More 'bout the Kinks

[Jim Topp <jtopp@indiana.edu>]

>    Incidentally, speaking of the Kinks, and specifically "Lola versus the
>powerman and the spiders from mars money-go-round machine thingy, part
>one"... recently tried to find a copy of the studio version of "Lola" (the
>song) and discovered (i believe) the only place to get it is on that album!
>All of their best-of CDs that are currently available contain live
>versions! Am i mistaken or is this the fact? And if so, why is that? i
>noticed that the two-CD Kinks best-of has live versions of both "Lola" and
>"Apeman" (also from that record)... coincidence, or is there a legal
>quagmire at work here (i know they've changed labels several times). Maybe
>we have a "My Generation" situation here?
>    Hope all is well with each of you... peace&anarchy,  jeffree

Why wouldn't you just want the studio version of "Lola" on "Lola 
versus Powerman and The Moneygoround, Part One"? 'Tis a splendid 
album. "This Time Tomorrow" is a fave of mine. Anyway, to answer your 
question, there is a 1997 compilation with the studio version of 
"Lola". It's called "The Singles Collection", and it's on Castle, the 
company that did the reissues of the Kinks' 60's albums. This means 
it's considered an import. It even has the studio version of 
"Apeman", if you refuse to get "Lola vs. ...".

"The Singles Collection" comes with a 2nd CD called "The Songs of Ray 
Davies' Waterloo Sunset", which includes previously unreleased songs 
"The Shirt", "The Million-Pound-Semi-Detached", and "My Diary", plus, 
for the first time on CD, "Voices In The Dark" and "Return To 
Waterloo" from Ray's 1985 solo album, "Return To Waterloo", plus a 
few previously unreleased remixes and live versions. Quite a gem for 
Kinks completists like myself. Especially since I just finished Ray's 
book "Waterloo Sunset". I was going to say it may be hard to find, 
but amazon, barnes & noble, CDNOW, and Tower Records all had it on 
their websites. Whether anyone can deliver is another story.

Jim