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

A lot of Kinks threads, but why not another one. Been listening to a lot of the earlier stuff, and have been struck by so many little gems amidst the more well-known cuts. Like "I Go To Sleep" (a bonus track on Kinda Kinks). It is this lovely fragile thing, unlike almost anything else that was happening in the mid-60s. And for that matter unlike almost anything else the Kinks were doing. Where did it come from?

So! What's your fave Kinks deep cut?

Misty Water!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76YVIq8dBbU

yeah misty water is great, as is rosemary rose and lavender hill

Mindless Child of Motherhood is my favorite deep cut.

Are we talking rarities or deep cuts or both? My favorite deep cut is probably "Jukebox Music"
"Mindless Child of Motherhood" is great

yeahhhh, mindless child definitely the jewel in dave davies' 60s efforts.
just meant songs that you don't hear mentioned too much when it comes to the kinks.

Oh wait, "God's Children" is my other favorite -- the "wise man, simpleton, the loser, and the winner" part makes me want to pass out I love it so much.

I have no idea if people mention it a lot, but it's not really in the same category as "Waterloo Sunset" or other Kinks songs everyone knows.

yeah i love god's children. that Percy album/sdtk has some cool stuff on it. maybe it's a whole album of deep cuts.

this one was sounding extra good to me too. kind of pre-Stooges, lyrically
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBAzX3x0lAU

Deep cuts: Too Much on My Mind is lovely. All of My Friends Were There, Australia. Love everything about Funny Face except for the actual chorus.

B-sides/rarities: Berkeley Mews, all the GLKA songs that have been mentioned so far.

This is hard for me because I probably listen to Kinks Kronikles and The Great Lost Kinks Album as much if not more than their more popular work so my concepts are skewed.

Like this is as good as it gets for me, is this rare?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHGaIAm22Rw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZghyIdrho

yeah, "where I belong" is not one of their huge songs, though it's become a bit of a standard, right? i've heard several covers of it anyway. whatevs, amazing amazing song.

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

amazing how much of this stuff there is, really

All of these songs sound like hits to me because I've listened to them way more than, I dunno, Village Green. "Yes Sir, No Sir" another favorite -- so theatrical!

yeah that one's great, so is "Brainwashed"

"I'm Not Like Everybody Else" probably my fave B-side.

tons of great deep cuts on Face To Face as well, almost the whole album!

one that i hadn't heard til that box set came out a few years back was "Strange Effect" ... really beautiful, dreamy tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKyjHhsbAtg

"Misty Water" has some serious Dave Davies chunk-style on it. Love it.

"Juke Box Music" was a near-hit single in the US. I even heard it over the grocery store PA last month. "Full Moon" is a minor masterpiece; for my money, it's the closest they got to their mid-60s peak during their Arista years (of course, that could be because it rips off "Johnny Thunder," but still).

Cripes, just remembered, I heard "Johnny Thunder" in a restaurant two nights ago. Kinkstown, USA!

And I will always rep for "Look Through Any Doorway" (from the 1991 Did Ya EP) and "Scattered" (from Phobia).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAKZBkEAA6c

i'm pretty sketch on the kinks past 1972 or so (never have been able to get into the preservation act stuff), but on the picture book box set, the later stuff sounds pretty nice. nuclear love, a little emotion, attitude ...

There's not much to recommend the Preservation-and-after stuff, although "Sweet Lady Genevieve" (off Act 1) is ace; they opened a few 1993 shows with it, which sent the handful of Kinks obsessives in the audience into hysterics.

I always thought that an album nearly as good as Something Else or VGPS could be compiled from the best songs off the Arista, MCA, and CBS records (which, more often that not, amounts to one song per record).

yeah, disc 5 of the picture book set is very listenable.

Totally off-topic but both singles off of Come Dancing still resonate for me some 25 years later. Esp after reading X-Ray.

There's another thread that gets into this more but:

1. There's a *ton* of good stuff on the concept albums (Preservation through Schoolboys), and
2. Anyone who hasn't heard Ducks On The Wall does not truly know the Kinks.

