Kinks, Something Else & Arthur

Thanks. That'd be great.

Yeah, I've never even heard the backwards-guitar version. (It's apparently on the Canadian "David Watts"/"Afternoon Tea" 45 in mono and the German Something Else in stereo.) It's odd that Castle/Sanctuary have never used it as a CD bonus track; maybe the tapes no longer exist.

 

cd's?

none

 

You are correct about the sources of the alternate mix. The Canadian Pye single has a great mono mix but the German Hit-ton lp version is in stereo. As for the track itself, you're not missing much. It's just a volume pedal guitar overdub during the verses that sounds kind of corny. I think the reason it wasn't included on the Castle Something Else CD was that Doug Hinman had one of the few known copies of the Pye single and it wasn't in very good condition. I don't believe anyone knew about this alternate mix until Hinman published his Kinks Discography some years ago.

 

The Japanese alternate cover stereo is better than the mono Castle, even though I prefer the mono mix. Try to find that one (it shouldn't be too hard).

 

Just to clarify: John is talking about the 2001 Sanctuary/Castle mini-LP. The cover art is borrowed from a Japanese LP, but the disc itself is British.

 

The Japan K2 for both albums sounds extremely good. Are they brighter than the US and PRT's? Yes

 

I just ordered the Japanese import of Something Else (8 bonus tracks). Is that the one you're talking about?

 

I don't know if this helps, but...

I recently bought The Kinks - The Ultimate Collection (from CD Universe) and it's the best sounding Kinks I've heard. I have the old Castle CDs for Village Green and Face to Face and prefer the UC for those tracks. You may not be looking for a collection, but if that would work, it sounds great.

One other thought - the bonus tracks on the current CD are great. But the sound isn't. So you kind of need both the Castles and the current CDs to "complete" the picture. Good luck and have fun!

 

No. None of the K2s for the Pye-era albums have bonus tracks. There've been various other Japanese CD reissues of the Pye albums this decade, some in mini-LP sleeves, but they all (if I can trust their obis) use the Castle Essential/Sanctuary/Universal masterings in standard use internationally.

The K2 Something Else has catalogue number VICP-60998, uses mini-LP packaging, and came out in 2000.

 

Once you get past the first couple of tracks on the Castle mono of "Something Else" it does tame a bit...David Watts is just an earbleeder, but there are other parts on the CD that aren't as bad...I recently gave it a real listen last weekend and found this to be the case...

 

Is the Pye Album Collection with the mono Arthur CD the Castle black box version? Was there more than one version of this complete Pye albums box released? Also each of these CDs in the box are the original albums with no bonus tracks, right?

I've got a fair number of Kinks CDs and Vinyl releases but I've never seen such a mess trying to figure out what is what with them. I wish Steve could do a simple set of original albums with a separate release with all the Pye era single/nonalbum tracks just to straighten out the mess.

MatthewB, thanks for all your Kinks info in this and many other Kinks threads but I'm still confused with all the reissues and different CD versions.

If you ever do a definitive listing of all Cd releases from Pye, Castle ,Santuary, PRT and Reprise with catalog numbers and necessary info on the Pye recordings I'd sure like to see it.

 

Right, the set in question is the Castle/Sanctuary black box. There's only one version, although the 10 CDs were also available individually ... which might be the better way to get the ones you want, since most of them just duplicate other more common CDs. (In fact the only two that are really interesting are the topics of this thread, Something Else and Arthur.)

Kinda Kinks (mono), Kink Kontroversy (mono), Live at Kelvin Hall (stereo), Village Green Preservation Society (stereo, 12-song export version), Lola (stereo), and Percy (stereo) all recycle the 1998 mastering found on the standard CDs from Castle Essential/Sanctuary/Universal. The standard CDs, unlike the ones in this box, have bonus tracks, so you're better off with those.

