THE KINKS – "Tired Of Waiting For You"

I knew this from a comp before the Guinness book existed, and was more than surprised to discover it was a no.1.

I agree, it is all about mood, and the flat delivery – sung through gritted teeth over that pissed-off two-note riff – adds to the atmosphere of monotonous misery: Ray outside the cinema, freezing his ass off, waiting on a girl who’s late again (and eventually turns up with a faint, suspicious whiff of Old Spice about her). Anger threatens to spill out on the slightly growled “cos I’m sooo tired” on the very last chorus, but otherwise it’s a master class in restraint. Lonely soul Ray content to put up with being treated shabbily (“It’s your life…”) cos this bad girl’s better than no girl.

It’s in the FAQ – loads of the early 60s comments got wiped back in 2005 unfortunately. I don’t remember a particular debate around this one, though 6 looks a little harsh I agree.

#5- completely agree about the economy of it. as a child familiarizing myself with all the “British Invasion” groups through oldies radio, the kinks always intrigued me because i knew they were holding back. with groups like the hollies, gerry, searchers, etc – though some were very good, what you see is what you got. with the kinks (and the zombies’ “she’s not there”) there was something else happening behind the curtain that thrilled me.

For some reason I’ve never listened carefully to this track before… and, whadaya know, it’s flippin’ pop genius. Killer chorus obviously: ‘I’m so tired (how so?) Tired of waiting (for whom?) Tired of waiting for you-oo-oo.’ So wish I’d thought of that! Nifty pre-chorus break ‘you can do what you want’ creating space w/ great drum fills before ingeniously crescendoing *into* the unfolding chorus grind. Wish I’d thought of that too. Main verses are just functional but the changes are great and the strange ‘keep-a me waiting’, which we’ll revisit in the cresendo into the Chorus, is introduced. It sounds almost like ‘keeper me waiting’ – as in ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ or perhaps as in a keeper of wild animals. Subterraneanly then the singer’s state of mind is conveyed – sick of being the timely, responsible, adult one, he’d rather be alone than be engaged in animal husbandry. Brilliant. A near perfect pop miniature. For me, it’s a:
9 (could be a 10 on the right day or if really cranked up)

My introduction to this was via an advert from about 1987-ish for shower gel. Someone was kept waiting because their date couldn’t bring themselves to get out of the shower because this shower gel was so excellent. I can’t remember if it was a girl or a boy who was kept waiting.

I didn’t know it was The Kinks, of whose output I might have just about heard All Day & All of The Night, Dedicated Follower of Fashion and maybe Come Dancing.

When I got my first car, I bought hour long compilations of 60s ‘classics’, often informed by The Wonder Years which must have had the name and title of whatever song they had that week in the credits, or I’d never have known what to get.

The two that spring to mind are The Kinks, which had the hits up to about Apeman and Lola and Donovan, which was the early acoustic stuff that always got put together. The Pye years, I suppose. I absolutely loved them both. And still do, really.

I benefitted, in some ways, from parents who didn’t buy records or listen to music radio, and never had, really. It was all new to me and I had a great time catching up.

Never had a metal phase. Led Zeppelin passed me by completely. For which I’m fairly grateful.

Yet another tale of male frustration. There’s a droney quality to the chorus that sounds vaguely Indian – a bit like ‘Blue Jay Way’ – and if you are so inclined you can interpret the words as a meditation on reincarnation: ‘I was a lonely soul/I had no body till I met you’. Not sure if that was Ray’s intention but it’s an ambiguous lyric.