A harsh taskmaster! Back-to-back hilarious remarks. My wife’s asking me, “what? What?” as I continue laughing.
I suck lol I didn't mean it that way. Your tracklist showed a lot of thought towards the authenticity of the Village idea, and I liked it.
The VGPS double album exercise is just the reverse of The White Album as a single disc game, isn't it. Trying to do either makes my head explode with too many Sophie's Choices. Were I to play I would cheat enough to squeeze in the non-period two year old cut "This is Where I Belong" as it thematically fits.
OUT IN THE COUNTRY by THE KINKS Side One 1.Starstruck 2.Do You Remember Walter ? 3.Picture Book 4.Johnny Thunder 5.Monica 6.Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains 7.People Take Pictures Of Each Other Side Two 1.The Villlage Green Preservation Society 2.All Of My Friends Were There 3.Wicked Annabella 4.Sitting By The Riverside 5.Animal Farm 6.Village Green 7.Big Sky
OMG...I’ve been sucked into the vortex. I have my notebook out and have been scribbling down song titles and notes (while frantically adding songs to my playlist...an additional three tracks) as I work through this double album exercise. Gotta take a breather for a moment! Edit: finally have the candidates. It’ll be approximately 16 minutes a side, at this juncture.
I'm not playing the game mainly because my eye condition but the fact that you fellow Avids are doing so just shows how much already recorded stuff that the Kinks had in the cupboard compared to the Who in the same period. I read about attempts to make a Who's For Tennis album post Sell Out, pre Tommy album & they have to mostly rely on old singles & Pete's demos to create one. On the other hand, the Who was busy touring the States making their name while the Kinks were cooped up in the studio unable to go to the States.
The Who didn't produce many finished tracks in 1968, but they toured heavily and Townshend was very engaged in writing Tommy.
As I posted previously, VGPS will stay as it is because that's how I first heard it. Adding or omitting tracks after all these years would now be a little jarring. Also, the released album was Ray's vision and who am I to disagree with that? However, I have no qualms about compiling a playlist based on other tracks from around the time and including most of the GLKA as it was released in 1973. I have yet to sequence these tracks but these are the ones I have decided on and there are some we have yet to discuss. The last two on the list are causing me a bit of indecision. The Great Lost Kinks Album Days Mr Songbird Rosemary Rose Where Did Spring Go Groovy Movies Did You See His Name Pictures In The Sand Misty Water Berkeley Mews This Man He Weeps Tonight Lavender Hill When I Turn Off The Living Room Light Till Death Do Us Part There Is No Life Without Love King Kong This Is Where I Belong Mindless Child Of Motherhood Wonderboy (?) Plastic Man (?)
Side One: 1. We are the Village Green Preservation Society (thematic declaration) We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society God save Mrs. Mopp and good Old Mother Riley We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium God save the George Cross and all those who were awarded them We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity God save little shops, china cups and virginity We are the Skyscraper condemnation Affiliate God save tudor houses, antique tables and billiards 2. Sitting By the Riverside: Sitting by the riverside with you, I love sitting down By the riverside, watching the water go flowing by Oh golly gee, it is heaven to be like a willow tree Spend my time, just drinking wine while looking at the view —-then looks up at the sky and sings— 3. Big Sky (and lazily gets up and wanders back towards the village, passing farms) 4. Animal Farm: This world is big and wild and half insane Take me where real animals are playing Just a dirty old shack Where the hound dogs bark That we called our home I want to be back there Among the cats and dogs And the pigs and the goats (And passes by an area that the villagers are wary of from times long since forgotten; perhaps a wooded marshland impenetrable and filled with... 5. Misty Water: By the town of Straight and Narrow,There's a dark and misty place.Everything is hazy,So the people are afraid.All except Maria's daughters,Who believe in misty ways. Everything is lovely in a misty morning glaze. (eyes averted and back to thinking pleasant thoughts..) 6. Days Side Two: 1. All of my Friends Were There (and opens photo album) 2. Picture Book (sees photo of Walter) 3. Do You Remember Walter? (which then triggers a memory of...) 4. Rosemary Rose (and then...) 5. Johnny Thunder (and, naturally..) 6. Wicked Annabella Side Three: (still engrossed in photo album) 1. Last of the Steam Powered Trains 2. Monica 3. Berkeley Mews (off to the city) 4. She’s Got Everything 5. Starstruck (Baby, you don't know what you're saying Because you're a victim of bright city lights And your mind is not right You think the world's at your feet) Side Four: 1. Village Green (I miss the village green,And all the simple people.I miss the village green,The church, the clock, the steeple.I miss the morning dew, fresh air and Sunday school). 2. Mr. Songbird 3. Phenomenal Cat (who is drawn to the bird) 4. Wonderboy 5. Autumn Almanac 6. People Take Pictures of Each Other Well, this was exhausting! If too short I was thinking of the age-old trick of reprising the opening song. But I think it’s okay without it.
