Everybody's in Show-Biz

by The Kinks

Overview

Everybody's in Show-Biz is a double album with one record devoted to stories from the road and another devoted to songs from the road. It could be labeled "the drunkest album ever made," without a trace of hyperbole, since this is a charmingly loose, rowdy, silly record. It comes through strongest on the live record, of course, as it's filled with Ray Davies' notoriously campy vaudevellian routine (dig the impromptu "Banana Boat Song" that leads into "Skin & Bone," or the rollicking "Baby Face"). Still, the live record is just a bonus, no matter how fun it is, since the travelogue of the first record is where the heart of Everybody's in Show-Biz lies. Davies views the road as monotony -- an endless stream of identical hotels, drunken sleep, anonymous towns, and really, really bad meals (at least three songs are about food, or have food metaphors). There's no sex on the album, at all, not even on Dave Davies' contribution, "You Don't Know My Name." Some of this is quite funny -- not just Ray's trademark wit, but musical jokes like the woozy beginning of "Unreal Reality" or the unbearably tongue-in-cheek "Look a Little on the Sunnyside" -- but there's a real sense of melancholy running throughout the record, most notably on the album's one unqualified masterpiece, "Celluloid Heroes." By the time it gets there, anyone that's not a hardcore fan may have turned it off. Why? Because this album is where Ray begins indulging his eccentricities, a move that only solidified the Kinks' status as a cult act. There are enough quirks to alienate even fans of their late-'60s masterpieces, but those very things make Everybody's in Show-Biz an easy album for those cultists to hold dear to their hearts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	09/23/2022
Label:	BMG Rights Management
UPC:	4050538797138

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Kinks   Primary Artist
Mick Avory   Drums
Jim Rodford   Bass,Vocals (Background)
John Dalton   Bass,Guitar (Bass)
Alan Holmes   Flute,Clarinet,Sax (Baritone)
Mike Cotton   Trumpet
Ian Gibbons   Keyboards,Vocals (Background)
John Beecham   Tuba,Trombone
John Gosling   Accordion,Keyboards
Davy Jones   Clarinet,Sax (Baritone)
Ray Davies   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards
Dave Rowberry   Organ
Dave Davies   Guitar,Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Nick Newall   Keyboards

Technical Credits

Traditional   Composer
Irving Burgie   Composer
The Kinks   Composer
Larry Holofcener   Composer
Barry Hammond   Engineer
Benny Davis   Composer
Erik Darling   Composer
Ray Davies   Composer,Producer,Audio Production
Martin Levan   Engineer
Mike Butcher   Engineer
Mike Bobak   Engineer,Audio Engineer
Alan Arkin   Composer
Harry Akst   Composer
Herb Abramson   Composer
George David Weiss   Composer
Bob Carey   Composer
Jerry Bock   Composer
Guy Massey   Mixing
Dave Davies   Composer
W.A. Attaway   Composer
William Attaway   Composer
Don Covay   Composer