Intricately sketched and brimming with unusual arrangements, The Village Green Preservation Society was the first clear look at an iconoclastic, imaginative and sometimes brilliant artist … The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society (Official Audio) The opening track on the 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. These songs, however, were pulled from the album before the final master tape was compiled.Andy Miller commented on these changes in his book about the album;The original 15-track version, sent to Reprise, would have also included the following tracks:In late summer of 1968, the Kinks had hoped to release the album as a two-record set with 20 tracks, but Pye Records rejected this plan. En effet, le projet de Ray Davies était à l'origine bien plus audacieux : l'album devait être double, comporter donc davantage de chansons, et s'intituler Four More Well-Respected Men en clin d'œil à l'énorme succès du single A Well-Respected Man. But that, literally, is another story.There is no doubting the extraordinary levels of invention, creativity and imagination on these two astonishing albums, which half a century later are still nigh on impossible to categorize as each blends a dazzling array of themes and styles. Written by Ray Davies and recorded at Pye Studios between February 1967 and October 1968.
Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle to bring them later on to a common land for grazing.
A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. A twelve-track version of the album was released in September 1968 throughout certain European markets; these are now valuable collector's items. Back in 2003 on the 35th anniversary of the seminal 60s album ‘The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society,’ in the booklet accompanying release of the expanded 3-CD edition, Pete Townshend makes the comment: ‘For me, Village Green Preservation Society is Ray’s masterwork.It’s his Sgt Pepper, it’s what makes him the definitive pop poet laureate.’ The narrative is set as a group (society) telling everyone their mission statement while the undercurrent makes you think that the writer holds these values close to their heart too. The November 1966 track "Village Green" was inspired by a visit to Devon, England in late 1966.
But if this listener were made to choose, The Kinks win by a whisker on the grounds of producing a slightly more coherent work – the singular vision of one great writer just edging out the differing approach of three.But despite being in the vanguard of English pop creativity, as 1968 dawned all was far from well in Kinkland.WORTH PRESERVING – The Kinks………The Village (Green) people…………..Yet their most debilitating setback had occurred 3,000 miles away from their North London base, the group now into the third of what proved a four year ban from performing in the United States – this after a series of disputes with promoters on their 1965 tour.Lawsuits, contractual disputes, management hassles, group in-fighting (primarily between Ray and younger brother/guitar virtuoso Dave) were all creating disunity and disenchantment within The Kinks (completed by bassist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory).Beyond the relative peace of his Muswell Hill enclave, Ray Davies saw the planet being torn asunder in 1968 by war, assassinations and riots – but rather than look to the chaos of distant horizons for inspiration, he chose to take a nostalgic glance over his shoulder to a time of childhood friendships, family holidays, steam trains and village greens.When dissecting a Kinks album the backstory, as ever, needs attention as it generally frames the canvas on which Ray Davies paints his characters and colours the world they inhabit.Given how The Kinks career was in a state of flux, what more could they have done than produce an album that combines wit and wisdom, pits charm against sadness and mixes mysticism with quiet melancholy?The most significant consequence of them not being allowed to perform in America since 1965, was in turning the songwriting muse of Ray Davies into a periscope for observing the current cultural trends.FOOTBALL, FILMS and FABULOUS MUSIC AT THE DOMINION OF OPINION
Production of this version was quickly halted at Ray Davies's insistence and the final revamped fifteen-track version was released in the UK in November 1968.All tracks are written by Ray Davies.