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Village Green Preservation Society (Dlx)

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There are several different CD versions of this album floating around. Don't be fooled! This is it! The only thing comparable is the Castle version from 1998, which is out of print. The price is higher than most of them but it's worth it. Definitely avoid the U.S. Reprise version. It's inexpensive but it has not been remastered and sounds bad.
Village Green is the third album in the solid 4 album run that the Kinks had in the mid/late '60's that represented the creative (though not financial) peak of their career.
They were Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green and Arthur.
The Kinks would continue to produce good (and more profitable) stuff into the '70's but never as consistently good as this. Once Ray Davies started writing about the trials and tribulations of being a rock star on Lola vs. Powerman it all started getting a little wobbly.
Of the 4 albums Village Green is the best. The Kinks carved out their niche as a truly English band with its sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes genuine, nostalgia for an England that was rapidly disappearing. This set them apart from the Beatles and Rolling Stones who were following and adapting the American model.
This version also includes the original mono mix which is what was preferred by the band. Until '69 The Kinks, like The Beatles and their other British contemporaries, considered stereo mixing irrelevant, since stereo ownership was so low in the UK, and lavished all of their attention on the mono mixes. The stereo mixes, by contrast, were done quickly and, usually, without the participation of the band. I've compared the stereo mix and the mono mix and the mono wins hands-down.
Order this now! You won't regret it.

1968 was a very good year for the Kinks - though at the time no one seemed to notice much. Now TKATVGPS is considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and rightly so. It's hard to single out highlights as there are no lowlights. I'd have to say that the title track, Do you remember Walter?, Picture Book, Village Green, All of my friends were there, and People take pictures of each other are my personal favorites.
This seems like Ray Davies pinnacle. Not that he didn't produce great music before and after. But I think this is his most consistently brilliant phase. With every track on this collection his genius grows. His lyrics are sharper then usual with his great wit and pathos for the less fortunate in life. The harmony the band talks about in the CD booklet shows in their playing - which is confident, relaxed and raucous all at once. What ties the album together is the binding theme of the longing for the past. A fondness for the things of yesterday and heap of skepticism towards the present and future. The record is very much of it's time and yet ageless as well. I know these are contradictions, but that's how Ray Davies wrote them. He was a master of using irony in his storytelling.
Now I didn't notice much of a difference between the stereo and mono mixes, except that the vocals were a bit buried more in mono. What really makes this collectors edition special is the great bonus material. Different versions of Walter?, People take pictures, village green and Animal Farm give fresh perspectives to those songs. It also includes some singles and b-sides that can be gotten in other places, but their still all great songs and it's always good when a CD has Days on it (not to mention you get two here). But what really makes this special is the release of some of the tracks from the Great Lost Kinks album. It's hard to believe that classic songs like Misty Water, Lavender Hill, Creeping Jean and Where did my Spring Go took over 35 years to be released. Basically there's not a bad moment in any of the 3 Cd's, even the instrumentals have a nice charm that fits the mood of the album. And that's one of the great things about this release. They add 47 more songs and it still feels like TKATVGPS album, the spirit remains throughout. So get it and see what all the fuss is about.

My real introduction to the Kinks was "Village Green". Of course I heard all the British Invasion hits they did but I really didn't think much of them until a friend told me that I should check this one out. I love "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" and you probably do too because you are reading this. I waited until a reasonably priced used copy was available because I already had a CD version of this in my collection. I cannot really discern between the mono/stereo versions of the album (I am not a recording engineer) but the out takes and bonus tracks are the true treasures here. If you don't have a copy of "The Great Lost Kinks Album" on LP, this is the closest thing you will ever get of this for now. It is not on CD as far as I know. The extensive liner notes in the ample booklet tell the tale.You need this-find a clean used copy at a good price-make yourself happy-you deserve it!

