Kinks BACKTRACKIN' CD/LP with three rare alt. takes/mixes

I was reading Doug Hinman's excellent Kinks book You Really Got Me and noticed this about the CD and LP BACKTRACKIN':

Included here is the "ruined" original take of ''Supersonic Rocket Ship' which had the first few bars of the song accidentally erased by the engineer and was thus reredorded in 1972. Also included was an alternate, much rougher take of 'Missing Pictures'. Also appearing is a noticeably different (and mono) mix of 'Celluloid Heroes'.

The LP is a double album. The CD was released as two separate discs, BACKTRACKIN' VOL. 1 and BACKTRACKIN' VOL. 2. For once, the gods are smiling on the collector as the three rare tracks are on VOL. 2 (so there's no need to get VOL. 1).

I thought I'd point this out to the other Kinks kompletists out there who might not be aware of the alternate versions available on this release. It's out-of-print but can be found used without too much difficulty.

 

Yep. Details here. I've never even seen one in the flesh, but on the other hand I've never made much of an effort, since there are, um, alternative ways to find those mixes.

Shawn — Could you do me an enormous favour, and see what Hinman says in that book about the remixes of "Tin Soldier Man" and "Situation Vacant" that I describe in this post? Who did them, why were they done, and when were they first released? The earliest appearances I'm aware of are on a Spanish reissue of Something Else in 1980, with the long edits of both remixes.

 

Hi Matthew. In regards to 'Tin Soldier Man' and 'Situation Vacant', Doug only mentioned one alternate stereo remix for each title and states that they first appeared on the W. German SOMETHING ELSE CD. He goes on to say under the W. German CD section on page 140:

"were remixed from multi-treack session tapes, PRT Studios, London, late 1967, possibly in order to correct an out-of-phase lead vocals oresent in the original stereo mixes, though such phasing is still present on Lazy Old Sun, and on some of the backing vocals on Death of a Clown and Afternoon Tea. It is also possible that the master tape of the original mixes was damaged and had to be recreated from the multitrack tapes."

Although he has an entry for the Spanish reissue on page 259 (the release date he lists is 1981), there is no mention under this entry of alternate mixes.

So it looks like your information is more extensive (with three mixes, not two) and you've caught a much earlier release than he did as far as I can tell (one thing about Doug's book is that it's a bit hard to navigate through so I hope I didn't overlook something).

Doug issued an update to his book, I'll go check that next. EDIT: I just checked the update 1994-96/97 Supplement with additions and corrections to You Really Got Me and there are no mention of these remixes.

 

Thanks a lot, Shawn. The 1981 date for the Spanish LP might be right; I was just going by the "(P) 1980" on the label.

The remix of "Tin Soldier Man", in the version with the opening notes intact, is also on the Castle CD The Kinks Collection from 1987, and I would expect that it also turns up on the 1985 vinyl version of that title. Both predate the German Something Else CD.

 

Thanks for posting this Shawn. Another one to add.

 

Hahaha it never seems to end, does it...

Matthew, very glad to help - you've given me tons of great information on The Kinks so it's the least I can do

 

Too weird... I was just going through a bunch of old CDs and pulled these out to listen to. On the third track of vol. 1 thought, well I wonder if anybody has posted on the forum about these, they're pretty early, they say Nimbus in the hubs

And somebody has indeed posted... Yesterday. This place is too much.

Tell you one thing, if you decide to pick them up beware the label side, these bad boys are sticky enough to use for flypaper.

Don't sound half bad though... Don't have the PRT to compare though...

 

Great LP set. I bought this on vinyl YEARS ago, and it is a wonderful listen. In fact, the 'regular' "Supersonic Rocket Ship" sounds a little odd to me these days!!

Grab it if you ever see it. I have not heard the CDs, but 12 inches and black spinning at 33-1/3 is a keeper...