The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society Appreciation Station

Great book. Obviously, very influential to many of us on the forum.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

No way!!!!!! The Cat is a cracking song.

 

Love Phenomenal Cat. This recording may not be that bad. I don't think things would be improved much by having multi-tracks - this is at best 8 and possibly 4 track. Must have been a lot of bouncing down. I have the most recent limited splatter vinyl and it sounds very acceptable when you take into account digital remastering and the general standard of UK pop recordings up to around the time of the recording. What is needed is a vinyl cut from the analogue master or copy (whatever still exists) providing it is in usable shape.

 

for me it's still a poor B-side, should be on a compilation with Bowie's Laughing Gnome

 

Cat is the most bonkers Psychedelic track The Kinks did - a band that didn't do Psych. If The Beatles or Floyd (Barrett) had done this it would be widely praised - but in style it could only be a Ray Davies song.

 

The album was 'finished' and mastered, and for a very short time released in a few territories. Ray had a chance of heart very quickly and pulled it, then they recorded two additional (and masterful) songs in August 1968 - 'Big Sky' and 'Last Of The Steam Powered Trains', added a few others and deleted 'Mr. Songbird' (probably wisely) and the single 'Days'.

The wiki entry is generally accurate I believe.

The other enigma is the band trying to pitch it at Pye as a 2LP set with 20 or 22 tracks. The compromise was the album as we know it now. There was certainly enough quality material for a double.

 

[QUOTE="The other enigma is the band trying to pitch it at Pye as a 2LP set with 20 or 22 tracks. The compromise was the album as we know it now. There was certainly enough quality material for a double.[/QUOTE]

Agreed - the double version would have been phenomenal. Personally I've always been frustrated that "Polly" isn't on the album. It so needs to be!

 

The chopping and changing unfortunately meant pre publicity for the album did not tie in with it's actual UK release and hence when the final version came out it went virtually unnoticed. Perhaps if the single 'Days' which preceded it by months had been left in place more sales would have been generated. However a proliferation of hit singles on their previous 2 releases didn't ensure very high sales. The Kinks were very much seen as a singles band by the general music buying public.

 

I discovered the Kinks circa 1979 aged about 12 after hearing 'Waterloo Sunset' on the radio and accidentally taping it.

A friend of mine had a singles album with all the A-sides. It was pretty astounding. From there we started blitzing second hand shops for more product - discovering in the process that quite often the 'b' sides of a lot the singles were at least the equal of the 'a' side ('Big Black Smoke', 'Mr. Pleasant', 'Polly', 'She's Got Everything', 'Berkeley Mews').

With excellent timing at this point (1980) PRT started reissuing the studio albums for £3.99 a go. They had been unavailable for years at this point.

Looking for value I remember buying 'VGPS' first as 1) I'd never heard of it, nor could find anything written about it, and 2) I'd never heard of any of the songs. Plus I liked the sleeve.

Got home, stuck the headphones on. Mind blown. I've never come back really. It's still in my top five albums ever. Coming from a family from North London, and living in rural Surrey it just felt very personal indeed. Hence why I find it fascinating so many people from the USA love it.

Although a hugely personal album, it's not without relevance to 1968, despite what some writers say - the title track references the Ronan Point tower block collapse in May 1968 and 'Last Of The Steam Powered Trains' was recorded almost exactly as the last steam trains ran on British Rail in August 1968.

I do consider it Ray's masterpiece, 'Arthur' is also five star, with 'Something Else' and 'Face To Face' only just trailing, but 'VGPS' is the one. Astounding to think he was 24 years old at the time.

 

Agreed - the double version would have been phenomenal. Personally I've always been frustrated that "Polly" isn't on the album. It so needs to be![/QUOTE]

'Polly' does fit in but was already released, Ray didn't hold it for the album, 'Misty Water' is another one that should have been there. 'Rosemary Rose', 'Pictures In The Sand', 'Berkeley Mews', there's just a surfeit of wonderful songs that could have been included. 'Mr. Songbird' is lovely but is hugely in debt to S&G's '51st Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), which is why I suspect it got pulled very late on.

