The Kinks' ban

 

If you have never heard of The Kinks and live in the US, you’re not alone. If you have never heard of The Kinks and live in Europe, that’s strange. If you have never heard of the Kinks and live in the UK, there is something very wrong with you. In many ways the quintessential British band of the 1960’s, they were arguably as prolific, creative and groundbreaking as the likes of The Beatles or Rolling Stones — although perhaps less technically innovative than the Fab Four.

The Kinks had one massive hit that you should know, wherever you are from: 1964’s “You really got me”. That song was a small revolution in itself, bridging the gap between rock and hard rock, pop and the heavier sounds that were still to come. And, on the heels of that hit, they felt ready to take on the world. Namely, the United States. The Beatles had just “broken” the country, and by that we mean millions of young Americans had become instant die-hard fans of the band. The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals and many other bands starting with “The” followed suit, including The Kinks. Briefly.

The band was indeed on tour in the US in the middle of 1965, what their management thought was perfect timing. And it could very well have been so, were it not for the following facts:

• the band’s habit of starting a proper mess wherever they went. Yes, the artists who later created elegant gems like “Waterloo sunset” or “Sunny afternoon” were then more known for their antics than their subtlety. They often fought, amongst each other and with various people they met on their path (including within the entertainment community, which proved problematic), and did not exactly provide the most reliable live experience: they could very well keep playing “You really got me” for 45 minutes if they were pissed off — or wanted to piss off someone…
• the tour was not a huge success, partly because of said antics, partly because of questionable management. The result was that their tour promoter, Betty Kaye, was not able to fulfil her promise to pay them cash. This, in return, got the guys even angrier, and they eventually refused to play a San Francisco show outright. This prompted Kaye to file a complaint with the American Federation of Musicians, which had the power to withhold work permits for foreign musicians — and they did.
• apparently, The Kinks added insult to injury by getting in trouble during the taping of a US TV show right around that time: they got into a brawl with an executive who apparently had something to say about the so-called British invasion, and promised to report them. Whether that had anything to do with the ban is not entirely clear. Either way, The Kinks were pretty much out…
• the ban lasted 4 years, until they asked for it to be lifted in 1969, and the Federation finally granted their wish. Why so long? Again, probably a mix of bad organisation on the band’s part and/or bad blood on the Americans’ part. Either way, being out of the game during the most critical time in US popular music meant that, while the Beatles and the Stones, and later Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, reigned supreme, The Kinks remained for the most part a fundamentally British band.

We will never quite know what could have been, had that ban not been enforced. One cannot argue that The Kinks’ members, starting with the Davies brothers who spearheaded the operation, were looking for trouble in those days. But so were so many other (all?) British bands of the era, who didn’t have the misfortune to get the opportunity of a lifetime taken away from them. What we know for a fact, though, is that their later musical output was decisively more important and lasting, definitely earning them a crucial place in 20th century musical history. Perhaps the fact that they couldn’t be directly compared to The Beatles even was an advantage: after all, who could reasonably withstand that analogy?

In other words, that ban may not have been all bad…