Your Saturday Evening Open Thread & Musical Retrospective

Hi everyone,

It’s 2019, and my first Saturday evening post of the year. Last year, I tried each week to feature a song with the words “Saturday”, “Sunday” or “Weekend”. What I want to do this year is keep things equally light & interesting – especially considering the games tomorrow – and just focus each week on music & comedy that I enjoy.

[BTW, if anyone wants to take over a weekend & program their own posts, I’m all for it. Just let me know.]

For the opening post of the offseason, I’m going to recommend my favourite act from across the pond: The Kinks.

The most underappreciated of the initial “British Invasion” bands (the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, and the Animals), the Kinks were the original “battling brothers” band, with their internal feuding & behaviour leading to a confrontation with the American Federation of Musicians & US touring ban from 1965-69.

The touring ban forced Ray & Dave Davies to focus on their songwriting & musicianship to sell albums, and the period 1965-72 (when they resumed US tours) produced arguably their best albums – Face to Face (1966), Something Else by The Kinks (1967), The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968), Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970), and Muswell Hillbillies (1971).

They will always be remembered for “inventing” the rock & roll riff, with “You Really Got Me”.

The 1980s brought them a second wave of popularity, especially after some of their songs were covered by bands like Van Halen, the Jam, the Knack, and the Pretenders (it helped Ray was with Chrissie Hynde at the time). They returned to their rock roots with the albums Low Budget (1979), Give the People What They Want (1981), State of Confusion (1983), and Word of Mouth (1984), with “Come Dancing” being their highest-charting song since the 1960s.

They went into commercial decline after 1986, and essentially broke up in 1996. When they aren’t fighting, the brothers will occasionally reunite for a show or two, and every five years or so there will be talk of a reunion tour. Talk of this resumed this past summer, when the brothers reunited with original drummer Mick Avory and confirmed they are working on an album of new material.

My first concert was their “State of Confusion” tour in 1983. I’ve seen every tour since, and I was at the last Ray Davies show in Vancouver in July 2012, and will pay any amount of money to see the reunion tour. [FYI – tickets for “The Who: Moving On” tour went on sale here today, starting at $105 (incl. fees). I paid $30 to see them in 1989, and there were three of them that time; I’m not paying 300% more to watch the oldest two still alive.]

Included as a final song – “Celluloid Heroes”, which is beautiful beyond words.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Flyers at Habs – 7:00PM | CBC
  • Jets at Stars – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Sens at Blues – 7:00PM | City
  • Rangers at Bruins – 7:00Pm | NHLN
  • Flames at Oilers – 10:00PM | CBC
• NBA:
  • Grizzlies at Raptors – 7:30PM | Sportsnet1
  • Lakers at Rockets – 8:30PM | ABC / TSN2
• NCAA:
  • Football:
    • NFLPA Collegiate Bowl: From Pasadena, Cal. – 5:00PM | FS1
  • Basketball: selected games
    • Virginia at Duke – 6:00PM | ESPN / TSN2
    • Texas Tech at Baylor – 6:00PM | ESPN2
    • Massachusetts at VCU – 6:30PM | NBCSN
    • DePaul at Seton Hall – 8:00PM | FS1
    • Air Force at Nevada – 10:00PM | ESPNU
• UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw – From Brooklyn
  • Prelims – 8:00PM | ESPN / TSN5
  • Main – 10:00PM | ESPN / TSN5

Good luck enjoying the games tomorrow. PRAY FOR ANDY REID’S CLOCK MANAGEMENT!