The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (Bonus Track Edition)

Product Information

Fleiner, Carey (2017). The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3542-7– via Google Books.

Neill, Andy (2018). The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (50th Anniversary) (Liner notes). The Kinks. BMG, Pye Records. BMGAA09LP.

Sing Mr. Songbird

Kitts, Thomas M. (2008). Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97768-5– via the Internet Archive. The original release included four discrepancies between the titles listed on the album sleeve and those on the LP's label. [333] Other than "Phenomenal Cat", the titles are listed above as they were on the original sleeve. [nb 48]

Prichard, Matthew (2007). "The Kinks, or a Redefinition of Englih National Identity". In Crone, Rosalind; Gange, David; Jones, Katy (eds.). New Perspectives in British Cultural History. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp.266–274. ISBN 978-1-5275-6697-2– via Google Books. As the Kinks prepared to fly to Dublin for an evening show on 1 June, Quaife stepped off the plane shortly before it departed. His absence was not noticed by his bandmates until after their arrival and necessitated the cancellation of the performance. [152] Hinman dates the release to 5 February 1969, adding it was "[p]ossibly a week earlier". [325] Neill and Miller each write it was January 1969, without specifying a day. [326]Lupro also draws comparison with the Kinks' next album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), writing that the "Big Sky" character serves as "the ultimate bureaucrat", being similar to the characters that "paternalistically keep Arthur in his 'paradise. '" [21] Reprise likely issued Village Green in the US on 5February 1969, though it may have been released in January. [nb 40] It was not advertised or announced in any American music magazines. [325] After critic Robert Christgau requested press material regarding the band in preparation for his album review, Warner Bros. Records sent him a group biography from 1964. [327] Like in the UK and Europe, the album failed to appear in any American charts. [307] The failure continued a trend of the Kinks' studio albums being outsold by compilations collecting their mid-1960s hits; [75] by 1969, the 1966 US compilation The Kinks Greatest Hits! had sold over 200,000 copies, [327] while the combined American sales of both Village Green and Something Else were estimated to be 25,000. [328] In June 1969, it appeared on Cash Box 's "Basic Album Inventory", a list intended to indicate to wholesalers and retailers which LPs were selling steadily despite having failed to appear on the Cash Box Top 100 Album chart. [329] Contemporary critical reception [ edit ] United Kingdom [ edit ] Gelbart, Matthew (2003). "Persona and Voice in the Kinks' Songs of the Late 1960s". Journal of the Royal Musical Association. 128 (2): 200–241. doi: 10.1093/jrma/128.2.200. ISSN 0269-0403. JSTOR 3557496. Bailey, Andrew (20 June 1974). "Can Anybody Depend on the Kinks? Yeah". Rolling Stone. No.163. p.12. In contrast to the Kinks' work under Talmy, Ray ensured the group ran through numerous takes of songs on Village Green. Avory recalled that after Talmy's departure, the group spent more time collaborating and "[fleshing] out the sound" in studio. [125] All group members contributed to the recording process, though Ray held final say over all decisions. [145] He required all band members to attend all sessions, regardless of whether they were expected to play on the particular song. Quaife recalled: "He'd keep you there for hours and he wouldn't let you out of the studio either. You'd have to be there even though you weren't doing anything." [145]

Despite an industrywide trend towards stereo sound, [159] Ray still favoured mono when he mixed Village Green. [160] As was typical for the time, he mixed the album in both formats, [161] and Pye released both versions of the album in the UK. [75] In the US, Reprise's parent company Warner Bros.-Seven Arts halted mono production in January 1968, [162] making Village Green the Kinks' second US LP to be issued exclusively in stereo. [163] Retrospective commentators often regard Village Green as the Kinks' best work. [355] [358] Critic Rob Sheffield writes the album is likely the band's strongest album on a song-by-song basis, [360] while Rogan writes it is "[t]he crowning achievement of the Kinks' career and their best album by some distance". [361] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that the album's subdued performances emphasise the songwriting to make it feel more like Ray's solo project than a Kinks album. He suggests that, despite the album's calm sensibility, it includes "endless layers of musical and lyrical innovation". [119] Anon.[b] (21 September 1968). "Pye Host 19 Countries At 9th Int'l Meet" (PDF). Cash Box. pp.67, 73–74 – via WorldRadioHistory.com. Dave says he has different memories of the inspiration for Johnny Thunder. “There was a guy that I knew that I thought Ray modeled Johnny Thunder after,” he says. “He was a loner, and he’d drive around and didn’t say much. In the middle of Muswell Hill, there’s a big roundabout, where you go ’round just before the hill itself. It’s very steep. This guy used to sped on his bike ’round the roundabout and the story has it one day his footrest hit the road and he toppled and that was the end of Johnny Thunder. But Ray has different memories of that.” Costambeys-Kempczynski, Raphael (2014). "Preservation Society". In Harris, Trevor; O’Brien Castro, Monia (eds.). Preserving the Sixties: Britain and the 'Decade of Protest' . Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.173–191. ISBN 978-1-137-37410-3– via Google Books.

Tracklist

Recording history [ edit ] 1966–1967 [ edit ] The Kinks performing for Dutch television in April 1967, two months after re-recording "Village Green". [55] Anon.[c] (28 September 1968). "Pye Records Presents an Autumn Collection" (PDF). Melody Maker. p.23 – via WorldRadioHistory.com. Kellett, Andrew (2017). The British Blues Network: Adoption, Emulation, and Creativity. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-03699-8. Neill, Andy (February 2000). "The Great Lost Kinks Album". Record Collector. No.246. pp.46–49 – via the Internet Archive.

I wouldn’t go as far as ‘conservatism,'” he says, “I think it was ‘values’ more than conservatism. My father was a socialist — very left — and I was brought up to be that way. You can still be far-left and have values. It’s one thing when you get the left and the right together in values, and I think we should be selfless. I’m kind enough not to have edited out Pete’s comment on conservatism.” Smotroff, Mark (28 November 2018). "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Remasters on Mono & Stereo Vinyl, Tidal". Audiophile Music. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021.The 50 Greatest Concept Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 12 October 2022. Archived from the original on 12 October 2022. Williams, Paul (14 June 1969). "The Kinks: The Village Green Preservation Society". Rolling Stone. No.35. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Larkin, Colin, ed. (1998). All Time Top 1000 Albums (2nded.). London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0258-5– via the Internet Archive. Montanari, Dylan (5 November 2018). "The Kinks – The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society". Spectrum Culture. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Himes, Geoffrey (11 February 2019). "The Curmudgeon: Ray Davies – Preserving Old, Rural Ways as a Kind of Rebellion". Paste. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022.