Until I watched you strongly endorse this album, on a video of your favourite albums, I somehow didn’t know it existed. I immediately bought it & have listened to it so many times, my 10 yr old son could probably recite it backwards. It’s a total joy, I adore it and see The Kinks in an entirely different light because of it. Have to say, I noticed Pete Townsend had pilfered some of it for Tommy, but that seems in keeping with the way the industry used to roll along. Can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find something previously overlooked, it’s a genuine gift of an album.
I'd forgotten the Kinks, because AM and FM radio had stopped playing them. Then I found Village Green, newly released. Soon after, I acquired Face to Face and Something Else. I've played those three, hundreds of times. More than three decades passed, before I met anyone else who owned Village Green. But I've since learned that every member of The Turtles revered it, back in 1968. And Ray subsequently produced their Turtle Soup album.
Brilliant analysis of Village Green. A timeless classic. Arthur is even better IMO. A total masterpiece that should be in any top 10 albums of all time list.
The Village Green is one of my favorite Kinks albums, although I have the 2018 remastered CD release with the bonus tracks. I wasn't even aware of the album's existence when it was released in 1968. I'm sure it never got any local air-play in northern Utah. Over the decades I have rediscovered the Kinks and have bought most of their albums. Also among my favorites is "Face to Face", "Muswell Hillbillies", "Something Else", and "Arthur".
Sir , one of your better reviews.i have the massive boxset of this album . I am 67 and I find that , in retrospect , this period was awash with musical masterpieces . The Beatles , The Stones , The Who , Led Zeppelin and., of course , The Kinks . I find myself being part of Ray Davies nostalgic frame as I look back on this incredibly fertile period of English pop . I find myself asking where is the equivalence in 2024 ? An era with so much social unrest and society being twisted and turned by the powers that be , where is the music that questions or comments on our changing world ? Has it all been reduced to Taylor Swift concert tickets and their role in a government getting in a twist over their distribution , corporate boxes at one of her shows ? Don't worry about inflation , unemployment , immigration and racism . . . no , tell the provinerce of these Taylor Swift tickets . This is the state of pop music we find today. An excellent review 😂❤ Thank you sir .
I wish I'd gotten hold of that huge set, I just have the two CD version. People say 'Arthur' is their best album, but my preference will always be for this one
I waver between this one and Muswell Hillbillies as my favorite Kinks albums. Muswell just edges out Village Green but mainly because I listened to the former non-stop when I finally discovered it.
I remember listening to this album as a teenager in Canada and feeling nostalgia for something I never experienced, that’s how great a songwriter Ray Davies is. Great review.
Great to see you reviewing a classic album by an under appreciated band. The Kinks were amazing. A real thinking person’s band. If you listened you got it.
A most brilliant album. It conjures up memories of my relatives, most passed away what they ate, fish and chips, meat pies HP sauce, curried chutneys, crumpets, scones, mince and mash potatoes etc.... Born Canada my relatives called Britain 'the old country'. I remember some went back but we never heard from them again. I think many of us are hardwired to the past
I agree completely with your assessment that Village Green is their best album. Due to the musician union's ban on live performance by the Kinks in the United States, they were largely forgotten by 1968. I felt that I was pretty much alone among my circle of friends in my love of this album. It has remained among my favorite albums of all time since its release. And its follow-up, Arthur, is nearly as good. Another excellent review. Terry
I adore the Kinks, Ray and Dave to me are as important as Lennon and Mccartney (just my opinion) As much as i love Village Green Preservation Society (a great album) i always felt alot of their 80s output shared alot of the same themes and vignettes that characterised their best work and is criminally overlooked, i speak to many people who are unaware that the Kinks even released albums in the 80s and 90s, that always makes me mad!!. As for the Village Green Preservation Society, it sold poorly at the time of release but is probably better regarded today than any of its contemporaries. A great band, and a great video thank you
The Kinks released 5 classic albums between 1967 and 1971: Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola Versus Powerman, and Muswell Hillbillies. All grossly underrated by a band that should be rated as highly as the Beatles, the Stones and the Who. Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) is my personal favourite.
