The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society then in case nobody was paying attention..... first line of the first song We are the Village Green Preservation Society
As always, it's great to read the insights of the other Avids to this song. It does work as the "national anthem" of the album. The inclusion of Donald Duck in the litany of items to be preserved is to me another one of Ray's throwing a curveball to something that should to straightforward or maybe he's saying that his vision is already corrupted. This was the only VGPS song to feature in the Kink Kronkiles and to be honest, i can't think of any other track from that album to take its place.
The Village Green Preservation Society This was the song that made changed me from a casual fan of Kinks hits to a truly dedicated follower of everything they've done. I think the lyrics are what really struck me. Especially considering that I was listening to all sorts of arty or innuendo-laden classic rock at the time, hearing someone sing about Donald Duck and vaudeville with a straight face was a breath of fresh air. And it's more than just a goofy song about nostalgia... Ray reminded the world that there can be beauty and fulfillment in domestic life. Imagine in 1968, how brave a career move it must have been to say that... we all know that it didn't pay off (at the time, at least) but I find it ironic how the Beatles' White Album (which was released on the same exact day) is criticised for being too light lyrically and not socially relevant, whereas The Kinks are rewarded for it. Of course, you can make the argument that not making a statement is the biggest statement you can make. What I love about the music is how unique it is without even sounding too weird. It's easy to say that Frank Zappa or Can or whoever else was making unclassifiable music were unique, but all of those artists were trying to make something radical and novel. Nothing else sounds like VGPS, and even classifying it is kind of hard... I think pop rock is probably the most accurate genre descriptor we'll get, but that evokes all sorts of commercial AM radio nastiness doesn't it? It's not quite folk rock, and it certainly isn't psychedelic. And unlike their contemporaries who also shod the psych movement, the Kinks strayed away from the usual R&B, soul, orchestral pop stuff. It's pop music in it's purest form, and I truly believe that what Bach was to the baroque and Coltrane was to jazz, that VGPS should be to pop. That may be splitting hairs, of course; if you don't listen to 60s pop, I'm sure Pink Floyd and VGPS will sound the same to you, but for someone who listens to 60s pop almost exclusively, it's clear that few groups sounded like them.
I don't know who Peter Viney is, but I happened along on this blog, and it is a pretty well put together talk about this album, and some of the circumstances and such surrounding it. There are a lot of quotes and references, and it perhaps won't have anything enlightening for our most well read Kinks fans, but I think it may hold some little treasures for folks like me still wandering the fields. The Village Green Preservation Society
I agree with ‘kind of hard.’ And don’t think that advising a friend that it is ‘pop rock’ will prove informative. Which is what a genre descriptor is supposed to do. I don’t get this at all. I must be missing your point.
They won't let me in the village .... they did say I could go to the special soft walled room, with a special hug-me vest, but that was as far as they would go
The first line of this tune rhymes "Society" with "Variety." It turns out to be the only pure rhyme in the whole song. We are then presented with a series of "vowel rhymes" (in which one or two vowel sounds are the same, but the consonants aren't). To me, the most peculiar is "Vernacular" with "Dracula." If one were to sing it with a thick proletariat Brooklyn accent, it still wouldn't rhyme, but in the opposite manner (i.e. "Vernacula / Draculer"). I don't have a whole lot to add to what everyone has already said about this, except for the fact that while the album might've been ignored by the general public at the time, many record industry insiders were quite enamored of it. Harry Nilsson certainly was taken with this song. He combined musical elements of it, along with Manfred Mann's version of "The Mighty Quinn" to create this similarly nostalgia-laden recording a few months later:
That's funny.... In Aus we are renowned for not pronouncing our R's particularly strongly, if at all (well except for the way we string words together in a sentence and folks think we put R's in there lol), which I think we have in common with Cockney folk .... So it rhymes perfectly
My post was primarily about the experience of listening to and developing a growing appreciation of new works. This is very different than listening to tracks from albums you have long since absorbed into your psyche. ADTL’s words below give a clear example of the effects of listening to albums as albums, not just collections of songs.
