The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Back to Donald Duck, Mark Doyle (Songs of the Semi-detached) says ‘as an emblem of childhood in the middle of the twentieth century, you could hardly ask for a better figure than the spluttering and irascible Donald, who may have been American by birth but had long since flown the coop to be a citizen of the world.’
    In this context I think it’s a mistake to take Ray’s village green literally. In the interview with Dave (a few messages above) Dave says their little part of north London has a village green. Ray’s village green is more about preserving the things - or memories - from his childhood than anything else.
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Donald Duck inclusion is interesting, but I don't see it as a flaw.
    It is also extremely interesting that essentially the first two things mentioned are somewhat US based.....

    We can't forget though that the US is essentially England's rebellious child (no offence to anyone in the US, it just is)
    Perhaps with those two references Ray was tying the prodigal nation to the village.... which works from an historical perspective, and also as an olive branch....

    But here's the thing.... although Donald and Vaudville are of US origin, they are universal figures.
    When I was a kid, I didn't know either were US based.... they were just things I liked.

    Also with the chorus/refrain....

    "Preserving the old ways from being abused
    Protecting the new ways for me and for you"

    To me this means there is room for progress, but not progress as a steam roller, destroying all that was.... I think it is about balance. Keep the wheat, and throw out the chaff.
    The reality is that there are some bad old things, and bad new things, and essentially we need to focus on what is good, and actually good, not just convenient, or shiny and new....

    Anyway, just a couple of thoughts.
     
  3. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "The Village Green preservation Society"

    Here is a quote from Ray about the Donald Duck line.

    Ray wrote about what he calls “an imagined Muswell Hill.” “All the characters in the songs existed,” Ray says. “There was a Desperate Dan. There was a girl that looked like a duck; she had big lips, and we called her Donald Duck. So it became characters.”

    Here is the entire article which is a good read.

    The Kinks' 'Village Green' LP at 50: 'That's the Story of Our Lives'

    I love this song. The live performance posted by @ajsmith might be one of my most watched YouTube clips. I love that footage and Dave sings so lovely with brother Ray. This song sets the scene and onward we go through a journey through the Village Green!
     
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  4. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I don't know much, Mark, but I do know this is The Prisoner.

    :love: love ya
     
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  5. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Thanks for posting this! I had forgotten how Donald Duck snuck (i guess this isn't proper English, but in my neck of the woods, it is) in there (I'm more of a Daffy Duck gal).

    Can't add much more to the posts on the song VGPS. Such a TA-DA!, but so polite. I am sucked in and want to know more.
     
  6. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    This is from the 196os UK TV The Prisoner, which was also broadcast in the US. It starred Patrick McGoonhan as a former secret agent who is kidnapped & taken to a place called The Village in order to get information from him by a series of people who run it (they are No. 2 & McGoonhan's character is No. 6). No. 6 always attempts to escape the Village but is always thwarted by a balloon like thingie called the Rover. The picture is an aftermath of one of his escape attempts. I highly recommend this show if you never seen it.
     
  7. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    There's also the small matter of why Ray says he wants to preserve virginity of all things. There's no way he could have been serious about that and no reason why any listener would believe he'd want to. The line does make sense though if we look at the lyrics as a wish to preserve a child-like innocence, whether real or imagined.
    But 'protecting the new ways' doesn't make sense in that context. I can only speculate that he's saying some new things are also worth preserving (in my mind they could be things that took off in the sixties such as better wages and moves toward racial and sexual equality).
     
  8. Wondergirl

    Wondergirl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    I think Ray wanted to preserve both...and why not? Some stuff we want to preserve, the very best of a time period and some of it is good to leave behind. That's what I always took away.
     
  9. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    One only needs to listen to this record to classify Mick as one of the great drummers. He absolutely nails the drums on this album and it stood out so much when I listened to this album today. This record is so great because everyone came together so perfectly. The drumming is spectacular.
     
  10. GarySteel

    GarySteel Bastard of old

    Location:
    Molde, Norway
    On every single song he played on. Musically powerful and driving but with massive sensitivity towards the requirements of the song and arrangment. One of the almost obscenely many reasons one should deify the Kinks ;)

    Just popped in to say that I'm watching and reading every post in this thread with great pleasure. Listening to the 1967-'71 albums this rainy morning on the West Coast (of Norway, that is). Enjoying a cuppa joe and a little 'village green'. Perfectly great in a very relaxed way.

    As for the album you are currently discussing: it took me a while for me to get it. But now... If not my favorite of theirs, that is only because the competition is so strong. It is almost too good to describe in a meaningful manner and I'm rather lost for words. So have a nice Sunday all.

    Back to listening then :D
     
  11. Pawnmower

    Pawnmower Senior Member

    Location:
    Dearborn, MI
    The drumming really blows me away on "Arthur" too!
     
