Customer Reviews

BBC Sessions 1964-1977

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This two-CD compilation collects the bulk of The Kinks' truly live performances for the BBC between 1964-77; although many more songs were aired, these were usually the studio records with maybe re-recorded vocals. The years covered span the peak of their career from an artistic point of view, and most of their big hits from the time (sans the 1966 singles and "Lola") appear here along with quality album cuts and several unreleased tracks. Although about 90% of the songs here are five-star classics, the performances on disc one stick largely to the studio originals (perhaps a bit rougher, with a bit more of a "band" feel). It is on disc two where the true finds lie: the band's mid-70s period is represented by two 1974 shows which surpass their other 70s live document "Everybody's In Showbiz"; excellent versions of "Victoria", "Here Comes Yet Another Day", "Skin And Bone" (much lengthier) and "Celluloid Heroes" sound much punchier and energetic than the originals. The sound quality on everything is startingly clear, even on the '64-'65 cuts. There are also a couple of tracks, like "Good Luck Charm" and "When I Turn Out The Living Room Light", which have never seen official release by the group. As a crucial missing link in their catalogue, this long overdue compilation is absolutely essential for Kinks fanatics, while the track selection and quality of performances even makes it a good intro to the group for beginners (this would otherwise be a five-star review, were it not for the slightly unadventurous performances on disc one). God save The Kinks.

The BBC Sessions by the Kinks is an excellent live document of the band from this time period and contains many of their best tracks. Fans of the band will especially be excited with the inclusion of three rare cuts "This Strange Effect", "When I Turn Off The Living Room Lights" and "Good Luck Charm". These cuts are as good as the Kink's other material from this period especially "This Strange Effect". The material ranges from raucous versions of well-known tracks like "You Really Got Me", "All Day And All Night", Dave's "Love Me 'Til The Sun Shines" and a cover of "Milk Cow Blues" to Ray's more introspective material like "See My Friend", "Waterloo Sunset", and "Days". I am also glad favorites like "Tired Of Waiting For You", "Where Have All The Good Times Gone?", "The Village Green Preservation Society", "Victoria" and Dave's "Death Of A Clown" were included. The second disk contains later era favorites like "Here Comes Yet Another Day" and "Celluloid Heroes" with the later tracks augmented by a horn section. The booklet is excellent and contains detailed information about the history of the Kink's BBC sessions.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the set. Occasionally the host of the show talks over the beginning and ending of songs which can become annoying after a while. In addition the songs "Skin And Bone" and "Money Talks" appear twice on the second disk (each version is from a different session). The disks themselves are only about 50 minutes each so more material could have been added. The detailed booklet mentions that songs like the previously unissued Chuck Berry cover "Little Queenie" along with great tracks like "David Watts", "Autumn Almanac", "Suzannah's Still Alive", "King Kong", "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion", "A Well Respected Man", "Sunny Afternoon" and even "Lola" were performed at some of these sessions but none of these is included here. Perhaps the tapes were too bad to use or lost.

Despite these omissions this is still a worthwile set and would prove to be a valuable purchase. The rarities and differences from the studio versions will please the avid fans while set provides a sort of anthology of great songs for the new Kink's fan. Now that this is finally out when will they get around to issuing the Rolling Stones BBC sessions!

I am a big fan of the Kinks- I like every single album between Kink Kontroversy through Preservation Act II (I even like Soap Opera)- so I was very excited when I heard this BBC song collection was coming out. But now that I have heard it through, it has two very large flaws in it.

One is the radio announcers voice on about than half of the songs. The song begins and just before Ray Davies starts to sing, the song is announced in a very phoney radio DJ voice- needless to say the gimmick only last so long before you just wished they cleared it out.

Secondly the song selection- On the first page of the book it shows all the songs that the Kinks did for the BBC show and there was plenty to choose from but for some reason they decided that it would be a good idea to put both "Skin and Bone" and "Money Talks" in twice- granted both of the songs have slightly different versions but when there is soo much to choose from in the catalog it seems like such an incredible waste. There are some difinite plus's to the album though- the songs that are in it are very well done both in performance and sound quality- and their later stuff is different in approach from the ambitions of the studio. Mirror of Love, Demolition, Monica, Waterloo Sunset, Get Back into the Line and Skin and Bones/ Dry Bones are stand outs in my opinion.

Also there are a few songs that aren't on any albums that are really quite good and fun to listen to; the humorous "When I turn off the Living Room Lights" and "This Strange Effect" are both excellent. So if you don't mind abnoxious radio announcers and you're a big Kinks fan you might find this interesting.

This CD is a true gem. There are many clever versions of their big hits-Tired of Waiting, All Day and All of Night, Victoria, Where Have All The Good Times Gone, You Really Got Me, and my personal favorite Celluloid Heroes.

