The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society Appreciation Station

Muswell Hill hasn't been a village for about 300 years, quite rural area of North London

 

Wonderfull album that has gone from lowest selling Kinks album to most highly sought after.

 

I remember picking this up on Cd in 1993 & looking at the back noticing no hits on it but I already had some of the earlier albums so I thought why not? Anyway from 8 secs in I just knew that this was going to be good . In fact I was so impressed I play the first track immediately. A brilliant album throughout but I never heard talked about in a music mag or radio etc. I gave this to good friend of mine as a Xmas present who introduced me to Ogdens Nut Gone Flake six months ealier & was very impressed.

 

It's their "Pet sounds", not really liked when it came out, but lots of critical approval and later respect and recognition. Ray Davies had a strong sense for great melodies in those days, unlike many of his later concept albums it works well without giving attention to the lyrics. What spoils it slightly is the existence of various versions with different songs

 

Amazingly, it didn't make any chart anywhere, which is kind of stunning, since the previous album had two big sellers, David Watts and of course Waterloo Sunset. It was just so out of place in 1968.

I rank it just a hair below Arthur. Still it's among my favorite albums of all time.

 

Starstruck on the new anthology is a fresh mix too. It's the same as the old mix, but in far superior fidelity. Check it out!

They're obviously finding new tapes, since a lot of mixes on that set are new.

 

Which version do you have? The different versions of this album seem so random to me. I first bought the album in the late 70s, a Canadian pressing which has the original British track listing. I have three CD copies with the same tracks. A friend of mine borrowed one of my copies, loved the album, and has bought two copies on-line and both versions are missing "Last of the Steam Powered Trains" which is his favorite song on the album. He is still searching for the full UK listing.
This is definitely my favorite Kinks album. "Big Sky" is weird and wonderful.

 

A nice trip to the past thanks to Ray.

 

"We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular/Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula" is one of my favorite lyrics ever.

 

It's not the best album IMO (Face To Face) but it's another masterpiece and God save the Kinks.

 

Weef, what's your Village Green playlist?

 

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary things about VGPS is the way that Ray dares the listeners to imagine what it's like when they're older. The whole album was resolutely nostalgic and backwards looking. Keep in mind that this was at the height of the cresting baby boomer youth culture, so such sentiments must have seemed very much out of step with the times. I've always loved this one myself, the perfect album for a country drive on a sunny summer's day.

 

Wellll,....um.... Let's talk specifically U.S. since that's what I know and that's where the money was. (I'm not claiming any expert status. Have not researched this, but remember the era very very well. Anyone with actual numbers is certainly welcome.) Yes, they were huge in 65. with
Those first singles very big indeed. But that didn't translate into album sales. Please remember, until really about '68 this was a singles world.
Sales of millions of l.p.s such as with Simon/Garfunkel and Beatles, were anomolous. Even The Stones were only selling around 800,000 units.
Their first album to go platinum was Some Girls in '78! The first Dylan record to sell a million was I believe Desire in mid 70's. and so forth.
Randy Newman's first album sold under 10,000. Astral Weeks sold under 10,000, The Velvet Underground? I wouldn't be surprised if the total sales of
all four albums TOGETHER totaled under 10,000. The break even point for albums in the mid sixties was only 10,000 copies in the U.S.! Tiny budgets geared to the corresponding tiny prospective sales. John Faheys first pressing of his first album was 100 copies. The first pressing of his second album was 100 copies. The first pressing of his third record was 300 copies........Maybe Trout Mask sold 3000 copies. Obviously these numbers are bigger, after 50 years! but we're talking about sales at the time.
Even the Kinks first albums, when they were huge singles artists, didn't do well. In the U.S. the of the first six album releases the only ones that did really well were Kink-size and Hits. After 65 Kinks albums sold maybe 13000 units world wide!! Reprise carried them as some sort of prestige move or act of faith or maybe just because they were
at the time their only rock and roll artist on the roster until the great change in policy in 67 with a change in management. Anyone who has exact numbers is
certainly welcomed to chime in. Unfortunately, a casual glance on the net has only yielded me units their records have sold until now, fifty years later, not what
they sold at the time of release. Yes, the single, Sunny Afternoon went to number 1 in the U.S., but the corresponding album , Faco To Face, went out of print
within maybe six months and stayed out of print for the remainder of the vinyl era, and even wth the advent of cds and the massive reissue programs, Face to Face was
passed over. Now, forty years into the cd era, 60 years after it's initial release, has the american company put Face To Face back in print? Well, actually I don't know,
but you get the point. This was an album that was pushed by a number one single AND a great album and yet, even in the days of the 10,000 unit break even point,
it quickly went out of print. Sunny Afternoon was the LAST hit the boys had in the U.S. until Lola. The albums, like Something Else, were selling, like I said,
something like 13000 units. A different world. I imagine what you say is accurate, and Watts and Waterloo Sunset were smashes IN THE U.K., not that that translated into much money, but they were certainly no such thing in the U.S. It was almost shocking when, about 1977, Rolling Stone put out the original enormous coffee table giant,
the original edition of the ROLLING STONE HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL and in it they devoted an entire article to just the kinks, ranking them with the
elite's of rock and roll history, such as Little Richard and The Beatles. They had never been afforded this kind of critical status by such an influential and mainstream voice. and of course they were commercially a non-entity. The boys were very much a cult thing with their tiny group of enthusiastic fans.
It was, so to speak the first shot across the bow in a mainstream reassessement of the boys, which has continued, to their benefit in the following years.
A couple years later, in the Greil Marcus anthology Stranded, one critic chose Something Else as her desert-island disc, and so forth.
You are surprised Preservation didn't chart. I on the other hand and surprised that the company was even willing to release it. Naturally things were different i the tiny U.K. market and this I know nothing about. but in Moneyland, U.S.A. they were non entities as they would remain until Lola. None of which is meant as a thread crap. I love their string of albums
from Face to Face through Muswell and my favorite is Village Green