  12. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
    The Village Green preservation Society-"What more can we do?"sing the boys on an album that defies description. A rock opera? Possibly but without the bombast or bloated story lines. Just a nod to the simpler pleasures in life. The title track seems to generate a life of its own, not over the top but with a certain modesty with a style peaceful and quiet. The song perfectly sums up the attitude of the album, celebrating and mocking traditional values at the same time. Music even Grandmother could enjoy. Amazing as the world seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket and rock muasic was reflecting that with songs of violence, sex, and war, here were The Kinks reminiscing about Donald Duck, Vaudeville, and Old Mother Riley. Simply genius and amazing. The title song (an anthem, really) is a pleasant melody, wonderfully varied harmonies and deceptively simple structure, we find a rejection of what we are conditioned to believe is progress. Ray insists we preserve are the traditions and human-scale experiences that give us both community and continuity. "What more can we do?" Love this, absolutely love this!
     
  13. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
    Nice commentary on VGPS

     
  14. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
    I never new Natalie Merchant covered this until today.

     
  15. markelis

    markelis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami Beach FL
    As threatened 60 or so pages ago, I am jumping in late, but excited to contribute real time to an album by album thread. (I then got so engrossed in reading [and listening to] Mark’s great INXS thread that i let this thread wait until I digested that thread).

    To play a bit of catch up, I had never listened to the Kinks early albums, having mainly relied on an early greatest hits and the Kinks Kronikles to cover this period. Having now listened intently to everything up to TKATVGPS, I conclude as follows:

    Kinks (debut) is about what you might expect, a band finding their sound. You Really Got Me is still a mind blown moment every time I hear it, Stop Your Sobbing shows their early promise, Got Love makes it on to my early period Kinks playlist, but just barely. Not much else registers. That said, add a great bunch of singles during the same period like All Day and All of the Night and I Gotta Move and it’s clear support this is a band to watch.

    Kinda Kinks is much better. Tired of Waiting and Something Better Beginning are classics and Come On Now, Look for Me Baby, Got My Feet on the Ground, and Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl are all great. Add the singles and b-sides from this period like I Need You, A Well Respected Man, Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy, Who'll Be the Next in Line, Set Me Free and the forgotten Never Met a Girl Like You Before, and you have a really strong set of songs. Take in to account the then unreleased I Go to Sleep to realize how just how many great songs Ray was already writing.

    The Kinks Kontroversy keeps the good stuff coming, with classics like Till theEnd of the Day and Where have all the Good Times Gone being the indispensable classics, Gotta Get the First Plane Home a short blast of rock that flies by so quick if you blink you’ll miss it, and same period singles and b-sides like Dedicated Follower of Fashion and I’m Not Like Everybody Else adding two more classics to the pile.

    Tomorrow, I’ll catch up on Face to Face and Something Else, then be ready to go song by song moving forward!
     
  16. Safeway 2

    Safeway 2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manzanillo Mexico.
  17. LX200GPS

    LX200GPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somewhere Else
  18. Scottsol

    Scottsol Forum Resident

    Location:
    Evanston, IL
    As much as I like the song, I have always been bothered by the line “Preserving the old ways from being abused”. In my America one doesn’t preserve something from anything in particular, one simply preserves. One could add “for all time” or “for posterity’s sake” but the “from being abused” implies that it’s OK if the old ways are lost as long as they are not abused. On the other hand, “protecting from….” would go perfectly well.

    Substituting “protecting” for “preserving” presents one problem, it makes the line “Protecting the new ways….” clumsy because of the repetition of “protecting”. Ray has, unfortunately, used such repetitions before, but that’s no justification. Fortunately, “Preserving the new ways for me and for you,” works much better than “Preserving the old ways from being abused”. Problem more or less solved by reversing preserving and protecting.

    Perhaps the proper usage of “preserving” is different in England, but it rubs me the wrong way.
     
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  19. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Apart from genuine poets like Leonard Cohen or brilliant minds like Nick Cave I don’t think many pop-rock songwriters make much of an effort to be grammatically correct. Mick Jagger said he couldn’t get no satisfaction - which surprisingly turned out to be correct.:righton: ;):D
     
  20. Harvey Rickenbacker

    Harvey Rickenbacker Forum Resident

    The Kinks Kronikles was my intro to the Kinks as a teenager back in the late 70’s. I was a Jam fan and drawn to the Kinks via David Watts. I recall being completely baffled by Village Green (second track on Kronikles). It’s nursery rhyme like lyrics were a long way from Down in the tube station at midnight, Mr. Clean etc. Took a few years to get to VGPS album itself and in that context it suddenly made sense and I realised it’s brilliance. I’d probably grown up a bit over those few years too!
     
  21. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Went to a record fair this morning for the first time in a couple of years. I'm now feeling that I should be filling in that four-album gap in my Kinks album collection, and to that end I picked up a very nice copy of Soap Opera for £10. That's the kind of price I want to pay for these albums which are probably not as good as the 60s or 80s albums. I passed up on a rather tatty US copy of Showbiz for £15. Didn't see either Preservation album, and to be honest there was a paltry selection of Kinks throughout. (I did pick up some other great bargains though!)
     
  22. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    I actually like Soap Opera :hide:
     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    lol ... It sounded vaguely familiar, but I don't think I ever watched it... I was probably playing football or listening to music :)
     
  24. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Soap Opera was among my first Kinks albums, a copy of which that I got from the bargain bins of Ann & Hope (defunct New England department store chain) for $1.99.
     
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  25. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I think that Snap! ranks w/The Kinks Kronikles as a great 2-disc gateway to a great band.
     

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