young and innocent days but sometimes you really got me knocks pretty loudly on the door, you can't ignore it but then you open a draw and underneath all the old envelopes and rubber bands there's waterloo sunset, been there all the time
I am glad my old `Preservation Society` has been of use to Abigail`s channel. I sent it in a package which also contained the Kinks 1966 `Face to Face` album. `Sell Out` (1967) by The Who, and `Layla` (1970) `Derek and the Dominoes` All UK original pressings. Do hope Abby gets lots of enjoyment from them.
As an American, I adore this album. It’s actually one of the most influential British albums of all time. It had such an impact on Paul Weller from The Jam, Damon Alburn of Blur and Gorillaz and Noel Gallagher from Oasis. A lot of people consider this to be the first Britpop album. Songs about British culture, every day life and how sometimes the most mundane things in life can be the parts you remember most as you get older. Ray Davies is one of the greatest songwriters not just of the 60s, but of all time.
Love the Village Green album. One of my two fave Kinks albums along with Face To Face. Three thoughts: It’s a stone cold classic, there are no singles on it, and thank you for diving in and giving us your take. Looking forward to Sell Out.
Ray Davies really captured the humanity of the characters in the songs on this album. All the little tragic-comic quirks are presented in such a compassionate & loving way. Great album, great presentation and God save the Kinks!
Favorite band of all time. "Face to Face" through "Muswell Hillbillies" might be the best run put together by any band from any time. I was 15 in 1968 and it was next to impossible to find Kinks records in the U.S. The '65 ban included not only concert tours, but also t.v. appearances. After "Sunny Afternoon" in 1966 they pretty much disappeared on radio also. Vastly under rated and under appreciated.
So many of these legacy acts got the luxury of developing despite failure after failure. It's a big part of their eventual success, which no band gets today.
Times were definitely different for the music industry then. Boomers were in their teens and early 20's and Everybody EVERYBODY owned a guitar and bought bunches of LP's. The economy was at an all time high, lots of expendable income. Tons of jobs, high wages, low prices. After Beatlemania the boomers went crazy buying singles and albums and going to concerts. Lp's were, what, four bucks? Concert tickets for major acts cost maybe $6. Adjust for inflation it's a whole 'nother deal today. But the big difference was that all those songs really meant something to us. It glued us all together, gave us an identity and defined us as a generation. I don't think you can say that about kids today in general. They've got cell phones, friggin' Facebook et al, video games, etc.. Oh, one other thing. There were a whole heck of a lot more of us. So what's happened with the music Industry? Sales slumped, costs went up. The industry got scared. If some new act didn't sell multi platinum out of the gate who's gonna waste time and money hoping they'd eventually develop into something great?
A dear old friend we might aptly here call Walter had the presence of mind to spin this album as friends gathered in a smoke filled room to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing on color television, July 20th, 1969; thereby etching the Village Green into our memories as soundtrack to the space age. Cannot recall precisely, but "Last of the Stream-Powered Trains" may have been playing as Buzz and Neil took those first "giant" steps on the lunar surface, the most brilliant choice of music I have ever witnessed in my life. I haven't seen Walter in years, but have it on good authority he is happily married and usually in bed by half-past ten.
Outside of a hits collection, I own no other Kinks music. Based on your video I sought out the Village Green record and ended up buying a used copy of the Super Deluxe set issued a few years ago.
i am from England and grew up in a little village. The Kinks are a little misty-eyed about historical England but they do really capture the eccentricity of English village life. Probably the only place where drunks, clergy, farmers, posh people etc all mingle peacefully in the village pubs all around England. What would get a drunk arrested in a town or a city barely gets a raised eyebrow in the countryside! Passing out in the pub, on the green, in a field etc was just what the village idiot did and no one minded. Every English village has an idiot! Everyone is very tolerant if a person is an insider (but suspicious of outsiders!). The whole name of the game is that English villagers stay in villages because they want peace and quiet and/or want to escape modernity. You sort of exist outside of time. I'm 41 and I used to HATE living in the village I grew up in. My dad said that one day I'd regret feeling that and, as always, he was right. I moved to the suburbs and it's so noisy. My parents still live there and nowadays I get a little sad when it's time to go back to the town I live in. The Kinks really capture that melancholy in 'village green' song. Thanks for the video about one of my all-time favourite albums!
The Village Green Preservation Society is a very British album and I love it for it This album by the Kinks got me into them and baroque pop definitely by Village Green plus Between the Buttons 🔘by the Stones is very Kinks influenced
Total Kinks fan! Have them all! And that's a crazy path to travel! Saw them first when this album came out. What a f'n performance! Steam Powered Train is still rattling around in my brain and it's been like 56 years! It was at the Electric Factory where you could see Jimi Hendrix, the Who and all the greats right up close! There wasn't a bad seat in the house. Coffins in the back if you got tired or too stoned. (They tilted up so you could still see). And there was only one way in and one way out, so you could shake hands with the guys as they passed by holding their guitars! You had to be there! Reminds me. I had an incredible thing happen to me there. A girl started to flirt with me that night. I thought, wow, this gorgeous creature likes me. But while I was getting to know her this guy kept tugging on my jacket. I thought maybe he wanted her. He kept breaking up my conversation with the girl. Finally I said, What is it? And he said, She's not a girl. At first I didn't comprehend what he was trying to tell me. I had never even imagined that she wasn't exactly what she looked like! But then I saw through the disguise. Everyone around me started laughing like crazy and the "girl" took off. I was a young dumb suburbanite who had just gotten his first major lesson from the Big City! But nothing could change the fact that the Kinks rocked! What a performance! Couldn't have been more energetic if the stage had gone into orbit!
