Thoroughly Kinky: A Kinks Podcast

Episode twenty of Thoroughly Kinky covers the band's fourteenth studio album, the 1975 theatrical concept album Soap Opera. The project originally began as a televised musical theatre piece broadcast on Granada Television in 1974, before being adapted and expanded into a full-length record in May 1975. The plot follows an ordinary man named Norman who is possessed by a rock God named Starmaker. The lyrics explore themes of celebrity, domesticity, and the mundane nature of the daily routine.

While the record failed to chart in the UK, it reached a modest #51 on the US Billboard 200.

Watch the original Granada TV broadcast of Starmaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8laVs0aMWw

As usual, your hosts Adam (the megafan) and Liam (the newbie) go through the album track by track to decide whether Soap Opera has them bubbling with excitement, or is just old bathwater.

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Preservation Act 2, released on May 8, 1974, expanded Ray Davies' deeping Village Green lore with a double album that describes the political conflict between capitalist developer Mr. Flash and the authoritarian moral crusader Mr. Black. Self-produced at the band's Konk Studios, the production integrated a full brass section, theatrical voice actors, and female backing vocalists alongside traditional rock instrumentation. 

Adam and Liam conclude the double album in this episode. What will their verdict be? A overpickled prune of an album, or well worth preserving?

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Preservation Act 2, released on May 8, 1974, expanded Ray Davies' deeping Village Green lore with a double album that describes the political conflict between capitalist developer Mr. Flash and the authoritarian moral crusader Mr. Black. Self-produced at the band's Konk Studios, the production integrated a full brass section, theatrical voice actors, and female backing vocalists alongside traditional rock instrumentation. 

Adam and Liam are taking their time and looking only at disc one this ep. Tune in next week where we conclude the epic Preservation series with disc two.

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Preservation Act 1, released on November 16, 1973, marked Ray Davies' pivot into full theatrical storytelling, introducing characters like Mr. Flash and The Tramp alongside brass-heavy rock-opera arrangements. The ambitious concept struggled commercially: the album failed to chart in the UK, reached only No. 177 on the US Billboard 200, and all 3 singles also failed to chart.

Adam (the Kinks expert) and Liam (the Kinks novice) track the storyline song-by-song and ask: a conceptual masterpiece, or did the band lose the plot?

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Everybody's in Showbiz was a double album by the Kinks released on the 1st of September 1972. It was the Kink's first double album, and consisted of both studio tracks and live recordings from a performance at Carnegie Hall, New York. It was the second record on the RCA label and the eleventh Kinks album overall. There were two singles: Supersonic Rocket Ship and Celluloid Heroes. Whereas Supersonic Rocket Ship was a modest hit in the UK, Celluloid Heroes failed to chart.

Liam and Adam listen to the first disc of the double album (the second disc to be covered at a later date) and give their honest appraisal of the band's flamboyant new direction. Will it be five stars, or a non-star-ter?

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