Muswell Hillbillies (Deluxe Version; 2022 Remaster) The Kinks

• 1 20th Century Man (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 05:56
• 2 Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:32
• 3 Holiday (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 02:41
• 4 Skin and Bone (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:39
• 5 Alcohol (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:37
• 6 Complicated Life (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 04:09
• 7 Here Come the People in Grey (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:45
• 8 Have a Cuppa Tea (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:44
• 9 Holloway Jail (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 03:26
• 10 Oklahoma USA (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 02:39
• 11 Uncle Son (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 02:32
• 12 Muswell Hillbilly (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster) 05:02
• 13 20th Century Man (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) 06:10
• 14 Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) 03:31
• 15 Travelling With My Band (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) (Ray Davies 2022 Remix) 03:13
• Total Runtime 57:36

Info for Muswell Hillbillies (Deluxe Version; 2022 Remaster)

Muswell Hillbillies is the tenth studio album by the English rock group the Kinks. Released in November 1971, it was the band's first album for RCA Records. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of North London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and the band formed in the early 1960s.

Muswell Hillbillies is named after the Muswell Hill area of North London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and the band formed in the early 1960s. The album centred on themes of poverty and working-class life, as well as the destruction and subdivision of old Victorian neighbourhoods - a practice that had become commonplace in North London during the 1970s.

The album is a wide-ranging collection of Ray Davies compositions which focus on the tensions and frustrations of modern life. In the opening song, the singer declares: "I'm a 20th century man, but I don't want to be here." The album introduces us to the lives of a number of working class figures, and the stresses they must contend with.

The album is notable for the intentional use of dated recording equipment. Ray Davies and engineer Mike Bodak utilized 10 year old microphones on many of the tracks to give the record an antiquated feel. Muswell Hillbillies was also the first of The Kinks' records featuring their new brass section, The Mike Cotton Sound, which included Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and tuba, and Alan Holmes on clarinet. It is often regarded as one of the best post sixties albums.

Ray Davies, lead vocals, acoustic guitar, resonator guitar
Dave Davies, lead guitar, slide guitar, banjo, backing vocals
John Dalton, bass guitar, backing vocals
Mick Avory, drums, percussion
John Gosling, piano (acoustic and electric), Hammond organ, accordion
Additional musicians:
Mike Cotton, trumpet
John Beecham, trombone, tuba
Alan Holmes, saxophone, clarinet
Vicki Brown, backing vocals (tracks 4, 9)
Ken Jones, harmonica (track 7)

Digitally remastered

The Kinks
are recognised as one of the most important and influential British groups of all time, with millions of record sales and countless awards and accolades to their name. From their explosive beginnings as part of the British Beat movement to forays into concept albums, stadium rock and acoustic balladeering, The Kinks have left an unimpeachable legacy of classic songs, many of which form the building blocks of popular music as we know it today.

Hailing from Muswell Hill in north London, The Kinks were formed by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. Calling themselves The Ravens, an early line-up saw them playing a combination of skiffle and rock and roll with friend Peter Quaife on bass. A self-produced demo tape reached record producer Shel Talmy who helped the band land a contract with Pye Records in 1964. Before signing, the group replaced their drummer with Mick Avory and renamed themselves The Kinks.

With the classic line-up in place, music history was about to be written and, after two failed singles (including a cover of Little Richard's Long Tall Sally), the group's third, You Really Got Me, stormed to the top of the UK charts. Written by Ray and Dave in their parents' front room, the song has since been cited as the inspiration for garage rock, punk, heavy metal and on contempories The Who. An album, The Kinks, was hastily assembled in the aftermath of the monster hit and was, in turn, swiftly followed by a second Top 10 single, All Day and All Of the Night.

Between 1965-1967, The Kinks enjoyed their first commercial peak, scoring nine British and seven US chart hits. 1965's Tired Of Waiting For You displayed Ray's world-weary vocal style while Dave came up with a then innovatory Indian style drone guitar on See My Friends. As Ray's songwriting developed, he emerged as a witty, compassionate social commentator, chronicling the absurdities and aspirations of English life. He took stabs at fashion victims with Dedicated Follower Of Fashion and his fellow nouveau rich pop star peers on Sunny Afternoon. He even created a hymn to the Thames on the peerless Waterloo Sunset.

Despite the Kinks' commercial success at home, an unresolved dispute with the American Federation of Musicians during a 1965 tour, led to a ban on US appearances which lasted until 1969. These problems coupled with the pressures of recording and touring caused Ray to collapse from nervous exhaustion in 1966. So, with most UK bands looking to America's burgeoning flower power revolution for inspiration, Ray looked no further than his back garden for his own concept album, 1968's Village Green Preservation Society. On the album Ray developed the major themes of his work, a lament for the traditions of a near-mythical England lost among modernity. Despite flirting with the de rigeur psychedelia sound, the album was overlooked by the British record-buying public and one of the Kinks' most artistically successful albums slipped away. Fortunately, subsequent years have seen it grow in stature and it’s now recognised as one of the most important British albums ever released.

The loftily named follow up, Arthur - The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, addressed similar themes, portraying an English family looking back over their experiences before emigrating to Australia featuring the oft-covered Victoria. The mood lightened a little with the monster 1970 hit single Lola. 1971's Muswell Hillbillies album echoed Village Green's collection of storybook vignettes and the single Supersonic Rocketship from Everybody’s In Showbiz went Top 20 in 1972 while Celluloid Heroes from the same album became a live favourite . The remainder of the '70s found our heroes tackling a dazzling array of real-life themes and situations with the bands four concept albums, Preservation Act 1, Preservation Act 2, Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace. While the UK hits dried up, their sizeable following in the US brought them commercial rewards and, in 1977, a Top 30 album in the form of Sleepwalker.

Two years later the band released the hard rock Low Budget album and became belated rock stars in America, gaining a sizeable chunk of the stadium rock circuit, selling out Madison Square Gardens. The Americans also lapped up early 80's albums Give The People What they Want and State Of Confusion which featured the hit singles Better Things and Destroyer. The Kinks even found themselves back in the UK charts with 1983’s, Come Dancing. For many years The Kinks had been receiving reverential nods from the rock fraternity, all of which increased their cachet with wave after wave of new bands and musicians. In 1978 The Jam had covered David Watts while The Pretenders had their first UK hit with a version of Stop Your Sobbing. Biggest of all was Kirsty McColl’s breathtaking take on ‘Days’.

Through the 90s, The Kinks garnered a whole new generation of fans as yet another wave of British musicians paid tribute to the band. Blur’s Damon Albarn in particular acknowledged Davies as a key influence: the classic Kinks sound and sensibilities underpin the Brit Pop-ers’ classic triptych of ‘London albums’, Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape. With The Kinks on hiatus since 1996 Ray Davies continued to record and tour acclaimed albums like 2006’s Other People’s Life and 2007’s Working Man’s Café. In 2009 he released The Kinks Choral Collection, an album of Kinks compositions in collaboration with the Crouch End Festival Chorus.

Despite intermittent rumours to the contrary throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, ill-health scuppered plans for a reunion of the original line-up. Sadly, Peter Quaife, who had been receiving kidney dialysis for more than ten years, died on 23rd June 2010. Ray Davies dedicated his June 27th performance at the Glastonbury festival to his honour, telling the crowd, “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him”.

This album contains no booklet.