The standout track is Animal Farm. It is a superb album. I think of Village Green as a British version of The Bands albums in the US around the same time. Very understated, rural, olde timey, and completely out of sync with the current trends and sounds typified by Electric Ladyland, Beggars Banquet, Truth, etc. They were like going to your grandmas house. But with great music playing.
My big three albums (all released within a year of each other are) 'The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society', Love's 'Forever Changes' and the Zombies 'Odessey and Oracle'. All were recorded roughly at the time that I was being born and all, to me, have a certain yearning and melancholy which I love. I saw Ray Davies in Melbourne, Australia in 1997 and he signed my 'Village Green' album cover. Definitely a prized possession. He's the greatest songwriter for me. Thanks for doing this video.
I always loved this album and still do. Of all the great bonus tracks that were left off, I'm surprised you didn't mention DAYS. Fortunately it was released as a single, even though it sunk like a stone in the U.S. Of course, I bought it. Carry on you old curmudgeon.
One of my all time favourite albums. From the first moment I heard it, I was hooked. Beautiful melancholy, humour, nostalgic musings...Ray Davies at the height of his powers.
I bought the album back in '79. Over the years, I've come to appreciate it a bit more with each listen. I agree that it's their best album from start to finish.
Loved the Kinks and you do a great job of explaining their concerns and their appeal. There is something so melancholic about it all. Why didn't they poach Syd Barrett and conquer the world?
Just a few days ago, I listened to VGPS for the first time in years (and my wife heard it for the first time ever.) It runs out of gas a little bit on side two, but this album has at least ten outstanding songs on it. What strikes me is that people were calling it "anachronistic" in 1968 because it sounded more like 1964 - imagine that happening today, someone saying that an album released in 2024 "sounded like a throwback to 2020." I don't really play the "music was better then / is better now" game, but pop music was certainly changing faster back then.
" ... with a work like "Village Green" bouncing along like a horse and buggy along England's hedgerows and thoroughfares, it seemed like anachronism; nevertheless, the critics praised this album - but the public ignored it. Songs about village greens, cricket, trips to the seaside seemed distinctly middle-aged and certainly a bit 'un-hip'." "On my supersonic rocket ship, nobody has to be hip; nobody needs to be "outta-sight". I guess that's why I love The Kinks - and cannot imagine either a "British beat" or a "British Invasion" without them. Well done, Barry. Top marks. Thank you! 👍😃 I bought my copy new - in the early spring - when you'd open your windows for the first time and smell newly cut grass. That's what VGPS will always remind me of. Greetings from Tucson, Arizona.
Ray said years later when he went onstage at Madison Square Garden he carried a copy of the VGPS album under his arm. Probably multiple symbolic meanings here but my best take is that this wonderful gem was very special to him as it has been for so many others.
To me, that album has always been about the difference between reality and memory. I have listened to guys talk about their youths, and the girls get prettier and the feats of strength get more unlikely as time go by. This is all to human, and Ray captures it. No need to show pictures that remind me. Don't show me no more please.
Even for a Yank like me, Village Green is in my top 10. Arthur is #2. Both brilliant and necessary. I just noticed Ray flipping the bird in that one picture. Rascal.
TKATVGPS is the best - front to back, first track to last track LP they put out. the kinks were also in the midst their "classic albums" stretch that i count running from "Face to Face" thru "Muswell Hillbillies". RE Phenomenal Cat - this is one of the most curious tracks (along w/Wicked Annabella, imo) on the record. i think this ‘nursery rhyme’ is an allegory for England/the British Empire. This would not be a big surprise, given Ray’s track record documenting the doings of the British Empire. the cat (the spirit of the empire) sits in his tree (the British Isles) and discovers the secret to life in old Hong Kong and all the other places he flies. the secret to life = building an empire at the time the British Empire was coming into being, the model on how to do that was (and pretty much remains the same today) to accumulate and appropriate as many other cultures as one can and exploit their resources to your benefit, etc., etc., etc. the English did this very well back in the day (as did the Spanish and French and Portuguese, Italians and Dutch and on and on and on). So, the cat keeps eating his way thru the world (adding to the empire) till he gets so fat (the sun never set on the British Empire, the empire covered the globe) he can just sit back in his favorite tree (England) and eat himself (live off the empire's accumulated wealth) thru eternity. fum fum diddle um die… anyone else see this or am i nuts? alternate takes on this? please discuss!
