Two Legends

I bought two new albums from two '60s legends on Monday and I'm pleased I did.

Ray Davies - 'The Kinks Choral Collection'

This is Ray's new album of Kinks classics with The Crouch End Festival Choir and it's a great record. He's re-recorded some great Kinks songs with the choir adding a new dimension to the songs - it's not pretending to be the Kinks of the '60s, it's definitely Ray in the '00s with more voices behind and beside him.

It opens with 'Days', one of my favourite songs, and I love the way Ray's voice almost cracks a couple of times, like a man looking back on his youth remembering the glory days. And he probably is. 'Waterloo Sunset' is marvellous and I loved listening to it last night walking along the South Bank by Waterloo Bridge.

It's a lovely selection of songs plus a 'medley' of five songs from 'The Village Green Preservation Society' and 'Working Man's Cafe', the title track from Ray's last solo album. All have the choir doing their stuff in and around Ray's voice and the music. The only track I have second thoughts about is 'You Really Got Me' where the guitar is so obviously not played by Dave Davies - I've heard that song thousands of times over the last 30 years.

I'm seeing Ray in two weeks time with the choir and I'm really looking forward to it. The album runs to just under one hour so I'm assuming the live show will have more songs and it'll be interesting to hear what they are. I'll be playing this album a lot over the summer.

George Harrison - 'Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison'

George died nearly eight years ago and we finally have a new 'best of' - it's worth the wait. I've always had a soft spot for George - I bought 'All Things Must Pass' and 'Material World' back in the mid-'70s and have been investing in CDs over the last couple of years. Ringo brought out his 'best of' last year so it's about time we had a proper George 'best of'.

It's a nicely package CD in a cardboard cover and a thick booklet with previously unseen photos and a new essay. More importantly, it's a nice selection of songs, and not just the obvious ones - some I have, some I remember hearing and others are totally unheard. That's the sign of a good 'best of' - it tells me that's there are more great George songs to hear on albums I don't have, at least at the moment.

The record includes the obvious songs of 'My Sweet Lord', 'Got My Mind Set On You', 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)' and 'When We Was Fab'. But it also includes songs that I didn't know like 'Any Road' and 'This Is Love' which are new to me. And all of them sound excellent in remastered format. I'm quite pleased that the three Beatles songs by George are live versions from the Concert for Bangladesh (the originals are available in so many different formats already) and they sound excellent, the crowd in the background and George's voice and guitar up front.

It makes for a great listen and a reminder of how talented Mr Harrison really was - everyone should have this CD in their collection. Something I was pleased to see when I scanned the back cover of the CD, under the track listing, is the statement, 'All Glories to Sri Krsna'. I say all honours to George.