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The Kinks – The Mono Collection brings together eight classic albums in their original U.K. Pye Records mono editions on ten LPs, all pressed on 180-gram vinyl.  The set includes 1967’s Live at Kelvin Hall and 1970’s original 2-LP collection The Kinks (otherwise known as The Black Album.  A hardcover 48-page book including never-before-seen photos and new interviews with Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory tops it all off.

The Kinks in Mono, appropriately enough, kicks off with 1964’s self-titled Kinks.  “You Really Got Me” heralded the electric birth of these British Invasion rockers, while “Stop Your Sobbing” was just one other instant classic on the set.  Like many albums of the time, Kinks combined familiar R&B covers by the likes of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley with the band’s original material, primarily the work of one Raymond Douglas Davies.  That original voice became even more distinct with the albums that followed.  The box set continues with further excursions through R&B, pop, rock and finally Davies’ innovative, theatrical, and quintessentially British concept albums: Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy (both 1965), Face To Face (1966), Something Else (1967), The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968), and Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969).

Most of these recordings were commonly available in stereo, or rechanneled stereo, for years.  A comprehensive compact disc box set, The Kinks in Mono, arrived in 2011, and now a similar approach has been taken for this vinyl release. “I wanted the tracks to sound how we would play them live,” Ray Davies notes today about The Kinks’ early recordings. “I wrote lots of songs for a particular sound and production.”

The Kinks – The Mono Collection arrives from BMG on December 16 and is available now for pre-order: at the links below!

The Kinks, The Mono Collection (BMG Rights Management, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Disc One – Kinks (Pye NPL-18096, 1964)

Side A

1. Beautiful Delilah
2. So Mystifying
3. Just Can’t Go to Sleep
4. Long Tall Shorty
5. I Took My Baby Home
6. I’m a Lover Not a Fighter
7. You Really Got Me

Side B

1. Cadillac
2. Bald Headed Woman
3. Revenge
4. Too Much Monkey Business
5. I’ve Been Driving On Bald Mountain
6. Stop Your Sobbing
7. Got Love if You Want It

Disc Two – Kinda Kinks (Pye NPL-18112, 1965)

Side A

1. Look for Me Baby
2. Got My Feet On the Ground
3. Nothin’ In the World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl
4. Naggin’ Woman
5. Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
6. Tired of Waiting for You

Side B

1. Dancing in the Street
2. Don’t Ever Change
3. Come On Now
4. So Long
5. You Shouldn’t Be Sad
6. Something Better Beginning

Disc Three – The Kink Kontroversy (Pye NPL-18131, 1965)

Side A

1. Milk Cow Blues
2. Ring the Bells
3. Gotta Get the First Plane Home
4. When I See That Girl of Mine
5. I Am Free
6. Till the End of the Day

Side B

1. The World Keeps Going Round
2. I’m On an Island
3. Where Have All the Good Times Gone
4. It’s Too Late
5. What’s in Store for Me
6. You Can’t Win

Disc Four – Face To Face (Pye NPL-18149, 1966)

Side A

1. Party Line
2. Rosy Won’t You Please Come Home
3. Dandy
4. Too Much On My Mind
5. Session Man
6. Rainy Day in June
7. House in the Country

Side B

1. Holiday in Waikiki
2. Most Exclusive Residence for Sale
3. Fancy
4. Little Miss Queen of Darkness
5. You’re Looking Fine
6. Sunny Afternoon
7. I’ll Remember

Disc Five – Something Else By The Kinks (Pye NPL-18193, 1967)

Side A

1. David Watts
2. Death of a Clown
3. Two Sisters
4. No Return
5. Harry Rag
6. Tin Soldier Man
7. Situation Vacant

Side B

1. Love Me Till the Sun Shines
2. Lazy Old Sun
3. Afternoon Tea
4. Funny Face
5. End of the Season
6. Waterloo Sunset

Disc Six – Live At Kelvin Hall (1967)

Side A

1. Till the End of the Day (Live)
2. A Well Respected Man (Live)
3. You’re Looking Fine (Live)
4. Sunny Afternoon (Live)
5. Dandy (Live)

Side B

1. I’m On an Island (Live)
2. Come On Now (Live)
3. You Really Got Me (Live)
4. Medley: Milk Cow Blues/ Batman Theme/ Tired of Waiting for You/ Milk Cow Blues (Live)

Disc Seven – The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society  (Pye NPL-18233, 1968)

Side A

1. The Village Green Preservation Society
2. Do You Remember Walter?
3. Picture Book
4. Johnny Thunder
5. Last of the Steam-Powered Trains
6. Big Sky
7. Sitting By the Riverside

Side B

1. Animal Farm
2. Village Green
3. Starstruck
4. Phenomenal Cat
5. All of My Friends Were There
6. Wicked Annabella
7. Monica
8. People Take Pictures of Each Other

Disc Eight – Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (Pye NPL-18317, 1969)

Side A

1. Victoria
2. Yes Sir, No Sir
3. Some Mother’s Son
4. Drivin’
5. Brainwashed
6. Australia

Side B

1. Shangri-La
2. Churchill Says
3. She’s Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina
4. Young and Innocent Days
5. Nothing to Say
6. Arthur

Discs Nine and Ten – The Kinks (a.k.a. The Black Album) (1970)

Side A

1. You Really Got Me
2. Long Tall Shorty
3. All Day and All of the Night
4. Beautiful Delilah
5. Tired of Waiting for You
6. I’m a Lover Not a Fighter

Side B

1. A Well Respected Man
2. Till the End of the Day
3. See My Friends
4. Don’t You Fret
5. Dedicated Follower of Fashion
6. Sunny Afternoon

Side C

1. Dead End Street
2. Death of a Clown
3. Two Sisters
4. Big Black Smoke
5. Susannah’s Still Alive
6. Autumn Almanac

Side D

1. Waterloo Sunset
2. Last of the Steam-Powered Trains
3. Wonderboy
4. Do You Remember Walter?
5. Dandy
6. Animal Farm
7. Days