Showbiz LP Cover (PRNewsFoto/Legacy Recordings)
RCA/Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release a newly expanded edition of Everybody’s In Show-Biz, The Kinks’ 1972 album masterpiece, on Friday, June 3.
First released in August 1972, Everybody’s In Show-Biz was The Kinks’ tenth studio album, arriving within a year of the acclaimed Muswell Hillbillies (the group’s debut album for RCA Records). The original double-LP Everybody’s In Show-Biz contained a complete studio album (which premiered the all-time Kinks classic “Celluloid Heroes” among other tracks) and a live disc chronicling The Kinks’ Carnegie Hall appearance in March 1972.
The 2016 Legacy Edition of Everybody’s In Show-Biz includes the original album, produced by Raymond Douglas Davies, in its entirety alongside a full disc’s worth of previously unissued studio sessions outtakes (recorded for the album in 1972 at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London) and live material (recorded March 2-3, 1972 during The Kinks’ triumphant Carnegie Hall concert run).
The new edition of Everybody’s In Show-Biz includes in-depth liner notes penned especially for this release by noted rock scholar David Fricke.
A concept album of sorts, Everybody’s In Show-Biz drew its themes and inspirations from the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life as a touring musician. (The raucous Carnegie Hall recordings on the album come from one of the first North American concerts performed by The Kinks after the lift of a four-year ban imposed on the group by the American Federation of Musicians in 1965.) The songs on Everybody’s In Show-Biz were initially intended to serve as the soundtrack to The Colossal Shirt, a never-realized feature film about The Kinks on the road.
“Life keeps using me, keeps on abusing me, mentally and physically,” Davies sings on the album’s “Maximum Consumption.” “I gotta stay fit, stay alive, need fuel inside, eat food to survive….” Stylistically, Everybody’s in Show-Biz finds Davies further exploring his interest in Americana-inspired musical arrangements as heard on Muswell Hillbillies.
Everybody’s In Show-Biz showcases the second great classic Kinks line-up: frontman Ray Davies, guitarist Dave Davies, bassist John Dalton, keyboardist John Gosling and drummer Mick Avory, joined by brass and woodwind players Mike Cotton, John Beecham and Alan Holmes (all of whom played on Muswell Hillbillies).
The Carnegie Hall recordings include a variety of Kinks originals in addition to unconventional covers including “Mr. Wonderful” (from the Sammy Davis Jr.-led musical of the same name), the 1920s popular standard “Baby Face” (made famous by Al Jolson) and “The Banana Boat Song” (a calypso-folk perennial popularized by Harry Belafonte).
The new Legacy Edition of Everybody’s In Show-Biz includes never-before-heard live versions of “Sunny Afternoon,” “Get Back in Line,” “Complicated Life” and the rarely-played “Long Tall Shorty” as well as alternate versions of “Supersonic Rocket Ship,” “Unreal Reality” and the debut release of “History,” which foreshadowed The Kinks’ next concept album, 1973’s Preservation Act 1.
THE KINKS
EVERYBODY’S IN SHOW-BIZ
LEGACY EDITION
DISC ONE:
The Original Album
1. Here Comes Yet Another Day
2. Maximum Consumption
3. Unreal Reality
4. Hot Potatoes
5. Sitting In My Hotel
6. Motorway
7. You Don’t Know My Name
8. Supersonic Rocket Ship
9. Look A Little On The Sunny Side
10. Celluloid Heroes
11. Top Of The Pops (live)
12. Brainwashed (live)
13. Mr. Wonderful (live)
14. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues (live)
15. Holiday (live)
16. Muswell Hillbilly (live)
17. Alcohol (live)
18. Banana Boat Song (live)
19. Skin And Bone (live)
20. Baby Face (live)
21. Lola (live)
Tracks 1-10 Recorded March-October 1972 at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London
Tracks 11-21 Recorded March 3, 1972 at Carnegie Hall, New York, New York
DISC TWO:
Bonus Tracks
1. ‘Til The End Of The Day (live)
2. You’re Looking Fine (live) (previously unreleased commercially)
3. Get Back In Line (live) *
4. Have A Cuppa Tea (live) *
5. Sunny Afternoon (live) *
6. Muswell Hillbilly (live) *
7. Brainwashed (live) *
8. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues (live) *
9. Holiday (live) *
10. Alcohol (live) *
11. Complicated Life (live) *
12. She’s Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina (live)
13. Long Tall Shorty (live) *
14. History (studio outtake) *
15. Supersonic Rocket Ship (alternate mix) *
16. Unreal Reality (alternate mix) *
17. Sophisticated Lady (early rehearsal version of “Money Talks”) *
* Previously Unissued
Tracks 1-13 Recorded March 2-3, 1972 at Carnegie Hall, New York, New York
Tracks 14-17 Recorded at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London