This is a 45 minute interview with Dave on Classic Album Sundays. I haven't had a chance to watch/listen yet, but it seemed appropriate for our weekend break, and folks that need more to check out.
I have. It's great. I posted it during the "See My Friends" discussion because there's a funny story about Paul McCartney and that song, in there somewhere.
THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY Mentioning Donald Duck at the beginning of this song is really dumb. It's as if the Beach Boys had started California Girls by mentioning Blackpool or Skegness. And it makes you wonder from the outset if Ray is really being sincere here. This song is supposed to be about English village greens right? So why do we then move on to "vaudeville" which is American for "music hall"? And since when did you see a music hall act on a village green? Sorry, I don't get it. Moving on to the chorus: "Preserving the old ways from being abused Protecting the new ways for me and for you" If Ray is set on preserving the old ways then he can't want to protect the new ways. I think he means "protect us from the new ways" but that's not what he says. One way to preserve the old ways would surely be to express yourself in correct, old-fashioned English, would it not? Musically a pleasant song, if somewhat repetitious. Nice vocals from all involved. But if this is a scene-setter for the album then I'm going to have to be convinced exactly what the scene is. A sincere defence of Olde England or a send-up of folks on a nostalgia trip.
It’s from ‘The Prisoner’ a bizzare cult TV show from the late 60s. Patrick McGoohan is trapped in ‘The Village’ and stopped from escaping by giant floating bubbles called ‘Rovers’ which is what you see here. More info on the wiki: The Prisoner - Wikipedia
"The Village Green Preservation Society" It works perfectly as the opening track on the album, and to be honest I don't really think of this song outside the context of the album. That's probably true of many of the other tracks as well. It rolls along nicely, driven by Mick's excellent drumming, which is one of the backbones of this album. Others have pointed out the oddity of Donald Duck being in the lyrics - stranger still is that Donald Duck is the very first item listed on the preservation order! I think the lyrics actually start a bit shakily - having rhymed "society"/"variety", Ray immediately uses the same rhyme again with "society"/"varieties", and then in the next verse with "society"/"Mother Riley". However, Ray then digs out his thesaurus to find some different words and really hits his stride, and by the time he gets to "affiliates"/"billiards", he's on fire. I don't know how other countries pronounce "vernacular" and "Dracula", but in an English accent there is no issue with the rhyme.
It’s good to hear someone shaking the tree and raising questions but I think you’re going in a bit too hard here. I don’t agree that preserving old or quaint things should just be seen nationalistic terms. Also, today when we think of Donald Duck it’s synonymous with the Disney empire - with movies, streaming platform, theme parks etc. But in 1960s England Donald Duck was just a comic book character. I don’t know why Ray didn’t sing ‘God save Beano’ instead but I do not believe it’s because he wanted to mock the people he was singing about.
Yes, but Ray’s version of ‘old-fashioned English’ would be a London dialect - not cockney either - which is totally different for example to the dialect I started speaking in West Yorkshire - which in turn is totally different to dialects in the north-east or south-west of England. Some of these accents are very strong- if you’ve heard a strong Glaswegian or Irish accent you’ll know how different’English’ can sound. Had Ray decided to reduce his nostalgia to his part of north London, using that vernacular, he wouldn’t have been speaking for a broader England. It would have been a form of hyper-parochialism.
I first heard the title song to VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY on THE KINKS KRONIKLES. I was already a fan of the Kinks, but that album moved them up to #3 (behind the Beatles and The Who) on my list of favorites and "Village Green Preservation Society" was a big part of the reason. I've often felt a bit out of place in the rock world as I never took drugs, was a virgin until my wedding night, and wasn't enamored by modern technology. Here I found, with the Kinks, someone who seemed to value more of the same simple things I did. A few months later I got the VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION album and the Kinks moved up to being my 2nd favorite band!
