The Great Lost Kinks Album

The Great Lost Kinks Album is a compilation album by the English rock band the Kinks, released in January 1973. The collection of mostly unreleased material was issued by Reprise Records after the band had moved to RCA Records. The tracks were recorded between 1966 and 1970 and master tapes were shipped to the US Reprise Label in the early 1970s to fulfil contractual obligations with that label. Kinks leader and songwriter, Ray Davies, intended most of the songs to remain unreleased "collateral" tracks for Reprise. Several other songs from these "collateral" recordings had been released on the 1972 Reprise compilation The Kink Kronikles.

The Great Lost Kinks Album
Compilation album by
the Kinks
Released25 January 1973
Recorded1966–1970[1]
StudioPye, BBC Riverside, Morgan (London)[1]
GenreRock
Length36:08
LabelReprise
ProducerRay Davies; Shel Talmy on "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"
The Kinks chronology
Everybody's in Show-Biz
(1972)		 The Great Lost Kinks Album
(1973)		 Preservation Act 1
(1973)

Davies and the Kinks management first learned of the album's existence from the US Billboard record chart. Davies instituted legal action against Reprise, which resulted in Reprise discontinuing the album in 1975. It became an immediate collector's item as most of the songs remained officially unreleased until the 1998 reissue of Kinks albums with bonus tracks. All of the tracks received legitimate release as bonus tracks on these UK Sanctuary reissue CDs: the 2001 BBC Sessions 1964–1977, the 2004 three-CD deluxe edition of Village Green, and 2014's The Anthology 1964–1971.

The name is a reference to an album that was set to be released by Reprise in 1969 but was held back, eventually morphing into The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.[2]

The songs include a number of unused album tracks, a British single ("Plastic Man"), a B-side ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else"), a film theme ("Till Death Do Us Part"), songs written exclusively for British television ("Where Did the Spring Go?", "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light"). The Great Lost Kinks Album also included several Dave Davies recordings intended for his ill-fated solo album ("Groovy Movies", "There Is No Life Without Love", "This Man He Weeps Tonight"). The liner notes for the album were written by John Mendelsohn.[1]

Background

On 2 July 1969, Ray Davies and manager Robert Wace delivered numerous tracks to Reprise Records' offices, most of which were for the Kinks' 1969 LP, Arthur, as well as a potential Dave Davies solo album. They delivered an extra reel of twelve songs, marked as "spare tracks" and not assigned a master tape number, indicating they were likely not planned for an immediate release.[3][nb 1] Author Doug Hinman suggests the additional songs' delivery was likely due to a contractual obligation that the Kinks provide the label a set number of songs over a scheduled period. Davies later expressed he was hesitant to deliver them because he did not feel they were up to standard. He further stated he wanted to include a note, explaining, "please, we're just fulfilling our contract, just put it in a vault somewhere."[3]

In 1971, the Kinks moved from Reprise to RCA Records.[3] The same year, Reprise rejected the Percy soundtrack album for US release, finding it lacked commercial potential in the American market.[4] Due to the rejection, Reprise determined that the Kinks contractually owed the label one more album.[5] In 1972, without Davies' knowledge or approval, the label began assembling an album of mostly unreleased material under the working title Son of Kink Kronikles – a reference to The Kink Kronikles, a compilation album released by Reprise in March 1972. The new album was later re-titled The Great Lost Kinks Album, a reference to the Kinks' unreleased 1968 album, Four More Respected Gentlemen, though the content of the two was mostly unrelated.[1]

Release and commercial performance

The Kinks recently began recording on RCA Records. How is it possible for them to have a "new" album on Reprise? Well ... Reprise apparently has a number of old songs the Kinks recorded and never released. ... They're doing the same thing with tapes Jimi Hendrix made: the recordings weren't good enough before, but now that that's all Reprise has, they're suddenly all right.[6]

– Critic Chuck Lowery, 1973

Reprise released The Great Lost Kinks Album in the US on 25 January 1973.[7] Musician John Mendelsohn, who had assembled the track listing to The Kink Kronikles, wrote liner notes for the album which extensively derided Davies' contemporary songwriting when compared his 1966–69 period.[8][nb 2] Davies remained unaware of the album until after its release; Hinman writes Davies first read about it in Billboard magazine,[1] while author Thomas M. Kitts writes an American fan brought it to his attention after mailing him a copy of the LP.[10] Davies initiated legal action against Reprise over its release, resulting in its 1975 deletion from the label's catalogue.[11]

