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"...Unreal Reality..."
In a new interview conducted
with renowned writer David Fricke in 2016 - principal songwriter RAY DAVIES and
heart of THE KINKS, explains things used to be easier. Back in their 60ts
heyday, the famously caustic British band would tour the States for maybe three
weeks – but in 1972 after a prolonged four-year absence from American stages –
gigging lasted nearly three months. Five lads in their mid-20s grinding through
day-after-day of "...anonymous hotels, fleeting acquaintances and
desperate homesickness..." atop product demands (give us an album a year
or else) and the usual daytime radio promotions from people pretending to be
interested. But that touring strain see-sawing with up and down emotions,
creative splurges and a triumphant March 1972 live-sets at New York's Carnegie
Hall (Sides 3 and 4 of the original double-album) set up what many now feel is
one of the band's truly great 70ts pieces - the 2LP "Everybody's In
Show-Biz - Everybody's A Star" (actually shortened to just
"Everybody's In Showbiz" for American copies). For sure, it was not
greeted with genuflection at the time by everyone – well in show-biz – but time
has been kinder to the difficult Seventies.
As legend would have it and
with titles like "Sitting in My Hotel Room", "Motorway" and
"Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" - the double album was to be a
concept piece and film about life on the road for our Celluloid Heroes
initially entitled "The Colossal Shirt". Named after an elaborately
embroidered cowboy shirt Ray Davies wore on stage most nights during late 1971,
this (wisely discarded) moniker was in itself a line taken from John
Schlesinger's 1969 film masterpiece "Midnight Cowboy" starring Jon
Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Brenda Vaccaro. There is a filmic quality to the
songs and especially the deep and voluminous amount of lyrics – which brings us
to this rather fab 2016 twofer reissue on RCA/Legacy as a LEGACY EDITION.
Fans will know that the last
decent digital go at "...Show-Biz..." was the expensive and now
deleted US Box Set "RCA Years" – six SACD Remasters by Bob Ludwig and
Alan Silverman issued 31 October 2006 on Koch Records. That variant turned up
two new previously unreleased live tracks from the original March 1972 gigs at
Carnegie Hall that made up Sides 3 and 4 of the original double - "'Til
The End Of The Day" and "She's Bought A Hat Like Princess
Marina". This new definitive June 2016 'LEGACY EDITION' gives us those two
bonuses back again (Tracks 1 and 12 on CD2) along with a juicy 15 more
Previously Unreleased cuts on that same disc. The 21-track double-album from
1972 is on CD1 with the whole twofer shebang newly remastered by ace Audio
Engineer VIC ANESINI - a name many admire and trust. Long-time Kinks catalogue
associate ANDREW SANDOVAL put the package together (he did all the Deluxe
Editions for Universal covering their Pye Years) and is even issued on VINYL as
a truncated 3LP set (see below). Here are the finite details...
UK released 6 June 2016
(same date USA) - "Everybody's In Show-Biz" by THE KINKS on
RCA/Legacy 88875112362 (Barcode 888751123625) is a LEGACY EDITION 2CD Reissue
and Remaster with Fifteen Previously Unreleased Tracks (Plus Two 2006 Rarities)
that plays out as follows:
Disc One THE ORIGINAL ALBUM
(71:19 minutes):
1. Here Comes Yet Another
Day [Side 1]
2. Maximum Consumption
3. Unreal Reality
4. Hot Potatoes
5. Sitting In My Hotel
6. Motorway [Side 2]
7. You Don't Know My Name
8. Supersonic Rocket Ship
9. Look A Little On The
Sunny Side
10. Celluloid Heroes
11. Top Of The Pops (Live)
[Side 3]
12. Brainwashed (Live)
13. Mr. Wonderful (Live)
14. Acute Schizophrenia
Paranoia Blues (Live)
15. Holiday (Live)
16. Muswell Hillbilly (Live)
[Side 4]
17. Alcohol (Live)
18. Banana Boat Song (Live)
19. Skin And Bone (Live)
20. Baby Face (Live)
21. Lola (Live)
Tracks 1 to 21 make up their
tenth album "Everybody's In Show-Biz - Everybody's A Star" - a 2LP
set released 26 August 1972 in the USA as "Everybody's In Showbiz" on
RCA Victor VPS-6065 and 2 September 1972 in the UK as "Everybody's In
Show-Biz - Everybody's A Star" on RCA Victor DPS 2035. It didn't chart in
the UK, but peaked at No. 70 in the USA.
