The Kinks - Do It Again

One of the amazing things about music in the eighties was how diverse it was, something that we try to reflect at ERV.  In fact, along with all of the the new bands that came onto the scene, there were quite a few older bands that were still writing good songs -- Queen, Cheap Trick, Nazareth and Roxy Music are already up on the blog, for instance.  [Interestingly, it seems to us that many of these "classic rock" bands ran out of steam in the mid-1980s.]

"Do It Again," from the Kinks 1984 LP Word of Mouth was arguably the bands' last great song.  It was unarguably the last Kinks song to chart on the Billboard 100, peaking at #41.  This made it the 23rd top 100 U.S. single from the band, highlighting a career that spanned 20+ years.  While it would be hard to put the Kinks in the same category as the Beatles or the Stones, they have always seemed to be somewhat underrated to me.  The band has an extremely strong catalog of songs that should put them in the top tier of rock bands ever ... but somehow they seem to fly a bit under the radar.

At any rate, "Do It Again" is obviously autobiographical and both the song and video come off as nostalgic and perhaps a little bit weary.  Given the bands' long history and many ups and downs, it is easy to see where this comes from.  Even so, this does not take away from the song, and it remains a solid way to remember the band.

Cool trivia fact:  "Do It Again" is also the name of a wonderful documentary, about a newspaper reporter who decided to embark on a quest to convince the Kinks to reunite.  The doc gets ERV's highest review -- see it if you get the chance.