1966–1967

The Kinks performing for Dutch television in April 1967, two months after re-recording "Village Green".^[55]

The Kinks first recorded "Village Green" at the beginning of the sessions for Something Else on 24–25 November 1966.^[56] They re-recorded the song in February 1967.^{[57][nb 9]} Though the song was recorded during the sessions for Something Else, Ray did not include it on that album in September 1967.^[61] In November, the Kinks shifted to working on a project tentatively titled Village Green, at that time still envisaged as a Ray solo project.^[62] Ray wrote most of Village Green's songs from late 1967 into 1968,^[63] though he later suggested that several had been half-finished from years earlier.^[64] He generally composed songs on his Fender Malibu acoustic guitar in his living room at 87 Fortis Green, North London.^[65][66]

The band began rehearsing Ray's new songs at his home in late 1967.^[67] Around the same time, they stockpiled studio recordings for later use without initially knowing when or in what format they would be released.^[68] "Mr. Songbird" and numerous other songs on Village Green may date to around this period.^{[69][nb 10]} Between late 1967 and early 1968, the Kinks remained generally inactive as a band; Dave spent time promoting his recent solo single "Susannah's Still Alive", while Ray wrote weekly songs for the BBC variety series At the Eleventh Hour between 30 December and 2 March.^[72]

1968

July–August

Ray Davies's former home at 87 Fortis Green, North London (pictured 2016). Most of the LP's songs were composed and rehearsed in its living room.

After returning from Sweden, the band began rehearsing more songs for Village Green in July at Ray's Fortis Green home. To boost the album's track listing, the Kinks spent most of the second half of July recording new songs. New tracks included "Do You Remember Walter", "Wicked Annabella", "Starstruck", "People Take Pictures of Each Other" and "Sitting by the Riverside".^[97] In late July, Ray and his family moved out of their Fortis Green home to a larger Tudor house in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.^[98] Ray's previous work had been heavily inspired by life in the original area, not far from his and his brother's childhood home.^[99] He later reflected that as soon as he moved into the new house he felt unhappy.^{[100][nb 17]}

In mid-August 1968, the Kinks recorded Ray's new composition "The Village Green Preservation Society". Ray intended for the song to be the last recorded for the album, making it a twelve track LP. With its recording, he changed the album's title to The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and did its final mixing. Publishing was assigned for the LP's songs on 16 August.^[98] Around the same time, Ray interviewed with Record Mirror and New Musical Express (NME) magazines in anticipation of the album's release,^[98] and the album cover was photographed.^[102]

Studio aesthetic and sound

Village Green is the Kinks' first studio album which credits Ray as its producer.^[116] Halfway through the sessions for Something Else, he and the band's longtime producer Shel Talmy experienced a breakdown in their relationship, resulting in a mixture of tracks produced by one or the other.^{[117][nb 19]} Engineer Brian Humphries later reflected that though Ray was not formally trained as a producer, he had become "quite knowledgeable" by the time of Village Green due to his practice of standing behind Talmy during the production process of the band's earlier albums.^[48] Ray's production of Village Green is subdued and his mix is generally light on the bottom end.^{[119][120][121]} Author Nicholas Schaffner describes the production as "unassuming in the extreme, with embellishments kept to a minimum".^[122] Ray subsequently suggested he under-recorded the songs, either deliberately or out of inexperience, resulting in a demo-like sound.^[123]

The album uses a variety of contrasting instruments and sounds, such as harmonica, harpsichord and flute, as well as guitar feedback.^[124] The Kinks' recording process generally consisted of laying down the rhythm track first, featuring drums, bass and Ray on piano or rhythm guitar. The band would next overdub percussion, keyboards and a guitar contribution from Dave, before mixing down the recording to make room for vocal contributions.^[125] The recordings are generally driven by Ray's 1965 Fender Malibu acoustic guitar, while Dave often supplemented an electric guitar contribution on Ray's 1963 Fender Telecaster or with one of his own guitars, such as his 1959 Gibson Flying V or Guild Starfire III.^[65] Dave's typical Vox AC30 amplifier was likely used for most tracks, though the long sustain heard on "Wicked Annabella" suggests the use of an early-era solid-state amplifier.^[65] Four microphones were placed around Avory's drum kit and Pete Quaife's Rickenbacker bass was plugged directly into the mixing desk. Avory altered his drum sound on "Wicked Annabella" and "Picture Book" by disengaging the snare and deadened the sound on "Phenomenal Cat" by placing newspaper over a floor tom.^[126]

A Mellotron Mk II. After first using the tape-loop-based instrument in June 1967, Ray employed it extensively during the Village Green sessions as an inexpensive alternative to real string and brass sections.