I first came to this Kinks album in November of 1998 right as I was preparing to end a near year long stay in San Luis Obispo, CA. Unbeknown to me at the time, it just so happened to be the album's 30th anniversary that month! My best friend John came up to visit me on his vacation and while he was there we would walk to the downtown area of San Luis and frequent Cheap Thrills Records. John had recently been getting into The Kinks and picked up two of their CDs on our very last visit to the record store. He bought the original Rhino CD reissue of "You Really Got Me" (long out of print even at that time), and the U.S. Reprise issue of "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society." I, on the other hand, purchased two CDs of The Byrds. We took our CDs back to where I was staying, sat down on the two couches in the living room, and popped in "Village Green." Right from the upbeat strum of the acoustic guitar on the title track, we were mesmerized. We sat there through the entire album not saying a word to each other, but occasionally glancing back and forth with facial expressions of amazement and bewilderment (I specifically recall our reaction to the sped up elf voices in "Phenomenal Cat"). From Nov. 10th, 1998 to this very day The Kinks "Village Green" remains me and John's "buddy album."

I got my copy late that December as a birthday gift from John after I'd moved back to Southern California. I had already listened to it practically a thousand times on a recorded cassette I had made from his copy. In 1999, I bought the first remastered import of the album on Castle that contained both the stereo and mono versions and bonus tracks like "Days" and "Mr. Songbird." While reading the inside booklet included I was enlightened to the fact that the entire process with getting "Village Green" even released in the first place was a long and complicated one. And when it was finally issued, it suffered the dignity of being completely blown asunder by The Holy Trinity of 1968 album releases that fall: "The White Album" by The Beatles (RELEASED ON THE SAME DAY OF ALL THINGS), "Beggars Banquet" by The Rolling Stones, and "Electric Ladyland" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Not to mention The Doors' "Waiting For The Sun," Cream's "Wheels Of Fire," and Big Brother's "Cheap Thrills" released only a couple months prior! It seems the odds were stacked high against The Kinks "Village Green."

In 2004, this enormous three-disc package appeared in a Tower Records (R.I.P) that John and I would visit in the O.C. city of Brea. As impressed as we were with this new reissue, neither John or I bought it that day for some unexplainable reason. Now in 2008, as we Kinks fans celebrate this album's 40th anniversary, I have my very own copy of this deluxe version of what is undoubtedly The Kinks' finest hour ever to be pressed on vinyl! In the liner notes to this edition, Pete Townsend of The Who is quoted as saying that "Village Green" is Ray Davies' very own "Sgt. Pepper" and I couldn't agree more (and neither could John for that matter). Disc One features a newly remastered stereo version, disc two the mono, and disc three is chock full of rarities. You'll get to hear some previously unreleased mixes, jams, and songs that were to be possibly included on the album such as "Berkely Mews," "Misty Water," and "Rosemary Rose" (not to mention the all too true and hilarious "Where Did My Spring Go?" which is worth the price of admission alone if you ask me). Some of these tracks were first issued on either "The Kink Kronikles" in 1972 or "The Great Lost Kinks Album" in 1973, both on Reprise. And while "Kink Kronikles" is still in print, "The Great Lost Kinks Album" has LONG been deleted from the band's catalog making it a highly sought out Kinks collector's item!

"Village Green" has a rather lengthy recording history with the track "Village Green" itself dating back to Nov. 1966! The album's original release was scheduled for September '68 but Davies pulled it at the last minute to add a couple more songs, those songs being "Last Of The Steam Powered Trains" and "Big Sky." Even with tracks being recorded so far apart from each other, there is a cohesion evident that wouldn't let you think it was so. The main thing that connects "Village Green" is it's central theme, a yearning to return to innocence. To draw upon memories of happier and simpler times, the joys of one's youth, childhood friends and the where-are-they-now theories. "Village Green" is a happy, peaceful, and very nostalgic piece of wax. An album to put on right before bedtime to dream happy dreams. Just open up your imagination and let Ray tell you his stories.

This set will be a treasure trove for fans of this album like John and myself. I like to refer to it as the "Chunk O' Green." Mr. Ray Davies made a very quick transition from the hit single songwriter that penned "You Really Got Me" to the pop-poet laureate of "Village Green." It's a change evident in many of the popular bands from the era with The Beatles, of course, being the most well known for their transformation. The entire world was changing and so were musicians caught up in what was going on, or going wrong for that matter. Ray Davies wanted to bring listeners solace in 1968 with this masterpiece and that's exactly what he achieved. It may have been out of step with the times but never with the human spirit. That yearning that we all someday find our very own Village Green.
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I can't even tell you how many times i've listened to this. It's like fine wine, it just gets better with time. I suggest only getting the (Dix) edition because the bonus CD is a must have.