I'm of the stance that I won't be changing 15-track "The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society." The flow as-is has been circulating in my soul for nearly 20 years, and I can't really imagine the album being any better by taking someone off, adding something, or re-arranging. I also am not a fan of re-imagining as a double-album. I like albums clocking in around the 38-45 minute mark. It's perfect for driving. You can get half or most of the album in a short drive, and then finish it up on the way home. I think experiencing VGPS as a 70-80 minute piece (in an alternate reality where Ray made it so), would lose some of the intimacy of the album. It's a bit of a chore to listen to the entire While Album. It's a big commitment. So, I don't want to add things in and make "Village Green" a double album. All that said, a separate companion album could have been released in early 1969 before Arthur. "Preservation, Vol 2"? "London Calling"? "The Village People"? These tracks could work: Side 1: Berkeley Mews Did You See His Name? Wonderboy Mr. Songbird Polly Side 2: Lavender Hill Pictures in the Sand Misty Water Rosemary Rose Till Death Us Do Part Days
You are right, it does fit in with the theme! That song has become by new favorite of the previously unknown songs to me. I still think it sounds like something Radiohead would have put out in the mid to late 90s. I can hear Thom Yorke singing those verses and the chorus. I do wonder what it'd sound like with the Village Green pastiche sound instead.
This for me. I offered elsewhere that Village Green is the Kinks' best album, which could perhaps be made even better given all the excellent outtakes available at this time: The Kinks Albums; Best, Worst, Overrated, Underrated I figured if McCartney could do it for Red Rose Speedway, then surely the Kinks might be able to similarly reimagine VGPS. Clearly though, assembling a 2 or even 3 LP set, the latter of which I think could be done when including all the odd instrumentals and period Dave Davies songs, is not such an easy task, especially if the goal is to keep everything thematically intact. About the only suggestion I really have on a proposed expansion would be to somehow feature "Days" as the majestic closing track, functioning much like how it appears on the superb Spotlight on the Kinks discussed earlier here, and which I see others have creatively done in some very fine posts above. I also see that our esteemed OP responded to me in the other thread by saying to simply pick up the deluxe edition, ostensibly to make my own playlist. As it stands, I'm pretty happy with (and wouldn't change) the original mono 15-track VGPS, plus The Great Lost Kinks Album for bonus Ray material, and Hidden Treasures for Dave's stuff.
I tried, but I think it's best left as it is. I did make a playlist called A Village Greener and added songs at the end that I think work well on the album. I decided to pass on "Days" because I think that deserves it's own single and doesn't really feel like it's part of these songs. To make it a double album there is enough room for 24 songs so why not fill it up? I present the greatest double album ever! Side 1 The Village Green Preservation Society Do You Remember Walter ? Picture Book Johnny Thunder The Last of the Steam-Powered Train Big Sky Side 2 Sitting by the Riverside Animal Farm Village Green Starstruck Phenomenal Cat All Of My Friends Were There Side 3 Wicked Annabella Monica People Take Pictures Of Each Other Lavender Hill Pictures In The Sand Misty Water Side 4 Rosemary Rose Polly Mr. Songbird Did You See His Name Wonder Boy Til Death Do Us Part
A double VGPS would have been amazing, but there were several problems at the time. The first was that two album sets by pop/rock groups were rare back then, despite the execeptions that we know about. If the Kinks were signed to WB internationally, maybe it could take a flyer on it. But they were on Pye instead, who were more concerned in selling low cost album compilations of previously released singles instead of brand new material albums. The Kinks' previous albums didn't do well in the charts at all despite their quality. They were still perceived as a singles act. Also, a double VGPS would have still competed with the White Album, with both being compared in the UK music press & the Kinks being unfairly accused of following the Beatles, like how they and the Pretty Things were unfairly accused of copying Tommy with Arthur and S.F. Sorrow. Maybe it was for the best the way things turned out, with all of the stuff that the Kinks recorded during that time finally coming out eventually.