Among the songs on Village Green with real string sections are "Village Green" and possibly "Animal Farm", as arranged by English composer David Whitaker.^{[127][nb 20]} String and brass sections are generally absent from the Kinks' late 1960s recordings, likely because Pye executives saw the hiring of an arranger and session players as too expensive to warrant; the album prominently employs a Mellotron as an inexpensive alternative.^[128] A predecessor to the synthesiser, the Mellotron is a keyboard instrument on which the keys trigger tape loops of recordings of a variety of instruments, enabling its user to play keyboard parts using those voices.^[129] Ray was introduced to the instrument in May 1967 while visiting the home of Graham Nash, a member of the contemporary English rock band the Hollies.^[130] He purchased his own soon after and likely first employed it in early June 1967 on the Kinks' song "Lazy Old Sun".^[131] The sounds it mimics on Village Green include a horn section ("Do You Remember Walter"),^[132] accordion ("Sitting by the Riverside") and flute ("Phenomenal Cat"), among others.^[133]

Session musician Nicky Hopkins contributed extensive keyboard work for the album on piano, harpsichord and Mellotron.^[134] Hopkins had first contributed to a Kinks LP in 1965 on The Kink Kontroversy and his playing featured heavily on the band's releases to 1968.^[135] He later estimated he played "about seventy per cent" of the LP's keyboard work,^[136] while Ray played the rest,^[137] though the album's liner notes credit all of the keyboard playing to Ray.^{[138][nb 21]}

Ray sings lead on each song except "Wicked Annabella", where Dave sings lead.^[75] Ray's vocal is generally double tracked throughout.^[139] The group sang harmony vocals together, often supplemented by a falsetto from Ray's wife Rasa Davies,^[140] who had sung backing vocals on all of the band's studio albums to that point.^[141] Typical of the band's vocal work, their barbershop harmonies include falsettos and wordless sounds like "la la" ("Village Green"), "na na" ("Picture Book") and "ba ba" ("Johnny Thunder") or nonsense phrases like "fum fum didle um di" ("Phenomenal Cat").^[142]

Band dynamics

When the Kinks rehearsed and recorded Ray's new compositions, he typically avoided sharing the songs' lyrics or melody with his bandmates.^[143] Quaife recalled:

Rehearsals took place at Ray's house, but they were often quite odd. He would keep us waiting for ages, then appear, play a song on a piano and we'd try it. Then he'd announce, "You've got it!" and disappear again. I didn't know what to think.^[114]

Avory suggested the practice arose out of Ray's paranoia that his songs would be stolen, while Quaife ascribed it to "Ray playing silly buggers". Both Avory and Quaife recalled being annoyed by the method since it prevented them from easily adding fills and embellishments that fitted the song.^{[143][nb 22]} Ray explained to his bandmates that he wanted the songs of Village Green to relate to a single subject but he otherwise remained secretive about the details. Quaife later stated that the band began to understand the album's message once several compositions had been finished and that "[a]bout the time of 'Animal Farm', it all clicked".^[144]

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]

By 1968, the Kinks had developed a reputation for group infighting, especially between Ray and Dave, and the group sometimes broke into physical altercations during rehearsals, recording sessions and concerts.^[146] Humphries later said that the band's dysfunction has been overemphasised in later accounts, adding that rather than fistfights, disagreements typically led to verbal arguments between Ray and Dave.^[48] Rasa often served as an intermediary in the studio between Ray and his bandmates.^{[140][nb 23]} Tensions within the group culminated on 27 May 1968 during a session for "Days", during which Ray and Quaife argued before the latter left the studio.^{[148][nb 24]} Quaife remained unhappy following the incident,^[152] and he later recalled that he and Ray remained distant from one another during the band's June tour of Sweden.^{[151][nb 25]}

Tensions in the group eased after the Kinks returned to England and resumed recording in July,^[154] at which time Ray reluctantly allowed for more creative input from his bandmates.^[155] Avory recalled it was the first time in the group's history that they worked together during recordings. Quaife was unsure what precipitated Ray's change, but remembered the period as being "amazing", with a "lightened up" Ray allowing them to suggest things during both the rehearsal and recording process. He further remembered Ray's reluctance returning near the end of the album's recording sessions.^[156] Though Quaife departed the Kinks roughly four months after the release of Village Green,^[157] he reflected decades later that the album was the high point of his career, mostly due to the collaborative nature of its recording.^[158]

