album art

Artist:

The Kinks

Song:

Young And Innocent Days

Album: 

Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire

Year: 

1969
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About The Artist

Like most mid-1960s British rockers, the Kinks started out as an R&B group before they helped invent hard rock and ventured into sardonic,...
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  • Blur
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den | MEMORY FROM 1984

Cocaine & the Kinks

LOCATION: The Music Hall , Houston, TX

YEAR: 1984

TAGS: Concerts, Cocaine, Friends

PUBLISHED: January 9, 2008

I always preferred the Kinks to the Beatles and Stones. In my opinion they released three consecutive PERFECT records - Something Else by the Kinks (1967); The Village Green Preservation Society (1968); and Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969). Their next two were almost perfect, Lola vs. the Powerman and the Money-Go-Round (1970) and Muswell Hillbillies (1971). Quite a remarkable run. But I digress.

Like most 6th graders in 1983, I really got into them because of Come Dancing, their massive hit on State of Confusion. During this time I pretty much listened to their arena rock records, Give the People What They Want, Word of Mouth, and One For the Road. Imagine my excitement when my uncle offered to take my brother, cousin Paul, and me to see them live at the Houston Music Hall on the Word of Mouth tour in 1984.

Rock concerts were still new to me and I expected there to be widespread drug use at the show as was the cliche. (I still remember my friends sniffing a Rush concert t-shirt in 1982 thinking the pot smell was still potent enough to get a contact high).

Anyway, as our group made its way up the stairs to the balcony, my cousin and I noticed a white powdery substance on the hand rail. We looked at each other aghast shocked that somebody spilled their cocaine on the stairs! My uncle caught wind of our illicit find and calmly explained to us that it was merely coffee sweetener. I guess the crowd debauchery wasn't what we expected. But the Kinks were. They rocked!

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David said: NME just reported just Ray Davies has hinted at a Kinks reunion, but brother Dave wants nothing to do with it... (1/9/2008)

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