Kinks Deep Cuts: B-sides, rarities, etc.

the latest reissue is a little more marginal, i think, just b/c the percy soundtrack (which takes up most of the 2nd disc) is kind of marginal. however it has some great songs, like "god's children" and "the way life used to be"

Was thinking of making a State of Confusion (one of their most underrated albums imho) poll thread just on the strength of these two casette-only (!!!) tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2FDvxUAIyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHtA5e29Hhg

For B-sides I like I Gotta Move (b-side of All Day & All Of The Night) and the aforementioned I'm Not Like Everybody Else (b-side of Sunny Afternoon) a lot

I remember hearing I'm Not Like Everybody Else playing in a furniture shop and excitedly telling my stepmother, who really could not care less.

Oh and I Need You (Set Me Free B-side) as well

Astoundingly, This Is Where I Belong is a B-side to Mr. Pleasant. How did that song not make Face To Face?

on first listen, Soap Opera is surprisingly good - and funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkDrkZDHo9I

god, how good is this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-G4JSfijg

So, using these sources as a springboard:

Dave Davies - Hidden Treasures
Great Lost Kinks Album (Neue Revue CD)
Great Lost Kinks Album (Reprise ‘73)
Sanctuary CD reissues of the first eight UK studio albums

I finally took the time to take stock of all the Kinks rarities that I rate. I’m posting the list here in case anyone else might be interested. I think I’ll use this material and make a mix out of most or all of it. For now I’ve just been consulting Youtube for the tracks I don’t already have access to.

I didn’t include covers and I excluded two instrumentals from the VG sessions and one early track I don’t care for (“I Don’t Need You Anymore”). I also excluded two early versions of tunes that re-emerged later under different names, as well as nine songs that were either A) top-ten singles or B) sufficiently incorporated into the US discography for them not to seem like “deep cuts” to me.

Big discoveries for me this time around were “There’s a New World Just Opening for Me” and the LOLA bonus track I posted above (“Anytime”).

I’m unsure if I missed anything important. I’m posting now while I’m feeling enthusiastic and am happy to go back and revise later.

[Demos / songwriting / non-studio]
I Believed You
I’m a Hog for You Baby
Revenge
Tell Me Now So I’ll Know
I Go to Sleep
All Night Stand
A Little Bit of Sunlight
There’s a New World Just Opening for Me
This I Know
Strange Effect

[Early singles and B-sides, bonus tracks from s/t and Kinda Kinks]
I Took My Baby Home
You Still Want Me
You Do Something to Me
It's All Right
I Gotta Move
Never Met a Girl Like You Before

[Kinksize Session and Kwyet Kinks EPs]
I Gotta Go Now
I’ve Got That Feeling
Things Are Getting Better
Wait Till the Summer Comes Along
Such a Shame
Don’t You Fret

[Kinda Kinks / Face to Face bonus tracks]
Sittin’ on My Sofa
And I Will Love You
Time Will Tell
Dead End Street
Big Black Smoke
Mr. Pleasant
This Is Where I Belong
Little Women

[Dave Davies lost album]
Susannah's Still Alive
This Man He Weeps Tonight
Mindless Child Of Motherhood
Hold My Hand
Do You Wish To Be A Man
Are You Ready
Creeping Jean
Crying
Lincoln County
Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter
Mr. Reporter
Groovy Movies
There's No Life Without Love
Good Luck Charm

[Village Green bonus / Great Lost Kinks]
Days
Mr. Songbird
Polly
Wonderboy
Berkeley Mews
Misty Waters
Easy Come, There You Went
Did You See His Name
Lavender Hill
Rosemary Rose
Where Did My Spring Go
King Kong
Til Death Do Us Part
When I Turn Off the Living Room Light
Plastic Man
Pictures in the Sand

[Lola bonus tracks]
Anytime
The Good Life

i'm already noticing some factual errors in my rationale for inclusion but i need to stop posting for today and, in any case, need to leave something for Tom D. to do on the board

oh god ... i posted the list without the "Something Else"-era tracks, but obviously "autumn almanac" and "act nice and gentle" would be included on my list

Your list is pretty good, seems to be missing “The Way Love Used to Be.”

And “God’s Children.” (Seems you overlooked Percy)

And “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” Guess this is a fool’s errand, a mug’s game.)

holy moly the BBC Sessions versions of the Preservation songs are awesome, I just discovered those last week

all the tunes from the LP "percy" are available on the LP "percy" ok?

"i'm not like everybody else" i put in the same category as "dedicated follower of fashion" and "well respected man", either present on key US releases or i've heard them enough to feel like they belong to the same core body of work as the first eight UK LPs. maybe because of the bonus tracks present on certain CDs i had when i was first getting into them. just a personal thing, of course. the other exclusions would be:

All Day and All of the Night
Set Me Free
I Need You
See My Friends
Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy
Who'll Be the Next in Line

BUT the big one i did forget was the B-side to "days", the excellent "she's got everything"

I know of the existence of Percy, not sure how often I even came across a physical copy if ever, think I tried to listen to a digital copy recently. Not going to go to the mat for this, but both “The Way Love Used to Be,” and “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” were both on The Great Lost Kinks Album, so hard not to think of them as deeper cuts at least at one point. I couldn’t find TGLKA so bought something called The Pye History of British Music: The Kinks in order to hear the second of those songs.

just a personal thing, of course.

having said that, and opening this up to the possibility of a collaborative ILM list of "all" kinks B-sides and rarities, you could arguably add "percy" and maybe the eight tracks i excluded (because "all day and all of the night" wouldn't make much sense), and then you'd have a pretty robust list of B-sides and rarities, 1963-1970. at that point i wonder what others would wish to add.

