MORE 50TH ANNIVERSARIES - FACE TO FACE BY THE KINKS AND TURN! TURN! TURN! BY THE BYRDS

The fiftieth anniversary of The Kinks fourth album FACE TO FACE which is their RUBBER SOUL in that it opened the door to the greater masterpieces that followed (SOMETHING ELSE, VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY, ARTHUR OR THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE). It was their first record that was totally composed of Ray Davies written songs and finds him exploring voice and his lyrical persona to its fullest at that point in their career with his trademark touches - empathy for the British working man and keen observation skills. A varied musical and lyrical style on tunes like Dandy, Too Much On My Mind, Holiday in Waikiki, Rainy Day in June.

But most importantly reissues come with four extra tracks that are even better than anything on the original version of FACE TO FACE - I'm Not Like Everybody Else, Dead End Street, Big Black Smoke, Mr Pleasant.
  

It is also the fiftieth anniversary of The Byrds second album TURN! TURN! TURN! (The title track was the number one song on the day I was born) And what is frustrating is appraisals I have read of the record in the last day or so mention Roger McGuinn (as they should) and some David Crosby but I have not read one mention of Gene Clark. Of the five original tunes on TURN, three are by Clark and they, along with the inexcusably omitted She Don't Care About Time (ended up as the Turn single's b side), are the best tunes on the record along with the title track.

This lack of respect shown to Clark, truly rock history's least appreciated and most unjustly ignored genius, is typical despite a documentary last year on his life and reissues of all of his solo records. Oh well the global Clark cult is very vibrant and active (just check out their Facebook page).

I wrote more about Clark here....
http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.my/2012/05/70s-review-project-sparks-kimono-my.html
http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.my/2012/06/re-assessing-byrds-1973-reunion-album.html

   

So no disrespect to Roger McGuinn....I recently discovered he has a Twitter account and tweets often and answers questions (which is very very cool) so I sent him a question - What is his personal favorite guitar part you played on a Byrds song? His answer - Eight Miles High intro,break,and outro....I always say The Byrds are my favorite American band of all time and my 7th or 8th overall. McGuinn may not be the greatest guitarist of all time but he is one of the 2 or 3 most influential and also his sound is immediately recognizable - One of my favorite musicians of any style or genre.