Four More Respected Gentlemen is an unreleased album by the English rock band the Kinks. The project arose out of the band's different American contract schedule, which obligated them to submit a new LP to Reprise Records in June1968. As the band continued recording their next album, released later in the year as The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, bandleader Ray Davies submitted fifteen completed master tapes to Reprise. The label planned to issue the LP in the US in November1968 but abandoned the project only a month beforehand for unclear reasons.
Reprise initially expected to include twelve tracks on Four More Respected Gentlemen, but later resequenced it to have eleven. The eleven tracks were mostly recorded between late1967 and June1968 and are generally fast rock songs. Davies later stated that he intended the album to satirise English social etiquette, though commentators dispute his characterisation. Following Reprise's abandonment of the album, its songs were spread across several subsequent releases, including Village Green and the US compilation albums The Kink Kronikles (1972) and The Great Lost Kinks Album (1973). Work on the LP did not proceed beyond the white-label test-pressing stage. As of 2000, only two test pressings are known to exist.
Background
In September1967, English rock band the Kinks issued their fifth UK studio album Something Else by the Kinks. Following the album's release, the band began stockpiling numerous recordings for later use without knowing when or in what format they would be released. Bandleader Ray Davies initially thought about making a solo LP, but as recording sessions persisted into June1968, his idea evolved into plans for the Kinks' next studio album. At that time, the band's UK label, Pye Records, expected to issue their next album during that year's Christmas season. The new project was initially given the working title Village Green before being re-titled The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society in August1968.
During the 1960s, differences in the royalty structures of the American and British markets meant US labels typically resequenced albums to have fewer tracks than their British counterparts. The Kinks had unique contract schedules for each country which required them to release albums at different times and tailored for each market. By June1968, as sessions for Village Green continued, the band were contractually obligated to immediately submit a finished LP to their US label, Reprise Records.
History
June1968: Initial plans
In the first week of June1968, Davies selected fifteen finished recordings to send to Reprise to fulfill the Kinks' contractual obligation. After several mono tracks were mixed for stereo, the company entered them into their tape vault on . After learning from the Kinks' management that the band expected to have another album ready by September, Reprise opted to not issue an album immediately but instead scheduled a November1968 release. Of the tapes they received, the label initially only used the mono mixes of "Days" and "She's Got Everything", which they issued as a US single on .
Rather than include all fifteen tracks, Reprise planned to have twelve songs on the album. The project was given the working title Four More Respected Gentlemen, a reference to the band's 1965 US hit single "A Well Respected Man", and a photograph of the band taken by official BBC photographer Harry Goodwin was slated for the album cover.
October1968: Test pressings and cancellation
After Reprise made their initial plans for the album in late June1968, they took no further action until October1968. At that time, they reduced its planned track listing to eleven songs, began making label-copy sheets for the LP's first pressing and produced several white-label test pressings for technical analysis. Planning continued for the album's cover artwork and the LP was assigned a serial number.
Reprise halted work on the album suddenly the same month, a situation which resulted in confusion for the band's fans. Adding to the confusion, the Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog listed the album in error for several months as part of the Kinks' released discography.