Everybody's In Show-Biz (Legacy Edition) [VINYL]

I remember when 'Everybody's In Showbiz" first came out in 1972, and it got a bit of a critical mauling, because The Kinks of 1972 were not like the Kinks of 1966. From 1969, the band had been allowed back to tour the USA, and the effect was definitely noticeable in Ray Davies lyrics. Gone were the references to genteel afternoon teas and village greens. In came songs about Life On The Road, motorway food and the unreality of his role. The previous 'Muswell Hillbillies' album had embraced more American-influenced music styles, from Country through to Dixieland Jazz, and this is explored further here.It did boast the modest hit, 'Supersonic Rocket Ship', a calypso-flavoured track that had some of the feel of 'Apeman' - pleasant enough. However, the album's finest track - the stately 'Celluloid Heroes', was perhaps too wistfully lyrical for the brash Pop landscape of glitter-strewn 1972, and it sank without trace, although to many a Kinks fan, it's one of Davies' very best. However, removed by four and a half decades, 'Everybody's In Showbiz' sounds very good indeed. Songs like the witty, but ruminative 'Sitting In My Hotel' have a fine melody and arrangement, and droll lyrics. 'Supersonic Rocket Ship' sounds great on the album, a plea for harmony that is like a Muswell Hill version (at least thematically) of Neil Young's 'After The Goldrush'. Even the 'Road' song, 'Motorway' is agreeably peevish. The live album, now extended in this legacy edition, shows the drunken, ramshackle charm of The Kinks Koncert experience of 1972, and the unreleased bonus tracks are pretty good too. The album has a newly remastered sound palette, and the packaging is very good, too. All in all, a delight, and it might even make it to five stars the more I play it. Very highly recommended indeed!

A really first class re-issue of an often overlooked but very important album from the Kinks, the studio songs stand the test of time, and the extra live tracks are a real bonus.

Highly recommended , although according to the notes Ray flew on Concorde in 1972 . I hate being a pedant .

Great album and a great vinyl pressing

OK