Mono and stereo versions

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]

The album's stereo and mono mixes contained obvious difference from one another.^{[160][nb 26]} Because Ray remixed some tracks in late October 1968 after finding his original August mixes rushed,^[78] the twelve- and fifteen-track editions contained additional differences.^{[160][nb 27]} The original stereo ending of "People Take Pictures of Each Other" featured a jazz band coda lifted from a pre-existing tape,^[166] which Miller writes served to express "That's All, Folks!" at the album's close.^[167] Ray was forced to erase it from subsequent mixes due to copyright issues,^[167] but not before it was included on the stereo release of the twelve-track edition of Village Green.^[166]

Overview

Side one

"Last of the Steam-Powered Trains"

The Fifteen Guinea Special in August 1968 (pictured) marked Britain's final mainline passenger service by steam-powered locomotive.^[211]

"Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is likely the last song Ray wrote for Village Green.^[204] Its lyrics describe a steam train that has outlived its usefulness and moved to a museum.^[212] The composition coincided with a years-long reduction in the British railway network and the replacement of steam trains by diesel engines,^[213] a change which went into effect two months before the song's recording.^[214] Based around the riff of Howlin' Wolf's 1956 song "Smokestack Lightning" – a popular recording among early 1960s British R&B groups^[215] – the song recalls the Kinks' roots as an R&B focused band.^[216] Several commentators regard the song as Ray's criticism of early British R&B groups for being inauthentic compared to the American blues artists who wrote many of the songs they recorded,^[217] while others think it expresses his feelings of disconnect from contemporary culture.^[218]

Side two

European format

The original twelve-song edition of the album had been completed in mid-August 1968 and was released as such in Sweden, Norway, France, Italy and New Zealand.^[272] In addition to a rearranged track listing, it includes the songs "Days" and "Mr. Songbird" while being without "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains", "Big Sky", "Sitting by the Riverside", "Animal Farm" and "All of My Friends Were There".^[108]

"Days" recalls a past relationship,^[85] the singer remembering either a friend or lover.^[273] The song's theme of nostalgia lyrically relates it to the rest of Village Green,^[274] and Alleman writes its motif of "looking back yet trying to start anew" makes it the composition most representative of Ray's songwriting in the 1966–1968 period.^[248] Instrumentally, the recording incorporates acoustic and electric guitars, bass, harmonium, piano and a Mellotron which mimics a string section.^[275] "Mr. Songbird" is about a songbird whose call helps the singer's problems go away.^[276] Hopkins plays Mellotron to duplicate the sound of a flute, trilling during the chorus to mimic the sound of a bird.^[277] Miller suggests the song's escapist sentiment is comparable to other contemporary Ray compositions like "Picture Book",^[278] and author Christian Matijas-Mecca writes the song is thematically related to the album's "loose narrative about a desire for a lost England".^[279]

United Kingdom and Europe

In the United Kingdom, Pye planned to release Village Green on 27 September 1968.^[108] Ray began press interviews in mid-August to promote its release, the band performed some of its songs for BBC Radio in July and Pye placed advertisements in several British pop magazines.^[295] Following Ray's last-minute request that its release be postponed, only test-pressings of the twelve-track edition were made in the UK. Because Pye had already made and sent production masters to several other countries, release of the twelve-track LP went ahead in Sweden and Norway on 9 October, with subsequent releases of that edition following in France, Italy and New Zealand.^[296]

Ray's last-minute delay of the LP resulted in confusion for both the music press and recording-buying public.^[297] Pye instead issued the rearranged and expanded edition of the album in the UK on 22 November 1968.^[298] The album had no associated lead single in the UK,^[299] but "Starstruck" was released in parts of continental Europe, backed with "Picture Book".^[300] To promote the European single, the Kinks filmed a black-and-white promotional film in late November 1968. It depicts the band walking around Waterlow Park in Highgate on a cold day and is similar in style to the photographs taken for Village Green's album cover.^{[301][nb 37]} To promote the UK album release, Pye again placed advertisements in several British music magazines, the band performed songs for BBC Radio in November and lip synced for television performances on ITV and BBC Television in December 1968 and January 1969.^[304]

