Cool. A mate at work had to have both his eyes done for cataracts.... he's only 35... if it's any consolation, it worked well and he's much happier now
Quoting myself. Not to go off-topic, but just wanted to correct myself. “Denmark Street” was an older song (from 1968 or so). Not “Money-Go-Round.” Quaife said he remembered rehearsing “Denmark Street.”
Great commonsense points in regards to this very clearly being a song from a particular viewpoint of a flawed narrator, if it is reissued today without a liner explaining this i won't be calling a congressman but I may more critically look in a mirror before turning off the proverbial living room (or other such) light!
I think @ajsmith double checked me, and apparently these are the correct BBC versions. I think it comes down to being stuff across the whole BBC network rather than a particular show on the network. Top Gear, Colour Me Pop, Top Of The Pops etc etc
Ok, today is Kink-fan fantasy land. I think most would agree that even though Ray was initially looking at a twenty track double album, and the pressures of release schedules led to a European 12 track, a planned, but unreleased US 12 track album, and then eventually the magnificent 15 track studio album that, at least all/most of us have come to love ..... it would be interesting to know what Ray would have had in mind for a twenty track album.... During the look at this album, we had several folks that thought that certain songs would have fitted better with the theme, and they would have preferred certain songs here and there, and then there are those of us that really would have liked for Ray to have the time to put together his double album... For me I am just going to go with the double album idea, because although many folks like to ponder how double albums should have been single albums, I don't think there is a double album I have, that I would edit.... and I personally see a lot of great music here that would fit together coherently to create a double album. If the album had been a full blown concept album, it may not work, but with it being a rough thematic album, where there is plenty of space for movement within the guidelines, I think there is very little that wouldn't fit in, in some kind of context, without damaging the theme, or the flow. Personally I am not going to include Autumn Almanac or Mr Pleasant, though one certainly could. I see them as fitting more on Something Else By The Kinks, more than The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. I'm not Going to include Susannah's Still Alive, Lincoln County or There Is No Life Without Love, because for me Dave's material doesn't quite fit Ray's theme ... though again it certainly could be slotted in and it wouldn't damage the album..... but also I really like Dave's "solo" stuff from around this time, and I think it is a shame that it never came to fruition as an album..... I can certainly see that my choices my not work for everyone, but for me this would work very well. side one. Village Green Preservation Society Did You See His Name Do You Remember Walter? Picture Book Johnny Thunder Rosemary Rose Polly side two. Wonderboy Phenomenal Cat Misty Water Wicked Annabella Monica Starstruck All My Friends Were There side three. Village Green Berkley Mews Lavender Hill Animal Farm Mr Songbird Sitting By The Riverside Big Sky side four. Where Did My Spring Go? Last Of The Steam Powered Trains She's Got Everything Pictures In the Sand Till Death Do Us Part Days People Take Picture Of Each Other From my thought patterns ... Side one works pretty much the same as the original album. We have the overture. Then we have Ray reading the paper and seeing the obituaries, which sparks a reflective mindset, and brings Walter to mind. This leads to the Picture Book, and some characters from the village being reflected on. Side two moves into the more unusual people and things in the village, and the remembrance of the show where he got a little drunk, and things didn't really go well..... with the reference to going back to the old cafe at the end of side two, we move into a reflection on the places in side three.... Animal Farm leads him to think about how sweet it is to hear the birds singing and we ponder Mr Songbird. This triggers the idea of reflection itself and leads us to our favourite place to reflect, the riverside, and while we are watching the river flow, we ponder the bigger things...... While pondering the universe, God and creation, we start to think about out own mortality and so it leads to us noticing that we are getting older and aren't quite as spritely as we once were..... which seems to comfortably lead us into the theme of being the last of a certain breed. This in turn leads us to think of our companion in life, and how blessed we may be to have them.... and as with the original album, it leads to People Take Pictures, which for me is the logical conclusion to the album, no matter how we set it up in the meantime. Remembrance of things past, and how they don't need to be erased. The simple things that are actually the things that make life special, in all its myriad patterns. I know there are a couple of tenuous links there, but there are in the album proper anyway Anyhow, that would work for me as a double album, and I think for me and the way I listen to music .... dare I say, it may have made this album even better for me .... but who knows, this is fantasy world.