Before I listen towhat you say, I stopped te video to say I couldn’t love this album more. I played it nearly all the time in the first weeks of my fiancée and I’d relationship. Its the sound of making dinners together, after work kissing, and Sunday mornings for me. I have only watched one of your videos since discovering you in recent moments and I immediately wanted to see if you reviewed this one. You couldn’t ruin it for me of you tried…is my anxiety palpable? Ok, lets see what you had to say. =)
No way! I thought you were doing another Hendrix album with that outfit and thought to myself "jeez, I wonder when Abby's gonna cover Village Green Preservation Society." Love this album! One of the greatest albums of all time and the crown jewel of Kinks albums!
Abby had me laughing out loud with the Anabella bit... On another note, I was kind of hoping that the Small Faces album 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' album would have gotten a shout out as it fits really well in the oddball late 60s albums - the track "Lazy Sunday" especially.
Kudos for mentioning Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramer's Gang War. I saw them live in Detroit. Great show even though Johnny had to leave the stage for awhile!
I found out about The Kinks the same way I found out about Syd Barrett in the late '70s, from an even-then-old book called Rock Life. The article about Ray Davies was so compelling I had to hear the band. Problem, in the '70s it was almost impossible to hear anything from the '60s outside the megastars of the era. There were no reissues of Yardbirds, Who, Kinks or anyone on that tier. Then in 1978 on the weekly shopping jaunt into town I came across a double disc comp called The Kinks File. It was packed with the Pye years singles and a few album tracks but more than enough for me to swear lifelong allegiance to the band and its songwriter in chief. Banger after banger and all of them, through the different phases of UK 60s pop, they always sounded like a pub band (even with orchestral help) but one where the songs only seemed to get better. They were also one of those bands that seemed to only live on compilations and between a few of those you could get gems hitherto unknown. Finally, I heard The Golden Hour of The Kinks and stopped at Animal Farm. Then, decades on, finally, I found the 3 CD release of Village Green with that song on it and heard almost all of it for the first time. It felt like hearing all that old greatness for the first time all over again when I'd been a teen. This is a non-skip record for me.
This album touched me more than any other albums I listened to in 1969. Speaking of Kinks records being unavailable, for this one I had to special order it and it took nearly half the year to arrive! I sometimes think I was the first actual purchaser in my State, if not the entire Country. I do know I was the only kid in my school that owned it.
I'm so glad you covered The Kinks. THE sound of Swingin' London. It's a band I always come back at least once a week, because they just got such a huge list of incredible gems. Ray's knack for melodies is unbelivable and you can always count on Dave to deliever an earworm of a guitar-riff. Such an underrated band!
When the expanded editions of "...Village Green..." I was so thrilled to hear the extra tracks recorded at the time. So much so, I plunked down for the 2018 Super Deluxe box as well.....All redone 'play lists' or CDrs require the inclusion of "Days" God Save The Kinks!
I love The Kinks and would add 1971's Museell Hillbillies to their golden run, which I would start with 1966's Face To Face, when Ray really came into his own as a songwriter. I agree that The Kinks aren't for everyone, but when you find them, truly find them, they are everything! Sometimes Preservation Green is my favorite and sometimes it's Somthing Else or Arthur or Lola Vs Powerman or Muswell Hillbillies. I was born in the mid 1970s, so like you, I didn't live this music, but I have lived it every day since around 1986. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such great music.
My favorite album is Face to Face. Now about Village Green. The album is a sparkley that is like your favorite thing you never knew existed in a second hand or antique store. It has that special shine.
I love The Kinks, the most English of the British Invasion bands. That trio of albums ranks very high, "Arthur" is my favorite Kinks album, more personal coming from Ray than "Village Green" so I hope you'll get to that one some day. It certainly has its own history. As for "Village Green" it sounds more 1966 or 1967 than 1968. It's as close to psychedelic as Ray ever got. I've always felt if The Kinks had had a producer on the level of George Martin they'd have been huge.
Bought this one in my psych phase in HS. Boy was I surprised! I liked your fine wine analogy. It took me years to appreciate this as a whole. It really was completely different from it's contemporaries. Now 25 years later I totally get "All of My Friends Were There"! Just had to live a bit! Thanks for the great review as always.
So Glad you chose Village Green over Lola. It is the third of four absolutely perfect masterpieces by the Kinks in my opinion, although I absolutely love Lola. Off topic: I was expecting a mention about the passing of Dennis ‘machine gun’ Thompson, since I believe you are as big a fan of the MC5 as I am. They are no more. I’m devastated. The greatest American rock band ever
I think the Kinks would create stronger concept albums after Village Green, which was already a step up from the vague concepts of Something Else (I will not elaborate on the concept of that album, other than the sound effects between the songs have something to do with it). This leads to their best effort, Lola Versus, where the concept was "Somebody owes the Kinks a lot of money". Muswell Hillbillies would be the album that takes some of the themes of Village Green, with more of a direct condemnation of Gentrification, all further expanded on in their Preservation Duology (Preservation 1 is really good!). I would love to hear you talk about Lola one day!
This album I have to admit I didn't get at first I was more or a less fan of their 70s and 80s albums that was my entry point to this legendary band but now in my 40s and revisiting this album I have a whole new appreciation for this fantastic album and in fact for.all of their 60s albums to
Warning by Green Day uses the opening riff from Picture Book. Re the run of Kinks albums starting with Face to Face I would add Muswell Hillbillies, which followed the Lola album.
Oh dude. This album is very close to my heart and im an american born in 86. I can only imagine what it means to those from england who were listening at release
Oh where do I start on what this album does to my brain . Nevermind, Abby you have such a gift for this format. You nail lyrical/musical details so well and always give me a fresh perspective on records I know very well. You make me laugh out loud and sometimes cry when you hear the same things I do. Great work.
finally, an episode about my favourite band and arguably their most loved album. i very much like all the songs from this album and i love how all of them just work so well together. their next album, ‘arthur,’ is equally as good as ‘village green’ and it’s my favourite album by the group. so if you like this, check ‘arthur’ out too!!!!!