Besides the big hits there are numerous super album tracks. Demolition is a spunky tune with super background vocals and pulsating keyboard embelleshments. Like the subject matter of the Real Estate scene which still sounds fresh today. Both versions of Skin and Bones and Money Talks stand strong. The Kinks really sound super doing jazz inflected tunes such as When I Turn Off The Living Room Light, Holiday, and the charming Mirror Of Love. The Dave Davies tunes are quite good as well.

This is a great CD compilation which is so rich in style that will entertain you until the end of the day.

This is a great collection. A generous two-disc set of the Kinks at the BEEB (BBC). Whether roaring through their early hits or rendering a rare Davies composition (the great Strange Effect, a British hit for Dave Berry), this is Killer Kinks! Many of these tracks are superior to there studio releases - the Kinks show that they were great live.

Overall, the sound quality is great, and the band gives uniformly fine, spriited performances. Not to be missed if your a Kinks fan, and, actually, not a bad place to start for the neophyte.

This 2CD trawls through what has survived of the 24 sessions that the Kinks recorded for the BBC between 1964 and 1977, providing an alternative view of the Kinks. Due to the time constraints and lack of overdubbing facilities, the results are probably far closer to their live sound of the times than the sound produced on their albums and singles.

On their early Pye studio recordings, session men such as Bobby Graham (drums), Jimmy Page (rhythm guitar) and Jon Lord (organ) were drafted in by Shel Talmy to flesh out the sound, but here are the band proving more than capable of cutting it live. They are augmented in the early sessions only by the occasional background vocals of Rasa, Ray Davies' girlfriend and later wife, who also sang on the records, and from 1967 to 1968 by keyboardist extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins.

Many of these have survived only thanks to the BBC Transcription Services that sent World Service programmes to broadcasters around the world in disc form for subsequent transmission, as the original British programmes for which the sessions were recorded, and the session tapes themselves, have been long lost. This means that some have the over-enthusiastic and embarrassingly attempting to be "hip" voice-overs of Brian Matthew (born 1928, and currently to be heard in the UK presenting Radio 2's Sounds Of The Sixties on a Saturday morning in a rather more muted style), as well as his fatherly chats with the band about the length of their hair.

Dave Davies is the featured vocalist on six of the songs up to 1970, all but one on disc one. One of these is his version of Spider Koerner's Good Luck Child, an otherwise unreleased adaptation.

Of particular interest on disc one are their version of Cadillac, the only recording on this set from their very first session for the BBC, and barely a month newer than the studio version on their first album (it was also a single in Germany); Ev'rybodys Gonna Be Happy, considerably changed from the then newly-learnt single version; This Strange Effect, a Ray Davies song only previously known in the hit version by Dave Berry since the Kinks never recorded it or performed it live; and The Village Green Preservation City, also reworked from the album version, but still claiming Disney's Donald Duck as a peculiarly British phenomenon.

The second disc dashes from 1970 to 1977 in just ten tracks including a lengthy excerpt from a 1974 In Concert recording, before backtracking to 1968-1969 for a couple of recordings for BBC-TV and ending with John Peel session versions of songs featured earlier in the In Concert segment of the disc. Though perhaps less essential than the first disc, it nevertheless ably demonstrates the bands' ability to reflect the times whilst remaining uniquely individual, largely due to Ray Davies' ambitious and deft songwriting abilities.

The booklet is annotated with admirably full radio session details and comprehensive notes, but some numbering errors cause confusion for the second disc, so for clarification track 1 is from Dave Lee Travis Show, broadcast 31 May 1970; 2 and 13 are from John Peel, 16 May 1972; 3 and 14 are from John Peel, 11 July 1974; 4 to 9 from In Concert, 27 July 1974; 10 for Old Grey Whistle Test/Sight And Sound In Concert, 24 December 1977; 11 for BBC-1's At The Eleventh Hour, 1968; and 12 for BBC-2's Where Was Spring, 1969.

BBC Sessions is an album that future fans will certainly deem a "collector's item" or an "interesting historical document" and probably nothing more. But it's certainly not without its charms as a listening experience.
It's off-putting to write that the album starts with the worst performance of "You Really Got Me" I've ever heard. Both Ray and Dave mostly sing lazily and painfully off-key and the rest of the band sound pedestrian at best. Youthful nerves? I've never felt the song was strong enough to hold up on its own sans energy and commitment.
Following is "Cadillac", either a blatant imitation of the Stones' "Not Fade Away" or vice versa. Wouldn't know which came first. Wouldn't care. But it pleases me to no end that it only gets much better from here.
The remainder of CD #1 contains very fine performances of timeless Kinks Klassics and select album tracks that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to the uninitiated. Really nice stuff, boys! The beautiful ballad "This Strange Effect" rings familiar. And the younger Davies' "Good Luck Charm" is an irresistible slice of honky-tonk.
CD #2 presents mid-period Kinks in an attractive light. Even the Preservation songs come off well on their own. Unfamiliar oddities such as "Did You See His Name" and "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light" are, well, odd. The former seems like a typical Ray Davies reportage and the latter a self-deprecating satire. I'd agree with anyone who felt the two CDs should best be listened to at separate sittings.
The interviews are interesting and often revealing: Loved hearing Ray being so patronizing to his brother's songwriting talents!

