The Kinks - Lola vs Powerman & The Moneygoround 50th anniversary... predictions, suggestions, etc.

But those are just 2 CD editions, aren't they? Hardly comparable.

I don't think so. It would make more sense to go back and do the other 60s albums. No need for a "50th anniversary" alibi anymore.

 

The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd all had these lavish box sets before the Beatles.

 

Sure, I never said they were the first to release a Deluxe edition box set of an album. I'm just saying those Stones CDs are not it.

 

The problem with the Stones is that they will not give permission for adding bonus tracks on the albums owned by Abkco. Which means that no interesting 50th anniversary editions were released so far.

 

"Rosie Rook" is still unreleased.

 

Agreed. But additionally, The Kinks were super prolific in 1968...obviously there were 17 songs associated with VGPS (I'm including Mr. Songbird and Days) but a slew of other songs were recorded around the same time like Berkeley Mews, Did You See His Name, Misty Water, etc. It's easy to release a massive box set when you have 35 songs laying around.

 

Any further thoughts about what the bonus tracks on this Lola Vs. Powerman box set could be?

Somebody earlier mentioned Dave's Climb Your Wall, I guess there are a couple of Ray solo piano pieces from The Long Distance Piano Player--Marathon and his version of Got To Be Free.

It'd be amazing if any "Part 2" tracks surfaced. I also wonder if maybe Ray will give the greenlight for a 1970 live concert. Their concerts got good reviews in 1970 and I know that there are some live recordings circulating.

 

And lets not forget The Pet Sounds Sessions in 1997- a 4 disc box dedicated to a single album, kind of pointing the way to today.

 

The Kinks' Dave Davies shares details about upcoming deluxe 'Lola Versus Powerman' reissue | KSHE 95

Dave reveals that one interesting highlight of the deluxe reissue is a section dubbed “The Kitchen Sink Tapes” that features recently recorded conversations between Ray and him discussing various songs from the album.

“It’s stuff we recorded before this weird pandemic thing,” he explains. “We met up at Ray’s house, and we just [had an] impromptu kind of conversation, [talking] about ‘Ape Man’ and what ‘Lola’ meant to us and how it came about, and how the ideas for ‘Strangers’ were born.”

Davies also reports that the Lola Versus Powerman reissue will include some demos of the song “Lola” that Ray recorded at his house, and an unreleased demo of the Dave-penned gem “Strangers.”​

 

Can't wait to hear their impromptu conversation:

Ray: So little brother, what did you think about "Lola" when I first presented the song to you?
Dave: I was tripping that day, and had just seen 17 UFOs, but I still was surprised that you had written another song about yourself.
Ray: It wasn't about me.
Dave: You may not want to admit it now, but I know better.
Ray: Go stick your Flying V up your a$$.
Dave: I first would have to take it out of yours...

(Sounds of chairs falling, and shattered glass...)

 

Wow.. these ‘kitchen sink tapes’ will technically be the first new released Ray/Dave collaborative recordings since 1997! Ok there’s the minor detail that they’re not actually music, but... still kinda significant given the seriously bad blood twixt the two Davies bros over the last 2 decades plus that made most of us resigned to the strong probability that they’d never work together in any form again... Inching towards a reunion indeed!

 

That conversation sounds more like it would make a good pod-cast rather than something to put on a box-set of the album.

 

Probably Ray insisted on including it. He likes to be contrary at times. But if that is what it takes to keep him happy, we have to accept it.

 

Exactly. Sounds like promotional material and not content. If however they are sitting in the kitchen each with a guitar in his lap strumming while reminiscing, well maybe.

 

I wish that they'd release the new songs they supposedly demoed around 2017 (as I'm sure we all do).

Kind of silly that they're releasing this conversation, just like Ray released the new solo doo-wop stuff on the Arthur box like "The Future," but they won't release actual new Kinks songs.

It'd be kind of interesting if they recorded Lola Part 2 now as older men, considering the theme that Ray sketched for it back in the early 70s.

 

That would be so cool! Somebody should suggest that to Dave on Twitter!

 

Got to find a way to fill those 3 CDs...

 

They were proper SDE boxed sets. I wasn't referring to the content. That's how they were presented. So yes, they are, in the sense you were talking about, comparable.

 

Except Goats Head Soup. They'd already issued the two previous albums before their 50th anniversary.

 

On the note of a reunion, this is from that new Dave article shared above:

Meanwhile, Dave tells ABC Audio that he and Ray still haven’t got any concrete plans to release the new music that they’ve worked on together during the past few years.


“We’ve been talking about it,” he reports. “And we’re getting together [soon] with a view to maybe peruse stuff that we got and see if maybe we can and maybe we can’t. And we’ll see.”

The Kinks' Dave Davies shares details about upcoming deluxe 'Lola Versus Powerman' reissue | KSHE 95

 

That would be a very harmonious chat between them.

 

It would be great to see them do something live together, especially for Dave being there after recovering from a stroke. What a milestone that would be. I can't help but think too much time has gone by and they're too old, along with the Covid 19 situation, to play live regularly again, but a one off show sometime would be great.

 

Except Ray wouldn’t address him as “little brother.” Instead, “So Dave ‘Death of a Clown’ Davies...”

 

I now really doubt we’ll see anything live, because of as you say the age/health thing now compounded by the Covid situation (and who now knows when that will properly end now?). In addition, there’s also the fact that when they talk about a reunion (and thus goes back to when it was first mooted in the late 90s) its always primarily discussed in terms of new recordings, not new live shows. But with the Kontrary Kinks, who knows I guess?

No matter what happens, (or doesn’t) we’ll always have this:

 

It's very snide but also very funny!