A lot of these albums being proposed only have five or six songs per side. That's a non-starter for me and for most album-buying Brits at the time. Putting out-of-date singles on the album is also a non-starter. Autumn Almanac came out a year before Village Green. Wonderboy was from six months earlier. Days was released four months previous. It's completely out of the question to put these songs on a contemporary single or double album and remain credible in the fast-changing sixties. The potential hit on Village Green was Starstruck. Pye didn't release it in the UK and didn't promote it sufficiently even when they did release it elsewhere. Pretending Village Green could have been improved by making it into a semi-compilation/hits/rarities album is a misguided endeavour.
I don't think the point of making these playlists is to try and make it better. It's just a fun exercise since there was so much material around this time. Many of the songs being mentioned were most likely at one time contenders for the album. Even a song like Wonderboy, which was recorded months earlier, has a sound not far off from some other Village Green songs. I say any song that has been released on any deluxe version of the album could have had a spot on the record. At the end of the day, the way all of these songs came out is dandy. It's hard to mess with perfection. Six songs per side was pretty common in 1968.
Today in Kinks history: The Village Green Preservation Society track is recorded at Pye Studios No.2 on this day in 1968 - One of the last tracks recorded for the album.
There could be a mini-subplot (or a big part of the story) with Starstruck, Berkeley Mews, Polly (not on your mix, but I would replace She's Got Everything with Polly), Starstruck, and Village Green. Maybe throw Monica in there too. Not necessarily in the order I listed. Person (Johnny Thunder?) leaves a small town for the city. Becomes a star. Starts meeting...um...interesting...people like Monica. Meets another transplant from the country (Polly). Polly is Starstruck meeting Johnny. Johnny and Polly go on a date at her place in Berkeley Mews, but she is boring and dull. The only problem with putting Johnny Thunder in is who is Sweet Helena then? We have Daisy, his sweetheart he left at home, Monica, the lady of the night he meets in the city, and starstruck Polly who now lives in Berkeley Mews. No real room for Sweet Helena, unless she's Johnny's mother or sister or somebody like that. Incidentally, I see the Lola album as being similar. Two people go to the city, become famous, meet some characters like Lola, and then get ripped off and jaded and want to escape.
On the next album the 2 singles came out months before. I understand your perspective though. I personally love the album, it's easily a top 5 Kinks album, which makes it among the best of all time. I guess due to coming along later on, my perspective is different, because I have been listening to an album with about 8 extra tracks anyhow. I understand that what I put together probably wouldn't suit anyone else, but I'm pretty confident that for me it would work really well.... but I'm not a playlist guy, I'm an album guy. Anyway, today was just supposed to be a bit of fun..... from my perspective at least.
No, you're wrong. Old released singles would most certainly not have been contenders for the album. Most people aren't presenting playlists (which are easy-to-do subjective collections of songs from a certain period or artist). Most of these lists here are being presented in the form of single or double albums with two or four sides. In which case they are being proposed as alternatives as to what was actually released. Incidentally if you think Village Green is the perfect album and shouldn't be tampered with in any way, then you're obviously going to be diasappoined with people who don't see it that way.
No Mark, you're cooking the books. Wonderboy came out seven months before Village Green. Days came out five months before Village Green. Drivin' came out less than four months before Arthur. Shangri-La came out one month before Arthur.