If we were looking at two separate albums, with the idea of Village Green and The Great Lost Kinks Album... Obviously the original album would Remain unaltered., and a second album, perhaps The People and Places of the Village Green? or something like that. Perhaps Another Day in the Village Green..... I don't know.... Side One Did You See His Name? Lavender Hill Lincoln County Rosemary Rose Misty Water Polly Wonderboy Side Two Berkley Mews There Is No Life Without Love She's Got Everything Pictures In The Sand Till Death Us Do Part Where Did My Spring Go Days Something like that
I have come up with two alternative versions of the album, a single and a double. More than 7 tracks a side seems a little too many to me, even when they are short, so I have kept that limit. The double album version I have tried to put on all the really good album-worthy songs of the period, going as far back as Autumn Almanac (though "She's Got Everything" I judged a step too far into the past). This is obviously a much more varied album, though I've tried to make it flow nicely anyway. You might say that the "VIllage Green" concept/theme is too watered down, but I'm sure some critics would still find a way to see it as a concept album. Side One: The Village Green Preservation Society Do You Remember Walter Picture Book Johnny Thunder Monica Till Death Us Do Part Sitting By The Riverside Side Two: Last of the Steam-Powered Trains Rosemary Rose Starstruck Lincoln County Berkeley Mews Wonderboy Polly Side Three: Pictures in the Sand People Take Pictures of Each Other Where Did My Spring Go? Did You See His Name? Animal Farm Village Green Big Sky Side Four: Phenomenal Cat Mr. Songbird All of My Friends Were There Days Misty Water Wicked Annabella Autumn Almanac
My single disc version omits the previously released singles and b-sides, and some of the less standout out-takes and work for hire. Compared to the album as released, "Picture Book", "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" and "Animal Farm" are missing, in favour of "Rosemary Rose" and "Misty Water". I justify this shocking heresy with this twisted reasoning: I like those songs better. I have tried both of these tracklistings out and I think they both work. I prefer the mono mixes generally. Side One: The Village Green Preservation Society Do You Remember Walter Johnny Thunder Monica People Take Pictures of Each Other Big Sky Misty Water Side Two: Sitting By The Riverside Village Green All of My Friends Were There Rosemary Rose Starstruck Phenomenal Cat Wicked Annabella
There are 2 BBC ‘Love Me Till The Sunshines’, a 1967 one as part of a Dave Davies session, and a 1968 version as part of a Kinks session. The 1968 one is by far the superior and in recognition has appeared on many collections. The 1967 version is I believe only available on the SE deluxe and the Kinks at the BBC Box.
It’s on the 2001 BBC sessions album, the Picture Book box, the Kinks at the BBC box, the Anthology box and the VGPS box!
I had not at all been intending to even attempt this but i will go the other way and pretend my locale only received a 12 track album whereby very hard decisions had to be made! Side 1 The Village Green Preservation Society Do You Remember Walter Picture Book Starstruck Monica Wicked Anabella Side 2 Village Green Sitting By The Riverside Mr Songbird Animal Farm Big Sky Days N.b. I am really picking the songs i like best (aside from Wonderboy which I couldn't make fit as someone wicked took his place) and trying to give them some semblance of running order! I am sure a 12 tracker will not be popular here with all of Ray's rich songwriting on offer but that aside how did I do?
This is where Ray Davies has it over the fans. Setting aside debate over the songs you've removed, the two you've added - Misty Water and Rosemary Rose - are in my view inferior in every way to Wonderboy or Days, among others. These song preferences are where we can agree to disagree.
I enjoy humming along to Days, Wonderboy, and Did You See His Name more than I do to my least-favourite songs on VGPS – All of My Friends Were There and People Take Pictures of Each Other. But both of the latter songs conjure up images of the village’s residents and its visitors that fit perfectly with the theme of the album. In contrast, none of the extras I like have a thematic link to the songs that Ray chose for the album. So, in my view Ray got the track list just right. This is one of those few perfect albums which doesn’t need retrospective second-thoughts. A bonus disc would be OK, but don't mess with perfect.
