[The] Kinks have never really matched the top British groups in terms of mass success, and the reasons seem to be twofold. First, Ray Davies, the band leader, is too anarchic to conform to the rules and regulations of rock careerism. Rock may seem like an arena of wild men to outside observers. But it has its own rules, too, and for all their apparent eccentricity and iconoclasm, stars like Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend obey those rules.

The other reason is that the distinction of the Kinks's songs has to do more with Mr. Davies's lyrics and his charisma than with any purely musical virtues. This makes him the darling of some rock writers, the kind that fastens first on the words instead of the music, and responds more to personality than to artistic abstraction. But a lack of consistently strong, memorable music has precluded the wider...