Over the Thirty-plus years (1963-1996) The Kinks were active, they recorded ~30 albums, including 5 live albums and a couple soundtracks, but that doesn’t include the numerous compilations, collections, and greatest hits packages that have been assembled covering various parts of their career. So, where does someone start if they want to get some of this great Kinks music (after listening to the live concerts available through this site)? Because of the several different record labels The Kinks recorded for over the years, these collections each tend to cover only the specific albums and years from that label. Thus, it can be very frustrating and confusing when there are several ‘Best of’ or ‘Greatest Hits’ collections that each have different songs, and may or may not have any of the ‘hits’ you were looking for. There is only one collection that even attempts to cover the entire recording career of The Kinks, the 2-CD, 44-track compilation titled The Ultimate Collection (TUC), released in 2002, and this is a great place for newcomers to The Kinks music to start. TUC does a great job of covering the early years of the Kinks, including virtually all of the most essential tracks from 1964 to about 1967 (covering the first 5 albums and singles from this period, with 27 of the 44 tracks taken from this period). The collection is somewhat less successful in compiling the next few years (1968-1972), with a total of only 11 tracks coming from their next 6 albums (which included some of the band’s best, including Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola, and Muswell Hillbillies). But where the collection completely falls apart is in the supposed inclusion of the rest of the band’s career. Only 6 tracks are included from 1973-1984 (including none from the 6 albums between 1973-1978, a period which covers two of the band’s best albums, Sleepwalker and Misfits), one from Low Budget (1979), and the rest (5) from the early eighties albums (Give The People, State of Confusion, Word of Mouth), when The Kinks rediscovered commercial success. Of course, with a long, rich career like The Kinks, one 2-CD compilation cannot possibly contain all the best songs. However, I think the compilers of TUC would have been better off including a few more songs from the best albums of the 1968-1972 period, which are grossly underrepresented, and not even attempting to include the later material, because it is such a poor representation that it really diminishes their later work. One of the problems with most compilations is that they tend to be overly concerned with which songs were ‘hits’, rather than compiling all the best songs. And really now, here in 2008, some 30-40 years after most of this music was made, does it really matter which songs were hits and which were not? VGPS and Arthur are widely heralded as the best albums of the Kinks careers, as is to a lesser degree Muswell Hillbillies, however, they were commercial failures at the time they were released, thus did not have any ‘hits’ associated with them, just some of the best music the Kinks made. Likewise, for the ‘70’s albums Sleepwalker, Misfits, and others, there were no ‘hits’, but still contained great Kinks music. Anyway, despite these lapses, TUC is still a great collection (just not very complete), and is excellent for compiling all the best stuff from the early years in one package.
So, if you like what you here on TUC, I would next suggest supplementing it with what are arguably the band’s two best albums (and are underrepresented on TUC), The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (VGPS), 1968, and Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire), 1969, and then also Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround (1970). All three of these albums are filled with great, quirky songs that are a delight to hear within the full context of the albums (these were concept albums after all, but the ‘concepts’ actually enhance the songs and don’t get in the way of the enjoyment of the music).
Next, it would be appropriate to get a better sample from the missing years from the TUC compilation. Fortunately, TUC can be supplemented with two separate compilations, Celluloid Heroes: Kinks Greatest covering the years 1971-1976 (RCA years), and Come Dancing With The Kinks (1977-1984), which covers the Arista years. Celluloid Heroes is a great album to get a representative cross-section of the best tracks from the RCA years (1971-1976). Although this period is generally considered to contain some of the weakest albums of the Kinks career, it is nonetheless filled with great individual songs and some great albums, too, and this collection does a great job of including most of the best songs, providing 3 songs from each of the 6 albums (there are a few complaints, in that it is a bit too egalitarian because some of the better albums (Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody’s in Showbiz) deserve more than 3 songs (the excellent ‘Holiday’ and ‘Skin and Bones’ from Muswell Hillbilles are missing), while a lesser album (like Preservation Act 2 ) doesn’t have 3 great songs to include. This collection is also a great addition to TUC, because only one song (‘Celluloid Heroes’) is duplicated, so these are all new acquisitions, and can essentially replace the need for buying most of the albums from this period. As for the Come Dancing collection, which contains 19 songs from the Arista years, it is a bit less successful in compiling the best of the later Kinks, but still does include some great music from this period. Although a nice collection of their most popular songs (the ‘hits’) from this era, some of the best songs are not included. For example, I consider the first two Arista albums, Sleepwalker and Misfits, to be great albums, and among the best of the Kinks, each having 4-5 what I would call essential tracks. However, only 2 tracks from each album are included in this collection, leaving out some of my favorites. Undoubtedly, this is because these albums were not the commercial successes the following albums were, and they save the bulk of tracks for those eighties albums that were very successful (Low Budget, State of Confusion, Word of Mouth). Unfortunately, these tracks duplicate the 6 tracks from this period already included on TUC, with only a few new additions (one welcome addition, however, is the inclusion of the single ‘Father Christmas’ which is delightful and not included on any other compilation). As an added incentive to get both Celluloid Heroes and Come Dancing, they are also available together in a package deal (called The Kinks Greatest (1971-1984) that also includes a bonus DVD of a live concert (from One for the Road album) from 1980, which is also excellent. Thus, for just a handful more dollars than the single compilation CD, you can get both Celluloid Heroes and Come Dancing, and the bonus concert DVD.
For the next round of purchases, I would recommend filling in some of these gaps, most notably, Sleepwalker and/or Misfits. Also worthwhile to get the whole albums of would be Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody’s in Showbiz, and Word of Mouth. As for the other earlier albums, Face To Face and Something Else are also excellent, but if you already have TUC, really, most of the best tracks are already included. If you don’t have TUC, another compilation from this period (1966-1970), The Kinks Kronikles, a 2-CD 28-track compilation, is also very good, and includes several songs from this period not included on TUC. Also worthwhile, but not essential, would be State of Confusion, Think Visual, To The Bone, and One For the Road. Now, Don’t get me wrong, I think all of the Kinks albums (especially the reissue CDs containing generous bonus tracks that compile all the songs from that time period) are worth having, but the purpose of this list was to try and assemble a good representation of Kinks music quickly and easily, without having to buy all the albums. Thus, it is possible to build a respectable Kinks library with just a few purchases. Here is the shorthand version:
Important Note: All of the original albums have been reissued on updated CDs (released in 1998 and 2004) that include numerous bonus tracks. These are especially crucial for the early albums, because now these albums for the first time also include all of the singles and EPs from their respective time periods, which make them much more desirable. However, these albums are also still available as the original CD issues, without bonus tracks. So, if you are purchasing the CDs used, by mail order, or over the internet, make sure you are getting the reissued versions with bonus tracks, as it greatly enhances the listening experience. Also, even some of the compilations, such as Celluloid Heroes and Come Dancing have been issued in a couple different versions, and the original early versions contain fewer tracks, and some different titles than the later reissues. For the most part, you want the later reissues to get all the bonus tracks.
For my own compilation list of all the greatest Kinks songs from all their albums, refer to the post on BBKron’s Komprehensive Klassik Kinks Kollection, elsewhere in this blog.
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