Saturday, August 30, 2008

Covered in Folk: The Kinks (Ana Egge, Kate Rusby, Trappers Cabin, Sia, Old 97’s and more)

For most of my life, The Kinks have been one of those bands that other kinds of people listened to. That I respect these people, and appreciate their inclusion of the odd Kinks tune on mixtapes and playlists, is kind of moot; the end result has been that while I like the poppy sound The Kinks bring to the table, it’s the kind of music I accept as background music, enjoyable but already there, part of that diverse mix of sound which fills the air around us. And the continued prominence of Kinks classics on soundtracks and classic rock radio has served the occasional itch in a surprisingly timely manner, leaving me perfectly happy to let the songs come up through the environment, rather than seeking them out.

There’s a hole in my musical education that swallows the British Invasion wholesale, in fact. Some of this is purely an issue of age and experience — growing up in the seventies in a household centered on Blues, Soul, and the American Folk Revival, I heard plenty of music that had been influenced by the jangly guitars and quirky, almost pre-punk pop sensibility, but very little of the actual Brits themselves; by the time I moved on to my own record collecting, it was the late eighties, and I was so excited by the emerging hip-hop, grunge and new folk scenes to find the time to go back and discover their musical roots.

But the more I hear The Kinks catalog done tenderly and with feeling, the more I regret missing out on developing a real love for this music. So many musicians have made real things of beauty out of The Kinks songbook that I have to assume there’s beauty to be found in the originals.

So for a while, I’ve been collecting Kinks tunes where I find them, both originals and covers, letting the bloggers I trust (that’s them on the sidebar) bring the right tracks to my attention; Divinyl sent along a few greats recently, lending fuel to the fire. And when three great covers came to my attention in the past few weeks, it seemed high time to share the best of a growing collection of tributes and covertracks from the pen of Kinks mastermind and songwriter Ray Davies.

Here, then, are Kate Rusby’s gorgeous-voiced britfolk version of The Village Green Preservation Society, a delicate lo-fi bedroom cover of Shangrai-La from the huge collection of downloadable covers and originals at the Trappers Cabin website, and a sliding, bluesy take on Sitting in the Midday Sun from southernfolk fave Ana Egge, who is currently offering her wonderful all-covers album Lazy Days for under four bucks over at Amie Street (where the code “coverlaydown” will net new members $3 free towards your purchase). Plus a few more of my favorite, folkiest Kinks covers, just to make a proper playlist of it all.

Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk content Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional Friday and Holiday. Coming up in the next few weeks: more old songs from new artists, one final summer folk festival preview, and yet another installment in our Single Song Sunday series. Y’all come back now, y’hear?

Category: Ana Egge, Dar Williams, Kate Rusby, Mark Anthony Thompson, Mark Lanegan, Old 97's, Ray Lamontagne, The Kinks, Trappers Cabin

11 Responses to “Covered in Folk: The Kinks (Ana Egge, Kate Rusby, Trappers Cabin, Sia, Old 97’s and more)”

  1. Subservient Experiment
    August 31st, 2008 at 3:09 am

    I hadn’t heard that Old 97’s cover before. Thanks for the post.

    =w=
    healthryder.blogspot.com
  2. Divinyl
    August 31st, 2008 at 6:52 am

    I thought I Go To Sleep was The Pretenders…was it written by Ray Davies??

    Glad you found a use for the Rusby…did you not get the Barb Jungr I sent you? That’s definitely ripe for inclusion here and I thought it would be right up your alley? And how about the late, great Kirsty MacColl with Days? (I think I may have sent you that too, just in case, actually). There’s also a pretty good live Feist Kinks cover floating about.

    I LOVE The Kinks…you definitely should dig in a little bit more; SMM provides a good start on that though, eh? x
  3. boyhowdy
    August 31st, 2008 at 8:02 am

    Subservient: Glad to be able to send out a good rarity; Starbucks’ Sweetheart: Love Songs cover samplers are chock full of great, out of print material.

    Divinyl: Sorry not to provide a linkback to you on the Rusby; I’m not blogging from home this weekend, so I’m a bit rushed, but I’ll fix it in a sec, I swear! :-)

    I did actually get the Barb Jungr, but misfiled it — whoops! Don’t seem to have the MacColl, though. Guess that’s why I invented (Re)Covered posts…

    As for the others: I Go To Sleep is indeed a Kinks tune, recorded in 1965; though their version was not officially released until March 1998, it was first covered by both Peggy Lee and the Applejacks in 1965! (And also Cher that same year!) I also like Julie Pietri’s french version, but it’s hardly folk, so I couldn’t justify it…

    And I have the Feist, and highly recommend it; it’s a good one. But though I’m generally a big fan, the more I listened to the two versions of the same song, the more I felt that the Lanegan deserved to stand on its own.
  4. boyhowdy
    August 31st, 2008 at 8:14 am

    Whoops, I take that back — I got the MacColl cover of Days, too. This is actually quite okay; it will make for a GREAT recovered post in a month or so; I have a feeling this post may bring a few other good ones out of the woodwork as well. Keep coming back for more, folks!
  5. Divinyl
    August 31st, 2008 at 8:34 am

    Seriously no need for a link back! I got that particular track from someone else, after all! I shall definitely look forward to this Kinks covers libray being expanded :o)
  6. Paul
    September 1st, 2008 at 1:39 am

    Very nice post. I love the Kinks. They’re my favorite band of the rock era. And Shangri-La is an amazingly good song. I agree with divinyl that further digging into Ray Davies’ collection of songs would be well worth the effort.
  7. A Free Man
    September 1st, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    Fantastic. I love the Kinks, particularly after having lived in Britain for a few years. There are a lot of bands that I learned to appreciate more after spending some time in their homeland.

    Loving some of the covers, particularly the Old 97s and Dar Williams. Thanks for those.
  8. Susan
    September 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    Hey, Boy ~

    I came to this blog through your comment on my Falcon Ridge {heart} post a month or so back - so glad to discover you, in that universe-unfolding kinda way… :-)

    Hard to believe, but a decade ago I was horrified by covers that strayed too far off the mark - these days, because a dear friend helped me realize the redundancy of non-creative covers, I’ve found so many songs that opened up more fully *because* of the reinterpretation!

    That same friend made me Covers mix(NOT) tapes (i.e., Dear God NOT XTC), complete with Answer sheets when I couldn’t guess (Sarah McLachlan )… and I’ve taken this concept and run with it, now segueing to the NOT CD.

    I’ve also been a Kinks fan from waaay back (since the 5th grade with All Day and All of the Night) - was thrilled when Dar did Better Things.

    All this to say… I’m loving your website, as well as the spirit in which you deliver these delightful gems to us - thanks!
  9. FiL
    September 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    I agree with some of the others–check out the Kinks! The Village Green Preservation Society is a good one to start with if you don’t want to hear the ubiquitous hits. It’s one of my all-time fave albums.

    Thanks again for doing what you do!
  10. (Re)Covered XI: More covers of and from Beck, The Kinks, Wilco, and a Contest Week wrap-up — Cover Lay Down
    July 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    [...] closed out last summer with a feature on The Kinks, and the subject proved popular: In the days that followed, I received plenty of encouragement, and [...]
  11. Kate Rusby Covers: Iris Dement, Richard Thompson, The Kinks, Suzanne Vega and more! (plus Holiday Coverfolk from Kate’s newly rereleased holiday album Sweet Bells) — Cover Lay Down
    December 8th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

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