I like The Kinks. All I own is a greatest hits cd called The Story of the Kinks plus a few other mp3s but I'd like to hear more. I was thinking of starting with The Villiage Green Preservation Society because I've heard that it's one of their best. If anyone has a better suggestion as to where to start I'd appreciate it.

I only have a live cd, its pretty good

I've always thought that the Kinks were different from other bands in that their "greatest hits" belie their actual contribution to the world of music. For most bands you can take their best hits and those hits would fairly represent the particular artist. Not so with the Kinks - songs like "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All Night" do not exemplify the Kinks sound at all. The importance of the Kinks is not in their hits but in their entirety if their enormous body of work. Except for some of their late 70's work, nearly every song adds a meticulous detail to the work of art Davies was creating.
For the Kinks their true "greatest hits" would be whichever particular songs connect with you the most, as their are many many valid candidates.


VGPS is a fantastic album, and I think it's their second best. However, I believe the best AND most representative album of the Kinks would be "Arthur and the Decline of the British Empire". The songs "Arthur" and "Shangri-La" are amazing songs off of that album.

Well, I'm sorry to say, but all I have is the Ultimate Collection which is a two CD set. It has 44 total songs, most of which I enjoy greatly. I know it probably doesn't give a full account of their contribution to the music world, but it's pretty damn good. They're definately in my top ten. Looking forward to getting more of their stuff one I get some money.

I was thinking of getting their greatest hits album, it's black and white on the cover and it's double cd. I don't remember the exact name but it would be a hell of a lot better than the one I've got, cos the one I have just isn't thorough enough...

I know which one you're talking about. Every time I go into a cd store they'll have eight copies of that greatest hits album and absolutely no studio albums. I annoys the hell out of me because I hate buying stuff off the intrawebnet thingy, and that's my only other option.

That's what I've read on about 3 or 4 different music review sites, which is why I'm so anxious to get some of their studio albums.

Is that really your only other option? We order all of our CD's in, because we often look out for the rare ones these days. The guy in the CD shop we go to all the time knows us well and he even ordered an album by somebody, in from Germany, for my Mum.

Yeah, I can order them too, but the last time I did that it didn't go well. They charged me an extra two bucks (which seems kind of bullshit, looking back on it) and then they told me it would be there in two weeks. It ended up taking two months.

great band. probably among my top 20 bands