Edward Lear, George Orwell, Dylan Thomas bump into Raymond Douglas Davies.........The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society! Timeless and true.....
Excellent commentary. I wonder how You- Tuber Andy Edwards ( the man who has talked about the English aesthetic) might react to this. Thank you Sir, this is much appreciated.
A wonderful album i always felt Days should have been on it, but for me Arthur is its counter point and more concise. would love to hear a review from you . Arthur for me represents the true disintegration of the British empire Rays sings about on Village green.
Village Green, Something Else and Face to Face are great albums but my preffered one is Muswell Hillbillies, in fact an outstanding country-rock made in England album. On account of live albums the greatest one is their last, the double To the Bone (acoustic and electric tracks). Greetings frm Brazil!
Ray has always been a social coomentator, a lot of his nostaglia is from his parents as he has often said , but growing up in the 40/50s would have given him his own recollections too. 1968 was a different world , a better world .The album is a great piece of work , their best ? As a Kinks fan it is the top 3 for me , rock eulogising ? Some people make a living from it ,fair does, but it is really about the listener and how it moves them. That said i still enjoy your musings Barry.
USA fan since 1964. Either you got the Kinks or you didn't. Most did not. A great record and so very different than everything around it. The U.S. was a lonely place for a Kinks fan in those days but it was also cool to be in on something that seemingly, literally no one else was.
This probably is their best album and the Arthur album too.I find their albums as a whole are a bit spotty. In actual fact I live in Hornsey which is just downhill from Muswell Hill the Davies home in Denmark Terrace Fortis Green Rd. P.S in fact the only time I spotted Ray was in Muswell Hill pruning his hair in about 1989 , Ray is very vain !
Love the Kinks. And I think you're right about this album. Super! Unfortunately, the production, at least in the U.S. pressed LP, is bad. Can anyone tell me if the CD is an improvement? Of course, the track that my cats love is "Phenomenal Cat."
It's hard to imagine what this album might have sounded like had the Kinks not been banned from touring America at the time. (Paradoxically, I think its lack of success actually prolonged their career as they would have otherwise been just another burned out, chewed up and disposed of combo in the so-called British invasion.) I'm sure Davies is on record as stating something along the lines that he knew it wouldn't be a hit, as he was forced to withdraw into an isolation where the surroundings were unrelentingly English.
Bare in mind Robert Cristgau had a habit of dissing classic albums and bands like it was a calling card. Very much like Marin Poppof today. If you don't agree with my opinion, you are obviously wrong!
I really like this album but it seemed then, and now, as to be a wistful, soft edged variant of the conservative/reactionary of the middles aged who'd already forgotten the war and looked back careful to avoid the depression and WWI.Nostalgia while trying to move forward.
A member called "Wonder Boy" as the Herman's Hermits wanking. Hmmm... I wonder who would have said that? Dave Davies perhaps. Sounds like Dave. Dave was so over the top when he was young. Dave was punk before punk. Don't forget that "You Really Got Me" knocked The Beatles out of #1 too and Lennon was supposedly not happy. He & Paul almost got into it with Ray at a show both bands were on. They were as that writer said "brilliant piss takers" but they were SO much more. So many others came later essentially as copies like Blur, Oasis,The Jam and others. The only band that came close to almost matching them but were there own thing was Madness.
I find Pet Sounds a bit dull too but I have never seen evidence of Village Green being widely over-rated. Perhaps it isn't a work of genius. I do think it's a remarkable "hymn" to Englishness.
The Village Green may not have any super standout tracks on their own, but when put together it becomes something magical.
I agree
Big Sky!!!
