Kinks Weeks – Stop Your Sobbing …taotalk.com

This entry is by Lisa from Tao-Talk. I’ve known Lisa since 2018 and the biggest George Harrison fan I’ve ever met. She is a wonderful writer with a wide knowledge of music. Lisa is a mother, grandmother, gardener, retired government worker, observer, reader, writer, cinema lover, learner, bicyclist, woman who runs with the wolves, and last but not least, a lover of music! Go visit Lisa when you can!

Stop Your Sobbing, written by Ray Davies

Released 10/2/64 on The Kinks’ debut album, “Kinks”

The first time I heard, “Stop Your Sobbing” was on a Pretenders album.  As Chrissie writes her own songs for the most part, it never occurred to me that she didn’t write this one.  It was only when a blogmate mentioned that Ray and Chrissie had been a couple and had a child together that I began to wonder and looked a little deeper.  It has been an enjoyable journey of discovery on how the song came about, how Ray met Chrissie, and how Chrissie came to record a Kinks song.

The Kinks line-up was Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife, and Mick Avory.

“Stop Your Sobbing” was the next to the last song on The Kinks’ debut album, “Kinks,” released on 10/2/64.  The American release of the album was missing 3 tracks:  “I Took My Baby Home”, “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter” and “Revenge.”  The only single released from the album was, “You Really Got Me.”  Looking at the playlist, I was kind of surprised that 8 of the 14 songs were not written by Ray and one was co-written with him.  The 3 omitted tracks were written by, respectively, Ray, Jay Miller, and co-written by Ray and Larry Page.

I’ve seen this pattern before, with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (and probably many others?) in their first recordings being written often by others and then transitioning over to mostly written by the groups.  Hoping to get some feedback from readers on this.

Secondhand songs shows 11 covers of the song, including 3 in 1965, 1 in 1979, 3 from 2000-2003, 1 in 2011, 1 in 2015; and the most recent is reggae-styled from May of 2023, by Rhoda Dakar.

I know how some readers like chart stats.  Peak positions for the album charts in 1964-65 were:

UK Melody Maker top 10 LP = 4

UK New Musical Express best selling LP = 5

UK Record Retailer LPs chart = 3

US Billboard Top LPs = 29

US Cash Box top 100 albums = 25

US Record World 100 top LPs = 20

West German Musicmarkt LP hit parade = 7

For those who want even more deets on The Kinks, including the statistics part, Kinda Kinks has a meticulous breakdown of everywhere the song was released – AND SO MUCH MORE.

Fate Intervenes Where Human Effort Fails

 Now to get to the juicy part of what hooked me on the song and motivated me to look deeper, which is what inspired Ray to write it, how Chrissie became aware of it, and how Ray and Chrissie got together and had a baby.

In Ray’s autobiography, “X-Ray,” he said the song was inspired by a tearful girlfriend:

“Her sobbing was making me feel guilty and I told her to stop…”

 Most of the songs on that debut album besides the single faded into obscurity, including, “Stop Your Sobbing.”  Years passed.  Chrissie Hynde, born in Ohio, USA, moved to London in 1973 and began working for NME, a major music publication.  She also began forming a band.  In 1978, when The Pretenders decided to put a demo tape of 6 songs together, she thought of, “Stop Your Sobbing.”  Nick Lowe produced the single and it was released in 1979.  The single reached the lower end of the UK top 40.  More importantly, it caught the attention of Ray himself.  Dave Everley from LouderSound, says that Chrissie had reviewed another single of theirs, Mirror of Love, for NME (I tried to find the review and failed.) and had tried multiple times to get an interview set up with Ray, but he declined.  I love this quote about his refusal, taken from Johnny Rogan’s book, _The Complete Guide to the Music of The Kinks_:

 “I avoided it. “I’d heard she’d said nice things about me. I thought: ‘Oh God, when she meets the real person and sees what a conner I am.’”

Ray and Chrissie finally met in a New York club in 1980.