Timed to correspond with the Christmas rush,^[75] the album was coincidentally released the same day as the Beatles' eponymous album (commonly known as the "White Album"),^[305] and the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet followed a week-and-a-half later.^[306] Though the album was moderately advertised and reviewed, its sales were quickly eclipsed by the other albums^[75] – the "White Album" sold two million copies worldwide in its first week, while Village Green failed to chart in the UK or anywhere in Europe.^[307] Exact figures for LP sales in the UK in the late 1960s are generally unavailable;^[308] in 1995, Ray suggested "worldwide we'd be lucky if it [sold] 100,000 [copies]".^[309] Rogan writes that the available context clues and Ray's later estimate suggest that the album was likely "a modest seller".^[310] Stiff competition from other releases during the holiday season kept the album from appearing in any UK album charts, which often only listed the top fifteen LPs. After Something Else failed to appear on most UK charts, Village Green's absence from all UK charts continued a decline in the performance of the Kinks' studio albums.^[311] The album marked the beginning of a commercial low for the band, from which they did not recover until their late 1970s US revival.^[312]

Both Miller and author Jon Savage suggest Village Green failed to register with the public, something they attribute to its separation from the contemporary culture's focus on revolution, protest and free love.^[313] Rogan counters that Ray and authors like Miller have overstated the album's commercial failings.^[314] Rather than finding the album out of step with contemporary culture, he writes its release corresponded with a surge of nostalgia and escapism in England, and that its championing of country living over city life aligned with the burgeoning ecology movement.^{[315][nb 38]} Rogan adds that the contemporary music press were typically excited by unified albums and that Village Green's disconnect from psychedelia fitted with the back-to-basics approach adopted by many of the Kinks' contemporaries.^{[317][nb 39]} Rather than laying blame with the album's content or its marketing, Rogan attributes Village Green's commercial shortcomings to the Kinks' waning popularity and the album's lack of an associated single in Britain, which resulted in fewer opportunities for television appearances and publicity.^[320]

United States

In the United States, Reprise Records received Village Green's master tapes on 20 December 1968 and planned to issue the album in late January 1969.^[108] The label issued "Starstruck" as the album's lead single on 8 or 15 January 1969.^[321] The single was initially afforded little critical attention as Reprise neglected to send review copies to US magazines.^[322] Reviewers in both Cash Box and Billboard predicted the single would help the Kinks return to each magazine's chart,^[323] though it ultimately failed to position in any American chart.^[324]

Reprise likely issued Village Green in the US on 5 February 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]

United Kingdom

On release, Village Green gained favourable reviews from the majority of music critics.^[330][331] The album was reviewed in most contemporary UK pop music publications.^{[332][nb 41]} Additionally, while discussions of popular music in broadsheet newspapers was still uncommon in 1968, critic Judith Simons provided a brief assessment of the album in London's Daily Express.^[332]

Among British critics, Bob Dawbarn of Melody Maker declared in a feature review that the LP was "easily [the Kinks'] best".^[334] In another positive assessment,^[333] Disc and Music Echo's reviewer stated that Ray "managed to bypass everything psychedelic and electronic" by continuing to focus on "simple, even rustic melodies with words of wisdom". The reviewer concluded that though the Kinks were no longer widely popular, Village Green indicated that Ray would likely continue to be one of Britain's best composers.^[335] The reviewer for Top Pops commented that the album's themes and styles varied greatly with considerable thought put into its lyrics and production. He concluded that the LP provided good value-for-money and expected he would listen to it consistently.^[75] In Simons's Daily Express review, she characterised the album as Ray's "song picture" representing "the gentler aspects of British life". She further suggested that its material could work well as a stage musical.^[336]

In his September 1968 preview of the twelve-track edition for NME, Altham reviewed the album favourably. He was especially fond of the title track, which he thought could have made it to No. 1 in the UK had it been issued as a single.^[337] Having already published Altham's review of the original album, NME did not publish a review of the expanded edition in November.^[75] Altham reflected decades later that while he liked the album on first listening and thought it was musically and aesthetically interesting, he worried at the time that it was a risky release for the Kinks since it was "a bit too twee".^[338] He elaborated that compared to the band's earlier work, it was "missing [something] in terms of dynamics ... it didn't seem to have that anger, the kind of attack that Dave used to bring".^[283]

United States

Village Green was especially well received by US critics.^[331] The album was not covered in major US trade magazines like Billboard or Cash Box but received extensive coverage from non-mainstream sources.^[339] America's new underground rock press began embracing the Kinks after the January 1968 release of Something Else, a trend which continued following the release of Village Green.^[340]