Have everything by the Kinks except for The Great Lost Kinks Album which I have all of the songs as bonus tracks except for the original studio version of When I Turn Off The Living Room Light which I have only on the BBC cd.
No single to float this on the charts. No PR machine to sell it. But my favorite Kinks album. The songwriting and musical depth carry it. Aby, it gets better after multiple listening.
Hi Abigail, Village Green, a loved album and Kinks! I grew up here in England hearing all their singles on the radio. My favourites of Ray`s songs are Waterloo Sunset, Days, Shangri La, Till The End Of The Day. Best Autumn Vibes to you fellow enthusiastic music lover. Bless you
my now more mature self questioned why I didn't buy this album when it came out , since I have always greatly appreciated this band. Then the video explained why . As someone who still resents that stoneman's meadow in Yosemite was turned into a parking lot , I could probably enjoy the themes of this album today better than before. .
I wished that the Kinks got more recognition in the States at the time, but it's great that people like you are shining a light on one of the more underrated products of the British Invasion, another job well done ❤ Also, Let It Be redux? Hell, yeah! That's got chaos written all over it lol
At face value, this is an album full of nostalgia. On second glance, however, the irony pops out hard. Ray might have been decrying the alienation of modern life, but he also thought that what had been was equally shitty. The songwriting on this album is SO complex and strong.
“Do You Remember Walter?” is my favorite track, closely followed by “Wicked Annabella.” Walter reminds me of my dearly departed best friend. It fills me with so much bittersweet joy. This album is distilled nostalgia
Pete Townshend called this his favorite of Ray's work. Love the Kinks; have seen them live twice: 1981 and 1987-missed them a few times which I regret. The sound of this one reminds me a bit of Pet Sounds-although turned down. The first of Ray's concept albums which stretched until 1976 and Schoolboy in Disgrace. A brilliant-albeit dense-effort, you do have to get into the headspacew for it. Great analysis as always, please do some more of their albums.
As a Kinks fan, i love this album, as a cat lover i love this album, as someone who love pet sounds i love this album, as a very nostalgic person i love this album, the first time i listened i was in college missing my life in school. "Do you remember Walter?" and "Johnny Thunder" are part of my favorites of all time. I wasn't fond of "Last of the Steam‐Powered Trains" until i catched the lyrics. Nice video🧡
i liked the point made about how village green is regarded as a timeless classic when really it locks into specific coordinates of time and space? but we're back , this week into beautifully crafted songs, good singing and playing. there are bands who are just great at the catchy tune thing and that's harder to achieve than some people think?
Just to add, that I am getting a `Top` copy of Kinks `Arthur` album and will be glad to pass my old one over to Abby if she could use it. It is (My old copy) what I would term VG plus condition, and has the `rare` insert! (Many copies of the insert often get lost or damaged) Over to Abby.
After helping to invent Heavy Metal with their first few singles they spent the rest of their career giving Ezra Koning a road map. The Kinks are the proto Vampire Weekend. They are the smart kids who don't care if the masses find them or not. The Kinks were going to make their own kind of music and the rest of the world be darned to Heck. I love the Kinks and am still discovering gems by them all these years on. As someone who was an American who grew up around mostly Brits in Europe and knows way too much about 60s-90s British TV this album is a Bit of Me
I got Ray to sign my copy of this album for me back in 1997 when he did his "Storyteller" tour in Australia. Such a masterpiece, as is 'Odessey and Oracle', both albums affect me in quite similar ways. Is it an all time classic? Absolutely!
Thanks for this. Back when my car had a CD player this one was in heavy rotation. Loved when Animal Farm came on so I could sing along at top volume, with windows rolled up of course. Thanks again 😊
Hey Abby ! Just wanted to say hello, and stoked that you are doing well with your channel. We need more women in the mix, so go girl go ! Haha btw.. Love your taste in everything... Music !
Great episode! I grew up on The Kinks 60's records thanks to my cool uncle who gave me the Kinks Greatest Hits when I was around 6 years old. Village Green was my favorite for years, slowly overtaken by Arthur in the last few years.
I flip between Face to Face, VGPS & Arthur. One day it's one and the next day it's one of the others. Greatest Hits was the first l.p. I owned having gotten it for my 13th birthday in 1966. Still have it.
the Kinks are truly one of the greatest bands that everyone's heard of, but haven't listened to very much. great albums, great singles (including B-sides), great leftover songs like Till Death Us Do Part. easily one of my absolute favorites!
I love this album (#2 for me in my Kinks ranking behind the masterpiece of Arthur)...the Kinks are so great (I discovered them in my late teens in the early 2000s)...just a revelation of charming, punky, sentimental pop...Ray Davies and co. have a way of just making you feel so cool...I know we all like crediting Paul's Ram with inventing Indie Pop, but Ray Davies really got there much earlier, and rivaled the Beatles in so many ways as contemporaries. (love both clearly...what an abundance the 60s was).
In fact he played most of the keyboards for the Kinks up to this album, but never got credited. He's not mentioned on Village Green either. That Ray Davies himself took credits for all the keyboard playing on this album annoyed Hopkins, so he never played with them again!
@@Flowerbranche Nicky was the Kinks keyboardist from '65 (Kontroversey) through '68. He is credited on Face to Face as "harpsichord by..." He's also credited on Something Else. He is credited on VGPS but not to the extent he felt he should have been. Rightly blaming Ray, he never played with them again.
Heavy Metal. Peter Townsend invented the Marshal stack. A sales man at a music store sold him the first two marshal amps that they had in the store. Peter Townsend took them home, and hooked them together. The salesman at the music store, became the guitaist on Bitches Brew, and the guitarist of the Mahavisiona Orchestra, John McLachlan.