I found an excellent DailyMail article about Ray, his relationships with women, and a good photo and quote by him in regards to meeting Chrissie:

She couldn’t take the sudden fame that had come to her and I think she saw me as someone who had done all that rock ’n’ roll stuff and understood it,

Their relationship is reported to have lasted until 1983.  Natalie, their daughter, was born in early 1983.  Chrissie went on to marry Jim Kerr from the band, Simple Minds, in 1984. Reports say that Ray never met Natalie until she was an adult.

LYRICS

It is time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now

It is time for you to laugh instead of crying
Yes, it’s time for you to laugh so keep on trying
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now

Each little tear that falls from your eye
Makes, makes a me want
To take you in my arms
And tell you to stop all your sobbing

Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes, it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing
There’s one thing that you gotta do
To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah, stop it, stop it
Gotta stop sobbing now
Stop it, stop it

Gotta stop sobbing now
Stop it, stop it, stop it

Sources:

Wikipedia

loudersound.com

covermesongs.com

kindakinks.net

secondhandsongs.com

DailyMailUK

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

53 thoughts on “Kinks Weeks – Stop Your Sobbing …taotalk.com”

  2. Thank you for an excellent article! I have loved (and emulated) Chrissie’s voice for decades, yet never knew she was born in Ohio (I am from just across the river from Marietta Ohio in WV!), and I didn’t know she had hooked up with Ray! OMG! I wonder if Natalie is a singer or songwriter???
    As for bands recording cover songs, yes, I think a good many do because when they first start playing out, audiences want to hear their favorite songs and the band mostly learns favorite songs to perfect their playing. It seems hard to get people to listen to first-time, original songs! People crave repetition. And of course, that’s what radio and TV gives us, plenty of repetition!
    I love that ‘Sobbing’ song. It feels quite personal to me. I might tell that story someday.
    May I reblog this? Thank you again! And now I will check out Lisa’s page.

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    1. Glad to share some new info for you, Sheila, and how cool is it that you are near to where she was born and raised. I just looked Natalie up and see she has been a model, and like Jim said, an anti-fracking environmentalist, but did not see anything about her singing or songwriting.

      Thanks for the feedback on bands and cover songs. It makes sense, and yes we are slaves to repetition as I think it’s comforting in this world of chaos.

      Yes, you may reblog. You’re welcome 🙂

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      1. Very cool, Lisa! Thank you so much for looking for more information on Natalie. I am grateful. FYI: I am anti-fracking too because of how it can corrupt people’s water wells.
        We live in New Hampshire now after 40 years in Florida. I left WV/Ohio when I was 22. Mostly due to taxes, and the chemical valley environment (think C8 in the Ohio river from good old DuPont)!

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  4. Well I learned something new there! Or a couple of things. I always thought of it asa Pretenders song & didn’t know Ray had written it, let alone recorded it. They did a pretty decent version , thoughChrissie’s still sounds ‘right’ to me, being familiar with it for years. Also didn’t know how they met, now I do. Good write-up Lisa!

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    1. I agree about Ray meeting his daughter. Since Chrissie married Jim the next year while out on tour, maybe a decision was made that he would serve as her father? Glad Natalie has become a political activist. She was destined for important things with those 2 parents. Thanks on the write-up.

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    1. I was really shocked when I first found out that Chrissie was a small town girl from Ohio. She went to school with Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. I think they were both at Kent State with the National Guard shot those 4 innocent students. Look what she went on to. Pretty amazing, deKE.

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  9. Great song selection and history. Thanks for the Kinda Kinks link, very handy. I wasn’t aware it was a cover initially when the Pretenders did, but being a cover song guy I did make the connection eventually. There’s a great idea for me, Kinky Covers! Very nice Lisa.

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    2. Randy, you’re welcome on the link, and I was amazed at how meticulously their music is being documented even today there. Good idea on Kinky Covers! If I don’t see it, will you give me a nudge so I can?

