The Village Green Preservation Society The Kinks

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CD

  • Release Date: 05/02/1990
  • Original Release: 1968
  • Sales Rank: 22,891
  • Label: REPRISE / WEA
  • UPC: 075992621724

Listener Rating: (4 ratings)

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  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
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The Village Green Preservation Society

1LISTENThe Village Green Preservation Society 2:49
2LISTENDo You Remember Walter? 2:28
3LISTENPicture Book 2:38
4LISTENJohnny Thunder 2:33
5LISTENMonica 2:15
6LISTENPeople Take Pictures of Each Other 2:26
7LISTENVillage Green 2:11
8LISTENMr. Songbird 2:27
9LISTENWicked Annabella 2:43
10LISTENStarstruck 2:22
11LISTENPhenominal Cat 2:37
12LISTENDays 2:52
13LISTENWicked Annabella 2:40
14LISTENMonica 2:13
15LISTENPeople Take Pictures Of Each Other 2:10

About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

Ray Davies' sentimental, nostalgic streak emerged on Something Else, but it developed into a manifesto on The Village Green Preservation Society, a concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions. As the opening title song says, the Kinks -- meaning Ray himself, in this case -- were for preserving "draught beer and virginity," and throughout the rest of the album, he creates a series of stories, sketches, and characters about a picturesque England that never really was. It's a lovely, gentle album, evoking a small British country town, and drawing the listener into its lazy rhythms and sensibilities. Although there is an undercurrent of regret running throughout the album, Davies' fondness for the past is warm, making the album feel like a sweet, hazy dream. And considering the subdued performances and the detailed instrumentations, it's not surprising that the record feels more like a Ray Davies solo project than a Kinks album. The bluesy shuffle of "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is the closest the album comes to rock & roll, and Dave Davies' cameo on the menacing "Wicked Annabella" comes as surprise, since the album is so calm. But calm doesn't mean tame or bland -- there are endless layers of musical and lyrical innovation on The Village Green Preservation Society, and its defiantly British sensibilities became the foundation of generations of British guitar pop. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

One Of The First Concept Albumsby Anonymous

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March 26, 2003: With "Face To Face" and "Something Else By The Kinks, the group took many steps forward to be voted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame."Village Green" defenitivly put Ray Davies real high up on the composermap.The songs here are very well constructive and are performed with a warm feel.One journalist said that hearing from The Kinks is like getting a postcard from your best friend! That?s right,everybody loves this one as far as I know.It didn?t sell that much first time around but nowadays has become cultstatus.I will not mention tracks because "Village Green" is a concept album but for curiosa:The Swedish version had a different cover and EXCLUDED three songs BUT INCLUDED the beautiful "Days" as a final cut to this masterpiece.

Greatby Anonymous

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February 25, 2003: Other reviewers seem not to have detected a deep irony that I believe permeates this whole album; they thereby present it as epitomising a very dull conservative stance (conservative with both capital and small 'C'). I actually hear the album as far more subversive. As an example, it is common to suggest that "sitting by the riverside" paints an idyllic picture of a man who is just relaxing in a safe haven somewhere in beautiful England. I simply can't understand this interpretation. To me, the singer appears to be at the very end of his tether, trying to convince himself that he is at peace, when in reality he is in crisis; shortly after Davies sings "please keep me pacified", the sweet tinkly back-drop becomes severely warped with reverb and nightmarish washes of sound... idyllic picture? NO: Here is a frightening mental turbulence that the riverside scene is powerless to dispel. Another strangely interpreted track is "Do you remember Walter?". Elsewhere, I have read that here the singer 'fondly' remembers his childhood friend; indeed he does recollect things as they were, but in the final analysis at the end of the song, he sings quite aggressively, "I bet your fat and married and always home in bed at 8:30... and if I talked about the old times you'd be bored and have nothing more to say". Fondness is not the prevailing emotion at all. And "Village Green" is sometimes stated as being an ode to the idealised village of Olde England. The crazy way in which Davies sings "'Twas there I met a girl called Daisy and kissed her by the old oak tree" surely suggests that he is poking fun at such idealisation, not feeding into it?. And so on, and so on..... In this album, Davies separates himself from the leagues of nostalgicians that plague the folk and folk-rock movements. Later, this was unfortunately to change.... However, this album is a gem. I relish almost every melody, harmony, arrangement and lyric. The following lyrics surely prove a certain mastery of words: "You take the sunshine/I'll take the nightly shadows/'Cos everyone knows that Monica glows at night/ She'll do something wrong and prove to you she is right". And the melodies! Lovely. You will enjoy this album immensely when you have bought it!


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