Disc Two BONUS TRACKS (62:22
minutes):
1. 'Til The End Of The Day
(Live)
2. You're Looking Fine
(Live)
3. Get Back In Line (Live)
4. Have A Cuppa Tea (Live)
5. Sunny Afternoon (Live)
6. Muswell Hillbilly (Live)
7. Brainwashed (Live)
8. Acute Schizophrenia
Paranoia Blues (Live)
9. Holiday (Live)
10. Alcohol (Live)
11. Complicated Life (Live)
12. She's Bought A Hat Like
Princess Marina (Live)
13. Long Tall Shorty (Live)
14. History (Studio Outtake)
15. Supersonic Rocket Ship
(Alternate Mix)
16. Unreal Reality
(Alternate Mix)
17. Sophisticated Lady
(Rehearsal For Early Version of "Money Talks")
Tracks 1 and 12 first
appeared as Previously Unreleased Album Outtakes on the "RCA Years"
6xSACD Box Set issued 31 October 2006 in the USA on Koch Records VEL-CD-79821
(Barcode 634677982125)
Tracks 2 to 11 and 13 to 17
are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED [15 in total]
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10 and 11 recorded 2 March 1972 at Carnegie Hall, NYC
Tracks 3 and 13 recorded 3
March 1972 at Carnegie Hall, NYC
Track 14 recorded 1 March
1972 at Carnegie Hall, NYC
Track 15 recorded 9 February
1972 at Morgan Studios, Willesden in London
Track 16 recorded 1 June
1972 at Morgan Studios, Willesden in London
Track 17 recorded 22 March
1973 at Morgan Studios, Willesden in London
There is a 3LP VINYL variant
of the 6 June 2016 'Legacy Edition' of "Everybody's In Show-Biz" by
THE KINKS on RCA/Legacy Edition 88875193561 (Barcode 888751935617). It puts the
double-album on Discs 1 and 2 with a truncated third LP containing 9 of the 17
cuts on the second disc of the 2CD Legacy Edition set. Using Disc Two above,
the nine song titles on LP3 are, Side 1: Tracks 1 to 5, Side 2: Tracks 11, 13,
14 and 15. Fans will note that Side 1 of the third LP is live while Side 2 has
alternate mixes of album tracks including the recently discovered studio
outtake, "History".
The 28-page booklet recreates
the lyrics that adorned the inner gatefold whilst the new DAVID FRICKE liner
notes feature a Ray Davies interview and the text peppered with live photos of
the band as they toured the USA, magazine reviews and a two-page memorabilia
spread towards the end. There is a repro of the rare Dutch picture sleeve for
the 45 "Celluloid Heroes" b/w "Hot Potatoes" on Page 12 and
of course full track-by-track credits on the last pages. But the big news is
the VC ANESINI Remasters – an Audio Engineer who is normally associated with
Sony/BMGs vast back catalogue – Elvis Presley, Paul Simon, Santana, Byrds,
Nilsson, Mott The Hoople, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro, The Jayhawks, Simon and
Garfunkel, Aerosmith, Spirit and many more. He’s done a bang-up job here because this is the best
I’ve heard these recordings sound. Let’s get to the miserable mattresses...
In the Glam Rock/Prog Rock
landscape of approaching summer 1972 , I suppose you couldn't blame RCA for
trying the Caribbean Islands friendly rhythms of "Supersonic Rocket
Ship" as a lead-off 7" single. Released May 1972 in the UK with
another album cut "You Don't Know My Name" as its B-side (RCA Victor
RCA 2211) - it didn't raise pulses let alone booties on the dancefloor. Far
better but inexplicably late to the party after the double-album's release (2
Sep 1972 in Blighty) - RCA went again with a firm fan fave-rave in late
November 1972, the full 6:02 minutes of "Celluloid Heroes" b/w
"Hot Potatoes" on the flip. This wistfully strummed winner opens with
"Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star...In every house and on
every street...their names are written in concrete..." Even now it seems
absolutely extraordinary that this singalong ballad was ignored - a commercial
45 failure that shouldn't have been and therefore I suspect grated even worse.
And I suppose if you were to niggle even more (especially given the
playing-time room on Disc Two), RCA could have included the American 45 edit of
"Celluloid Heroes" on this Legacy Edition which running at 4:39
minutes is also said to be a remix according to some sources - but alas.
Optical illusions as far as
the eyes can see, bemoans Ray on the New Orleans brass of "Unreal
Reality" (not one of his best I think) - while our hero sits thinking of
the countryside in "Sitting In My Hotel" - watching the world go by -
perhaps thinking of The Beatles with those brass overlays in the mix. He's got
no time to use the John in the sexy guitar/harmony vocal opener "Here
Comes Another Day" and its very hard to please the people all the time in the
decidedly acidic "Look A Little On The Sunny Day" where Ray advises
what you need to be a success in pop is a 'happy wappy song'.
I suppose what threw people
was the 'live' Sides 3 and 4, where it feels like a different band to me at
times and on a different emotional tip. Things open up with a kicking "Top
Of The Pops" where Ray reckons this songwriting thing might turn into a
steady job with some help from the BBC and the NME (don't count your chickens
Douglas). But what gets me even now is that you can 'feel' the band is on fire
with songs like "Holiday" - like they know they've got the metrial if
only they can get someone to listen to it - even if some of the other tunes
feel just a tad too flippant – like the show is more a Jethro Tull-ish pantomime
than a Rock concert. Speaking of "History", the unheard studio cut is
5:20 minutes of primo 'dirty hotel' Kinks that compliments an Alternate Mix of
"Supersonic Rocket Ship" where the feel is more McGuinness Flint and
Slim Chance strummed banjo and mandolin than the steel drums that seep through
the LP version.
"Everybody's In
Show-Biz" is a really cool 2CD Legacy Edition in THE KINKS reissue catalogue (I've
also reviewed "Muswell Hillbillies") - and it's currently selling for
less than eight squid on Amazon (December 2019, use the Barcode provided above to locate the correct issue).
Time to dig in again methinks
and reassess this misunderstood and ignored silver screen of the Seventies...
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