Village Green was my first Kinks album in high school and i loved it immediately. I knew the various Kinks hits but i don't really consider that as being beneficial to my love for the album.
I bought a mono copy of this album that has crisp, excellent sound for 10 Deutsch Marks at a Sunday flea market in West Berlin in 1985 when I was 20 years old, and it always reminds me of Berlin. We hitchhiked from outside Hamburg straight through. You had to travel 3 hours through East Germany and weren’t allowed to stop except for gas and cigarettes, no talking to East Germans allowed. Police would look for reasons to pull you over. I got a no seatbelt ticket (no violation in Texas), and had to pay 20 DM on the spot or go to jail. Still have it. No East German money accepted (it was illegal to take or possess it out of the country); no U.S. dollars; West German money only. The West German government gave subsidies for people to live in Berlin, so it was full of young people and old people who’d been there since before the war. Fun and full of music. “Phenomenal Cat” is good too, perfectly dreamy and weird.
I remember when this album made a comeback in the early 2000's with the help of a certain photo company using "PICTURE BOOK" in one of their repeated commercials; and of course, the original and superior Rolling Stone Top 500 list edition. That was during the era I heavily got into this album on CD.
my dad had a taste for heavy and nu metal and i like original and neo psychedelic songs, but something we always liked to listen together was The Kinks due probably to our British heritage. Something Else, Arthur, Village Green and Low Budget were fantastic but its often hard to find others who really enjoy Kinks albums and their goofy, old world lookback lyrics
I really love this one, and I’m happy you made a video on it so others can discover it! Arthur (the next Kinks LP) is great too, but this is their best. Not sure if you take recommendations, but I think you would love The Who Sell Out (1967), Silk Degrees (1976), or one of the Police albums. You’ve done some 90s albums too, and my all-time favorite album is Check Your Head. As much as I that one, I’m not sure if it’s for you. Anyway, thanks to whoever read this, great video!
Well, sometimes the algorithm works I guess. Your video just showed up on my RUclips and I have liked and subscribed. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Its always a pleasure to find someone who so enthusiastically enjoys and informs myself and others on music that I love. My favourite kinks song changes year to year and sometimes day to day. Currently its probably "Nothin' In the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl". I look forward to going through your "catalogue" here on RUclips.
Ray was imitating Burt Lancaster during the spoken parts of "Big Sky." My favorite track on this great album is "Wicked Annabella," which reminds me of Big Star's "She's a Mover."
Hugely influential album.........Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel ,Wilco, Pavement ,Camper Van Beethoven, Pixies ,Elliot Smith, Blur, Pulp , Supergrass,Ron Sexsmith etc, etc have all name checked this gem. Ray Davies............a Phenomenal Cat!!!
Village Green is such a sad song for me. I love the little harpsichord instrument in it. I had this record on CD when I was in college (only 3 years ago haha).
Getting to know the Kinks, they always felt like a 60s version of indie/college rock, while their contemporaries were deeper into the trends, for better or worse. I personally didn't appreciate them until I got a little older, and even now, they aren't a common listen - but when the need strikes - they can't be beat!
![Lethal Company Music Video 🎵 "Follow The Orders" [VERSION A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QeooZB4Z7RA/mqdefault.jpg)
what’s your favorite song by the kinks? comment below!
Waterloo Sunset
It takes me to a magical place
Sunny Afternoon bc mostly its about taxes 😂
young and innocent days
but sometimes you really got me knocks pretty loudly on the door, you can't ignore it
but then you open a draw and underneath all the old envelopes and rubber bands there's waterloo sunset, been there all the time
Celluloid Heroes
not to be basic but it's gotta be "you really got me"
I am glad my old `Preservation Society` has been of use to Abigail`s channel. I sent it in a package which also contained the Kinks 1966 `Face to Face` album. `Sell Out` (1967) by The Who, and `Layla` (1970) `Derek and the Dominoes` All UK original pressings. Do hope Abby gets lots of enjoyment from them.
everyone say thank you alan!!
and keep an eye out for that copy of the who sell out. it’ll crop up on the series soon
Thank you Alan!!
Legend!
Legend. Thanks dude
Thank you alan, very kind of you♉️🙋♂️
As an American, I adore this album. It’s actually one of the most influential British albums of all time. It had such an impact on Paul Weller from The Jam, Damon Alburn of Blur and Gorillaz and Noel Gallagher from Oasis. A lot of people consider this to be the first Britpop album. Songs about British culture, every day life and how sometimes the most mundane things in life can be the parts you remember most as you get older. Ray Davies is one of the greatest songwriters not just of the 60s, but of all time.
Yeah it's basically the original, and better, Modern Life is Rubbish
This album makes me feel like the most melancholic middle aged english man ever and I am a 20 something dude from Portugal. I love it
Same but I'm from Colombia 😂 that album have that effect
Love the Village Green album. One of my two fave Kinks albums along with Face To Face. Three thoughts: It’s a stone cold classic, there are no singles on it, and thank you for diving in and giving us your take.
Looking forward to Sell Out.
thanks, sell out’s already up!
"I always think that Ray Davies should one day, be Poet Laureate". - Pete Townshend
Ray Davies really captured the humanity of the characters in the songs on this album. All the little tragic-comic quirks are presented in such a compassionate & loving way. Great album, great presentation and God save the Kinks!
Perfectly put.
Favorite band of all time. "Face to Face" through "Muswell Hillbillies" might be the best run put together by any band from any time. I was 15 in 1968 and it was next to impossible to find Kinks records in the U.S. The '65 ban included not only concert tours, but also t.v. appearances. After "Sunny Afternoon" in 1966 they pretty much disappeared on radio also. Vastly under rated and under appreciated.