The album's sales were driven by fans of the Kinks' 1960s work.[12] It peaked at No. 145 on Billboard's Top LP's & Tape chart in March 1973,[13] remaining on the chart for five weeks,[10] and additionally reached No. 78 and No. 74 on Cash Box and Record World's charts, respectively.[14][15] Despite the album's 1975 deletion and lack of a CD release,[16] it has remained popular among Kinks fans for its inclusion of rare and otherwise unobtainable tracks.[17]

Critical reception

Contemporary reviews

Contemporary reviewers generally found the compilation uneven. A reviewer in Crawdaddy! magazine wrote it consisted of both "barrel-scraping" material and songs that would make the album a worthwhile purchase for Kinks fans. The reviewer negatively compared it to Reprise' 1972 compilation, The Kink Kronikles, writing that while both albums seemed similarly intentioned, The Great Lost Kinks Album "lacks both the bountifulness and dramatic highlights [of Kronikles]".[12] Another magazine's reviewer resolved that the album's main value was for "Kink Kultists who don't mind wading through second-rate material to get to the occasional highspots."[12] In Rolling Stone magazine's reviewer's opinion, it "basically represents dreg-ism", while providing "a surprising number of undeservedly esoteric Kinks classics" that would satisfy fans unhappy with Davies and the Kinks' recent work.[12]

Several reviewers took notice of the Mendelsohn's liner notes and his criticism of the Kinks' contemporary work,[12] such as Chuck Lowery of Door magazine.[6] He writes that The Great Lost Kinks Album is "really good", but considers it lesser than the band's 1972 album, Everybody's in Show-Biz, and that Mendelsohn's attack on that album helps discredit his writing.[6]

Retrospective assessment


Retrospective ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[18]
Christgau's Record GuideA–[19]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide[20]

Among retrospective reviewers, Robert Christgau declared that though the album consists mostly of B-sides and outtakes, it is the Kinks' best album to be released in the 1970s. He writes its "[f]ragile, unkempt, [and] whimsical" content focuses on the "harmless eccentrics" which made up Davies' best songwriting.[19] Richie Unterberger of AllMusic opines that much of album would have fit well on the Kinks' 1968 album, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. He finds The Great Lost Kinks Album lyrically weaker than the band's other late 1960s work, but counts "Rosemary Rose" "Misty Water" and "Mr. Songbird" as the LP's highlights.[18] Unterberger concludes that the album would prove "quite worthwhile" to Kinks fans,[18] as does Rob Sheffield in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), who describes several of its tracks as "essential cult items", including "The Way Love Used to Be", "Rosemary Rose" and "When I Turn Out the Living Room Light".[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ray Davies, except where noted.[nb 3]

Side one

  1. "Til Death Do Us Part" – 3:12
  2. "There Is No Life Without Love" (Dave Davies, R. Davies)  – 1:55
  3. "Lavender Hill" – 2:53
  4. "Groovy Movies" – 2:30
  5. "Rosemary Rose" – 1:43
  6. "Misty Water" – 3:01
  7. "Mr. Songbird" – 2:24

Side two

  1. "When I Turn Out the Living Room Light"[nb 4] – 2:17
  2. "The Way Love Used to Be" – 2:11
  3. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" – 3:29
  4. "Plastic Man" – 3:00
  5. "This Man He Weeps Tonight" (D. Davies) – 2:38
  6. "Pictures in the Sand" – 2:45
  7. "Where Did the Spring Go?"[nb 5] – 2:10

Personnel

According to band researcher Doug Hinman,[1] except where noted:

The Kinks

  • Ray Davies – lead vocal; acoustic and electric guitars; keyboards;[nb 6] producer (except "I'm Not Like Everybody Else")
  • Dave Davies – backing vocal; electric guitar; lead vocal ("There Is No Life Without Love", "Groovy Movies", "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", "This Man He Weeps Tonight")
  • Pete Quaife – bass (except "The Way Love Used to Be"); backing vocal ("Plastic Man")[28]
  • John Dalton – bass ("The Way Love Used to Be")
  • Mick Avory – drums; backing vocal ("Plastic Man")[28]
  • Unidentified (played by the Kinks) – banjo ("Til Death Us Do Part");[29] harmonica ("Pictures in the Sand")[30]

Additional musicians

Additional personnel

  • Mike Bobak – engineer ("When I Turn Out the Living Room Light")
  • Andrew Hendriksen – engineer ("This Man He Weeps Tonight")
  • Brian Humphries – engineer
  • Vic Maile – engineer
  • John Mendelsohn – liner notes
  • Stanley Myers – string arrangement ("The Way Love Used to Be")[34]
  • Shel Talmy – producer ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else")
  • Lew Warburton – horn arrangement ("Groovy Movies")[35]
  • Unknown engineer – engineer ("When I Turn Out the Living Room Light", "Where Did My Spring Go?")

