The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

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The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Studio album by The Kinks
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	November 1966 – October 1968 at Pye Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	38:46
Label	Pye (UK), Reprise (US)
Producer	Ray Davies
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Blender link Pitchfork Media (9.5/10) link Rolling Stone 14 Jun 1969 Sputnikmusic [1]
The Kinks chronology
Something Else by The Kinks (1967) The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968) Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969)

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1968. Primarily conceived by Kinks leader Ray Davies, according to Allmusic, Village Green is a "concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions".^[1] The record is widely considered one of the most influential and important works by The Kinks, and of the period as a whole. Although it failed to chart upon release, The Village Green Preservation Society has become one of the band's best selling and most popular records. It was also the last album by the original quartet as Pete Quaife left the Kinks in early 1969.

Production

Songwriter and band leader Ray Davies crafted the concept album as a gentle homage to English hamlet life and, by extension, to the innocence and idealisation of past times and people. The songs were assembled from material recorded over a two year period prior to the album's release, as Davies moved away from producing commercial hit singles and into a more personal, nostalgic style of songwriting.

	"Picture Book" A sample of the song "Picture Book". The song prominently features percussion. The lyrics centre on reminiscing.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The album theme was inspired by a track recorded by the band in November 1966, "Village Green", which was inspired by the Kinks' performances in rustic Devon, England in late 1966 (Davies has also stated that Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood was an indirect inspiration for the concept). This song neatly sums up the album's broad theme: "I miss the village green, and all the simple people..." In addition to nostalgia, the album's songs touch on a wide range of emotions and experiences, from lost friends ("Do You Remember Walter"), memories ("People Take Pictures of Each Other", "Picture Book"), bucolic escape ("Animal Farm"), social marginalization ("Johnny Thunder", "Wicked Annabella"), public embarrassment ("All of My Friends Were There"), childlike fantasy ("Phenomenal Cat"), straying from home ("Starstruck") and stoical acceptance of life ("Big Sky", "Sitting By the Riverside"). Davies did not compose many of the songs to fit the predetermined theme of the album, rather their commonality developed naturally from his nostalgic songwriting interests at the time. The title track, one of the last written and recorded (in August 1968), effectively unifies the songs through an appeal to preserve a litany of sentimental objects, experiences, and fictional characters from progress and modern indifference: "God save little shops, china cups, and virginity". This last lyric inspired the slogan, "God save the Kinks" which was used in the US promotion for the album, and was associated with the band through the 1970s.^[2]

Session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins contributed significantly to the album. With the exception of true orchestral backing on the early "Village Green" track, the string and woodwind backings on such tracks as "Animal Farm", "Days", "Starstruck" and "Phenomenal Cat" were simulated by the Mellotron, played by both Hopkins and Ray Davies.

Reception

The record sold poorly upon its initial release and was ignored by pop music audiences. A contributing factor was that none of the album's songs proved viable as a single ("Days", a modest UK hit for the band in the summer of 1968, was originally intended for inclusion in the album but was released independently after the failed single "Wonderboy"). The album was also stylistically out of step with the music trends of the day and its failure was indicative of the Kinks' commercial decline during this period.

However, the record soon achieved a cult status as one of the band's best and most loved albums. Davies' timing with the album's nostalgic concept proved to be just out of step in the cultural turmoil of 1968, but it soon gained a much greater mainstream appeal. In 2003, the album was ranked number 255 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Follow-up

From its inception, Davies seems to have considered the album for stage presentation and its general theme served to inspire the Kinks' more ambitious, but less popular, two-part theatrical work "Preservation" in 1972–1974. In his biography "X-Ray," Davies would refer to the three albums as his "Preservation trilogy," confirming that "Preservation" is directly related to "Village Green Preservation Society."

Track listing

All songs by Ray Davies.

UK and U.S. version

Side one

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society" – 2:45
2. "Do You Remember Walter?" – 2:23
3. "Picture Book" – 2:34
4. "Johnny Thunder" – 2:28
5. "Last of the Steam-powered Trains" – 4:03
6. "Big Sky" – 2:49
7. "Sitting by the Riverside" – 2:21

Side two

1. "Animal Farm" – 2:57
2. "Village Green" – 2:08
3. "Starstruck" – 2:18
4. "Phenomenal Cat" ("Phenominal" on the LP sleeve) – 2:34
5. "All of My Friends Were There" – 2:23
6. "Wicked Annabella" – 2:40
7. "Monica" – 2:13
8. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" – 2:10

Original European 12-song version

Side one

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society"
2. "Do You Remember Walter?"
3. "Picture Book"
4. "Johnny Thunder"
5. "Phenomenal Cat"
6. "Days"

Side two

1. "Village Green"
2. "Mr. Songbird"
3. "Wicked Annabella"
4. "Starstruck"
5. "Monica"
6. "People Take Pictures Of Each Other"

This 12-song version was Ray's initial intended release for the European market. It was released in France, Sweden and Norway in October 1968; it was also released in New Zealand (December 1968) and Italy (January 1969).^[3] Ray and Pye had it withdrawn before it was manufactured for UK release and the re-sequenced 15-song version was released there (22 November 1968) and in the United States (January 1969). Apart from sequencing, this early version differs by the absence of "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains", "Big Sky", "Sitting by the Riverside", "Animal Farm" and "All of My Friends Were There", and the inclusion of "Mr. Songbird" and "Days" (the latter a #12 UK hit single released in June 1968). The stereo mixes of "Do You Remember Walter" and "People Take Pictures Of Each Other" were slightly different from the mono mixes.

