As my last.fm will confirm, I love The Kinks. Here’s a video of them performing two of their best songs in 1972.

The first, Waterloo Sunset, isn’t especially popular in America though it’s legendary across the pond which is where we get almost all our good classic rock from anyway. Sayeth Wikipedia, “A London FM radio poll in 2004 named this the ‘Greatest Song About London’, while Time Out named it the ‘Anthem of London.” It’s also #42 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs ever.

The second, The Village Green Preservation Society, is an ode to nostalgia that features a lot of really big horns.

I often like to compare The Kinks to classic Weezer. Neither band’s music was very technically impressive, but the songwriting conveys real emotion before you even get to the lyrics.

Aren’t you at least curious? I mean, come on people - Waterloo Sunset is the song Rolling Stone declared better than the 43rd greatest rock song ever, Tutti Fruitti!

(thanks to Jimmy in the comments for showing me how to embed high-quality versions of YouTube videos, it makes a world of difference here)