Charts
Weekly chart performance
Chart (1973) Peak
position
US Billboard Top LP's & Tape[13] 145
US Cash Box Top 100 Albums[14] 78
US Record World Album Chart[15] 74

Notes
  1. The twelve were "Til Death Us Do Part", "This Is Where I Belong", "Lavender Hill", "Plastic Man", "King Kong", "Berkeley Mews", "Rosemary Rose", "Easy Come There You Went", "Pictures in the Sand", "Mr. Songbird", "Where Did My Spring Go?" and "When I Turn Out the Living Room Light".[3]
  2. Mendelsohn wrote the Kinks' 1972 album Everybody's in Show-Biz featured "a bitchy, egocentric Davies ... whose primary interest is making clear to his listener the agony he must endure to stay on the road entertaining us."[9]
  3. The album's liner notes credit all tracks to Ray Davies.[22] The 1968 single of "There Is No Life Without Love" credits the song to Dave and Ray Davies and the 1969 single for "This Man He Weeps Tonight" credits it to Dave Davies.[23]
  4. In Reprise's tape log, the song is titled "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light", and this is the lyric Davies sings in the song. The album instead lists the song as "When I Turn Out the Living Room Light", which Miller suggests was likely a clerical error on Reprise's part.[24]
  5. The song's exact title is unclear. It is listed as "Where Did the Spring Go?" on the album's rear sleeve, while the LP's label omits the question mark.[22] Mendelsohn titles the song "Where Did My Spring Go?" in his liner notes,[25] and this title is also used by author Andy Miller.[26] Hinman and Kinks author Johnny Rogan use the "My" titling but alternate between including and omitting the question mark.[27]
  6. Hinman writes Hopkins "possibly" played organ on "Misty Waters", but raises the possibility Davies played it.[1]

References

Citations
  1. Hinman 2004, p. 170.
  2. Kindakinks.net: "The Great Lost Kinks Album"
  3. Hinman 2004, p. 130.
  4. Rogan 1998, pp. 81, 170.
  5. Hinman 2004, p. 170; Rogan 1998, p. 170.
  6. Lowery 1973, p. 12.
  7. Hinman 2004, p. 170; Kitts 2002, p. 15; Miller 2003, p. 145.
  8. Hinman 2004, pp. 162, 170.
  9. Mendelsohn 1973, p. 1, quoted in Hinman 2004, p. 170.
  10. Kitts 2008, p. 94.
  11. Hinman 2004, pp. 170–171; Rogan 1998, p. 170.
  12. Hinman 2004, p. 171.
  13. "Billboard Top LP's & Tape (for week ending March 17, 1973)" (PDF). Billboard. 17 March 1973. pp. 66, 68. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2022.
  14. "Cash Box Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Cash Box. 31 March 1973. p. 35. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2022.
  15. "The Album Chart" (PDF). Record World. 31 March 1973. p. 36. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 February 2022.
  16. Rogan 1998, p. 170.
  17. Kitts 2008, p. 94; Hinman 2004, p. 171.
  18. Unterberger, Richie. "The Kinks - The Great Lost Kinks Album". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  19. Christgau 1981, p. 213.
  20. Sheffield 2004, p. 458.
  21. Sheffield 2004, p. 460.
  22. Anon. 1973.
  23. Hinman 2004, pp. 119, 132.
  24. Miller 2003, p. 124n39.
  25. Mendelsohn 1973, p. 2.
  26. Miller 2003, pp. 132–135.
  27. Rogan 1998, p. 172; Hinman 2004, pp. 124, 130, 170.
  28. Hinman 2004, p. 126.
  29. Miller 2003, p. 123.
  30. Miller 2003, p. 121.
  31. Miller 2003, p. 124.
  32. Miller 2003, p. 123; Rogan 1998, p. 170.
  33. Hinman 2004, pp. 125, 129.
  34. Hinman 2004, p. 151.
  35. Hinman 2004, p. 129.

Bibliography
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