Dave's 'Lincoln County' and the b-side 'There Is No Life Without Love' also have the vibe and ambience of the album.

 

It's their zenith, and belongs on any list of the best albums of all time.

 

For me, the three album run of Face To Face, Something Else and Village Green ranks right up there with the best.

 

Fans of “The Village Green Preservation Society” would probably be interested in this interview from Melody Maker, November 30, 1968. The size and layout make it difficult to scan so I’ll type it out.



Ray Davies Explains The Village Green Preservation Society:
Looking back with the Kinks
Reporter: Bob Dawbarn

“THE KINKS Are The Village Green Preservation Society” is the title of the Kinks’ new, and easily their best, LP. All 15 tracks are Ray Davies compositions and they seem to give enormous insight into Ray Davies the man as well as Ray Davies the songwriter.

I played the album with Ray and took down his comments on each track. This is what he said:

Kiss-Me-Quick
“The Village Green Preservation Society”: This started out to be a solo album for me but somebody just mentioned to me that The Kinks do try to preserve things – we are all for that looking back thing. I thought it would be a nice idea to try and sum it up in one song. All the things in the song are things I’d like to see preserved.

“Do You Remember Walter”: There’s a line in the lyric – “People often change but memories of people can remain” – which sums up what this is about. It’s about the way we try to hang on to the things we like, even about people. Walter was a friend of mine, we used to play football every Saturday. Then I met him again recently after about five years and we found we just didn’t have anything to talk about.

“Picture Book”: This is a paper hat, kiss-me-quick song. There are two acoustic guitars there with electric guitar done afterwards. The song is really self-explanatory.

“Johnny Thunder”: There wasn’t really an original idea to this, it just came out. It’s about a rocker and I think it worked. I wrote it just after ‘Wild One’ was released.

Common
“The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains” : That’s me playing harmonica. This was a case of the idea coming before the song. Again, like the “Walter’ song, it’s really about not having anything in common with people. Everybody wanted to know about steam engines a couple of years ago, but they don’t anymore. It’s about me being the last of the renegades. All my friends are middle-class now. They’ve stopped playing in clubs. They’ve all made money and have happy faces. Oddly enough I never did like steam trains much.

“Big Sky”: No, it’s not about God. It’s just a big sky. I wrote it in Cannes and most of it is fact. I was at the music festival in January and there were all those people hustling, trying to get their music published.

“Sitting By the Riverside”: This is a fishing song. I went fishing a lot when I was about eight. It was nice.

Animals
“Animal Farm”: This was just me thinking everybody else is mad and we are all animals anyway – which is really the idea of the whole album. I’m just a city drop-out I suppose.

“Village Green”: That’s a harpsichord, I think we also used oboe, cello, violin and piccolo. The arrangement is by David Whitaker and it’s all very camp isn’t it? This track was done 18 months ago and was originally going to be the title for the album. I didn’t have any particular village green in mind.

“Starstruck”: The title and lyrics are self-explanatory. It’s just something that happens.

“Phenomenal Cat”: It’s like a nursery rhyme thing. I liked the idea of a cat that could fly. It’s been to Katmandu and Hong Kong and discovered the secret of life. So it decides to eat itself silly for the rest of its life.

Terrible
“All Of My Friends Were There”: This has connections with Melody Maker. It was an R&B concert and I had a temperature of 104 but they asked me to do it because there was a contract. I had lots and lots to drink and I thought, “It doesn’t matter.” The curtains were opened and all of my friends were sitting in the front row – including Chris Welch. It was a terrible night and I thought I would write a song about it.

“Wicked Annabella”: This is rather a crazy track. I just wanted to get one to sound as horrible as it could. I wanted a rude sound -- and I got it.

“Monica”: It’s about a prostitute – and the BBC has played it.

“People Take pictures of Each Other”: People take pictures of each other just to prove that they really exist. Originally it faded out into a trad front line blowing with lots of echo. They wouldn’t let me put it in because of copyright problems.

