The Kinks - "God's Children versus Dreams and the Good Life, Part Two"

Like last week, here's another lost sequel. 

The Kinks' Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, was released in late 1970 and brought the band some much-needed critical and financial success after a few years of drought. 

As the title suggests, there was supposed to be a Part Two, but it was never released. Which leads us to this week's entry:

SIDE A
1. God's Children
2. Animals in the Zoo
3. Nobody's Fool
4. Anytime
5. Willesden Green
6. The Way Love Used to Be

SIDE B
1. The Good Life
2. Moments
3. Lavender Lane
4. Dreams
5. Just Friends
6. Got to be Free (Again)

In an interview with Uncut magazine in 2014, Ray Davies is quoted as saying, "Lola Versus Powerman… was good versus evil, obviously, and in Volume Two, I sketched out how you become your worst nightmare, how the good man goes so far he becomes the evil person he always fought against. But we had to do another tour, we had the RCA deal, and we had other recording projects that we had to work towards, and it got lost, unfortunately."

So the planned theme was a good man becomes the evil he'd previously fought against. That gives us something to work with. One of the "other recording projects" Ray refers to was a soundtrack album for a movie called Percy, and that soundtrack became the actual follow-up album instead of Part Two. I had to wonder if any ideas that he'd originally had for Part Two just ended up being used for the soundtrack. It wouldn't be surprising that The Kinks recycled some ideas considering the soundtrack also includes an instrumental version of "Lola."

In the same Uncut interview, Ray Davies says of the Percy soundtrack, "There were a few songs already written, like 'The Way Love Used To Be,' but most of it was done to fit the themes of the film." I have a feeling most if not all of the instrumentals (minus the "Lola" instrumental) were written for the film. But at least some of the songs with lyrics may have originally been intended for Part Two. Or perhaps the general theme of "man becomes the evil he'd previously fought against" was simply still percolating in Ray's head as he wrote songs for the film.

From Percy, I took the songs "God's Children," "The Way Love Used to Be," "Moments," "Animals in the Zoo," "Just Friends," "Dreams" and "Willesden Green." 

From the 2014 deluxe edition of Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, I used the outtakes "Anytime," "The Good Life" and an alternate version of "Got to be Free" (which I retitled "Got to be Free (Again)"). It sounds significantly different than the originally released version, and I thought ending both albums with different versions of the same song more strongly tied the two together.

Unfortunately, these 10 tunes left us a bit short of an album. So I was forced to reach a bit. On the deluxe edition of the band's 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies, there are two outtakes that don't appear to fit that album's theme: "Lavender Lane" and "Nobody's Fool." They may be a little late to be appearing on Part Two, but who's to say (other than Ray Davies)?

For a title, I didn't think it made sense to call it Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part Two since that title specifically references songs from the last album. So in keeping with the way the previous album was named incorporating song titles, I did the same here and came up with God's Children versus Dreams and the Good Life, Part Two. It's a mouthful, but I think it works with the general theme.

Finally, for a cover, I tried to make it similar in style to Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround to show they're linked but make it a bit darker/more chaotic looking. So instead of geometric lines we have scribbling, and instead of looking out at you, Ray (or is that Dave?) is in profile. Instead of titles in blue, they're in red.

I have to say, from the song selection to the cover design, I'm rather proud of how this effort turned out.

And here's a YouTube playlist of the album.