Konfounding Kinks

Good comparison between the Kinks & the Faces as similarly great & over-looked. I recently discovered the fantastic 4-CD set "Five Guys Walk into a Bar." Sonics of this rare demo & live material is up and down, but it's an amazing testament to the Faces, and to how once in a generation or so the stars all line up in drunkeness.

I followed them live in concert through Arthur & Muswell Hillbillies to the theatrical nadir of Soap Opera & Schoolboys(ouch!)... resurfacing with Ray's fine Storyteller tour in the mid 90s and more recent tours with a well-chosen international pick-up band. It's all great even when it isn't. Dave's solo projects are interesting (his spiritual sensiblity in some ways analogous to George Harrison; check out Dave's "Kinked" collection). With Workingman's Cafe Ray is still on top, and as always, a keen observer of the decline and fall of empire.

I notice that the Kinks back catalog has recently been trickling out on "audiophile vinyl." I don't know how good these reissues sound in comparison to the original issues, most of which were well recorded. One of the best LPs sonically is an import of UK Jive on the London label manufactured in Holland. A copy came to me from a Radio Free Europe record station-- which seems a felicitous association. Nice to know Mr. Davies got beyond the Wall & not bad for $1.99 in the record bins.

BTW, most of early hits were collected on double LPs Pye DP02 "The Kinks" and "The Kink Kronikles" on Reprise. I believe Kronikles is on CD but I don't know about the Pye collection.