The Kinks – Four More Respected Gentlemen - Non-Album Tracks (1967-1968)

"Four More Respected Gentlemen" is the name of a Kinks album that almost got released in 1968. This is NOT my attempt to make that album. You can read all about that one at Wikipedia, including the track listing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_More_Respected_Gentlemen

Instead, this is the continuation of my series rounding up all the non-album tracks by the Kinks. There’s a lot of overlap between this one and that planned one, but that’s coincidental, because my purpose is different. I’m using the same album title since this is an album title the Kinks were actually thinking of using in 1968.

The Kinks were still in the middle of their most productive and creative time, as can be seen by the fact that a great album can be put together from non-album tracks all hailing from about one year.

In a couple of the earlier albums in this series, I ordered the tracks mostly chronologically. But as the variety of Kinks songs has grown, and there are more Dave Davies songs, I’ve switched to organizing them to make a good flow. For instance, "She’s Got Everything" is a lively opening number and "Days" is a natural closer.

By the way, "She’s Got Everything" is actually a 1966 song that wasn’t released until 1968, and then only as a B-side. I think it would have been a hit if it came out shortly after being recorded. That's yet another instance on a long, long list of the Kinks sabotaging themselves. I considered putting that song on an earlier album, but I think it makes a nice throwback to their earlier sound in this context.

Also, as if the Kinks weren’t prolific enough already, it turns out Ray Davies wrote nine songs for a BBC show in early 1968 called "At the Eleventh Hour." They were sung on the show by a woman, but presumably Davies made demos of each of them so BBC musicians could learn the songs.

Apparently, all but two episodes were lost, and those two aren’t publicly available. The song titles are intriguing: "You Can’t Give More Than What You Have," "If Christmas Day Could Last Forever," "We're Backing Britain," "Poor Old Intellectual Sadie," "Could It Be You're Getting Old," "Just a Poor Country Girl," "The Man Who Conned Dinner from the Ritz," "Did You See His Name," and "That Is What the World Is All About."

The Kinks did do a version of "Did You See His Name," which is included here. The rest haven’t been made public. Unfortunately, a new super deluxe version of "The Village Green Preservation Society" came out in 2018 and they weren't included, so it seems they've probably been lost forever. However, a demo version of "Could It Be You're Getting Old," did come out as a bonus track for the super deluxe version of "Arthur," and I've included that on the next album in this series.

 

The album is 39 minutes long. That was typical for the era. For instance, the "Village Green Preservation Society" album from the same year is 40 seconds longer.

01 She’s Got Everything (Kinks)
02 Susannah’s Still Alive (Kinks)
03 Mr. Songbird (Kinks)
04 Polly (Kinks)
05 Berkeley Mews (Kinks)
06 Hold My Hand (Kinks)
07 Misty Water (Kinks)
08 Autumn Almanac (Kinks)
09 There’s No Life without Love (Kinks)
10 Lincoln County (Kinks)
11 Did You See His Name (Kinks)
12 Wonderboy (Kinks)
13 Creeping Jean (Kinks)
14 Days (Kinks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15483133/TKnks_1968_FourMoreRespectdGentlemn_atse.zip.html

Note that I'm not sure where I got the cover art from, but I believe it was made in recent years by a fan and not something the Kinks actually considered using. If you made it, please let me know so I can credit you. I made some changes, such as redoing the lettering and the photo in the middle, because the only version I could find was at a low resolution.