Australia - The Kinks - Arthur (or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - 1969

We arrived at the restaurant around 730. It was a nice modern Italian place in the ground floor of a swanky hotel in Cambridge with a patio that looked out over the Charles, but since we were late for our reservation the places on the patio were all taken. We were seated inside, only to find ourselves the ONLY customers on the inside.

Now Anand and I had discussed this on the train ride out...we figured we stick around for dinner and maybe an after dinner cocktail or two and then we wrap up around 10 and go check out some of the bars in Allston and Cambridge, flirt with some Boston girls and then head back to the hotel. Simple plan. But from the get go, Uncle Singh was talking about taking us to some of the bars after dinner, and a picture was being painted here.

Now, let me first say, that the boys' uncle and their aunt were both very sweet, kind, and generous people. They paid for our dinner and nearly all the drinks that followed...they were nothing but gracious, friendly, and charming...but spending my entire Saturday night in Boston with the Singh family wasn't exactly how I envisioned this evening going.

The waitress came around to take our order, and she was immediately told by the Uncle that he wanted to have a few cocktails first, maybe have a few appetizers, and just hang out before he ordered dinner. At that point, I was certain of what was going on. Regardless of MY vision, it was clear that he envisioned a fun night on the town with his favorite nephews. When this man was my age, the Singh's would have been teenagers...he was the cool uncle who bought them drunks and took them out to rock shows. And now he lived in Boston, a town he had just moved to 1 month ago. He and his wife were both professionals, and between their jobs and the move they hadn't been out for six months...his very sweet wife was clearly delighted to be out on the town. Obviously, I was going to be stuck with them for the long haul.

After a few rounds of dinner, we did order our dinner and dessert and more cocktails. The food was quite good, and the drinks even better. It was well after ten when we finally headed out, Uncle Singh paying the bill without us ever seeing it. He was now ready to take us to phase two of his plan...


I was at a friend's birthday last week when the wife of the birthday boy chimed in that she thought The Kinks were probably the greatest rock band ever. Several people, all of whose opinions I respected, agreed with her. I just can't hang, I guess. I love a few of their songs (Victoria is particularly awesome) but by and large they bore the holy hell out of me...I try, I really do...but I just don't see the charm. Ah well.

Arthur - The Kinks - Arthur (or Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - 1969

So where was I...oh yeah, the West Side of Berlin. After we left the bar we headed on for the Charlottenburg palace. As a history buff, I'm always happy to see old stuff, so this was quite enjoyable. We arrived a few minutes after 7 so the gates had already been shut, but even still the view was quite exquisite, again highlighted by the snow. The size of the palace was also impressive, a few of the wings were used as individual museums, and I was almost sorry that I wasn't able to check them out.

By this point the day was turning into evening and we needed to head back to the hotel to change out of our "walking across the city in the snow" clothes and into our "going out on a friday night clothes". We found the nearest Subway stop (Richard Wagner-platz actually) and hopped back to our room for some pregaming. It was the first time we'd really sat down all day.

After a brief stop at the hotel to change clothes and have a couple vodka sodas, we headed out to the northeast side of town to find some more of the bars my friends had recommended, but first we needed some curry wurst in a bad way...

The Kinks are always a bit of an odd figure among the pantheon of classic rock. They obviously aren't the Beatles. They lack the menace of The Stones, or the alienated weirdness of The Who. The hits that have remained in the pop culture consciousness (Lola, You Really Got Me, All Day And All of the Night, Come Dancing) don't really sound like what the band sounded like in it's artistic heyday, but much like the aphorism regarding The Velvet Underground ("Only 20 people heard them, but those 20 people all started bands") The Kinks, during this period, created music that others would popularize. And you can see those trademarks here, from the bouncy, almost country-ish guitar lick, to the hand-clapping, group sing-a-long of the chorus. Good stuff.