Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A collision of the baffling and the brilliant, 19 Jul 2004
This album makes a lot more sense on CD, especially if your player is programmable. The original double gave you one record of new songs, including the absolute classic hit-that-never-was "Celluloid Heroes" and what now would be called a "bonus" album of halfhearted reworkings of older tracks (honourable exception: the horn driven version of "Brainwashed").
Grumpy Ray laments the pain of touring throughout, leaving not a great deal for the listener to identify with. This before you start wading through the turgid mid paced music hall blues that takes up most of the studio side. Did I mention this album has "Celluloid Heroes"? Also worthwhile for the genuine melancholy of "Sitting in my hotel". Be warned: The version of "Lola" listed on the live side consists entirely of a few seconds worth of audience singalong. Cheers Ray, you are too kind.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The most underrated Kinks album!, 15 April 2009
The studio album needs to be separated from the live side, which is difficult as they were released together, and so always will be. Heard alone, 'Everybody's In Showbiz' is a brilliant document of the grind and drudgery of being forever on the road. Has anyone ever released a better, more eloquent study of this life that in fact every band goes through? Even the slightly woozy rhythm to the tunes mirrors the disorientated band not knowing what town they are in that night, where they were yesterday and where tomorrow, though every day is predictable.
The sound is muddy and so is an obvious and outstanding candidate for the remastering it has recently received. The words and the wit often get lost when not paying full attention (while standing directly beside the speaker). No-one ever talks about the song 'Motorway'; presumably cleaned up and uncovered now. The wise wit begins when you realize that it sounds very much like the tune of a funny and illuminating ditty by Woody Guthrie, while the words fit it like a glove. Listen closely and every line is packed with witty observation. It's very much like the best bits of the far more celebrated song, 'Holiday' from Muswell Hillbillies' (the sea like an open sewer), but keeps it up throughout the entire song without let-up. The chorus has far more punch and wit than the infinitely more celebrated 'Celluloid Heroes', which suffers from being at too stately a pace, dragging each time the chorus arrives. "Ooh motorway living; ain't it a thrill to be so free" hits the spot with the still-intact Davies precision. The listener is there with Ray knowing exactly how tiresome it all is but at the same time delighted at hearing it put this way:
"Gasoline fumes are the worst to inhale. Your stomach turns over and your face turns pale."
"Motorway tea is warm and wet. Rain is pouring and it's four in the morning, and it's all I can get"
"You never seen loos like motorway loos, thousands of people passing through. It's enough to put you off of that motorway food."
"Motorway food is invariably fried. It feeds me and keeps me and helps me survive."
"I never thought I'd travel so far to work."
This album unfortunately predates 'Soap Opera' in back-loading rather than frontloading the great tracks. It becomes quite ordinary in the history of the Kinks' discography to find albums that leave the best tracks out of the first couple, via the idea of a rounded piece of work with everything in its place thought of as more important than getting the tasty morsels upfront to tempt listeners to try the rest. But with these two albums especially, it appears to pioneer the concept of the 'backwards album' more than anything else. The Kinks invented the backwards album, something even The Who still now haven't thought of!
'Sitting In My Hotel', 'Motorway', 'Supersonic Rocket Ship', 'Look on The Sunnyside', 'Celluloid Heroes' - five of the last six songs - how about that as the hugely impressive beginning to a Kinks album? ! It wasn't to be, but these songs can stand tall in the Kinks' Katalog.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven with great Moments!, 3 May 2006
This album was originally released a double studio/live set.
If you don't like trumpets of horns in general, this probably won't be your favourite Kinks album. Around 1971-74 the horn section was more or less a permanent part of the Kinks line-up.
Musically there is absolutely a lot to go for here. Especially the studio-half of the album has its outstanding moment. The classic "Celluloid Heroes", one Ray Davies' greatest compositions, does not need further presentation.
"Sitting in My Hotel" is another great song; actually more or less a sequel to "All of my Friends Were There" from "The Village Green Preservation".
The single "Supersonic Rocket Ship" is catchy and quite amusing.
A Kinks U.S. Tour video-documentary was in the plan's early 1972, and several songs has a life-on-the-road theme in the lyrics. There is a degree of disillusion to the lyrics, and a few songs may appear a little uninspired.
Musically most songs are not far from the sound and style of the previous album "Muswell Hillbillies", but apart from the 3-4 strongest songs, the album is generally slightly weaker.
Logically the documentary that never was, had to cover the Kinks' live act, which was quite different from early Kinks, and also from latter years' Kinks. There obviously was a quite relaxed atmosphere, at times tending towards the sloppy, at the Kinks' live show in those days. Several jazzy standards were included in the show and Ray Davies seemed to enjoy the role of an entertained more than being a traditional rock-star. With the brass-section dominating most tracks, the album is very different to their next and highly successful live album "One For the Road". This live set is an interesting document and at times quite amusing, but for me the studio half is by far the most important.
An uneven affair with a couple of really great moments.
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![Muswell Hillbillies [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f11X3XmjL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ The Kinks
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