As with other giants like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello, each Kinks release lends its own contribution to the band's reputation and sound. Albums like "Face to Face" or "Arthur" established the Kinks' ability to weave songs into a larger narrative fabric without sacrificing the quality of the music, while "Sleepwalker" or the pitifully neglected "Word of Mouth" and "Phobia" proved that these guys can hammer out as riveting a collection of singles as any band from their era -- no matter how old they get. One of many revelations unique to the BBC Sessions is the breadth of the Kinks' material. A handful of songs here never appeared on studio albums despite being every bit as good as anything from the band's most famous works -- songs like "Harry Rag" and "Strange Effect." One of the Kinks' claims to fame -- though jaded critics wilfully turn their eyes from it -- is that they put more quality music to tape over a longer period of time than The Stones, Who, Beatles or whichever other 60s rock band you want to name. With its treasure-chest of unreleased material, The BBC sessions further confirm this achievement. Similarly, Dave's own songs and guitar work demonstrate that there was a lot more to him than "Death of A Clown" back then, as his sublime "Strangers" proved on 1970's "Lola . . ." album. Dave's interpretation of "Milk Cow Blues" as well as his rollicking "Wonder Where My Baby is Tonight" and "Love Me 'Til The Sun Shines" suggest that, at the top of their game, the Davies' brothers were every bit as fierce a songwriting tandem as Lennon/McCartney or Jagger/Richards. Contrary to the Amazon staff reviewer's assertion, this is hardly a "greatest hits" collection. There is a lot here to savor for Kinks fans new and old, and plenty of surprises waiting for members of both camps. Most delightful of all are the few fleeting moments of commentary from the Davies' back in the early days: confessions that their music is neither R&B nor Rock but rather "expression music" or that they wear their hair long because "the girls go for it." Well, the girls may or may not be going for it anymore, but one thing is for sure: plenty of people will go for these BBC Sessions with the Kinks if they're willing to give them a chance.

It's a damn shame that Zeppelin, the Kinks, and Hendrix, all got the double CD treatment for the BBC Sessions but the Who did not. Nevertheless, all the bands mentioned above unarguably deserve it. I've been a kinky Kinks fan for a long time and I'm glad to see that the people in charge of releasing this stuff finally got their acts together. The Kinks should have released this a long time ago. Everything contained in the compilation (songs and liner notes) is worthy of 5 stars. Although, I agree 100% w/ the reviewer who said that it was sort of a "waste" that 'Money Talks' and 'Skin & Bone' are included twice when there were other great selections that could have taken their place. I have nothing against these great songs, but for the price, I would have been more satisfied with different selections. I recommend this for any Kinks-kompletist or any fans of superb music. Also, people who are so to death of the 80% of the time overrated Beatles. Don't everyone wish death upon me all at once. Do yourself a favor and buy this stupindous CD!

I'm NOT a KINKOPHILE, although I do consider the brothers Davies and their associates over the years very talented, and an important influence on rock n roll. Ray's lyrics and singing coupled with Dave's guitar playing and harmony vocals elevated the Kinks sound above the fanny shakin' and boob bouncin' work out three chord stuff of the fifties and early sixties. Usually, BBC recordings leave a lot to be desired: uneven, poorly recorded, bad sound, unbalanced, NOT this recording. I thought I was taking a big risk purchasing this double disk; FEAR NOT! I'm amazed at how good the recordings are throughout. These tracks sound 10 times better than the Beatles BBC stuff. Raw, but not distorted, clear, edgy; all the instruments are up front in the mix, as are the vocals. a wonderful surprise. And as the tracks proceed chronologically, the sound gets even better. The Performances are spirited, as the lads knew these were their best form of advertising at this time. And you do not have to put up with all the crowd noise that is on the Kelvin Hall disc. The comment one reviewer mentions regarding the "annoying" BBC announcer - that's a matter of taste in the listener. To me, it's Ok - it does not bother me. I can look beyond his comments. The music is the important thing here. On disc two, there's a string of live (in front of audience) cuts that are just brilliant, with two chick singers and a horn section, which really sounds great. About five or six tracks. I highly recommend this collection, although it is pricey. The early songs on disc one actually sound better in this format than on their actual studio recordings. LIVE IT UP!