I'm a huge fan of the Kinks, and my first album of theirs was Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One. After that I became a little obsessive, and I knew from the get go that this was supposed to be their best album, so I intentionally waited to buy it until I had heard the rest of their albums. When I did buy it on CD I went with the deluxe version, and it was the best decision I ever made! The album itself is amazing beyond description, but all of the bonus tracks (and there are more than I've ever seen) add so much more to the experience. If you had told me that TKATVGPS was a 35+ track album and played this for me, i would have never guessed that these tracks weren't included on the original version. Seriously, buy this album, and it will be all you'll be listening to for weeks. If you are a fan of The Beatles, The Who, The Zombies, or any other 60's british invasion bands whose names start with "The", you owe it to yourself to become a fan of the Kinks! God save the Kinks!

When THE KINKS gave the music industry this cd-nobody gave it a listen or even payed attention. THANKFULLY-THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY hasnt been overlooked anymore.The Kinks never quit and neither did their fans! This DISC set is PHENOMENIAL!! The cd's have mono and stereo sides and then some real good gems-JOHNNY Thunder""Big sky"Animal farm "picture book"VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY' and even instrumentals-"mick avorys underpants.?."For A KINKS fan This is A GREAT Collection to have..and for people intrested in THE KINKS well This IS the Cd to get!! Ray Davies created a masterpiece of brilliant craft. All the songs capture a fleeting moment in(ENGLAND) time and put that listener in a place where nostagia is remembered, charished and revered sacred.tHE OTHER DISC HAS a rockin song"kingkong"and songs featured on The Great Lost kInks album. There is no one stand out track-the album/cd is to be listened to as it is recorded without interruption!!! THIS IS TRUE ART AT ITS BEST!!!! THE KINKS WILL ALWAYS BE A STEP ABOVE THE REST!!

I was one of the dozen or so people in the US who bought this album when it first came out in vinyl in 1968 (having already been blown out of the water by the earlier Face to Face and Something Else albums), and I knew right away that it was another Kinks classic. But it wasn't until now--43 years later!--that I've discovered what a true masterpiece it really is. The reason for the delayed reaction? The vast improvement in sound quality, in both the mono and stereo versions. Finally, this extaordinary compilation of songs has been brought fully to life--and what a difference! Because Ray Davies' lyrics are so brilliant, there is a tendency to take the music itself for granted. But now, for the first time, you can really hear how extraordinary that music is, both in terms of the musical sophistication of the songs themselves (easily on a par with, if not better than, what the Beatles and Brian Wilson were doing at the time) and in terms of the musicianship of each of the band members. Mick Avory's drumming, for example, is some of the best--and most mature--rock drumming on record, something that got totally lost in the muddy mixes on the original Reprise release. Just listen to those rolls on the opening track, or the way he out-Moons Keith Moon on "Wicked Annabella" (there are clear echoes of the Who both in "Annabella" and in the back-up vocals in "Johnny Thunder"). But as great as each of the individual songs are--and there isn't a single misfire among them, something you can't even say about Sgt. Pepper, Revolver or Rubber Soul--it is the cumulative impact of all those songs together that makes this album such an overwhelming emotional and musical experience. For me, in a funny way, the emotional heart of the album is the one song that I initially used to skip over: "Phenomenal Cat." It has to be one of the strangest songs--both musically and lyrically--to ever find its way onto a rock album, and it took some real nerve on Davies' part to include it, but he was absolutely right. More than any other song, this apparent trifle of a song about a fat cat who travels the world gets to the very heart of the lost innocence that this album--and, for that matter, Ray Davies--is all about. Thank you, Ray, for immeasurably enriching our lives.

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (referred to as VGPS from here on) is the musical equivalent of the perfect trip to Disneyland. Warm and sunny weather with cool breezes, barely any crowds, no lines, the best seats to every parade or attraction, Dole Pineapple Floats are on the house, FastPass machines are turned off cuz you don't need them, walk-on-in-with-no-reservations dinner at Chef Mickey's... wait where was I?