I wish I still had X-Ray. I left it behind at a job I quit.

dlp9001 otm. The hate for concept albums is imo more an effect of people's expectations being shattered than anything else. fwiw I agree that Ducks on the Wall is a great song, more for the sentiment than anything else.

These are great:

- Nothing to Say (perfect portrait of dull family dinners)
- People Take Pictures of Each Other (acutely brilliant statement about how fucking dumb family photos can be)
- War is Over (anything off that album is a deep cut imo)
- This Time Tomorrow (always gets in my head the day before a holiday abroad)
- Have a Cuppa Tea (so much fun, and I just adore Dave's vocal in the chorus)
- Sitting in the Midday Sun (was this a single? if so, oops)
- Nobody Gives (although I could do without the more stilted lyrics tbh)

Holy shit! This...this was actually a thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vLaaehtwcs
It's The Kinks Summertime Sunshine Smile-Time Variety Hour!

This was better than everything else on Phobia by such a wide margin I thought, "If Ray is still capable of this today, why isn't the rest of this record any good?" Turns out it was a holdover from Muswell Hillbillies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7a8VOeCeEY

Can we do Ray's solo stuff here?

Love the "Mountain Man / Mountain Woman" bonus track on the Muswell Hillbillies reissue

sure, put any dave/ray solo jamzz that are worthy here too.
i dunno, i haven't given the concept preservation act stuff enough time, probably. maybe it'l click at some point.

'return to waterloo'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB4v3mpX4qk

"Nothing More To Lose" is a great Dave cut from his first solo LP, but probably not "deep" since it received radio play when he released the album (forget the name, it was the label code or something like that).

Personal favorite Kinks deep cuts: "Property", "Moving Pictures", "Face In The Crowd", "No More Looking Back", "End Of The Season"...nothing real deep here either, I guess...still, you won't hear them on the radio...

I love, love, love the video for No More Looking Back. Ray's performance totally intense:

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

There are so many of these and a lot of them have already been mentioned, but I'll just "Face In The Crowd" once again

"Sitting In My Hotel" also... sort of similar... has a couple of instances of rhyming slang in the lyrics too

I love 'When I Turn Off the Living Room Light' from the Great Lost Kinks album, and 'Did Ya' from the 1991 ep.

Mindless Child of Motherhood is my favorite deep cut.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, May 18, 2011 12:56 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ Absolutely.

I'm very very fond of just about everything on The Great Loat Kinks Album, Reprise '73. Could live w out "There Is No Life Without Love." This listing is from Wikipedia, which has some way of designating which tracks appeared on which CDs. Also, Amazon lists the whole thing on one CD (think it's all although Wiki sez a couple haven't ever been on official CD). Amazon also lists its price as over 200 bucks (asking $29 for vinyl)

1. "Til Death Do Us Part[Release 1]" (mono) 3:12
2. "There Is No Life Without Love[Release 2]" (mono) Dave Davies/Ray Davies 1:55
3. "Lavender Hill[Release 3]" (mono) 2:53
4. "Groovy Movies[Release 3]" (stereo) 2:30
5. "Rosemary Rose[Release 3]" (mono) 1:43
6. "Misty Water[Release 3]" (stereo) 3:01
7. "Mister Songbird[Release 3]" (stereo) 2:24
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "When I Turn off the Living Room Light[Release 4]" (mono) 2:17
2. "The Way Love Used to Be[Release 5]" (stereo) 2:11
3. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else[Release 2]" (mono) 3:29
4. "Plastic Man[Release 6]" (mono) 3:00
5. "This Man He Weeps Tonight[Release 6]" (stereo) Dave Davies 2:38
6. "Pictures in the Sand[Release 1]" (mono) 2:45
7. "Where Did the Spring Go?[Release 3]" (mono) 2:10

The Great Lost Kinks Album, sorry.