Until I watched you strongly endorse this album, on a video of your favourite albums, I somehow didn’t know it existed.
I immediately bought it & have listened to it so many times, my 10 yr old son could probably recite it backwards.
It’s a total joy, I adore it and see The Kinks in an entirely different light because of it.
Have to say, I noticed Pete Townsend had pilfered some of it for Tommy, but that seems in keeping with the way the industry used to roll along.
Can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find something previously overlooked, it’s a genuine gift of an album.
God Save The Kinks!
I'd forgotten the Kinks, because AM and FM radio had stopped playing them. Then I found Village Green, newly released. Soon after, I acquired Face to Face and Something Else. I've played those three, hundreds of times. More than three decades passed, before I met anyone else who owned Village Green. But I've since learned that every member of The Turtles revered it, back in 1968. And Ray subsequently produced their Turtle Soup album.
"people often change, but memories of people can remain" One of my all time favorite albums!
Village Green and Arthur are peak Kinks.
Totally, the best of the Kinks-first saw them in ‘68, then 6 more times in the 70s. Closely followed be Something Elst
Brilliant analysis of Village Green. A timeless classic. Arthur is even better IMO. A total masterpiece that should be in any top 10 albums of all time list.
This album and the one that preceded it, Something Else 🎸🇬🇧👍
Favorite songwriter.❤
If only England was the same now..Great review sir...
The Village Green is one of my favorite Kinks albums, although I have the 2018 remastered CD release with the bonus tracks. I wasn't even aware of the album's existence when it was released in 1968. I'm sure it never got any local air-play in northern Utah. Over the decades I have rediscovered the Kinks and have bought most of their albums. Also among my favorites is "Face to Face", "Muswell Hillbillies", "Something Else", and "Arthur".
Wonderful video. One of my favorite albums by any band, it should be required listening to anyone who appreciates great music.
Sir , one of your better reviews.i have the massive boxset of this album .
I am 67 and I find that , in retrospect , this period was awash with musical masterpieces . The Beatles , The Stones , The Who , Led Zeppelin and., of course , The Kinks .
I find myself being part of Ray Davies nostalgic frame as I look back on this incredibly fertile period of English pop . I find myself asking where is the equivalence in 2024 ? An era with so much social unrest and society being twisted and turned by the powers that be , where is the music that questions or comments on our changing world ?
Has it all been reduced to Taylor Swift concert tickets and their role in a government getting in a twist over their distribution , corporate boxes at one of her shows ?
Don't worry about inflation , unemployment , immigration and racism . . . no , tell the provinerce of these Taylor Swift tickets .
This is the state of pop music we find today.
An excellent review 😂❤
Thank you sir .
I wish I'd gotten hold of that huge set, I just have the two CD version. People say 'Arthur' is their best album, but my preference will always be for this one
Have actually been having a kinks fest this week! Great band
I waver between this one and Muswell Hillbillies as my favorite Kinks albums. Muswell just edges out Village Green but mainly because I listened to the former non-stop when I finally discovered it.
their magnum opus, up there with the best of the 60s
I remember listening to this album as a teenager in Canada and feeling nostalgia for something I never experienced, that’s how great a songwriter Ray Davies is. Great review.
Great to see you reviewing a classic album by an under appreciated band. The Kinks were amazing. A real thinking person’s band. If you listened you got it.
“Preserving the old ways from being abused. Protecting the new ways for me and for you. What more can we do”?
All this Quaint Nostalgic Englishness is being buried by mass immigration
A most brilliant album. It conjures up memories of my relatives, most passed away what they ate, fish and chips, meat pies HP sauce, curried chutneys, crumpets, scones, mince and mash potatoes etc....
Born Canada my relatives called Britain 'the old country'. I remember some went back but we never heard from them again. I think many of us are hardwired to the past
I agree completely with your assessment that Village Green is their best album. Due to the musician union's ban on live performance by the Kinks in the United States, they were largely forgotten by 1968. I felt that I was pretty much alone among my circle of friends in my love of this album. It has remained among my favorite albums of all time since its release. And its follow-up, Arthur, is nearly as good. Another excellent review.