Oh yeah. VGPS. The Kinks's most heralded album. A rock classic. A peerless 60s album in style, tone, and attitude. A gentle iconoclastic work from a premiere songwriter.

Village Green is just one of those albums that defies description. The feel of it alone elevates it to one of the Top 5 greatest albums of the 60s... maybe of all time. It's a concept album in the best sense of the word... no big loud stupid storyline, no bloated conceits, no lumbering bombast, just a warm dedication to the simple pleasures of English pastoral living set to timeless music. The Disneyland analogy holds for me simply because Ray Davies was evoking warmth and nostalgia for a times and traditions that always look magical in the rearview mirror. In a single album he created slices of British life with universal appeal, a reflexive album that circles back on itself; it's not just wistful reminiscing. It's a journey in which the book of the past is opened, enjoyed, but has to be closed at the end. Even if you want to listen to the album all over again. I usually do.

For example take "Starstruck", a bouncy, catchy piece of pop with lush string undertones. The character sadly warns another to not leave the comfort of British pastoral life in favor of the excitement, high falutin culture and debauchery of the Big City. Which is exactly what the singer of folksy, minor-chord "Village Green" did, by leaving his beloved Daisy behind to make his way in the world, only to return home to find her married to the local grocer. You can almost imagine him returning home, with his long-lost girl married and happy, while also yearning to know what happened his long-lost mate in "Do You Remember Walter?".

All of three of those songs are linked by nostalgia, but there's no real story here. It's all feeling, yearning, warmth, regret, whimsy, fancy, and even a bit of "enough of this rubbish" at the end. Kicking off with the title track, VGPS sets its tone immediately. "Preserving the old ways from being abused / Protecting the new ways for me and for you. / What more can we do?" The various societies introduce themselves throughout the song, celebrating the little pieces of rustic life that charm, delight, befuddle, bemuse, etc. Musically it's a peach of a tune, infectious as all hell. It leads into the aforementioned "Walter", which in turn opens up the reflective, nostalgic "Picture Book". Yup, I gotta thank Hewlett-Packard now, because if they hadn't so prominently featured "Picture Book" in a marketing campaign, I never would have bought the album and fallen in love with it. It's just a great song, with a killer hook and cheeky vocals (and lyrics). It has its own reflexive connection with the last track on the album, but I'll get to that one in a little bit.

"Johnny Thunder" is the village sociopath, or misfit, or loner. One that apparently lives with his Mum, who considers him a darn good boy. The song is so commanding, with the punchiness of its main riff accentuating each verse. The superb "Last of The Steam Powered Train"s is equally as austere and powerful, a "hat's off" to a noble breed of travel now confined ot the local museum. I picture the faster rocking instrumental section that builds in the last third of the song, back into the verses, as a dream sequence in which said train is flashbacking on its previous glory days. "Big Sky" -- however you want to interpret it, as a "Let Go, Let God" sentiment, or a more secular "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" affirmation -- is another winning rocker, alternating between shimmering 12-string acoustic picking and thicker, deeper riffing, as if a stark musical expression of the troubled earthbound mortals and the immortal, ethereal heavens.

If I'm not too crazy about "Down By The Riverside" as an individual song, it still makes for a decent album cut, almost a breather of sorts as a moment of contemplation as the gentle river flows by. It almost has a Parisian vibe. It leads into the beautiful shimmer of "Animal Farm". The world is big and wild and half-insane indeed; the "real animals" have got it right. Ray would get a TON more cynical about the subject matter two albums from now with the radio classic "Apeman". But let's not get THAT ahead of ourselves. "Animal Farm" is one of the best songs on album full of best songs.

The double-reeded woodwinds and harpsichords anchor the somewhat melancholic but hopeful "Village Green". I mean he does end up having tea with Daisy and laughing over happy memories at the end of the song! We discussed "Starstruck" earlier, and how that ties in with "Village Green". Daisy warned the singer that he was truly in love with her, and if he left he'd end up losing her. She was right. Oh well.