 

This is one of those albums where a song comes on and I think "oh this one's my favorite", until the next song comes up and I think "no, this one's my favorite" and I'm like that for the whole album.

 

I love it. Absolutely love it.

I have a question:

As mentioned above, what should have been the release of this album?

a. The original 12 track
b. The released 15 track version
c. The 20-22 song double album
d. A different set of 12-15 songs

Here are the songs available for it:

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

Mr. Songbird
Berkely Mews
Misty Water
Polly
Days
Lavender Hill
Wonder Boy
Rosemary Rose
Did You See His Name

 

In answer to my own question, I would not choose the 12 track version, because it misses "Last of the Steam Powered Trains".

I think a double album would have been fantastic, and was what Ray originally wanted.

Sometimes I like the idea of keeping songs that really stick to the whimsical Village Green concept. Something like:

1. VGPS
2. Do You Remember Walter?
3. Picture Book
4. Last of the Steam Powered Trains
5. Mr. Songbird
6. Sitting By The Riverside
7. Animal Farm
8. Village Green
9. Misty Water
10. Days
11. Phenomenol Cat (Yes, I love it)
12. All of My Friends Were There
13. Lavender Hill
14. People Take Pictures of Each Other

Great album no matter how it is presented! I think Ray nailed it, but I would love almost any configuration of this material.

 

How do you guys feel about the cover art? It is one tiny nit I pick on this brilliant album, is the cover art does not seem to fit the concept to me.

Does anyone else feel it should have the band pictured on a Village Green? Or just a picture of a Village Green? Or the band in period costumes?

 

I think the cover art is superb. I love the colours of it, and it's on Hampstead Heath which is where Ray, Dave and Pete, at least, would have gone as children.

 

Interestingly in my dealings with old cars I came across an Engish brochure for the Triumph TR6, launched in 1969. Whoever designed it was either inspired by The Kinks album, or was the same designer:

 

Love the mellotron on this!!!

 

Referring to this cover art of course:

 

Others here have been offering their stories about discovering this landmark album. My story is just a little different. Having been a Major Kinks Fan since receiving their first LP for Christmas 1964, I had watched with growing concern as their US success began to disappear. In early 1968 I read in a paperback called “The World of Rock” by John Gabree (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1968) that “Warner Brothers had decided to stop issuing their records for lack of interest.” (As it turned out, more theory than truth.)

Anyway, alarmed, I visited my local library and determined the business address of Pye Records in London, knowing that this was The Kinks’ British label. I explained my position in a letter and tried to sound like a mature fan. Incredibly my pleas reached a kind man who signed his name “G. A. Suter” (it looked like), “pp Export Department.” Mr. Suter acknowledged me by saying he would ship new Kinks releases air mail to the USA for $1 per single, $5 per LP and he would advise me of their impending release. I immediately ordered ‘Wonderboy,’ their new single. (Business was seemingly done on a more personal level in those days.)

In early September Mr. Suter wrote, advising me that my heroes were about to release a new LP, not referring to it by title but by its number NSPL 18233. Was I interested? He would ship it immediately he said. Well, a $5 bill was dispatched by air the very next morning. Days went by and on October 2nd Mr. Suter wrote again, advising me regretfully that NSPL 18233 had been indefinitely postponed. He regretted my long wait and informed me that it was his understanding that the LP had actually been issued by the Pye affiliate in Sweden and their address was enclosed. Two weeks later I had the album below in my own little hands, 12 new tracks, masterpiece quality. And, wouldn’t you know it, just after Thanksgiving that year Mr. Suter in London came through with an air mail copy of the standard Pye issue of NSPL 18233, all 15 tracks intact. I adored it then, and I adore it now. So now… does this cover art seem a little more pastoral?

 

While it wasn't the A Side it was the B side of Autumn Almanac in the UK but the U.S. si gle A side didn't chart much less the B side.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_Almanac

Pye 7N 17400 (UK)
Reprise 0647 (US)

 

i love torn curtain!

amazing album, if Days was on it that would really have made it that much better