The Album That Never Was -- Dave Davies (The Kinks) (1987)

 


The Album That Never Was is a curious compilation released in 1987 by The Kinks.

It compiles ten Dave Davies tracks released or recorded in the late sixties or so. For those who don't know, Dave Davies was the lead guitarist and "second, junior" songwriter to his big brother Ray Davies, whose songs dominate and mostly define The Kinks. 

A Kinks album track in 1967 ("Death of a Clown") was released as a single billed to Dave Davies, and it was an unexpected hit. Much talk of a Dave Davies solo album followed. Over the next couple of years, Dave released a couple of singles that were also to be included on his first solo albums, whose working title was A Hole In the Sock of Dave Davies. The singles flopped and the album never was released, though a few more songs showed up as Kinks B-sides. 

Nowadays all of those Dave Davies songs are included on deluxe or super deluxe versions of late sixties Kinks albums (Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur), so this may seem a bit redundant if one has those. 

In 1987, when this compilation was released, it wasn't redundant, though. 

It turns out that the real album would likely have been a 12 track album and this contains only ten tracks, but this is more or less what he was planning to release. 

It's very enjoyable: The Kinks of course are still the band and they are still basically Kinks tracks no matter how you slice it: shambolic, messy, ragged at the edges. Dave Davies' is not the genius songwriter Ray Davies is but he's still pretty good and his rough, drunken, often out-of-tune voice has a wild rocking quality to it -- but it can be quite pleasant too. 

If you like the Kinks and you aren't all into the brickwalled super-deluxe versions, this is defininitely a good investment!

4/5

Note: I have the 1994 German CD -- which also adds eight Kinks songs sung by Dave from earlier albums than 1967.  Completely unnecessary (and some of that early DD stuff is not really that good IMO.) but I suppose if gives you a complete set of Dave Davies songs from the sixties. And the sound of it all is pretty good -- if any Kinks album can be said to "sound good."

Later CD reissues of the album (I think there was one circa the turn of the century) are apparently compressed and loud, as are, very regrettably, the Kinks deluxe and super deluxe editions. 

In fact, very little The Kinks have released sounds good on any medium other than original vinyl, which I don't do. Which is a crime. Not that I don't do vinyl, but that it all sounds so woeful. but whatever, a good song is a good song.

This album does not stream on Spotify, though all the songs from it should be there on one release or another. However, there is a playlist on YouTube with these songs , culled from varous deluxe reissues of Kinks albums, where many or all of these songs appeared as bonus tracks.


Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.


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