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Hooray! More Kinks! The fourth greatest group of the British Invasion has returned with 35-tracks on two CDs courtesy of the BBC archives. And like last year's BBC set featuring The Who, The Kinks Sessions includes versions of the group's biggest hits and some songs found — at least officially — nowhere else.
The BBC produced 22 Kinks sessions between the years of 1964-1977, the majority of them from '64-'69. As with early Who and Beatles BBC material, the sessions The Kinks recorded for the BBC weren't exactly live tracks and they weren't full-blown studio creations either. In most cases the groups were tracked live with minimal overdubbing, and then broadcast on BBC Light
Programmes such as Saturday Club, Top Gear and The Joe Loss Pop Show.
According to Russell Smith's extensive KINKS BBC Sessions liner notes, the
BBC sessions were recorded because of a union agreement that limited the playing of commercial recordings on Britain's airwaves. The benefit was that these sessions created more work for musicians and house engineers. The downside was, growing up in England in 1965, you had fewer opportunities to hear your favorite hits on the radio.
Of course as more of these recordings are released — Led Zeppelin and David Bowie have also released BBC sessions — the historical benefits are clear. It's only too bad that the BBC was not a better custodian of its archives, or we would have even more great music to discover. Some of the Kinks BBC sessions have been lost, but what remains is a testament to the fine, though often underrated, musicianship of England's most English Pop band and in particular the great songwriting talents of Ray and Dave Davies.
The set kicks off with BBC announcer Brian Matthew introducing The Kinks as "five more members of the shaggy set" (According to Smith, background vocalist Rasa Davies probably accounts for the fifth member), and then it's straight into the group's first number one, "You Really Got Me."
The BBC "You Really Got Me" sounds pretty close to the original, though it somehow lacks the aggression of the single version. However, the following track, Bo Diddley's "Cadillac," is top-notch, with its snarling harmonica line and shout along chorus, "C-A-D-I-L-L-A-C." Particularly impressive on the track and elsewhere in the set is the fluid bass playing of Pete Quaife. Quaife is undoubtedly one of the more underrated sidemen of his era.
Fine versions of "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting For
You" follow, but "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" outshines the original single version. The BBC version has a more commanding Motown groove, with a great, woofy bass line from Quaife. Samplers take note, "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" is perfect fodder for a dance mix.
One of the real treasures on the set is "This Strange Effect," a track written by Ray Davies but recorded by Dave Berry (perhaps best known as the singer of "The Crying Game"). This is the only known Kinks' recording of the song. Kinks guitarist Dave Davies really shines on the BBC Sessions. Although Dave is mostly revered for his ferocious tone on the early singles, he is also a fine songwriter and a limited but effective singer. Most impressive are two songs originally recorded for the LP Something Else: "Death of A Clown" and "Love Me 'til the Sun Shines."
"Death of a Clown" is in every way equal to the album version, with its delicate sustained piano line and ethereal background vocals fully re-created. The rocker "Love Me 'til the Sun Shines," however, completely surpasses the album version. Something Else is undoubtedly one of the Kinks' finest efforts, though the heavier Rock aspects of the group were muted in favor of more ambitious production ideas. "Love Me 'Til the Sun Shines," recorded for the BBC as a Dave Davies solo session, is faster, and less muddled sounding, and in general, Dave Davies vocal performances on the BBC sessions are superior to his singing on the albums.
Disc two begins with another Dave Davies track, a reworking of "Mindless Child of Motherhood," which finds Dave singing a bit like Humble Pie's Steve Marriot. It's a great track that reveals the Kinks' live power at the time.
The Kinks Music Hall leanings come to the fore on "Holiday." It's the Kinks at their most whimsical, with Dixieland horns and a warbled vocal from Ray Davies.
There are a few more highlights on disc two: a punchy, horn-driven version of "Victoria" from the LP Arthur, "Get Back in Line" from Lola Vs. the Powerman and the title track from Celluloid Heroes. These recordings are different from the earlier BBC sessions in that they were recorded live in front of an audience for an "in concert" special.
Disc two, not surprisingly, doesn't live up to the first. In the mid-1970s, The Kinks released a series of concept albums, which it must be said, were far from their best work. Three tracks here come from the little-loved Preservation Act II LP. The Kinks often used an expanded line-up during these years, and more often than not, the horns and background vocals were more of a distraction than anything else.
Of course, that The Kinks BBC Sessions doesn't end as nicely as it begins is typical of a Rock music collection that spans 13 years. Sadly, most of our old heroes were suffering a little by the time 1977 rolled around, and it was time for a changing of the guard. But even with the lesser material, The Kinks BBC Sessions is an outstanding document of one of England's all-time greatest Pop groups.
