“The Lost Boys: Hard-To-Find ’80s Albums” gives you exactly what the title implies: a rare or out-of-print album from the ’80s in its entirety. Some will be from CD, but most will have been lovingly transferred from pristine vinyl culled directly from the Analog Kid’s vast collection. Whatever album I choose, it will be one that you can’t easily find a physical copy for sale on Amazon or in your local record store (if you even have one anymore). Death…by stereo!
The Kinks experienced a pretty amazing comeback on the American side of the Atlantic in the late ’70s and early ’80s– they sold tons of records, packed arenas nationwide, and even had hit videos on MTV. A lot of my friends (Hi Bri! Hi Wade!) were REALLY into the band, but for some reason I just couldn’t seem to get on board. OK, it wasn’t really some reason: it was a reason, and that reason was “Come Dancing.” I was addicted to MTV back in the summer of 1983, and MTV was addicted to the video for “Come Dancing.” It was on at least once an hour for that entire summer (literally, “All Day And All Of The Night’), and by August I was ready to kick Ray Davies in the nuts. I stopped listening to The Kinks completely, and that sabbatical lasted a good fifteen years or so. And then a magical thing happened…
I started buying vinyl again. I started buying any and all vinyl that I could get my hands on, and that meant that I bought lots of Kinks records at what would definitely be considered very reasonable prices. At some point, I put Give The People What They Want and State Of Confusion and Low Budget on my turntable for the first time in years. And you know what? I loved them. I had ALWAYS loved them. Even “Come Dancing” didn’t sound so bad after a long break, although I still wouldn’t put it in my Kinks top 100.
I ripped most of my Kinks vinyl to mp3 years ago, and have recently begun re-ripping these long out-of-print albums using my newer (and better!) equipment. I created a brand-new 320 kbps rip of 1981’s Give The People What They Want earlier today, and I thought that it would be the perfect album to share with you after a long (long) period of inactivity on The Analog Kid Blog. AND IT GOES LIKE THIS!!
![Give The People What They Want [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/give-the-people-what-they-want-320-kbps.png)
The Kinks: Give The People What They Want
Arista Records, 1981
All songs written by Ray Davies
320 kbps vinyl rip courtesy of The Analog Kid
1. “Around The Dial”
2. “Give The People What They Want”
Give The People What They Want
3. “Killer’s Eyes”
4. “Predictable”
5. “Add it Up”
6. “Destroyer”
7. “Yo-Yo”
8. “Back To Front”
9. “Art Lover”
10. “A Little Bit Of Abuse”
11. “Better Things”
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Bonus Tracks!
The first rule of The Analog Kid blog is that if you write about a song on the Analog Kid blog, you share the song on the Analog Kid blog.
The Kinks: “Come Dancing” (Ray Davies)
From the album State Of Confusion
Arista Records, 1983
The Kinks: “All Day And All Of The Night” (Ray Davies)
From the album Kinks-Size
Reprise Records, 1964
The Analog Kid 
You know, I had the same reaction to Come Dancing, and although I appreciate the early Kinks material, I never really enjoyed the band after that. Some tastes you just can never get out of your mouth.
I saw the Kinks during their early ’80s surge of success, and since it was one of my first concerts (I’m maybe 15) I loved it even though I was only a half-hearted fan. Then I became obsessed with old British rock and started reading every book and article I could find about the Beatles, Who, Stones, (Small Faces, Pretty Things!) and the British Wave in general. In that quest, I got turned on to the early Kinks and discovered that half of their later ’60s albums were basically banned from the American market (over some music union baloney). Once I started seeking out and buying those records (“Village Green Preservation Society”, Something Else”, “Arthur”, etc.) I fell down the rabbit hole and returned a full blown Kinks fanatic. “Waterloo Sunset” alone was magical enough to make me a lifelong convert, and that’s before I heard “Shangri La” or “Nothing To Say”. But, yeah, “Come Dancing” was played to death and the later stuff, not so much. But Ray, along with Townshend, McCartney and Lou Reed, is in my pantheon.
Destroyer was the Kinks song for me from this period. I was fascinated that Lola made an appearance. My band used to play Destroyer and it always went over really well. I think that it’s a song that most people forget about it until they hear it. But once they hear the first few seconds of the song, well, it is time to R-O-C-K.