Having had a few recent hits, plus interest spurred by classic rock radio in the U.S. and the U.K. mod revival, the Kinks had become a popular arena ticket over here. To cash in, One For The Road was a double live album culled from seven shows in preparation for and support of Low Budget, played over the space of a year. (Because of the times, the tracks received overdubs during the mixing process.)Along with stalwart Mick Avory and Dave Davies living his guitar god dreams, they boasted Jim Rodford on bass and Ian Gibbons on keyboards, solidifying a lineup that would last for a few more albums. The theatrics and storylines were long gone—now it was all about the hits, the last album, well-chosen deep cuts like “The Hard Way”, “Misfits”, and “Prince Of The Punks”, and songs other bands had revived for them (“Stop Your Sobbing”, “David Watts”). For the most part, everything’s delivered straight, with the disco influenced ironed out of recent songs and “Celluloid Heroes” given an extended intro, but the ska rearrangement of “Till The End Of The Day” is just wrong for this band.
The album was a hit, with a gatefold package that included a double-sided poster, touted on the cassette as available for only a dollar to cover postage and handling. (Those were the days.) The first CD version of the album skipped “20th Century Man”; this was reinstated in the ‘90s in a package that included a bonus CD-ROM of live footage taken from the videocassette that came out back then, and appeared on DVD in 2001. Future reissues of the album were limited to the music.
The Kinks One For The Road (1980)—3
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