Terry
Ray Davies was on fire during the 60's Pye Era.
I adore the Kinks, Ray and Dave to me are as important as Lennon and Mccartney (just my opinion) As much as i love Village Green Preservation Society (a great album) i always felt alot of their 80s output shared alot of the same themes and vignettes that characterised their best work and is criminally overlooked, i speak to many people who are unaware that the Kinks even released albums in the 80s and 90s, that always makes me mad!!. As for the Village Green Preservation Society, it sold poorly at the time of release but is probably better regarded today than any of its contemporaries. A great band, and a great video thank you
The Kinks released 5 classic albums between 1967 and 1971: Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola Versus Powerman, and Muswell Hillbillies. All grossly underrated by a band that should be rated as highly as the Beatles, the Stones and the Who. Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) is my personal favourite.
Personally, I'd go with Arthur but Village Green is quite excellent!! Great video Barry! Cheers from Ontario, Canada!!
I agree!
Face to Face is even better.
The standout track is Animal Farm. It is a superb album. I think of Village Green as a British version of The Bands albums in the US around the same time. Very understated, rural, olde timey, and completely out of sync with the current trends and sounds typified by Electric Ladyland, Beggars Banquet, Truth, etc. They were like going to your grandmas house. But with great music playing.
My big three albums (all released within a year of each other are) 'The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society', Love's 'Forever Changes' and the Zombies 'Odessey and Oracle'. All were recorded roughly at the time that I was being born and all, to me, have a certain yearning and melancholy which I love. I saw Ray Davies in Melbourne, Australia in 1997 and he signed my 'Village Green' album cover. Definitely a prized possession. He's the greatest songwriter for me. Thanks for doing this video.
I always loved this album and still do. Of all the great bonus tracks that were left off, I'm surprised you didn't mention DAYS. Fortunately it was released as a single, even though it sunk like a stone in the U.S. Of course, I bought it. Carry on you old curmudgeon.
An eloquent, well -informed and entertaining review of a great album by a great British band. Thank you, Barry.👍☺
Excellent! I’d better go and buy the album now.
One of my all time favourite albums. From the first moment I heard it, I was hooked. Beautiful melancholy, humour, nostalgic musings...Ray Davies at the height of his powers.
First-rate conversation. Oh, how we need such vlogs.
Super album. I play 'Something Else' more often and 'Face to Face' often as well. Honorable mention to the 'Powerman and Money go round' album too.
They had an incredible run. You didn't even mention 'Arthur' which was another corker.
The Kinks or more precisely Ray Davies wrote songs about the England I grew up in and which has gone now forever…what a crying shame…
Only The Beatles on a good day could compete with The Kinks. WHAT a band! Extremely underrated.
I bought the album back in '79. Over the years, I've come to appreciate it a bit more with each listen. I agree that it's their best album from start to finish.
@@Justin_Kipper Oooo. A fellow BOC fan!
Loved the Kinks and you do a great job of explaining their concerns and their appeal. There is something so melancholic about it all. Why didn't they poach Syd Barrett and conquer the world?
Just a few days ago, I listened to VGPS for the first time in years (and my wife heard it for the first time ever.) It runs out of gas a little bit on side two, but this album has at least ten outstanding songs on it. What strikes me is that people were calling it "anachronistic" in 1968 because it sounded more like 1964 - imagine that happening today, someone saying that an album released in 2024 "sounded like a throwback to 2020." I don't really play the "music was better then / is better now" game, but pop music was certainly changing faster back then.
" ... with a work like "Village Green" bouncing along like a horse and buggy along England's hedgerows and thoroughfares, it seemed like anachronism; nevertheless, the critics praised this album - but the public ignored it. Songs about village greens, cricket, trips to the seaside seemed distinctly middle-aged and certainly a bit 'un-hip'."
"On my supersonic rocket ship, nobody has to be hip; nobody needs to be "outta-sight".
I guess that's why I love The Kinks - and cannot imagine either a "British beat" or a "British Invasion" without them.
