From the December 1994 issue of Record Collector:
DOUG HINMAN: "You Really Got Me: The Kinks Part One" (Available from Doug Hinman, P.O. Box 4759, Rumford, RI 02916-0759, USA; see end of review for charges)
There are labours of love, and there are labours of love; and the size and scope of this epic make almost everything in rock history pale by comparison.Hinman's "Illustrated World Discography Of The Kinks, 1964-1993" runs to 558 telephone directory-sized pages, filled with tiny print. It's the fullest, most comprehensive, most detailed, scariest, and often most fascinating book ever devoted to the career of a single act -- and this is only "Part One." Still to come is another equally weighty book which will chronicle the Kinks' activities, day to day.
The product of years of painstaking research, which would have driven a lesser man completely round the twist, "You Really Got Me" chronicles every Kinks release from "Long Tall Sally" through to "Phobia." The emphasis is on U.K. releases, but Hinman also documents not only American output, but also Kinks issues from every country imaginable. There are sections on CDs, cassettes, promos, transcription discs, bootlegs, cover versions, related recordings, giveaway songs and, most fascinating of all, projects that never quite made it onto the shelves. Here you'll find the full stories of the original "Face To Face" and "Village Green" albums, the unisued Dave Davies LP from 1970, Ray Davies's "Songs I Sang For Auntie", and dozens more besides.
It should go without saying that everyone who collects the Kinks needs a copy of book -- for its information, its illustrations of worldwide rarities, but most of all for its love and devotion. There's scarcely anything in the history of rock discography to touch it.
"You Really Got Me" costs $45 paperback, $65 hardback, from the address above. Add postal charges as follows: U.K./Europe airmail $22 for paperback, $25 for hardback; U.K./Europe $9 surface (small packet), $6 (book rate); U.S. $6; Canada $9; Mexico $10; elsewhere airmail $31 paperback; $35 hardback, $6 surface. Pay by U.S. postal money order payable to D. Hinman, or IMO in U.S.$, or U.S. cash by registered mail.
KindaKinks.net
E-mail Dave Emlen
