The Kinks – ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’

The first time I thought I heard The Kinks I had actually heard The Stranglers’ version of ‘All Day And All Of The Night’. This is a mistake that might have led to problems further down the line if it weren’t addressed quickly by exposure to the real thing. As I had preferred The Cult’s version of ‘Born To Be Wild’ and Echo and The Bunnymen’s ‘People Are Strange’ to the originals, which sounded reedy and undeveloped next to the ruthless clarity of their eighties cover versions, I was surprised that The Kinks were actually a cut above their derivatives. Not for the first time I saw that what was new was not always better, and that the recent past might be somewhere to turn to if it was a quiet week in the Top 40. The music I had loved until then fed my imaginary life, encouraging me to pretend to be a pop star. But Dave Davies sneering his way through ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’, which is basically a threat posing as a love story, was reality and not make believe. What I loved most, was that he was telling you only one thing about his life, but it was an important thing, in fact, the only thing you need to know – it was the story of his life. Involuntarily it stopped my dreaming and forced me think about what I could actually do with my allocated time, being tone deaf and too lazy to learn an instrument. Listening to it was my first hint that I might be able to write something equal to what I heard, and that it probably wouldn’t be a song.