Well done, Barry. Top marks. Thank you!
👍😃
I bought my copy new - in the early spring - when you'd open your windows for the first time and smell newly cut grass. That's what VGPS will always remind me of.
Greetings from Tucson, Arizona.
Sir, you made me cry.
...and when I feel that the World's too much for me
I think of the Big Sky... and nothing matters much to me!
Ray said years later when he went onstage at Madison Square Garden he carried a copy of the VGPS album under his arm. Probably multiple symbolic meanings here but my best take is that this wonderful gem was very special to him as it has been for so many others.
To me, that album has always been about the difference between reality and memory. I have listened to guys talk about their youths, and the girls get prettier and the feats of strength get more unlikely as time go by. This is all to human, and Ray captures it. No need to show pictures that remind me. Don't show me no more please.
Even though it didn't have any of those great singles the Kinks are best known for it remains probably their most satisfying album overall
Sounds like Herman's Hermits w@nking. Classic description of Wonder Boy 😂
Even for a Yank like me, Village Green is in my top 10. Arthur is #2. Both brilliant and necessary. I just noticed Ray flipping the bird in that one picture. Rascal.
I checked this album out again after your review. It is certainly better than I remember it although side 1 is far better than side 2 IMO
Brilliant album when looking at the world now maybe we should look a little at the nostalgia of this album and rewind 👍🏼👍🏼
TKATVGPS is the best - front to back, first track to last track LP they put out. the kinks were also in the midst their "classic albums" stretch that i count running from "Face to Face" thru "Muswell Hillbillies".
RE Phenomenal Cat - this is one of the most curious tracks (along w/Wicked Annabella, imo) on the record. i think this ‘nursery rhyme’ is an allegory for England/the British Empire. This would not be a big surprise, given Ray’s track record documenting the doings of the British Empire.
the cat (the spirit of the empire) sits in his tree (the British Isles) and discovers the secret to life in old Hong Kong and all the other places he flies.
the secret to life = building an empire
at the time the British Empire was coming into being, the model on how to do that was (and pretty much remains the same today) to accumulate and appropriate as many other cultures as one can and exploit their resources to your benefit, etc., etc., etc.
the English did this very well back in the day (as did the Spanish and French and Portuguese, Italians and Dutch and on and on and on).
So, the cat keeps eating his way thru the world (adding to the empire) till he gets so fat (the sun never set on the British Empire, the empire covered the globe) he can just sit back in his favorite tree (England) and eat himself (live off the empire's accumulated wealth) thru eternity.
fum fum diddle um die…
anyone else see this or am i nuts? alternate takes on this? please discuss!
Edward Lear, George Orwell, Dylan Thomas bump into Raymond Douglas Davies.........The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society! Timeless and true.....
Excellent commentary. I wonder how You- Tuber Andy Edwards ( the man who has talked about the English aesthetic) might react to this.
Thank you Sir, this is much appreciated.
Heman’s Hermits wanking! A vision that cannot be unseen. Thanks.
That was Pete Quaife's take on Wonderboy.
Love village green Aurther Preservation so many Albums so many styles also the 80 Days bootleg is a classic
I agree with your ranking...with Something Else a close second.
The Howling Wolves = Simon Dupree & The Big Sound = Gentle Giant.
A fine appraisal. Journalisic talents even. I've always said that out of all the big hitter bandsThe Kinks were and are the most influential
Might sound crazy but I LoVe Schoolboys in Disgrace
A wonderful album i always felt Days should have been on it, but for me Arthur is its counter point and more concise. would love to hear a review from you . Arthur for me represents the true disintegration of the British empire Rays sings about on Village green.
Village Green, Something Else and Face to Face are great albums but my preffered one is Muswell Hillbillies, in fact an outstanding country-rock made in England album. On account of live albums the greatest one is their last, the double To the Bone (acoustic and electric tracks). Greetings frm Brazil!
