Kink Kronikles

I did some record shopping the other day at Exile on Main Street. A
couple of weeks back I spied a vinyl copy of the Kinks Kronikles,
their best-of and odds-and sods from their golden era in the late
sixties and early seventies. Now I have a ceedee copy of this that I
traded with my old college pal Sam Pfeiffle, I think for a Brand New
Heavies disc. Well Sam, I'll say that I won out, since I'm sure that
BNH disc is collecting dust now. Anyway, this collection contains some
of their best gems, but also has pretty bad sound quality, being from
the early days of cd mastering and considering that the original
recordings were destined for vinyl and maybe done a little on the
cheap. This period also corresponds wit Ray Davie's initial forays as a
producer. To add to this my disc is pretty heavily scratched and skips
on some key parts.
So I get the vinyl home, give it a quick clean, and spin it up. Now
I'll admit that I was likely a bit biased, but the whole piece sounded
much more alive. Songs I had mentally skipped over on the cd stood out
and grabbed me. Suddenly "Berkeley Mews" has become a shimmering pop
tune, "Willesden Green" swings in its boozy little way, and "Autumn
Almanac" has becomes an irresistible singalong. Better yet, the killer
tracks stand out even better than before. I've always wanted good,
vinyl copies of "Days", "Susannah's Still Alive", and especially
"Mindless Child of Motherhood", to name a few of the semi-unreleased
tracks on the collection. And without the annoying skip/breakdown on
the cd I now have learned that the garagey Merseybeat of "She's Got
Everything" has a wicked little breakdown at the end. Chalk one up for
the big black wax today...

TB