Friday, June 11, 2010

Music DVD Review: You Really Got Me -- The Story of The Kinks (2010)


Now Available to Own





Devoting nearly ninety minutes edited like a record into nine Kinks song based selections from “Everybody’s A Dreamer” through “Changes,” You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks is best appreciated from a musical perspective rather than from a historical one.

Although it chronicles the “quintessentially British” British Invasion band from their first smash single (the eponymous “You Really Got Me,” which was the guys’ third release) up through their induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, those hoping for an authoritative, eye-opening expose on the musicians will be disappointed with the result of this region free DVD.

However, for avid fans, You Really Got Me is a goldmine of rare performance footage that showcases not just the band’s biggest chart toppers like “Sunny Afternoon” and “All Day and All Of the Night,” but also works in some of the vintage rhythm and blues tracks and the group’s country/folk phase with cuts like “Muswell Hillbilly,” “Milk Cow Blues,” “Low Budget,” and more, going as far as to include the length of each one of over twenty songs right on the back of the DVD case.

With a fascinating biographical printed portrait contained in the inner sleeve penned by Jon Kirkman, the work from ABC Entertainment tries to present the best of both worlds by making up for what the DVD lacks in factual content with its overall presentation as a cross between a documentary and an album.

Still, there’s no doubt that You Really Got Me will make you curious to discover the real story behind the cited “unspecified reasons” why the band was banned from America from 1965-1969.

Additionally you'll long to learn more about The Kinks’ charismatic leader Ray Davies who took the sound of the music in several directions throughout its heyday, making the group influential to various genres and schools of performance from punk to New Wave when it became something of a “cult band” in the 1970s.


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FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.
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