So many of these legacy acts got the luxury of developing despite failure after failure. It's a big part of their eventual success, which no band gets today.
Well said
Yep. This includes Genesis and Pink Floyd
Times were definitely different for the music industry then. Boomers were in their teens and early 20's and Everybody EVERYBODY owned a guitar and bought bunches of LP's. The economy was at an all time high, lots of expendable income. Tons of jobs, high wages, low prices. After Beatlemania the boomers went crazy buying singles and albums and going to concerts. Lp's were, what, four bucks? Concert tickets for major acts cost maybe $6. Adjust for inflation it's a whole 'nother deal today. But the big difference was that all those songs really meant something to us. It glued us all together, gave us an identity and defined us as a generation. I don't think you can say that about kids today in general. They've got cell phones, friggin' Facebook et al, video games, etc.. Oh, one other thing. There were a whole heck of a lot more of us. So what's happened with the music Industry? Sales slumped, costs went up. The industry got scared. If some new act didn't sell multi platinum out of the gate who's gonna waste time and money hoping they'd eventually develop into something great?
A dear old friend we might aptly here call Walter had the presence of mind to spin this album as friends gathered in a smoke filled room to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing on color television, July 20th, 1969; thereby etching the Village Green into our memories as soundtrack to the space age. Cannot recall precisely, but "Last of the Stream-Powered Trains" may have been playing as Buzz and Neil took those first "giant" steps on the lunar surface, the most brilliant choice of music I have ever witnessed in my life. I haven't seen Walter in years, but have it on good authority he is happily married and usually in bed by half-past ten.
Outside of a hits collection, I own no other Kinks music. Based on your video I sought out the Village Green record and ended up buying a used copy of the Super Deluxe set issued a few years ago.
Ray Davies is a dedicated follower of fashion ( Oh Yes He Is )
"Big L"
i am from England and grew up in a little village. The Kinks are a little misty-eyed about historical England but they do really capture the eccentricity of English village life. Probably the only place where drunks, clergy, farmers, posh people etc all mingle peacefully in the village pubs all around England. What would get a drunk arrested in a town or a city barely gets a raised eyebrow in the countryside! Passing out in the pub, on the green, in a field etc was just what the village idiot did and no one minded. Every English village has an idiot! Everyone is very tolerant if a person is an insider (but suspicious of outsiders!). The whole name of the game is that English villagers stay in villages because they want peace and quiet and/or want to escape modernity. You sort of exist outside of time. I'm 41 and I used to HATE living in the village I grew up in. My dad said that one day I'd regret feeling that and, as always, he was right. I moved to the suburbs and it's so noisy. My parents still live there and nowadays I get a little sad when it's time to go back to the town I live in. The Kinks really capture that melancholy in 'village green' song. Thanks for the video about one of my all-time favourite albums!
The Village Green Preservation Society is a very British album and I love it for it
This album by the Kinks got me into them and baroque pop definitely by Village Green plus Between the Buttons 🔘by the Stones is very Kinks influenced
Total Kinks fan! Have them all! And that's a crazy path to travel! Saw them first when this album came out. What a f'n performance! Steam Powered Train is still rattling around in my brain and it's been like 56 years! It was at the Electric Factory where you could see Jimi Hendrix, the Who and all the greats right up close! There wasn't a bad seat in the house. Coffins in the back if you got tired or too stoned. (They tilted up so you could still see). And there was only one way in and one way out, so you could shake hands with the guys as they passed by holding their guitars! You had to be there! Reminds me. I had an incredible thing happen to me there. A girl started to flirt with me that night. I thought, wow, this gorgeous creature likes me. But while I was getting to know her this guy kept tugging on my jacket. I thought maybe he wanted her. He kept breaking up my conversation with the girl. Finally I said, What is it? And he said, She's not a girl. At first I didn't comprehend what he was trying to tell me. I had never even imagined that she wasn't exactly what she looked like! But then I saw through the disguise. Everyone around me started laughing like crazy and the "girl" took off. I was a young dumb suburbanite who had just gotten his first major lesson from the Big City! But nothing could change the fact that the Kinks rocked! What a performance! Couldn't have been more energetic if the stage had gone into orbit!
Before I listen towhat you say, I stopped te video to say I couldn’t love this album more. I played it nearly all the time in the first weeks of my fiancée and I’d relationship. Its the sound of making dinners together, after work kissing, and Sunday mornings for me. I have only watched one of your videos since discovering you in recent moments and I immediately wanted to see if you reviewed this one. You couldn’t ruin it for me of you tried…is my anxiety palpable? Ok, lets see what you had to say. =)
P.S. Her name is Annabelle. 🤣
No way! I thought you were doing another Hendrix album with that outfit and thought to myself "jeez, I wonder when Abby's gonna cover Village Green Preservation Society." Love this album! One of the greatest albums of all time and the crown jewel of Kinks albums!
How did you know I was in the mood for Donald Duck Vaudeville and Variety
Abby had me laughing out loud with the Anabella bit...
On another note, I was kind of hoping that the Small Faces album 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' album would have gotten a shout out as it fits really well in the oddball late 60s albums - the track "Lazy Sunday" especially.
Lmaooooo!!!! The Anabella bit! 🤣😂😆
YES ABBY!!!!! Such a masterpiece. Love love love this album. Its up there with the best of the best of the 60s
Kudos for mentioning Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramer's Gang War. I saw them live in Detroit. Great show even though Johnny had to leave the stage for awhile!
