Four More Respected Gentlemen

An unknown number of acetates were made of Four More Respected Gentlemen; in addition at least one test pressing was manufactured, it is currently (as of July, 2018) in the possession of a collector in the U.S. midwest, who obtained it indirectly from a former Warner Bros employee. It includes a blank white cover with THE KINKS written in pen in the middle of the front cover + RS 6309 written in pen near the upper right corner of the front. The back has the song titles written in sequence, in pencil, divided into 2 columns, A & B. The white labels have COLUMBIA RECORD PRODUCTIONS TEST PRESSING printed on the top portion of the label, above the center hole. The bottom portion of the labels include 3 printed horizontal parallel lines, with RS 6309 printed in pen on the top line of both sides + the letter A printed in pen in the middle of the 3rd line on the A-side & the letter B printed in pen in the middle of the 3rd line on the B-side. Etched A-side dead wax matrix = 30795 RS 6309A -1B. Etched B-side dead wax matrix = 30796 RS 6309B -1B. There is no evidence that finalized cover artwork was ever completed either; however, the test press includes 3 different glossy 8x10s, all featuring differing photos of the band, probably to be used in the cover artwork. In addition, there is a glossy, high contrast print of one of the photos and a 5x7 negative of one of the photos (different than the high contrast photo). Plus, there is a rough layout of the front cover on WB stationery (that has the WB art director's name printed on it), which includes a 2x2 full color negative of one of the 8x10 photos - this negative is positioned at an angle and the following is handwritten in 3 separate lines in brown marker at the top of the paper, where they were to be positioned on the LP cover: Reprise (underlined), THE KINKS - 100%, FOUR MORE RESPECTED GENTLEMEN 60-70. (The numbers following THE KINKS & the LP title refer to the size of the font to be used.) Legend has it that prepared artwork was vetoed by Ray Davies, which may explain the delay between receipt of master tapes and preparation for release. When asked about the LP in an interview a few years later, Davies stated sarcastically with a straight face that the entire LP was about "table manners". Much of the unissued material formed part of the post-Reprise tenure contract fulfilling compilations, The Kink Kronikles and The Great Lost Kinks Album.

Another proposed LP in the Reprise master tape vault has been mistaken for Four More Respected Gentlemen in two separate articles by Greg Shaw. The first article was in the Boston-based rock tabloid "Fusion" (19 February 1971) and later, in more detail, in Shaw's own fanzine "Who Put The Bomp 7" (Summer 1971), distributed by Warner Brothers Records. To add to the confusion, however, Shaw erroneously reversed the information on the two unreleased LPs; what he referred to as an unfinished untitled LP was actually the real Four More Respected Gentlemen, and vice versa. These tapes were apparently received by Reprise at the same time as the initial but incomplete submission of the Arthur LP (3 July 1969), but their purpose is unclear, since they were not entered as official masters by Reprise until 1972, after the Kinks reluctantly agreed to Reprise's demand for another LP worth of material to replace the rejected Percy soundtrack LP. Certainly these titles were never intended as the 1968 Four More Respected Gentlemen LP, as many of these songs weren't even recorded until early 1969, after The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was finally released.

It is possible that Reprise was holding these tapes, unofficially, as collateral in case the Kinks defaulted on future contractual fulfillment of new material. Reprise may have considered using the scrapped LP title and catalog number for a whole new version of Four More Respected Gentlemen as a backup LP for possible release in 1969/70, had the Kinks proven too slow in meeting their next LP submission date, though this is purely speculation. Ironically, it is these tracks which did evolve into The Great Lost Kinks Album. Accounting for the three tracks that were, by then, already used on 1972's The Kink Kronikles ("This Is Where I Belong", "King Kong" and "Berkeley Mews") and dropping the instrumental "Easy Come, There You Went", The Great Lost Kinks Album was created by replacing these four dropped songs and adding six others from a variety of sources at the company's disposal: an old non-LP B-side ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else"), a track from the unissued in the US Percy soundtrack LP ("The Way Love Used To Be"), three songs from the unissued Dave Davies solo LP ("Groovy Movies", "This Man He Weeps Tonight" and "There Is No Life Without Love") and an unused song from the original Four More Respected Gentlemen LP ("Misty Water"). "Mr. Songbird", also hailing from that LP, was already included in the track listing. Practically, what emerged was a Great Lost Kinks Album but not exactly the one alleged has presumed it was.

• Article discussing the history of the album
• Side break described here