"Nothing More To Lose" is a great Dave cut from his first solo LP, but probably not "deep" since it received radio play when he released the album (forget the name, it was the label code or something like that).

yeah the title was bar code. i was really into this album when it came out, listened again recently and it didn't hold up save for "Nothing More to Lose"

don't know if its deep but "Im not like everybody else" is probably my favorite Kinks song fwiw

Not sure how deep it can be since I first heard of it from Greil Marcus in Mystery Train Couldn't find The Great Lost Kinks Album- the clerk, I mean the security guard, at the disc-o-mat at Grand Central said "what you looking for, kid? Oh, that's all sold out, it'll be in next week" so after a few weeks I went further downtown and got it on a copy of something called The Pye History of British Music. But I guess it's deep enough, as I learned when I requested it at Adam Roth's rock and roll challenge at Manitoba's: Handsome Dick knew it and sang a little from behind the bar but Adam didn't and furthermore he refused to allow that he was stumped on a Kinks song so he played "Victoria" instead. So I didn't get to hear him sing "Come and get your prize" instead of "Come And Get Your Love" whilst walking up to receive a thrift store paperback

I could also live w out "This Man He Weeps Tonight," the other track w Dave's writing, Ray helps this time, comes out as overwrought squawky-warbly etc as "There Is No Life Without Love." Somewhere I've got a CD reissue of Muswell Hillbillies with good bonus tracks, all from the MH sessions, I think. Not deep cuts, but just sayin.

The "Everybody's A Star" clip Tarfumes posted 10 months back is blowing my mind; Ray's on some Fee Waybill trip there. I've said this elsewhere, but I saw the Soap Opera tour back in the day, and it was absolutely incredible.

Soap Opera isn't one of my faves, but everything I've read about the tour talks intriguingly about how well it worked as a live piece (Christgau: "Maybe because it works so perfectly in the theater, this doesn't seem to work too well anywhere else.")

Yeah, the songs themselves are only fair to middling (I have a big soft spot for the goofy music hall "Holiday Romance") but it was a wonderful rock theater performance.

I like "Holiday in Waikiki." The lyrics are hilarious too, and perhaps more relevant now than ever.

"Can't Stop The Music." And you know what? It's true. See? You're trying, but you CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC.

As a Kinks dilettante, this poll is becoming very enlightening for me. A trend is emerging. They seem to stash a few absolutely world-class songs on these dense concept albums that look like a chore to wade through. You couldn't pay me to sit through Schoolboys in Disgrace, yet No More Looking Back is a masterpiece. It's quite confounding.

I actually think Schoolboys is the best of those. It's by far the most consistent, and seems to be the only occurrence (out of the run from Preservation to Soap Opera) of Davies' theatrical concept actually resulting in a solid, engaging record.

Doing some googling I discovered that the Soap Opera tour actually opened in my hometown (St. Paul, MN.) By the time it headed east the setlist was:

The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA – April 20th, 1975
Disc 1 (52:46): Introduction (part 1), Here Comes Flash, Here Comes Yet Another Day, Demolition, Mirror Of Love, Money Talks, band intro., Celluloid Heroes, Banana Boat Song, Lola, Alcohol, Skin And Bones, You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night
Disc 2 (61:23): Intro (part 2), Everybody’s A Star (Starmaker) / Dialogue / Everybody’s A Star, dialogue, Ordinary People, dialogue, Rush Hour Blues, dialogue, Nine To Five / When Work Is Over / Have Another Drink, dialogue, Underneath The Neon Sign, dialogue, You Make It All Worthwhile / dialogue / You Make It All Worthwhile, Ordinary People (reprise), dialogue / Here Comes Flash, Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon, dialogue, Ducks On the Wall, dialogue, Face In The Crowd, dialogue, You Can’t Stop The Music

My memories of the show are hazy (I was 16) but we did NOT get the first set of Preservation songs. I remember the Lola/All Day/You Really Got Me oldies portion was appended near the end of the Soap Opera songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDroA9qd5w&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5OL_dJ-vQA

Well hey, this from the new reissue is pretty surprisingly great. Not sure if it appears above...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YL_5-EUh0#t=152

i feel like i have enough kinks but then i feel like i need to get all of those deluxe editions. that song sounds awesome. never heard it before

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.