Now I must admit I love "Phenomenal Cat", as ridiculous as it is. We're in fairy tale storybook time, and if the creepy gnome la-la-la voice is a bit overboard -- a BIT -- it's almost forgiveable during this brief exploration of whimsy and childhood. But if Phenomenal Cat is Fantasyland, "Wicked Annabella" is pure HAUNTED MANSION baby. It's been written that the creepy rocker feels out of place musically with the rest of the album. It's a departure, no question, but it's SUPPOSED to be. Dave takes over vocal duties, and he does a great job playing up the song's creepiness, about the local town witch. Probably some old lady who lives by herself that all the local kids are afraid of, and she's accumulated her share of local legends throughout the years. Musically maybe it's different from the rest of the album, but thematically it fits in PERFECTLY.

Sandwiched between those two bits of fantasy is "All Of My Friends Were There", a music hall bit of piffle in which our narrator relates a moment of on-stage embarassment, which was only helped by having good friends around to take some of the sting off of the occurrence, and how next time he had to speak publically, he was good-to-go. Reminds me of something Dick Van Dyke might have sung in "Mary Poppins", that kind of silly bouncy feel. It's a cute song, but little more. Far more interesting to me is the Latin-flavored "Monica", a breezy piece of Iberian-flavored awesomeness. Obviously the narrator of our tale found a spicy piece of Spanish tail in his travels abroad, and even back home in the Village Green he's still enraptured by her charms. Another great song, catchy and toe-tapping, almost like a warm tropical breeze.

The album ends with "People Take Pictures Of Each Other". It's not a particularly strong ending. If you're expecting something akin to "A Day In The Life" or "You Can't Always Get What You Want", you're inevitably walking away disappointed. There's no epic closer. What there is, though, is a closing of the book, an end to our visit to the Village Green... at least for now. Again we flash back to Picture Book back towards the beginning of VGPS... where looking back into our past was swell, shimmering, fun, silly, and awesome. Here it's faster-paced, hurried, and perhaps a bit over the whole return to the past. We need pictures to prove things actually happened. OK, the narrator agrees, they happened. But the past wasn't always that great. Don't show me any more please. I wanna head back out to find Monica. The local girl who married the grocer isn't doing it for me anymore. It's nice to look back, it's nice to return to traditional life every once in awhile, but it's also time to move on. Our journey is complete. For now.

It's difficult to imagine how VGPS could have been made any better. I suppose the production values could have been a bit more substantial; there's an "thinness" to the album which haunted many early Kinks LP. Nonetheless, VGPS as an album is a singular experience, and a wondrous album experience at that. Many complaints tilted towards the album is that it's a bit top-heavy; that the "best" songs tend to appear in the first half and by the end it wears out its welcome and gets a bit grating. I disagree with that assessment entirely. As thematic storytelling, VGPS is a cohesive whole. As music, it's almost entirely delightful from start to finish. Even the lesser songs are reasonable, and the great songs are plentiful. VGPS is a personal album, a decisively non-commercial album, and as it stood apart from the prevailing musical trends of the day -- to put it in perspective, it dropped on the very same day as The White Album -- it achieved an air of timelessness. It's a nostalgic celebration of a parallel-universe past that never really existed, yet one that remains just as real to everyone who spends time lazying about the Village Green.

The Kinks are such a great band, it is hard to say what is their greatest LP of all time. However, one thing is clear...The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society is definitely in the discussion. This album is probably my 2nd favorite Kinks LP behind Something Else, but it's like picking between Revolver and Sgt Pepper's. Someone who doesn't know this LP may look at it and think that it may not be a great album because it only has one Kink compilation classic "The Village Green Preservation Society". However they could not be more wrong. This album is loaded with great songs. There is not a single song on the album that is a weak song and Do You Remember Walter, Picture Book, Johnny Thunder, Last of the Steam-Power Trains, Big Sky, Animal Farm, Village Green, Starstruck and People Take Pics of Each Other are all awesome songs. In fact, my girl friend's favorite Kinks song is Last of the Steam-Power Trains.

If I'm having a bad day or I just want to relax, this is the LP a play. It is just a relaxing and enjoyable album. When I listen to Village Green and All of My Friends Were There, I feel like I am living in a small village on the English country side. In closing, this is an Absolute Essential LP for any classic rock fan. Trust me, it will become one of your favorites.