The unreleased Four More Respected Gentlemen

In parallel with the 12-song European version, Ray and Reprise Records (the band's U.S. label) initially intended to release an 11-song album for the American market called Four More Respected Gentlemen. The unreleased album was even given a Reprise serial number (RS 6309). However, Reprise at some point decided that the 15-track UK "Village Green" album was suitable for the US market and cancelled plans for this album. The track listing would have consisted of:^[4]

Side one

1. "She's Got Everything"
2. "Monica"
3. "Mr. Songbird"
4. "Johnny Thunder"
5. "Polly"
6. "Days"

Side two

1. "Animal Farm"
2. "Berkeley Mews"
3. "Picture Book"
4. "Phenomenal Cat"
5. "Misty Water"

When originally sent to Reprise, the album was also to include the following tracks:

1. "Autumn Almanac"
2. "Did You See His Name"
3. "There Is No Life Without Love"
4. "Susannah's Still Alive"

These songs, however, were pulled from the album before the final master was compiled.

2004 Sanctuary Records special deluxe edition

Disc one (stereo)

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society"
2. "Do You Remember Walter?"
3. "Picture Book"
4. "Johnny Thunder"
5. "Last of the Steam Powered Trains"
6. "Big Sky"
7. "Sitting by the Riverside"
8. "Animal Farm"
9. "Village Green"
10. "Starstruck"
11. "Phenomenal Cat"
12. "All of My Friends Were There"
13. "Wicked Annabella"
14. "Monica"
15. "People Take Pictures of Each Other"
16. "Mr. Songbird" (bonus track, from 12-track edition)
17. "Days" (bonus track, from single and 12-track edition)
18. "Do You Remember Walter?" (bonus track, original stereo mix from 12-track edition)
19. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" (bonus track, original stereo mix from 12-track edition)

Disc two (mono)

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society"
2. "Do You Remember Walter?"
3. "Picture Book"
4. "Johnny Thunder"
5. "Last Of The Steam Powered Trains"
6. "Big Sky"
7. "Sitting By The Riverside"
8. "Animal Farm"
9. "Village Green"
10. "Starstruck"
11. "Phenomenal Cat"
12. "All Of My Friends Were There"
13. "Wicked Annabella"
14. "Monica"
15. "People Take Pictures Of Each Other"
16. "Days" (bonus track)
17. "Mr. Songbird" (bonus track)
18. "Polly" (bonus track)
19. "Wonderboy" (bonus track)
20. "Berkeley Mews" (bonus track)
21. "Village Green" (bonus track, no strings version)

Disc three (rarities)

1. "Village Green" (orchestra overdub, previously unreleased)
2. "Misty Water" (stereo)
3. "Berkeley Mews" (stereo)
4. "Easy Come, There You Went" (stereo, previously unreleased)
5. "Polly" (stereo)
6. "Animal Farm" (alternate stereo mix, previously unreleased)
7. "Phenomenal Cat" (mono instrumental, previously unreleased)
8. "Johnny Thunder" (stereo remix from the original multi track tapes, previously unreleased)
9. "Did You See His Name" (previously unreleased)
10. "Mick Avory's Underpants" (previously unreleased)
11. "Lavender Hill"
12. "Rosemary Rose"
13. "Wonderboy" (stereo mix with the vocals buried)
14. "Spotty Grotty Anna"
15. "Where Did My Spring Go"
16. "Groovie Movies"
17. "Creeping Jean" (Dave Davies) (previously unreleased longer stereo mix with some minor overdubbing missing)
18. "King Kong"
19. "Misty Water" (mono, previously unreleased)
20. "Do You Remember Walter" (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)
21. "Animal Farm" (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)
22. "Days" (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)

Song and album notes

In late summer of 1968, the Kinks had hoped to release the album as a two-record set with 20 tracks, but Pye Records rejected this plan. A twelve-track version of the album was released in September 1968 throughout certain European markets; these are now valuable collector's items. Production of this version was quickly halted at Ray Davies's insistence and the final revamped fifteen-track version was released in the UK in November 1968.

U.S. record label Reprise had intended to release many of album's tracks on a separate Kinks album titled Four More Respected Gentlemen sometime in mid-1968 to fulfil a contractual album obligation. This was in the final stages of pre-production when Reprise dropped all plans to issue it, based on the strength of the forthcoming Village Green album.

"Starstruck" was released as a single in Europe and the United States, and charted in The Netherlands, peaking at #13. This is the only appearance of any track from the album on the hit parade in any country.

A promotional film shot for "Starstruck" in late 1968 is the last surviving footage of the original 1960's Kinks lineup, before Pete Quaife's March 1969 resignation from the band.

The photography used for the album art was shot in August 1968 on Parliament Hill, a part of Hampstead Heath, North London.

Out of print on vinyl for years (it has been consistently available on US Reprise CD since 1990), today the album is reported to be the best-selling non-compilation album in the Kinks' catalogue. Ray Davies has recently referred to it as the "most successful flop of all time".

"Picture Book", not one of the singles from the album, became popular after it was used in a 2004 television commercial for Hewlett-Packard digital imaging products.^[5]

Personnel

• Ray Davies – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica
• Dave Davies – lead guitar, backup vocals, lead vocals on "Wicked Annabella"
• Pete Quaife – bass, backup vocals
• Mick Avory – drums, percussion
• Nicky Hopkins – keyboards, mellotron
• Rasa Davies – backup vocals

References