Reviews of Village Green were slow to appear after its February 1969 release; the only immediate response was a short piece in the 27 February issue of New York City's Village Voice, in which Johanna Schier provided a mixed assessment.^[341] Schier described it as "a good album, not a great one", hampered by its attempts to extend in too many directions. She concluded that the album's best moments were when it approached the "[m]usical violence" which characterised the Kinks' earliest singles, though she still found the new music too subdued by comparison.^[342] In the 10 April issue of the Voice, Robert Christgau countered Schier's review in his regular Rock&Roll& column. He instead concluded that the album was the best of the year so far.^[343] While Schier suggested that the band should have continued recording tracks with the raunch of "You Really Got Me", Christgau countered that the band necessarily progressed beyond their original sound, just as the Beatles never returned to recording songs like their earliest singles.^[292] He declared "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" the album's most memorable song, placing it in the context of the rock and roll revival, and expected it would have been the lead single had there been enough demand.^[344]

A review of the album by Paul Williams, the former editor of Crawdaddy! magazine, served as the lead review in the 14 June 1969 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.^[346] In addition to praising the album,^[325] Williams described Ray as a genius who "makes statements" and "says the sort of stuff that makes you delighted just to know that someone would say stuff like that".^[347] Comparing the Kinks to French composer Erik Satie,^[348] Williams concluded that "only genius could hit me so directly, destroy me and rebuild so completely".^[347] Williams's review subsequently became the most influential piece ever written about the Kinks, helping establish a cult following for the band.^[349]

A review in Circus, formerly the teen magazine Hullaballoo, stated that though the Kinks were "backdated" and "cut off from the mainstream of pop progression", Village Green indicated their continued originality. A reviewer in Boston's new underground paper Fusion similarly wrote that despite the increasingly bad press the band were facing, Village Green showed their persistence. The album was also reviewed in university newspapers.^[325] Musician John Mendelsohn reviewed it for UCLA's paper the Daily Bruin, counting it as his favourite LP since the Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out and predicted that it would be one of the best in 1969.^[350] The reviewer in Caltech's paper instead disparaged the album as "schmaltz rock", being "without imagination, poorly arranged, and a bad copy of the Beatles".^[325]

Rankings

Village Green appears on professional rankings of the best albums. The album was voted No. 221 in the first edition of English writer Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (1994).^[409] It placed No. 171 and No. 141 in Larkin's updated second and third editions, published in 1998 and 2000, respectively.^[410] In 2003, Rolling Stone placed it at No. 255 in the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".^[411] When the list was updated in 2012 and 2020, it was placed at No. 258 and No. 384, respectively.^[412][413] Rolling Stone also ranked it No. 28 on its "50 Greatest Concept Albums of All Time" list in 2022.^[414] In Pitchfork and Paste's lists of the best albums of the 1960s, they placed Village Green at No. 27 and No. 18, respectively.^[415][416]

UK and US edition

All tracks are written by Ray Davies.

Side one

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society" – 2:49
2. "Do You Remember Walter" – 2:28
3. "Picture Book" – 2:38
4. "Johnny Thunder" – 2:33
5. "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" – 4:03
6. "Big Sky" – 2:49
7. "Sitting by the Riverside" – 2:21

Side two

1. "Animal Farm" – 2:57
2. "Village Green" – 2:08
3. "Starstruck" – 2:22
4. "Phenomenal Cat" – 2:37
5. "All of My Friends Were There" – 2:23
6. "Wicked Annabella" – 2:40
7. "Monica" – 2:13
8. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" – 2:10

Notes

• 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]}
• Track lengths according to AllMusic.^[119]

European edition

All tracks are written by Ray Davies.

Side one

1. "The Village Green Preservation Society" – 2:49
2. "Do You Remember Walter" – 2:25
3. "Picture Book" – 2:36
4. "Johnny Thunder" – 2:30
5. "Monica" – 2:15
6. "Days" – 2:52

Side two

1. "Village Green" – 2:08
2. "Mr. Songbird" – 2:25
3. "Wicked Annabella" – 2:41
4. "Starstruck" – 2:20
5. "Phenomenal Cat" – 2:36
6. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" – 2:23

Notes

• The track listing above was originally intended for UK release but was instead issued in Sweden, Norway, France, Italy and New Zealand.^[418] The 50th anniversary deluxe box set included a replica of the Swedish LP.^[398][400]
• Track lengths according to AllMusic.^[419]