Kinks (stereo), Face to Face (stereo), and Something Else (stereo) are sourced from the digital transfer used for the old PRT discs, but they've been tweaked a bit and re-EQed. They're all right, but the PRT versions sound warmer. Something Else, as mentioned upthread, does restore the two opening notes to "Tin Soldier Man" that were missing on the PRT.

And of course Arthur is the only CD issue of the mono mix.

Thanks. I'd sure like to see it too. Progress continues, but I'm revoltingly lazy ....

 

Thanks for these answers. That cleared up a couple questions. I'm listening to the Something Else cd with the bonus tracks as I write. I bought my old vinyl copy many years ago in 1969 and have spent many hours listening to it.

Do keep us updated if you are working on a CD list that clears up all the confusion. I don't have access to many of the CDs and haven't been able to keep up with the reissues after the Castle releases with all the bonus tracks were released or I'd try to do a quick listing of them. Again, thanks and good luck.

 

In the meantime, this site probably has a lot of the information you're looking for.

 

OK, my Something Else arrived, but it was not the 21-track Japanese version I ordered. It's the Castle Classics (made in France) stereo mix from 1989 (CLACD 159 -- though the link above lists it as 189). I found the stereo mix to be rather severe -- vocals one side, etc. What's the general consensus about this and other Castle releases from that time? I didn't get what I wanted, so I'm trying to decide whether to keep it. Thanks.

 

I was playing a pink label orig. stereo Pye just yesterday, and both of these songs are Mix 1. This is also the mix on all the Reprise LPs I've ever heard.

 

If only Audio Fidelity would release these titles . . .

 

Yeah, Dave Emlen's site has a few small errors and typos. CLACD 189 is actually Joe Cocker's Live in L.A. The Castle Classics versions of the Kinks' ten Pye albums run from CLACD 155 (Kinks) to CLACD 164 (Percy).

The general consensus is that, while they have their problems, they're often about the best available.

The CLACDs sound practically the same as the earlier PRT masterings. I'm fairly sure that the PRTs and Castle CLACDs were actually sourced from the same digital files, but transferred to disc by different methods. I did some digital comparisons a while back, and the main distinction seems to be that the CLACDs are missing some information in the region of 20+ kHz. In the audible realm the sound seems almost identical, though there are sometimes small differences in fade-outs.

The only difference that's easily noticeable is with the stereo albums. The PRT CDs have correct stereo channels, but on the CLACDs right and left are switched. Not a big deal.

On the pro side, these are relatively unaltered transfers of whatever tapes PRT had to hand. No extra compression, unobtrusive EQ adjustments, almost no noise reduction.

On the con side, well, these were whatever tapes PRT had to hand. They don't always sound especially clean, Something Else has the remixed tracks discussed above, and Lola has a shortened edit of "Top of the Pops." They're also (except for Kinda Kinks and Kontroversy) in stereo, and as you've noticed, the stereo mixes on older Kinks albums were kind of odd.

 

Thank you. That clears that up.

 

"We should have tracklistings in the next month for the 'Arthur' and 'Something Else' deluxe double cd editions which will feature stereo/mono versions, different mixes, singles, b-sides etc."

http://www.raydavies.info/www/main.php?content=news

 

From http://www.spincds.com

Coming Soon:
The Kinks - Three Deluxe 2 x Vinyl LP sets

The Packaging details are still to emerge but we do have prices and a release date. Click to 'pre-order' and to check the tracklists. (except t-list for 'Arthur'): 1) 'Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire' (2 x Vinyl LP) [http://tinyurl.com/ydwwmst] 2) 'Something Else By The Kinks' (2 x Vinyl LP) [http://tinyurl.com/ydn3nn7] and 3) 'The Village Green Preservation Society' (2 x Vinyl LP) [http://tinyurl.com/yey6qrz] Released April 26th. for £17.99 each.

 

Should that "Latest News" dated February, 2009, read "February, 2010"?

 

Just mono and stereo versions for the vinyls. Still wonder what the cd's will get.

 

Yes. It was posted after another update from December 2009.

 

Thanks. I look forward to these new releases.