I found out about The Kinks the same way I found out about Syd Barrett in the late '70s, from an even-then-old book called Rock Life. The article about Ray Davies was so compelling I had to hear the band. Problem, in the '70s it was almost impossible to hear anything from the '60s outside the megastars of the era. There were no reissues of Yardbirds, Who, Kinks or anyone on that tier. Then in 1978 on the weekly shopping jaunt into town I came across a double disc comp called The Kinks File. It was packed with the Pye years singles and a few album tracks but more than enough for me to swear lifelong allegiance to the band and its songwriter in chief. Banger after banger and all of them, through the different phases of UK 60s pop, they always sounded like a pub band (even with orchestral help) but one where the songs only seemed to get better. They were also one of those bands that seemed to only live on compilations and between a few of those you could get gems hitherto unknown. Finally, I heard The Golden Hour of The Kinks and stopped at Animal Farm. Then, decades on, finally, I found the 3 CD release of Village Green with that song on it and heard almost all of it for the first time. It felt like hearing all that old greatness for the first time all over again when I'd been a teen. This is a non-skip record for me.
This album touched me more than any other albums I listened to in 1969. Speaking of Kinks records being unavailable, for this one I had to special order it and it took nearly half the year to arrive! I sometimes think I was the first actual purchaser in my State, if not the entire Country. I do know I was the only kid in my school that owned it.
I know, right? My local shops didn't have it. Had to go into Boston. Good times.
I'm so glad you covered The Kinks. THE sound of Swingin' London. It's a band I always come back at least once a week, because they just got such a huge list of incredible gems. Ray's knack for melodies is unbelivable and you can always count on Dave to deliever an earworm of a guitar-riff. Such an underrated band!
When the expanded editions of "...Village Green..." I was so thrilled to hear the extra tracks recorded at the time. So much so, I plunked down for the 2018 Super Deluxe box as well.....All redone 'play lists' or CDrs require the inclusion of "Days" God Save The Kinks!
Listened to Village Green on the drive to work this morning, saw this in the feed when I got home. Awesome!
I'm really glad for " The Kinks are The village green preservation society " on a vinyl Monday episode, I always loved this album
I love The Kinks and would add 1971's Museell Hillbillies to their golden run, which I would start with 1966's Face To Face, when Ray really came into his own as a songwriter. I agree that The Kinks aren't for everyone, but when you find them, truly find them, they are everything! Sometimes Preservation Green is my favorite and sometimes it's Somthing Else or Arthur or Lola Vs Powerman or Muswell Hillbillies. I was born in the mid 1970s, so like you, I didn't live this music, but I have lived it every day since around 1986. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such great music.
It's an epic run!
Preservation Act 1 is also a fantastic record. Everybody's in Showbiz and Schoolboys also have some superb songs.
@@harveycan5820 Absolutely!
My favorite album is Face to Face.
Now about Village Green. The album is a sparkley that is like your favorite thing you never knew existed in a second hand or antique store. It has that special shine.
Face to Face is outstanding.
I love The Kinks, the most English of the British Invasion bands. That trio of albums ranks very high, "Arthur" is my favorite Kinks album, more personal coming from Ray than "Village Green" so I hope you'll get to that one some day. It certainly has its own history.
As for "Village Green" it sounds more 1966 or 1967 than 1968. It's as close to psychedelic as Ray ever got.
I've always felt if The Kinks had had a producer on the level of George Martin they'd have been huge.
"Arthur" is a brilliant and very under-rated LP. Is there a better anti-war song than "Some Mother's Son"?
Bought this one in my psych phase in HS. Boy was I surprised! I liked your fine wine analogy. It took me years to appreciate this as a whole. It really was completely different from it's contemporaries. Now 25 years later I totally get "All of My Friends Were There"! Just had to live a bit! Thanks for the great review as always.
That's the kind of quirky song that no other band would come up with and if they did they'd probably mothball it for something more commercial
So Glad you chose Village Green over Lola. It is the third of four absolutely perfect masterpieces by the Kinks in my opinion,
although I absolutely love Lola.
Off topic: I was expecting a mention about the passing of Dennis ‘machine gun’ Thompson, since I believe you are as big a fan of the MC5 as I am. They are no more. I’m devastated. The greatest American rock band ever
I think the Kinks would create stronger concept albums after Village Green, which was already a step up from the vague concepts of Something Else (I will not elaborate on the concept of that album, other than the sound effects between the songs have something to do with it). This leads to their best effort, Lola Versus, where the concept was "Somebody owes the Kinks a lot of money". Muswell Hillbillies would be the album that takes some of the themes of Village Green, with more of a direct condemnation of Gentrification, all further expanded on in their Preservation Duology (Preservation 1 is really good!). I would love to hear you talk about Lola one day!
The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society IS a classic.
This album I have to admit I didn't get at first I was more or a less fan of their 70s and 80s albums that was my entry point to this legendary band but now in my 40s and revisiting this album I have a whole new appreciation for this fantastic album and in fact for.all of their 60s albums to
Warning by Green Day uses the opening riff from Picture Book.
Re the run of Kinks albums starting with Face to Face I would add Muswell Hillbillies, which followed the Lola album.
Fans of this underrated Kinks album should locate the deluxe edition. It is absolutely worth the $$$.
Oh dude. This album is very close to my heart and im an american born in 86. I can only imagine what it means to those from england who were listening at release
Oh where do I start on what this album does to my brain . Nevermind, Abby you have such a gift for this format. You nail lyrical/musical details so well and always give me a fresh perspective on records I know very well. You make me laugh out loud and sometimes cry when you hear the same things I do. Great work.
I fell in love with salad days because of the kinks!
Favorite song on the album is big sky
finally, an episode about my favourite band and arguably their most loved album. i very much like all the songs from this album and i love how all of them just work so well together. their next album, ‘arthur,’ is equally as good as ‘village green’ and it’s my favourite album by the group. so if you like this, check ‘arthur’ out too!!!!!
Have everything by the Kinks except for The Great Lost Kinks Album which I have all of the songs as bonus tracks except for the original studio version of When I Turn Off The Living Room Light which I have only on the BBC cd.
