You Really Got Me – The Story of The Kinks uses live and studio videos to chronologically take the viewer through the musical history of The Kinks. This isn’t a documentary per se but rather a good introduction to the band’s songbook and their high-energy live show which is targeted to the casual (rather than the die-hard) fan. The live footage isn’t credited but appears to be a mixture of Beat Club and late ‘70s/early ‘80s performances, with the later coming from One for the Road.

There is a loose narration that serves to guide the viewer through The Kinks’ various highlights in a particular year or era and this narration also serves as an introduction to each of the music videos which anchor this film. The narration doesn’t delve too deeply into any topic so die-hard fans looking for previously hidden back-stories will likely be disappointed. The videos are a nice guide through The Kinks’ musical evolution and they are shown mostly or totally complete. The only (minor) complaint is that there are cases where live videos from the “new-wave” 80’s Kinks are used to highlight songs that came to popularity in the 60’s.

Videos include “’til the End of the Day”, “I’m A Lover Not a Fighter”, “Milk Cow Blues”, “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman”, “Well Respected Man”, “You Really Got Me”, two takes on “You Really Got Me”, “Celluloid Heroes”, “Superman”, “Catch Me Now I’m Falling”, “Victoria”, “Hard Way”, “Low Budget”, “Attitude” and “Pressure”. The disc also includes studio videos for “Predictable”, “Come Dancing”, “State of Confusion”, and “Do It Again”. All of this is interspersed with interview clips from Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory.

The Kinks - "Milk Cow Blues"


The Kinks - "Low Budget"


Every few years rumors surface that The Kinks will reunite. This is an interesting story to watch unfold as a few years ago Dave had said that a Kinks reunion “would be like a poor remake of 'Night of the Livin Dead' ” but recently seems to have softened his 'when hell freezes over' stance. In a recent post on AtlanticCityWeekly.com, Dave said “If Ray replies to my Emails and addresses the outstanding business and creative issues we have, then anything is possible… He rarely consults me on these issues.”

Obviously, time will tell...

Links:
The Kinks (Unofficial Site)