 

I purchased my first copy of The Village Green Preservation Society (VGPS) when I was 17 in 1981; I was motivated to buy it based on a mention in a "Rock Encylopedia" (not sure of the exact title, I just recall it was large and thick) I borrowed from my local public library. Having just heard their earlier singles on an inexpensive (and short) Pye compilation, I was admittedly taken aback by the subdued and pastoral sounds of VGPS. However, after a few listens, I regarded VPGS as one of the better Kinks albums; I especially liked (and still do) the title track, "Picture Book", "Animal Farm", "People Take Pictures of Each Other", "Big Sky", and "Last of the Steam Powered Trains". Some 25 years later I acquired the Sanctuary 3-CD expanded VPGS, but admittedly the core 15 tracks are still the essence of the album, although I also love "Days". Although I generally dislike rock/pop songs being used for commercial advertising, I admittedly was happy to hear "Picture Book" in a Hewlett-Packard printer commercial, as I thought it provided exposure of the song and possibly album to a wider audience. I was also very surprised to hear it, given VGPS's lack of sales and airplay through the years; someone at HP was apparently hip to obscure music. Tangentially, I likewise was tickled to hear the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You" in an Amazon TV commercial.

In retrospect, I regard as amazing that VGPS has remained in print almost constantly since its release in 1968; for example, I readily found my first copy in a general music store in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1981, and each time I browsed a record/CD store since, I have almost always seen new copies of VGPS. Does anyone know the approximate number of VGPS copies sold to date, and perhaps the number of the expanded 2004/2009 3-CD Sanctuary editions? Also, does anyone know if the number of VGPS copies sold increased significantly after the HP printer commercial was released? Incidentally, I generally tend to agree with those regarding VGPS as the best Kinks album, although The Kinks Kronikles rivals it as best IMHO. I realize the latter is a compilation, but the number of quality obscure and previously unreleased tracks elevates it to an original album, again IMHO. I readily understand those who disagree with my assessment of The Kinks Kronikles.

Thanks for reading and any information.

 

How many tracks are found in newer mixes from this set? Which ones, names please.

 

Well, I share everyone's adoration of VGPS, and the thread reminded me that I hadn't played the album since getting my mono switch, so there goes my evening. This is one of those select albums that, when it gets to the end of Side 2, I often flip it over and play it all again. The one downside is that ALL these songs are outrageously headsticky and hummable, to the point where I sometimes find myself in the yogurt section of the grocery store or walking my dogs or some other inopportune place audibly singing:

I miss the morning dew, fresh air, and Sunday school
And now all the houses are rare antiquities
American tourists flock to see the village green.

I also try to find excuses to insert phrases like "Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium" and "Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliate" in everyday conversation.

 

All of the above, probably. But it had a bit of a geek-cult following by the time I was in college (1980ish) -- some of the people I knew who were into stuff like Harry Nilsson's The Point were also fans of VGPS.

 

As far as I'm aware the deluxe edition is still the best way to get the mono mix on CD.
I'm really surprised that audiophile labels have shown no interest in reissuing The Kinks' catalog.

 

As others have speculated previously, the original multitracks might not be up to par and workable, even by today's standards. It's a darn shame.

 

As with so many discoveries, I found this album thanks to Nicholas Schaffner.

Where would my musical taste be without him?

 

This forum turned me on to the album, and I'm forever grateful.

 

This album has had legendary status ranking since 1974 or so. You had to be not born yet or under a rock to not know about it. But it's nice that you newbies are now hip to it as well. Lol!

 

Hey all-

Someone can try and change my mind about this one - But it's just too twee for me at points - There are brilliant tracks on it in isolation - But the two Village Green songs are just too jaunty, harpsichordy, and whimsical for me - Having said that, I love Something Else, Arthur and Lola...

 

The Kinks were definitely a major musical force in my childhood - from buying the All Day and All of the Night single when it came out, to Sunny Afternoon and Face to Face, the Mr. Pleasant/This is Where I Belong single that preceded Something Else, my favorite among the albums - the Autumn Almanac single, to getting VGPS in 10th grade. I didn't necessarily pay attention to what was being played on the radio (although the kinks were well represented on pirate radio stations) or was in the charts, I followed artists I liked until a release disappointed me. It helped that when I was younger I could preview releases in the record store in listening booths.

 

Big Sky, Mr. Songbird and Picture Book are some of my favorites from that album.
Images of forrest and grassy knolls fit well with the music.