but have some typically lovely Kinks melodies. The lyrics seem to be as much about Ray and Dave's difficult sibling/musical rivalry as they are about relationship problems in general.

The production sounds relaxed, not over-produced or fussy. As on 'Arthur', we hear a rock group, well practiced for years and probably playing 'live' in the studio, assisted at just the right moments by a banjo or a silver band or a marimba, or the occasional sound effect. The total is less complex than 'Village Green', more open and varied than 'Arthur'. The banjo intro to the first song returns near the end of the album and ties it together nicely.

Of course, with the Kinks or any other great rock band, it's the passion and energy in the singing and playing that counts. That sound comes through on this album, clearer than ever, seven years into their long career.

The latest remastered version seems fine, with three bonus tracks- the single version of 'Lola' plus nearly complete sounding demos for 'Apeman' and 'Powerman'. You don't need those extras too much, but you do need to get a copy quick, before it goes missing again. And did Dave Davies get HIS O.B.E. yet?

Kink Klassic
Another slab of brilliance from Ray, Dave Davies and co. The paradoxical and contradictory nature of mankind has never been written about better (by any philosopher or intellectual heavyweight) or understood (as much as it is possible to do)more so, than Ray Davies. The very nature of this album is contradictory and i'm sure the irony of this has not been lost on Mr Davies himself. It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world............indeed it is. Buy and cherish this.Genius.

The Music-Go-Round
This has become one of my favourite Kinks-albums. Kind of growing with myself into senior maturity. It's simply lyrics and music. Not any kind of fashion, sound, hype, flash and so on, but art in the way rock is at its best.
And the main thing is, that a Dane like me finds the incredible Ray Davies not only a viewer of life in Britain, but even better just people.
And the band is perfect. "This time tomorrow" is the key song. I've had this album in my car for months, and I've never got bored...