I have a near mint US 1968 Reprise pressing
Ray has always been a social coomentator, a lot of his nostaglia is from his parents as he has often said , but growing up in the 40/50s would have given him his own recollections too. 1968 was a different world , a better world .The album is a great piece of work , their best ? As a Kinks fan it is the top 3 for me , rock eulogising ? Some people make a living from it ,fair does, but it is really about the listener and how it moves them. That said i still enjoy your musings Barry.
'Do you remember Walter' always reminds me of Cardiacs .... just me? 😁
Ray Davies went on to buy a hat like Princess Marina, so he don't care.
USA fan since 1964. Either you got the Kinks or you didn't. Most did not. A great record and so very different than everything around it. The U.S. was a lonely place for a Kinks fan in those days but it was also cool to be in on something that seemingly, literally no one else was.
A beautiful anachronism…
Arthur for me
Arthur is even better, I think
I agree…The album cover is worth the price of admission.
Arthur is great but Village Green will always take 1st place. Its just too legendary now to be anything less.
This probably is their best album and the Arthur album too.I find their albums as a whole are a bit spotty. In actual fact I live in Hornsey which is just downhill from Muswell Hill the Davies home in Denmark Terrace Fortis Green Rd.
P.S in fact the only time I spotted Ray was in Muswell Hill pruning his hair in about 1989 , Ray is very vain !
Love the Kinks. And I think you're right about this album. Super! Unfortunately, the production, at least in the U.S. pressed LP, is bad. Can anyone tell me if the CD is an improvement? Of course, the track that my cats love is "Phenomenal Cat."
Give The People What They Want
It is. I really love Low Budget, tho
A slight edge over "Something Else" but both 5 star albums.
It's hard to imagine what this album might have sounded like had the Kinks not been banned from touring America at the time. (Paradoxically, I think its lack of success actually prolonged their career as they would have otherwise been just another burned out, chewed up and disposed of combo in the so-called British invasion.) I'm sure Davies is on record as stating something along the lines that he knew it wouldn't be a hit, as he was forced to withdraw into an isolation where the surroundings were unrelentingly English.
England always seems to be mourning its past.
And Ray Davies leaned heavily into that sentiment on the follow up album Arthur: Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire.
Mourning its past and apparently convinced and now forced to be ashamed of it.
If it was already vanishing in '68, then where is England now?
Bare in mind Robert Cristgau had a habit of dissing classic albums and bands like it was a calling card. Very much like Marin Poppof today. If you don't agree with my opinion, you are obviously wrong!
I love Village Green BUT I consider Arthur to be their best album.
Kate Rusbys version of village green is worth a listen...
Free the Nipple!
I lean more toward "Low Budget"
I really like this album but it seemed then, and now, as to be a wistful, soft edged variant of the conservative/reactionary of the middles aged who'd already forgotten the war and looked back careful to avoid the depression and WWI.Nostalgia while trying to move forward.
A member called "Wonder Boy" as the Herman's Hermits wanking. Hmmm... I wonder who would have said that? Dave Davies perhaps. Sounds like Dave. Dave was so over the top when he was young. Dave was punk before punk.
Don't forget that "You Really Got Me" knocked The Beatles out of #1 too and Lennon was supposedly not happy. He & Paul almost got into it with Ray at a show both bands were on.
They were as that writer said "brilliant piss takers" but they were SO much more. So many others came later essentially as copies like Blur, Oasis,The Jam and others.
The only band that came close to almost matching them but were there own thing was Madness.
It was Pete. Bless him.
For me it's Face To Face but Percy may be a contender.
It’s a wonder the album hasn’t been banned by the woke brigade
The Kinks stopped producing any more great songs after their 60's hits
Yeah forget the impending USA Civil War 2.0.. "Best Kinks Album" is definitely the burning issue of our time 🙄
It's not a bad album, but it's overrated; a bit like the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds".
I find Pet Sounds a bit dull too but I have never seen evidence of Village Green being widely over-rated. Perhaps it isn't a work of genius. I do think it's a remarkable "hymn" to Englishness.
Enjoy your insights. But for me Arthur is the Kinks best and one of the greatest from the British Invasion.