No single to float this on the charts. No PR machine to sell it. But my favorite Kinks album. The songwriting and musical depth carry it. Aby, it gets better after multiple listening.
Dude.. I'm literally in my Nick Drake/Strokes/The Kinks phase right now. You're really hitting bullseye after bullseye for me at the moment:)
Them: “Beatles or Stones?”
Me: “Kinks.”
Hi Abigail, Village Green, a loved album and Kinks! I grew up here in England hearing all their singles on the radio. My favourites of Ray`s songs are Waterloo Sunset, Days, Shangri La, Till The End Of The Day. Best Autumn Vibes to you fellow enthusiastic music lover. Bless you
my now more mature self questioned why I didn't buy this album when it came out , since I have always greatly appreciated this band. Then the video explained why . As someone who still resents that stoneman's meadow in Yosemite was turned into a parking lot , I could probably enjoy the themes of this album today better than before. .
I wished that the Kinks got more recognition in the States at the time, but it's great that people like you are shining a light on one of the more underrated products of the British Invasion, another job well done ❤
Also, Let It Be redux? Hell, yeah! That's got chaos written all over it lol
At face value, this is an album full of nostalgia. On second glance, however, the irony pops out hard. Ray might have been decrying the alienation of modern life, but he also thought that what had been was equally shitty. The songwriting on this album is SO complex and strong.
“Do You Remember Walter?” is my favorite track, closely followed by “Wicked Annabella.” Walter reminds me of my dearly departed best friend. It fills me with so much bittersweet joy. This album is distilled nostalgia
I love this record it is a perfect picture of the period it exists in. Love your videos, you're amazing, thank you Abby! ❤
Pete Townshend called this his favorite of Ray's work.
Love the Kinks; have seen them live twice: 1981 and 1987-missed them a few times which I regret.
The sound of this one reminds me a bit of Pet Sounds-although turned down. The first of Ray's concept albums which stretched until 1976 and Schoolboy in Disgrace. A brilliant-albeit dense-effort, you do have to get into the headspacew for it. Great analysis as always, please do some more of their albums.
Oh my gosh, one of my favorite albums! Wasn’t expecting thin in mid month though
Were you expecting, perhaps, thick? As in as a brick?
I’ll have money on “Do you remember Walter” invoking the spirit of the Hancocks Half Hour and the Army reunion episode.
My favorite Kinks album, absolutely brilliant!
As a Kinks fan, i love this album, as a cat lover i love this album, as someone who love pet sounds i love this album, as a very nostalgic person i love this album, the first time i listened i was in college missing my life in school. "Do you remember Walter?" and "Johnny Thunder" are part of my favorites of all time. I wasn't fond of "Last of the Steam‐Powered Trains" until i catched the lyrics. Nice video🧡
i liked the point made about how village green is regarded as a timeless classic when really it locks into specific coordinates of time and space?
but we're back , this week into beautifully crafted songs, good singing and playing. there are bands who are just great at the catchy tune thing and that's harder to achieve than some people think?
Abigail - love the channel. Have you heard Spirit’s “12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus”? It is a classic - please consider.
Just to add, that I am getting a `Top` copy of Kinks `Arthur` album and will be glad to pass my old one over to Abby if she could use it. It is (My old copy) what I would term VG plus condition, and has the `rare` insert! (Many copies of the insert often get lost or damaged) Over to Abby.
Love vintage vinyl and retro music of my youth 😊
After helping to invent Heavy Metal with their first few singles they spent the rest of their career giving Ezra Koning a road map. The Kinks are the proto Vampire Weekend. They are the smart kids who don't care if the masses find them or not. The Kinks were going to make their own kind of music and the rest of the world be darned to Heck. I love the Kinks and am still discovering gems by them all these years on. As someone who was an American who grew up around mostly Brits in Europe and knows way too much about 60s-90s British TV this album is a Bit of Me
Wow so trippy, i was just looking for The Kinks "Livin On a Thin Line" Song and there i see your video about the Kinks haha
“Living On A Thin Line” is on the ‘Word Of Mouth’ album.. Great song
Super interesting reviewing, and lovely animated countenance.... I was sorta knocked out! ❤
I got Ray to sign my copy of this album for me back in 1997 when he did his "Storyteller" tour in Australia. Such a masterpiece, as is 'Odessey and Oracle', both albums affect me in quite similar ways. Is it an all time classic? Absolutely!
Nice job! God save The Kinks!
Thanks for this. Back when my car had a CD player this one was in heavy rotation. Loved when Animal Farm came on so I could sing along at top volume, with windows rolled up of course. Thanks again 😊
Johnny Thunders mentioned! I love L.A.M.F.
Hey Abby ! Just wanted to say hello, and stoked that you are doing well with your channel. We need more women in the mix, so go girl go ! Haha btw.. Love your taste in everything... Music !
Great episode! I grew up on The Kinks 60's records thanks to my cool uncle who gave me the Kinks Greatest Hits when I was around 6 years old. Village Green was my favorite for years, slowly overtaken by Arthur in the last few years.
I flip between Face to Face, VGPS & Arthur. One day it's one and the next day it's one of the others. Greatest Hits was the first l.p. I owned having gotten it for my 13th birthday in 1966. Still have it.
the Kinks are truly one of the greatest bands that everyone's heard of, but haven't listened to very much. great albums, great singles (including B-sides), great leftover songs like Till Death Us Do Part. easily one of my absolute favorites!
I had the Reprise Records cassette of “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” (my first Kinks album) and got me hooked.
Always felt Days would have been the ideal closer. Also shame Berkeley Mews was cut, incredibly fun song.
