I love the Kinks. Before I lost my iPod, I couldn’t even board a train or plane without listening to This Time Tomorrow. I’ll always claim that they’re one of the most underrated famous bands in pop history and I used to even claim that they were better than The Beatles, but that was probably more affected cultivation or specification than anything else. The Beatles were ahead of their time, but what made The Kinks great is that they were perfectly of their time, in their youthfulness, simplicity, social literacy, and their ability to mesh utter sincerity with biting cynicism.
I was happy to finally be able to catch Do It Again, a documentary following Geoff Edgers’ (somewhat personal) quest to get The Kinks back together at the Boston Independent Film Festival, along with a packed theater of vociferously devout Edgers fans–but who isn’t after his subtly scathing article on Randy Weiner and the ART. I think everyone appreciates the fact he’s not a reporter whose bloated ego motivated him to direct a movie, but rather just a writer whose nigh quadragenarian ego pushed him to star and produce a production with the professional help of Robert Patton-Spruill, to whom he is generous with credit.
What’s ironic about an effort to re-unite the Kinks (rhetorical or not) is that they’re a band that stayed together far longer than they should have in the first place. And it’s not unreasonable to argue that if they had suffered some dramatic End, à la The Beatles, more of the pop philistine passers-by Edgers questions in Do It Again would have known who the hell they were. Here they seem to be a band’s band. They only disbanded in 1996, but the pop music reaper had had his sickle at their necks for 25 years as they suffered personnel changes, and fans suffered through concept albums, rock operas, and other arcana–nothing that approached the utter perfection of Waterloo Sunset or the social wit of Plastic Man and Well Respected Man. The music that Kinks fans, casual or devout, love was released between ’64 and ’72. You probably could even round that figure down to 1970.
Unlike, say, David Bowie or even Bob Dylan, brothers Ray and Dave Davies (Kinks founders and breakers-up) haven’t faired too well over the years. Even a committed fan like myself can’t help but see them as a little washed up and their music and performance better remembered than re-lived.
This film may begin with Edgers’ sincerely impractical quest to re-band The Kinks, but it deviates from this mission. Large portions of Do It Again are given over to Edgers’ personal problems (there’s one memorable rant on the salary and benefits cuts pressed upon Globe employees), his personal and work life, meta-commentary of getting this movie made, and for a good chunk we forget about The Kinks getting back together entirely, and instead are more interested in what celebrities (Kinks members or not) Edgers can reach and, even better, who he can get to jam with him on a Kinks number. Every so often Edgers is there to remind us that he really is trying to reunite the band. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying The Kinks don’t hook up again due to Edgers efforts, but they practically do on their own accord.
Indie It Girl Zooey Deschanel and Geoff Edgers
Towards the end of the film, Edgers flies to London to do what he can’t seem to get done Stateside. His prime stop is a Kinks reunion at a shabby pub called the Boston Arms. There, each year, on a small stage and to a small crowd of devoted fans, a group of former Kinks personnel perform under the name The Kast Off Kinks. And the musical genius behind The Kinks (as well as Edgers’ elusive golden fleeced wild goose) Ray Davies shows up for a brief set. Apparently he even came through last year. And Edgers didn’t even have anything to do with it, in fact, he couldn’t even film it. Instead, we get some shoddy footage lent to him by somebody with a nice cellphone. But, alas, Ray’s brother Dave doesn’t show. The Kast Offs plus Ray perform Days, which, although obviously written about a girl, becomes uncannily relevant here as a eulogy to whatever happiness and creative prosperity Ray and Dave may have once enjoyed.
The film suffers from some sloppy sound, bad lip syncing, and bouncy editing. The trailer below, in its editing, isn’t unlike portions of the film. But, if it’s ever released to a non-festival audience, I’m sure they’ll take another look at the few rough patches. What saves the movie is Edgers’ sincerity, openness, hipness (and geekiness), his self deprecating humor, complete commitment to music and this project, his rapport with musicians and celebrities, and how much work he must have put into practicing those Kinks songs. There’s a great cover of Strangers, one of my favorites, and he joins The Venus 3 in another great cover of Get Back in Line. A parody of Lola, that’s sort of spliced in at the end, where Edgers sings to a classroom of kids not about transsexuals but Yoda left a sour taste in my mouth, but that didn’t keep me from listening to nothing but The Kinks for two days after the screening.
