THE REAL KIDS - Better Be Good

THE REAL KIDS Better Be Good CD 1999

1 All Kindsa Girls / 2 Common at Noon / 3 Solid Gold / 4 Better Be Good / 5 Just Like Darts / 6 Roberta / 7 Reggae, Reggae / 8 Taxi Boys / 9 She / 10 Up Is Up / 11 Now You Know / 12 She Come Alive/ 13 My Way/ 14 She's Alright/ 15 Do the Boob / 16 My Baby's Book/ 17 Rave On / 18 All Kindsa Girls.

Tracks 1 & 2: Sponge records single produced by Oedipus & The Real Kids / Tracks 3-8 & 13-18 Red Star lp alternate takes (1977): produced by Marty Thau & The Real Kids / Tracks 9-12: Bomp Records demos (1979): produced by John Felice and Phil Adler.

Recorded in Newton and Boston, Massachusetts; Nyack, New York. Includes liner notes by John Felice.Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini.

The Real Kids: John Felice: vocals, guitar / Allen "Alpo" Paulino: bass / Billy Borgioli: guitar / Billy Cole: guitar / Howard Ferguson: drums.

"Better Be Good" is an 18-track compilation of alternate takes and live versions of songs that showed up on various releases by the Real Kids and the Taxi Boys, who for all intents and purposes were the same band. Leader John Felice, who was in the first, unrecorded lineup of the Modern Lovers with his next-door neighbor Jonathan Richman in the early '70s and later roadied for the Ramones, is a punk rock savant; the Real Kids were the first truly great Boston punk band, although they sounded much more like the Flamin Groovies than the Sex Pistols. These three-chord rockers, bracketed by two versions of the great "All Kindsa Girls," are tough, cool, and catchy. Complete novices should probably start with the original albums, but these alternate versions are much more than mere ephemera.

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