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Post by Situation Vacant on Feb 22, 2008 21:31:46 GMT -5
Anyone still have their old Kinks US-version records around? I actually never owned any myself as I left the purchase of records to my older siblings until they headed off to college. I'm not even sure if my brothers had anything other than the Best of...
The track lists are just a varied from the UK versions as the Beatles records. I'm partial to the US Capital versions of the Beatles records myself. My version of Rubber Soul has the false start on I'm Looking Through You. Do you feel the same away about US vs. UK Kinks records? Any others records or artists you have the same feelings about?
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Post by powerman on Feb 23, 2008 6:07:49 GMT -5
I have the US version of "Schoolboys in disgrace", but the only difference is that it has a gatefold sleeve. I bought it despite having the British version as it was the early eighties, and there was very little Kinks merchandise around. I basically bought anything I saw.
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Post by HollyH on Feb 23, 2008 11:16:38 GMT -5
Well, of course, SV, you already know the difference between Jesus of Cool and Pure Pop For Now People. When the Beatles albums were re-released on CD, they followed the UK track listings and it was VERY jarring, to say the least. In the 60s the Beatles' US label (Capitol) was able to juggle things around to squeeze a few more albums out of the same amount of released material, partly by including singles on the albums, which was traditionally never done in the UK. (That's why so many of the Kinks' most popular songs didn't originally appear on albums, which of course made way for essential compilations like the Kinks Kronikles.) That was all part of the 1960s paradigm shift from pop music being a singles-based, radio-driven market to becoming an album-driven market by the late 60s, by which time the Beatles' US and UK LPs did become identical. By then, the concept of album flow was so integral to the projects, they wouldn't tamper with it. Can you imagine Muswell Hillbillies with a different track order? For me the worst example of this is the Hard Days' Night album, which was the first record album I ever owned. In the US it was just the songs from the movie, fleshed out with instrumental versions of the same. In the UK, it also included several other tracks, which in the US were saved for the Beatles VI album I believe (too lazy to go get the records out again to check). Similar deal with Help! Now, I will admit that I got very attached to that track order after 1,000 listenings, and when I got the CD I was OUTRAGED that the instrumentals weren't on there. I guess the Kinks weren't as affected for this because they weren't popular in the States at the period when this was most egregious (the US ban and all). Any differences between US and UK versions after that were probably caused by some record company smarty-pants (or possibly Ray himself, trying to be cagey) thinking that the US audience would react differently to the material. There was also some difference in what got released as singles, I believe, or perhaps different B-sides were used on US and UK releases. Never having been much of a singles buyer, I never paid attention to those.
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Post by Situation Vacant on Feb 23, 2008 14:58:55 GMT -5
I'd say the Kinks albums are also pretty well impacted by this system. How may UK versions have Louie Louie on them? Of the first four US releases, two have that song. We still see the phenomenon a bit, but it's mainly the inclusion of a bonus track on the US version. Think Lily Allen's Smile which has two tracks on the US version that don't appear on the UK version. The English Beat's Just Can't Stop It had Tears of a Clown on the US version. If you buy the CD re-issue, it's not on the CD. What a bummer since it's such a great version of that song. But, clearly, the Beatles records suffered the most from this system. The US version of Help, I always thought, sucked. The UK version is great. But, to see such differences between favorites like Rubber Soul and Revolver is pretty stunning. Rubber Soul was my first album.
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Post by davek729 on Mar 20, 2008 23:44:10 GMT -5
Growing up in Canada, we had both the Pye and Reprise recordings. The official Canadian releases were on Pye and identical to the UK releases, but US imports were readily available. I tended to prefer the Pye releases, but the Reprise pressings were better (thicker vinyl).
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