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Duo Session: Tired of Waiting for You.
Well in honor of MLTs stellar Duo Session cover of the Kinks “Tired of Waiting For You” that I can’t get of enough of, here is more about that song…
So it was last year some time I walked into this used record shop, in a small fishing port in the outskirts of Vancouver BC, and as I wandered around in the store looking at all those wonderful vinyls from yester year, “Tired of Waiting For You” comes on in the store stereo, and man I was instantly zoned and transported back to my teenage years in high school when I use to listen to the Kinks greatest hits cassette. I literally haven’t heard that song in decades, and when I heard it, I experienced the power of music! It’s melodic sound captivates and hypnotizes and the song lingers in my head for a long time. What a powerful song. Since then it moved up to be one of my favorite 60’s rock and roll songs! Mona and Lisa’s Duo Session acoustic version elevated it even further for me with the addition of their harmonies that the song was missing. Ray Davies is really effective with his vocals, but Mona and Lisa adds another dimension to that song, and love their crisp and intricately sounding guitar riffs. Just like in “You Really Got Me” studio cover, Mona’s lead vocal can rock it with the best of them, just awesome! By the way, that same day in that store I found an original 1965 cut vinyl of the Beatles “Rubber Soul”, so all around it was a fabulous day!
The Kinks In 1965, after their huge success with their first big hits “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night” that both hit #1 in the UK and peaked at #7 in the US charts, for their next single the Kinks were uninterested in going back to that same formula a 3rd time for risk of wearing out their welcome, so they needed a song with more substance and ambition. Tired of Waiting for You was that song, and was written before You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night. They pulled this song out and revamped it, adding in some heavy sounding guitar riffs to give it a more cutting and emotional edge. Ray Davies said of the song, “It was a change of style for us, we got a bit posher! Our material started to get a bit more melodic after that.” In the US “Tired of Waiting for You” would become the Kinks’ highest-charting hit at #6 (hitting #1 in the UK), beating both “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night” by a single spot, and tying with 1982’s “Come Dancing.”
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5 Replies
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Hi Howard;
The Kinks are my 2nd favorite invasion group. They did such strange and varied songs: Along with the three or so that you mentioned other songs of theirs that I really liked were: Sunny Afternoon, A Well Respected Man, and Lola. I don’t think we will ever get the true story about Lola. Some say one of the Kinks’ hangers-on bumped into Lola at a bar…..others say it was Ray who bumped into Lola. Still Lola is likely my favorite song from the Kinks because at the time it was a risky song. In the states it was only played at night and on FM stations when it was released. Mike.
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Hi Mike. This is not my Topic, but I have mentioned many Kinks songs, particularly in my Topic: ‘MLT – Cover Requests’, as follows, for example:
“Tired of Waiting for You would be nice but my preferred MLT cover would be for “Waterloo Sunset”, “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” or “Sunny Afternoon” (in their “Daydream” style perhaps).
I have also referred to the following. Lazy Sunday, Death of a Clown (Dave Davies), Days, Where Have All The Good Times Gone, A Well Respected Man,”These are not the only Kinks songs I like of course. There are far to many to list here.
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Mike, yes Lola is another great one of theirs. I remember everyone was listening to it in the 70’s when it came out.
Howard, it’s too bad the Kinks were banned from performing in the US for 4 years. This happened shortly after their huge success with their 3rd big hit, Tired of Waiting For You. I’ve heard some speculate they might have risen to the heights of the Rolling Stones and the Who in the US as one of the big British Invasion bands if that didn’t happen.
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Hi Howard and Jung;
Many apologies!! I guess I was hopping from topic to topic when I responded above and lost track of who was talking about the Kinks.
That aside……the Kinks are my 2nd favorite from across the pond. I like the chances they take.
Mike
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Kinks Rock… Lola I remember well… My 2nd oldest bro had Kinks stuff cranked sometimes… I dig his music tastes… Similar to mine?
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