Counting down the Kinks 15 greatest songs

6. “You Really Got Me” (1964)

It was not exactly easy for me to rank songs 7-15, but I have to say, when I got to the final six, it was virtually impossible. If you ask me to rank them an hour from now, I might come up with a completely different order.

But for now, I am putting what may be their best-known and most influential single at number six. It’s from their debut album and it is almost hidden at the end of side one. If you didn’t listen all the way through, you missed the revolution. Dave’s power chords, which kick the song into gear, are equal parts simple and explosive. Anyone could play them.

Ray’s lyrics are also simple, not even hinting at where he might go down the road. Yet in just over two minutes, the Kinks planted seeds for punk, metal, and the hard rock & roll that would come to the fore by the end of the decade. As a song, I have it at six, but if we are going strictly by influence, it’s number 1.

5. “Victoria” (1969)

Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire is another awkwardly-titled brilliant concept album from the band’s most prolific period. And the opening track “Victoria” was as good a combination of upbeat, happy rock and roll with sarcastically witty lyrics as you will find.

Ray’s nostalgia is tempered by a recognition of the limitations of the past. “Long ago, life was clean – Sex was bad, called obscene – And the rich were so mean.” Fifteen words that encapsulate the past with economy and precision. In Victoria, Ray found the perfect symbol of an England of legend, and in “Victoria” he set it all to the catchiest of melodies.

By the end, a brass band shows up to ground things in the past while Dave’s guitar keeps a foot firmly planted in the present. It may be the band’s finest balance of old and new.

4. “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” (1966)

Many of the Kinks’ best songs do in fact achieve a balance. A balance of old and new. Sarcasm and sentiment. But there are times when Ray Davies throws all that out the window. Such was the case with “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” released as a non-album single in 1966.

Ray is snarky and condescending in his takedown of the fey, fashion-obsessed society that occupied London in the swinging sixties. Dave begins strumming some chords that might lead to a rock ballad. But they don’t.

Instead, we get Ray’s overly enunciated introduction “They seek him here – They seek him there – His clothes are loud – But never square – It will make or break him so he’s got to buy the best – ‘Cause he’s a dedicated follower of fashion.” There really weren’t many rock & roll songs about this particular subject in 1966.

Maybe the Capitols “Cool Jerk,” released the same year. But it didn’t have anything approaching the lyrical sharpness of Ray’s “They seek him here – They seek him there – In Regent Street – And Leicester Square – Everywhere the Carnabetian army marches on – Each one a dedicated follower of fashion.”