❤I would Love to see The Kinks Arthur on Vinyl Monday at some point (It’s the best Kinks album.)❤
I love this album (#2 for me in my Kinks ranking behind the masterpiece of Arthur)...the Kinks are so great (I discovered them in my late teens in the early 2000s)...just a revelation of charming, punky, sentimental pop...Ray Davies and co. have a way of just making you feel so cool...I know we all like crediting Paul's Ram with inventing Indie Pop, but Ray Davies really got there much earlier, and rivaled the Beatles in so many ways as contemporaries. (love both clearly...what an abundance the 60s was).
Brian Humphries engineered “More,”the live “Ummagumma” tracks, the famous, live Wembley DSoM, “Wish You Were Here,” and “Animals.”
This is a GREAT channel! Love the way you review these classics that I grew up on. Thanks Abigail!
I had no idea Nicky Hopkins was on this album... Great to learn something new!
In fact he played most of the keyboards for the Kinks up to this album, but never got credited. He's not mentioned on Village Green either. That Ray Davies himself took credits for all the keyboard playing on this album annoyed Hopkins, so he never played with them again!
He’s brilliant and all over ‘Face To Face’ too, credited or not. He doesn’t sound like anyone else.
@@Flowerbranche Nicky was the Kinks keyboardist from '65 (Kontroversey) through '68. He is credited on Face to Face as "harpsichord by..." He's also credited on Something Else. He is credited on VGPS but not to the extent he felt he should have been. Rightly blaming Ray, he never played with them again.
Love this album, just listened to it a couple of weeks ago.
Heavy Metal. Peter Townsend invented the Marshal stack. A sales man at a music store sold him the first two marshal amps that they had in the store. Peter Townsend took them home, and hooked them together. The salesman at the music store, became the guitaist on Bitches Brew, and the guitarist of the Mahavisiona Orchestra, John McLachlan.
"Yes Sir no Sir" and "Something better beginning".
Village Green was my first Kinks album in high school and i loved it immediately. I knew the various Kinks hits but i don't really consider that as being beneficial to my love for the album.
Another great video. Have enjoyed very much all the ones I've seen, thank you x
I bought a mono copy of this album that has crisp, excellent sound for 10 Deutsch Marks at a Sunday flea market in West Berlin in 1985 when I was 20 years old, and it always reminds me of Berlin. We hitchhiked from outside Hamburg straight through. You had to travel 3 hours through East Germany and weren’t allowed to stop except for gas and cigarettes, no talking to East Germans allowed. Police would look for reasons to pull you over. I got a no seatbelt ticket (no violation in Texas), and had to pay 20 DM on the spot or go to jail. Still have it. No East German money accepted (it was illegal to take or possess it out of the country); no U.S. dollars; West German money only. The West German government gave subsidies for people to live in Berlin, so it was full of young people and old people who’d been there since before the war. Fun and full of music. “Phenomenal Cat” is good too, perfectly dreamy and weird.
Ray wrote this album thinking it would be the last kinks album- so he wanted to make an album for his family.
There is something so cute about Abi. I guess some of it is her personality, and the rest is the incredible way she presents herself.
You've found my favorite band! The field the artwork was shot is Hampstead Heath.
I can't pick a favorite song, when there are so many. I think the best intro is The Kink Kronikles. I love every song on it.
yes i sold the vinly yesrs ago but did find a used cassettev
@@marktait2371 I'm on my second vinyl copy. I sold the first one years ago. Then I got back into records.
I remember when this album made a comeback in the early 2000's with the help of a certain photo company using "PICTURE BOOK" in one of their repeated commercials; and of course, the original and superior Rolling Stone Top 500 list edition. That was during the era I heavily got into this album on CD.
my dad had a taste for heavy and nu metal and i like original and neo psychedelic songs, but something we always liked to listen together was The Kinks due probably to our British heritage. Something Else, Arthur, Village Green and Low Budget were fantastic but its often hard to find others who really enjoy Kinks albums and their goofy, old world lookback lyrics
I really love this one, and I’m happy you made a video on it so others can discover it! Arthur (the next Kinks LP) is great too, but this is their best. Not sure if you take recommendations, but I think you would love The Who Sell Out (1967), Silk Degrees (1976), or one of the Police albums. You’ve done some 90s albums too, and my all-time favorite album is Check Your Head. As much as I that one, I’m not sure if it’s for you. Anyway, thanks to whoever read this, great video!
Well, sometimes the algorithm works I guess. Your video just showed up on my RUclips and I have liked and subscribed. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Its always a pleasure to find someone who so enthusiastically enjoys and informs myself and others on music that I love. My favourite kinks song changes year to year and sometimes day to day. Currently its probably "Nothin' In the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl". I look forward to going through your "catalogue" here on RUclips.
Ray was imitating Burt Lancaster during the spoken parts of "Big Sky." My favorite track on this great album is "Wicked Annabella," which reminds me of Big Star's "She's a Mover."
Hugely influential album.........Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel ,Wilco, Pavement ,Camper Van Beethoven, Pixies ,Elliot Smith, Blur, Pulp , Supergrass,Ron Sexsmith etc, etc have all name checked this gem. Ray Davies............a Phenomenal Cat!!!
Unipak cover. I was there for the Kinks resurgence in the late 70s/early 80s. Saw them twice. Such an underappreciated band.
Wicked Annabella is the first glam song.
Village Green is such a sad song for me. I love the little harpsichord instrument in it. I had this record on CD when I was in college (only 3 years ago haha).
A grower of an album, but ultimately one of the very best from 1968.
That outro was actually really profound, great video!!
Getting to know the Kinks, they always felt like a 60s version of indie/college rock, while their contemporaries were deeper into the trends, for better or worse. I personally didn't appreciate them until I got a little older, and even now, they aren't a common listen - but when the need strikes - they can't be beat!
35k subscribers!! Village Green put you over the top.