Not that big a Kinks fan, but am I the only one who thinks "Only a Dream" from Phobia is great?

Budo, my nonlp compilation is here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/26hwfNCgFmUxF3ZO8byaSJ?si=04d3845e664a4ba7

tracks 1-15 = 64-65 highlights
16-29 = 66-67
30-41 = 68-early 69 ray songs (little lost kinks album)
42-52 = 68-69 dave songs (little lost dave album)
53-64 = 69-73 nonlp
65-86 = early nonlp stuff I don't consider highlights (the rest)
87-120 = some interesting alternates

It's been a few years since I checked but I believe all the early nonlp songs are accounted for, about 6 lp's worth of songs in their first six years alone...

I guess it's objectively bad, but I always laugh when I listen to "Don't Ever Let Me Go", which was a 1964 outtake on Picture Book. Despite the sheer shameless cramming of the "You Really Got Me" riff into the chord progression, it's actually more catchy and fun than almost all of the first album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5fWNzoo2zM

"History" from the Everybody's in Showbiz deluxe package is intriguing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JLIsqTQWU

"Anytime" is well-produced but the chorus is a letdown. I'm glad that someone enjoys "Only a Dream" but I just watched the video and was cringing; then I cringe at myself for cringing at them, like I should be more accepting after all they've given us.

There are those who believe "Don't Ever Let Me Go" was the earlier version of You Really Got Me (because the guitar sounds cleaner) but I buy the theory that it was just meant for possible album filler use. There's yet another rewrite that is sadly still unreleased, Listen to Me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqF-Chmc31c

thanks for sharing your playlist! i will cf. w/ the list i have

Yeah, liking that playlist, thanks.

this is a cool bootleg:

https://www.discogs.com/release/15872751-The-Kinks-Glenhenry-Winners

What's the best bang for the buck CD versions of the first eight albums?

probably this one

https://www.discogs.com/release/2212710-The-Kinks-The-Pye-Album-Collection

the most definitive imo is this one, but it's expensive

https://www.discogs.com/master/2575784-The-Kinks-In-Mono

I'd go with the latter, the one produced by Andrew Sandoval. Sound-wise it's not great, but I think the cheaper option is more or less the late '90s mastering which was awful. Sandoval's has the best presentation so it gets the nod by default.

FWIW, the original PRT CD's from the '80s are surprisingly the best in terms of sound quality. They're reportedly straight transfers of the first-generation tapes with no added compression, noise/hiss reduction or questionable equalization. However they favor stereo, which is great in the case of Arthur but less so with the earlier albums.

This mastering was generally used for most '80s CD's outside of the U.S. (Reprise in the U.S. used the production copies in their vaults for their CD releases), so they're not rare. However, they did make some mistakes, and some pressings introduced a few new ones. Copied from elsewhere:

• The UK and WG PRT discs of the debut are different. The UK is superior. The WG has imbalanced EQ, the right channel is louder and bassier than the left.

• The UK Arthur (CDMP 8835) was mastered too loud and ended up with a lot of clipped peaks. That problem doesn't affect the WG disc.

• The Castle Classics series (catalog number starts with CLACD) basically duplicates the PRT masters, but with swapped channels on all stereo titles except Village Green. The debut is actually based on the superior UK PRT, not the inferior WG one.

• Both PRTs and the CLACD for Lola are missing the drum-roll intro to "Top Of The Pops". However, the WG and CLACD are also missing the count-in to "The Contenders", which is intact on the UK.

• I don't know if it was ever conclusively established whether the two alternate mixes of "Tin Soldier Man" and "Situation Vacant" on Something Else are vintage remixes or if they were done specifically for the CD. Either way, on the PRT/CLACD, those two songs are not the original album mixes.

• Apart from Kinda Kinks and Kontroversy, all of the albums are in stereo, while all of the compilations are in mono (bar "Victoria" and "Apeman").

Sandoval? The Monkees guy? Hmm.

Yup, that guy, but he worked for Rhino and produced a shit ton of stuff. He did all of the Band's reissues in the early '00s, Elvis Costello's two-disc reissues, etc.

(WG is West Germany)

The Band's obviously Capitol, not Rhino, but whatever, he still did them

sandoval also has a long-standing show on wfmu fwiw: https://wfmu.org/playlists/CZ

The Sanctuary single discs from the late '90s are worth picking up disc by disc. They all have fantastic bonus stuff and every title through Village Green was in mono. BMG also did a budget reissue of one of the early US cash-in albums, which picks up the essential stray tracks from that period not on those other early albums.

FWIW, Sandoval's deluxe two-disc issues of each album scoops up more or less all of the bonus stuff found on the Sanctuary discs (as well as other stuff they missed). The Sanctuary discs should be dirt cheap - don't pay more than a few bucks for them. I don't like him because I hate the way they were mastered, but if you're on a budget and need to save money, they're one way to go.