MEDIA*OR: Certain Songs #842: The Kinks – “Tired of Waiting For You”

Album: Kinda Kinks (U.S.)
Year: 1965

Like The Beatles, Rolling Stones and (to a lesser extent) The Who, the early albums of The Kinks were different in their U.S. and U.K. versions. For example, the U.S. debut was called You Really Got Me (for obvious reasons) and in 1965 Reprise made two full compilation albums — Kinks-Size and Kinks Kingdom — from U.K. EPs, b-sides and non-album singles.

I had no idea about any of this in 1981 when I borrowed the two aforementioned albums plus the U.S. version of Kinda Kinks (which differed from the U.K. version because of course it did) which at the time were just considered the second, third and fourth Kinks albums here in the U.S.

I borrowed them from a woman at work named Karla (which might have been spelled with a “C,” but given the circumstances, I’m choosing to remember it being spelled with a “K”) and in exchange, I lent her all of my Doors albums, the vast majority of which I had collected in a post No One Here Gets Out Alive frenzy during October & November of 1980.

After we made the swap, it was never mentioned again, and so I never returned her Kinks albums, and she never returned my Doors albums, and I think we both were convinced we got the better end of the deal.

In any event, one of the absolute highlights of the deal was “Tired of Waiting For You,” which kept the simplicity of the riff-singles but lowered the attitude way down while adding a jangly guitar to twinkle around the fuzzy (but not too fuzzy!) riff.

And as the chords turned over each other, Ray Davies once again was singing about a man who didn’t quite have full agency over his life.

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for youuuuuuuuuuu

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for youuuuuuuuuuuu

But once again, you could feel the songwriting getting ever more sophisticated — which I know, when you’re starting from “You Really Got Me,” might not be saying that much — with the way the chorus built slowly built up his predicament line after line.

“So tired.” Of what?
“Tired of waiting.” For who?
“Tired of waiting for youuuuuuuu.” Oh. Right. Sorry about that.

By the time he finished that long, gorgeous melody line, there was not a doubt that he was going to spend the rest of his life waiting, if need be.

And while there there wasn’t a manic guitar solo, “Tired of Waiting For You” was still the most dynamic of the the early Kinks singles, with the verses quietly resigned and a build to the slightly more crunchy choruses.

All in all, it added up to yet another irresistible single, their third consecutive top 10 single in both the U.S. and U.K. And while they remained superstars in the U.K. throughout the “Tired of Waiting For You” would be the last time they made the top 10 in the U.S. until 1970.

“Tired Of Waiting For You”