I am listening to early to mid 60s music… I am playing now as I write this, The Kink Kontroversy (24/96) from 1965. Great music… awful production. The recordings from this era are particularly offensive. I keep turning down the volume.
How do you deal with this? I want a treble control !!! It is time like this I just want my old Close "n Play crap stereo… I loved this music on those old systems.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
I feel your pain and seldom listen to The Kinks for the reasons you listed. Creedence Clearwater Revival also had some thin and crunchy sound in general at least that’s howI recall it. Maybe not the worst offender. I could go on, but what’s the point? If the sound is particularly strident I tend to move on as I am especially sensitive to it.
@bruce-in-philly
Happy cake day. I have a large box next to my electronics and whenever I find an old CD that is so shrill that it is unlistenable, I stick it in the box. These then go to Goodwill or the garbage can.
I have quite a few classical CDs that sound extremely brittle. Early digital recordings, etc.
From time to time, I’ll bust out a very beat up 1960s cheap tube amp a friend gave me, connect a late 1990’s Pioneer CD player and a pair of $99 Pioneer (Andrew Jones) speakers.
Soft, warm, slow, rolled off, loose bass and it let’s me enjoy these recordings.
Okay, well the Kinks were NOTORIOUS for terrible production. Their label, Pye, was super cheap and never invested anything in their studio or their promotion. The Kinks could have been as big as the Beatles or Stones had they been with a proper label. All their Pye stuff is just garbage. Badly recorded, terribly mixed, rotten issues. It’s a genuine shame. There’s been some more recent effort to try and salvage something from the originals with good mastering, but there’s only so much you can do.
Remember, Pink Floyd and The Beatles recorded at Abbey Road with only the very best stuff. Not everyone got that lucky; the Kinks really, REALLY suffered for it.
Yeah…you really got me
Not entirely fair on the spectrum of Great Songs vs. Production.
That shizz jumped out of my Close 'n Play at the time, and I’ll be forever thankful🙏🏻
"I was a lonely soul, I had nobody til I met you
But you keepa me waitin’
Alla the time
What can I do?
It’s your life
and you can do what you want"
I mean, c’mon🤷🏻♂️
Fact check: 100% true
Actually “Tired of Wating For You” is sounding pretty goodish. Compared to YRGM.
get an equaliser.
Nice analogue one if you have the cash, or a digital one with an RTA too if you want the nice display etc. 
Listening to “The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society” start to finish, you just imagine what could have been if they had only had a producer who was competent.
It’s not terrible, but compared to the era’s state of the art for their peers and it’s just a waste. Such a waste.
A dear friend’s brother renamed herself Lola in honor - decades later. The sound quality had no influence on helping change her life.
!!! Audiophile Anathema!
Extra cables and boxes!!!
Waterloo Sunset…(making me forget about the above)
Shaa-la-laaa
Who was the producer. Shel Talmy or Joe Meek ?
But’cha know Bruce, this is one of those things that is like ASR vs. Music😝
Plus - you never know what the quality/source is of what you’re listening to these days.
It’s the End of the Dang World until you go…
They put a parking lot on a piece of land…
Come Dancing
The Kinks began recording Village Green in earnest in March 1968.[73] Most of the album was recorded in Pye Studio 2, the smaller of two basement studios at Pye’s London offices. The band recorded any time they were able to obtain studio time, generally in the late afternoon or in the middle of the night.[74] While Ray produced,[75] Pye’s in-house engineers operated the four-track mixing console;[76] the band’s longtime engineer Alan “Mac” MacKenzie[nb 11] worked on the album until departing from Pye in early 1968.[77] Brian Humphries engineered from May onward,[77] beginning with the recording of “Days”.[48][nb 12]
Unfortunately, some recordings are basically unlistenable at volume on my big rig; and I have found no workaround.
It’s low volume or “low-fi”, or take a pass.
A lot of 80’s Rock and Popular Music fall into this category.
FWIW
Cor! his wiki page makes an interesting (and tragic) read!