I excluded singles (the ones that don't already appear on the real, existing album) as a way to make the selection easier.
God this is hard. I need some ground rules. So I’ll keep in the songs that were written and recorded with the project in mind. And I’ll try to refrain from including any tracks that were never contenders. We obviously have the 15 original songs + the two Swedish LP tracks (Songbird & Days). That’s 17 tracks that were officially released in 1968 as part of a Village Green Preservation Society LP. They’re in. Without hesitations, I’ll add Misty Water, Rosemary Rose and Did You See His Name ?, the three of them having been written, (re-)arranged and recorded with the LP concept in mind. 17 + 3 = 20. As far as we know, Berkeley Mews and Lavender Hill could never be part of the Village Green fantasy, as they’re real London places. The brilliant Till Death Do Us Part and the two Where Was Spring ? tunes are completely off the map too. The Dave songs just can’t be included in a thread about to play the what if? game for his own solo album tomorrow. Village Green was always meant to be the Ray Davies show, so be it. Days being in, the other single's sides had to be considered. I’ve struggled with Wonderboy and Polly. I’ve decided to keep the former in and leave the latter out, because of their lyrical and musical styles. One fits in, the other doesn’t, as far as I’m concerned. She's Got Everything has a lot going for it, but not everything, and specifically nothing to do whatsoever with Village Green. Lastly, we get Pictures in the Sand, one leftover track I find superior to some of the actual LP songs. So that’s, 17+3+1+1 = 22 songs. I've arranged them with the preoccupation of preserving the original track-list as much as possible (especially the way Ray decided to open and close it). Some thematic pairing (Sitting by the Riverside/Misty Water or the three "animal" songs one after the other) may be too much, but they flow well musically and Ray did something similar with Annabella and Monica, so I felt vindicated. Side 1 The Village Green Preservation Society Do You Remember Walter ? Picture Book Johnny Thunder The Last of the Steam-Powered Train Wonderboy Side 2 Big Sky Rosemary Rose Did You See His Name ? Sitting by the Riverside Misty Water Side 3 Animal Farm Phenomenal Cat Mr Songbird Pictures in the Sand Days Side 4 Village Green Starstruck All of My Friends Were There Wicked Annabella Monica People Take Pictures of Each Other
Nice one. I'm going to make a Spotify playlist using this order. It will sound odd to hear the VGPS tracks mixed with others but this sounds like a playlist that would work for me. But I'll add Berkely Mews at the end because.
Fair cop. I thought I'd offer some gratuitous praise for people who are putting in the effort on these playlists. BTW Mark - I calculated that the length of sides 3 and 4 of your double album seem to be a bit over 19 minutes each - just like the original album. That's pretty impressive.
Oh come one, Mark, will you let me enjoy the compliment ! See ? Now @Steve62 is (almost) taking it back !! But of course you're both right. It's interesting. I too feel the LP is somehow "perfect". It has marvelous songs, but the album is so much greater than them that we should be extra careful when attempting to mess with it. Most other Kinks records, even the "concept albums" are not like that, they are the reflect of their song's qualities and flaws. It'snothing short of miraculous that out of this very complicated time, with Pye's pressures, refusals and expectations and his own hesitations, Ray ultimately managed to make so many right decisions that've stood the test of time. Under @mark winstanley's editorial guidance and @ajsmith's (and others') historical supervision, we've looked at all the stray tracks and to my mind, as much as I adore a lot of this material, the LP's best left as it is (my double is still great, though ). It has to be said, once more, that no other 60's creator could match Ray's productivity at that time. If we stop at the 1968 mark (and taking your reference guide as… reference), he'd written some 100+ songs, all of them good, most of them great, at least half of them SPECTACULAR. Only Dylan had (almost) as much quality material, with three more years of career behind him. And if we focus on 67-68, Ray's creative overachieving is even more unreal – and definitely unmatched.
