The Kinks - Everybody's in Show-Biz (Legacy Edition) (1972/2016) Hi Res

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).

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.

Everybody's in Show-Biz is a double album with one record devoted to stories from the road and another devoted to songs from the road. It could be labeled 'the drunkest album ever made,' without a trace of hyperbole, since this is a charmingly loose, rowdy, silly record. It comes through strongest on the live record, of course, as it's filled with Ray Davies' notoriously campy vaudevellian routine (dig the impromptu 'Banana Boat Song' that leads into 'Skin & Bone,' or the rollicking 'Baby Face'). Still, the live record is just a bonus, no matter how fun it is, since the travelogue of the first record is where the heart of Everybody's in Show-Biz lies. Davies views the road as monotony an endless stream of identical hotels, drunken sleep, anonymous towns, and really, really bad meals (at least three songs are about food, or have food metaphors). There's no sex on the album, at all, not even on Dave Davies' contribution, 'You Don't Know My Name.' Some of this is quite funny -- not just Ray's trademark wit, but musical jokes like the woozy beginning of 'Unreal Reality' or the unbearably tongue-in-cheek 'Look a Little on the Sunnyside' but there's a real sense of melancholy running throughout the record, most notably on the album's one unqualified masterpiece, 'Celluloid Heroes.' By the time it gets there, anyone that's not a hardcore fan may have turned it off. Why? Because this album is where Ray begins indulging his eccentricities, a move that only solidified the Kinks' status as a cult act. There are enough quirks to alienate even fans of their late-'60s masterpieces, but those very things make Everybody's in Show-Biz an easy album for those cultists to hold dear to their hearts.