Village Green Preservation Society [Import, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

The Kinks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Castle Essential
• ASIN: B00000899Z
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,735 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Village Preservation Society

2. Do You Remember Walter

3. Picture Book

4. Johnny Thunder

5. Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains

6. Big Sky

7. Sitting By The Riverside

8. Animal Farm

9. Village Green

10. Starstruck

11. Phenomenal Cat

12. All Of My Friends Were There

13. Wicked Annabella

14. Monica

15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other

16. The Village Preservation Society

17. Do You Remember Walter

18. Picture Book

19. Johnny Thunder

20. Monica

See all 28 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Sensing that the Beatles, Stones, and Who were radically transforming rock music by turning it literate and conceptual, Ray Davies decided the Kinks should be his vehicle to explore his unusual longing for a simpler time when the British Empire was not in decline. A reliance on English music hall tradition and sentiments indicated in titles such as "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains," "Picture Book," and "Village Green" clearly show Davies's nostalgic streak. Davies's singing has always been rough and non-Kinks fans may have trouble getting past his sloppy pitch. But for those listening closely, the tales are one of a kind. This import edition of the Kinks' 1968 classic includes the full 15-track mono and 12-track stereo versions of the original records, as well as the gorgeous "Days" mono single. --Rob O'Connor

Product Description

Digitally remastered 1998 reissue on Castle's Essential label of their 1968 album '(The Kinks Are) The Village GreenPreservation Society', founder Ray Davies' homage to England. Also contains 13 bonus tracks: 'Days' (Mono Single)and the 12 track stereo album released overseas (outside of the U.K.: 'The Village Green Preservation Society', 'Do You Remember Walter', 'Picture Book', 'Johnny Thunder', 'Days', 'Monica', 'Village Green', 'Mr. Songbird', 'Starstruck', 'Wicked Annabella', 'Phenomenal Cat' & 'People Take PicturesOf Each Other'. 28 tracks total. Also includes original art.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enduring, endearing oddity, June 29, 2000

By 

Rob Hosking - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village Green Preservation Society (Audio CD)

At its best - the title track, `Walter', `Animal Farm', `Days' - this is a stupendously unique creation. The theme is nostalgia, and the mood is of a vanished and innocent bygone age. An indeterminate one however. `Village Green' is not anchored in any particular time or place. It could be a rural, Victorian England - `Phenomenal Cat', for example, has definite Alice in Wonderland echoes. However the title track sings of the need to preserve, for example, Donald Duck - who isn't exactly rural, Victorian, or English. The album's achievement though lies in the fact that it does, at its best moments, capture a wistful, elegiac feel, but mostly using the standard rock instrumental line-up of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. No Beatle-esque orchestrations or Who-like massed synthesisers here! The general evocation of things past - steam powered trains, old school friends, the recurring references to photographs from days gone by, and the enigmatic `Big Sky' - make it clear the theme of the album is nostalgia itself, and not nostalgia for any particular time or place. "I live in a museum" sings leader/songwriter Ray Davies on `Last of the Steam Powered Trains', "so I'm OK!" And Davies' vocals fit perfectly. Never a great singer, Davies' strength is lies in his ability to convey a character with simple, subtle vocal inflexions. (The best example of this is in the previous year's single, `Autumn Almanac' - a song which also distils into three minutes Davies' lyrical themes for the next few years). By the 1970s, that acting deftness had degenerated into over-the-top ham - foreshadowed here on `All of my Friends'. Generally though, Davies restrains himself on this album, and that restraint pays dividends. The reason `VGPS' is so effective in evoking mood and atmosphere rests largely on Davies' voice. On many tracks, he sounds like a wise old man singing of the past. Not exactly a classic rock star pose - and that's why I personally keep coming back to this work. Davies wasn't bothered by what the mainstream of rock music was doing, he just burrowed into his own interests and came up with this. The re-mixed version rightfully adds the `Days' single, released at the same time but not on most versions of the original album. It makes a perfect coda to the album's theme, as well as being one of the most sublime singles of the rock era. I'll add my voice to those who have grizzled that the golden opportunity to include a number of songs recorded around the same time but only released on the incredibly rare `Great Lost Kinks' vinyl LP was missed here. A near-criminal oversight. That's not the only criticism though. The much-loved `quirkiness' of the Kinks can get a little overdone, and the supposed charm of tracks such as `All of my friends were there' and `Sitting by the Riverside', can wear a little thin - for this listener, anyway. The other fault is the production - mostly, from what I have read, due to the poor budget available to the band at the time. It has a very unfinished overall sound, with the backing vocals often sounding like they're off a demo. The drums on some tracks, such as `Picture Book', sound like cardboard boxes being hit with wooden spoons. And poor production mars what should have been - and for many fans still is - the album's stand-out track, `Big Sky'. A magnificent, subtle, spiritual number, the song serves as a heartfelt plea from the human soul to an unknown and unknowable god. A pity the production is so half-done. This is not an album you would ever put on at a party. You certainly can't dance to it, no matter how much you're into irony. And in some ways, it doesn't sound like a rock album at all. "A hundred years out of its time - forward or back," was how someone described this work somewhere. Amen to that.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Preservation at its finest, October 22, 2004

By 

Clare Quilty (a little pad in hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village Green Preservation Society (Audio CD)

It's funny. I'm a big fan of the rock 'n roll. During my teenage years, armed with a copy of Rolling Stone's 1987 "100 Greatest Albums" as my map, bumming records from a couple older friends of mine, I started getting into music hardcore.

Nearly two decades later, I'm well versed on the lore and history of the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Band, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, the Dead, garage rock, one-hit wonders, Bay area groups, Gram Parsons, etc, etc, et al.

But I have to admit, I don't know a damn thing about the Kinks except they cranked out a slew of hit singles, fought a lot and never really cracked the stratosphere like a lot of their contemporaries. Yeah, they're a legendary band; in terms of success, they aren't Moby Grape, exactly, but they also aren't exactly Led Zeppelin. Meaning, I owned Kinks Kronicles and Greatest Hits but that was about it.

Somehow I wound up with "Village Green" a few years ago. I found it used, cheap, bought it on an impulse and I don't think I even took it out of the case for a year or so. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, it blew me away. What a great album this is.

"Big Sky," "Johnny Thunder," "Picture Book," "Do You Remember Walter," "Starstruck," the steam train song. One good song after another. This is one of those albums that makes driving a little less tiresome. Get this thing but don't be like me. Put it in your stereo as soon as you can and enjoy it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, whimsical and totally British, November 1, 1999

By 

"[e-mail]" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village Green Preservation Society (Audio CD)

The entire album, in great sounding mono, then an early stereo mix of an abridged and altered rejected version. Tres cool! - except that the stereo versions are NOT sonically up to snuff; my American Reprise version sounds MUCH better. It's small criticism, though. I'm just happy to have a great stereo remaster of "Days" on this album; I've always felt it belonged with this material, and feels at home with VGPS.

OK, a word on the actual music. I love the Kinks early singles, but starting with Face to Face (1966) through Lola (1970), Ray Davies' albums became wonderful complete works - his songwriting became his palate for painting characters & situations rife with poignancy and sharp detail. Perhaps this was never more fully realized than on VGPS. Running the stylistic gaumet, Village Green unfolds like a great book, each new song a brilliant work in it's own right, but also adding to the thematic texture of this wonderful album as a whole. Whatever. Buy it. Listen to it. Fall in love with it. I dare you not to.