Ray Davies - 80 Days Demos (1988)

Before I continue posting more Kinks material, I feel the need to post this. This is a well-known bootleg, and I haven't changed anything to it, but I want to help make it better known.

Sadly, in the late 1980s, the Kinks' new albums were not nearly as good as they used to be. Perhaps one reason for that was that main songwriter Ray Davies was losing interest in typical albums full of unrelated songs in favor of this project, which was music for a play put on in 1988 in La Jolla, California called "80 Days."

Unfortunately, while the play was well received, it didn't catch on enough to make it to Broadway, and no soundtrack of its songs has ever been released. Luckily, we have these recordings, of Davies demoing the songs for the play's performers to learn the songs. Even though these are demos, they're fleshed out and sound as good as fully realized studio productions, in my opinion. There's a curious lack of guitars in favor of piano and synthesizers, but the production is tasteful and not ruined by the excesses of 1980s production techniques.

I recently posted "Return to Waterloo" here, which technically is a 1985 Ray Davies solo album but really is a de facto Kinks album, since the Kinks play all the instruments. By contrast, this is Ray Davies' de facto first solo album, since it appears to be done without any Kinks help. It's a real shame he didn't officially release it in any form, because I think the songs are excellent. 

It's hard to figure out the plot of the play from listening to the songs, since it's a complicated story and one doesn't get to hear the dialogue of the rest of the play. Here's a link that can help you if you want to know more:

https://www.kindakinks.net/misc/40yearskinks/teil6_e.html

01 Let It Be Written (Ray Davies)
02 Our World [Empire Song] (Ray Davies)
03 Well Bred Englishman (Ray Davies)
04 Against the Tide (Ray Davies)
05 Ladies of the Night (Ray Davies)
06 On the Map (Ray Davies)
07 It Could Have Been Him - Mongolia - No Surprises (Ray Davies)
08 Welcome to India (Ray Davies)
09 Just Passing Through (Ray Davies)
10 Who Do You Think You Are (Ray Davies)
11 80 Days (Ray Davies)
12 Members of the Club (Ray Davies)
13 Conspiracy (Ray Davies)
14 Tell Him, Tell Her (Ray Davies)
15 Be Rational (Ray Davies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288959/RayDvs_1988_80DysDemos_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I used the artwork designed for the play, but I removed the text "A new musical" - which ceased being true after 1988 - and replaced that with Ray Davie's name.