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  10. I could imagine this as a Beatles song…not something I’d say about most Kinks work. In 1964 I mostly heard the singles that got radio airplay, so I didn’t know this song. Thanks!

    As far as covers on early albums, I think that’s a common transition for bar bands. They start as a cover band, someone gets up the guts to try writing, they try out their own stuff, and eventually start recording it. I have these teenage memories of singers introducing a song with “This is an original”.

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    1. Steve, glad you got a chance to hear the original today. Thanks for the feedback on how bands transition from covers to originals. I know some of how The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started out and wonder if The Kinks started out as a bar band?

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      2. Since you asked…. from wikipedia: The Davies brothers were born in suburban North London on Huntingdon Road, East Finchley, the youngest and the only boys among their family’s eight children. Their parents, Frederick and Annie Davies, moved the family to 6 Denmark Terrace, Fortis Green, in the neighbouring suburb of Muswell Hill. At home, the brothers were immersed in a world of varied musical styles, from the music hall of their parent’s generation to the jazz and early rock and roll their older sisters enjoyed. Both Ray and his brother Dave, younger by almost three years, learned to play guitar, and they played skiffle and rock and roll together.

        The brothers attended William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (later merged with Tollington Grammar School to become Fortismere School), where they formed a band, the Ray Davies Quartet, with Ray’s friend and classmate Pete Quaife and Quaife’s friend John Start (although they would also be known as the Pete Quaife Quartet if the bass player landed a gig for them instead). Their debut at a school dance was well received, which encouraged the group to play at local pubs and bars. The band went through a series of lead vocalists, including Rod Stewart, another student at William Grimshaw, who performed with the group at least once in early 1962. He then formed his own group, Rod Stewart and the Moonrakers, who became a local rival to the Ray Davies Quartet.

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    1. Glad you know it’s a Kinks original now. Not sure if you saw Graham’s Spotify playlist for the album his choice was on? I listened to the album yesterday and it is amazingly good. I also see they have many of their albums on Spotify. One I didn’t see, that Stewart recommended, was The Kink Kronicles. I just ordered that from discogs and am really looking forward to it. And yes, I know what you mean about time!

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      1. I just found “The Kink Kronikles” on Apple Music. It’s a compilation. I only know some of the songs like “Victoria”, “Waterloo Sunset”, “Lola”, “Dead End Street”, “Sunny Afternoon”, “Apeman” and “Death of a Clown.” While there are many more songs, these tracks are already worth getting this collection.

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  14. Great choice Lisa, The Pretenders version is the one that works ‘best’ for me, but the original holds up better than I would have thought, it being very early in their career. The Rhoda reggae one works surprisingly well too, and I never would have imagined that. (I really like Chrissie’s version of ‘Breakfast In Bed’ too- no pun intended but she interprets her covers really well. )

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    1. Ob, I just went out and watched her and UB40 and also they did “I Got You Babe” together. Raggae works for all of them. Max, have you ever done a post on UB40? Glad you like the choice, Ob.

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  15. My neighbor (One of the worlds nicest guys) just dropped off a reissue of this album to me a while ago. The Kinks covers that have showed up on this Max thing are top notch. I always thought it was so cool that bands wanted to do Kinks songs. Maybe Max’s next project “Kinks Kovers”

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  16. I had no idea either!

    It’s such a perfect Chrissie Hynde / Pretenders song. I’d never heard The Kinks version until now – maybe it will grow on me. 😉

    THis is definitely a case of a cover being better than the original.

    (It would be interesting to hear how they financial divi-up was arranged after The Pretenders had such a hit and following Chrissie and Ray splitting. 😉 )

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    1. Jeff, I agree about their original being really good. The Pretenders also covered, “I Go to Sleep” which is a helluva good song written by Ray. I agree that neither one would be a picnic to have a relationship with, but we don’t have to, we just get to enjoy their creative genius output 🙂 Thanks for reading and your comment.

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