121: ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY | THE KINKS
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is the sixth studio album by the English rock group the Kinks, released in November 1968. It was the last album by the original quartet (Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife, Mick Avory), as bassist Quaife left the group in early 1969. A collection of vignettes of English life,Village Green was assembled from songs written and recorded over the previous two years.
The album failed to chart upon its initial release, and Ray Davies has called it "the most successful ever flop."The album was ranked number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it was described by Uncut in 2014 as a "brilliantly observed concept album". In 2018, the album earned a gold disc for reaching sales of 100,000 copies.It was voted number 141 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).
The song "Village Green" itself was recorded in sessions for the Kinks' 1967 LP Something Else, but Davies withheld the song and began collecting ideas for a thematic album revolving around the village green concept. The band's interest in such a project began to grow in mid-1967: in a June interview Dave Davies mentioned that a Ray Davies solo LP was scheduled for release in September, which, according to Doug Hinman, "probably refers to Ray's plans for a collection of songs with a London theme, a la 'Waterloo Sunset', an idea that seems to appear and disappear quickly, or his Village Green concept, the one that seems to take hold." The Kinks spent the remainder of the year completing Something Else then went on a short break before beginning work on the Village Green album.
The sessions for Village Green took place in a rough period for the group. In early 1968 legal and family issues slowed Ray Davies' songwriting and the song "Wonderboy", released in April, was the first single since the Kinks' success not to enter the NME Top 30. The first songs recorded, in May included "Misty Water" (an outtake), "Picture Book", and "Days", intended for the group's next single release. After laying down versions of these the group departed for the Netherlands on 18 and 19 May then returned to the studio to continue work on "Days". On 27 May a new song, "Pictures in the Sand", was recorded and "Days" was revised to the final version, which was released on 24 July, backed with "She's Got Everything", an outtake from 1966 used due to a lack of newer finished material. The single quickly climbed to number 14 on the NME chart.
Shortly after, Dave Davies stated that the group's upcoming LP would be called Village Green and revolve around a town and its people. He added that it was to be "the best thing we've ever done." In early August the band focused on completing the LP, tentatively titled "Village Green".
With the exception of the early "Village Green", strings and woodwind were played on the Mellotron by Ray Davies and Nicky Hopkins. Hopkins contributed significantly to the album: he later stated that he provided "about seventy per cent of the work" on the keyboards, and developed a lifelong grudge when Davies apparently credited himself for the majority of the keyboard playing.
The last track was completed on 12 August and twelve mixed-down songs were delivered to Pye. Release was scheduled for 27 September. Ray Davies then asked the label to postpone the album's release in order to rework songs and add new material, wishing Pye to expand Village Green into a double album. Pye refused, but allowed Davies to produce a new fifteen-track edition. Davies agreed and the band returned to the studio to lay down "Big Sky" and "Last of The Steam Powered Trains".
By October mixing was complete for the expanded 15-track album, now named The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, and it was released on 22 November (the same day the Beatles released their The Beatles).
Andy Miller commented on these changes in his book about the album;
Davies was a perfectionist, and by this stage his perfectionism was verging on the neurotic, indulged by a management and record company who hoped the Kinks' main man would soon recapture his hit making form. In a sense, he was also reluctant to finish the project, describing it as "a pet dream". The album was already highly personal; now it represented ... a decisive break in 'the hit machine'.
Pye had already shipped tapes to some of its foreign subsidiaries before Davies' revision so that a twelve-track LP was released in France, Italy, Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. These have since become rare and collectible. Full article