Kinks - Why Do People Say "Village Green Preservation Society" is the Best?

[nancyb]

This topic came up in the album draft when two judges implied that was the best Kinks record. I have to say I don't agree. I rate "Something Else by the Kinks", "Arthur" and "Lola vs the Powerman" higher than "The Village Green Preservation Society."

I'm curious as to why people hold it in such an elevated status. Is the cult factor at work?

[bmurphyfl]

I don't know about the popular thinking but for me, I like it because it plays the whole way through without a dud. Plus, it has a bit of a theme running through it which ties all of the tracks together into a true album.

Then again, my first Kinks album as a kid was "Give the People What They Want". So, that one always has a special place in my heart. Better things are on the way...

[655321]

Because it has "Big Sky" and "Animal Farm". :D

I'd put Arthur and Face To Face over it for reasons of personal taste. But for sheer quality and consistency, it's pretty hard to touch it.

[VOwithwater]

This topic came up in the album draft when two judges implied that was the best Kinks record. I have to say I don't agree. I rate "Something Else by the Kinks", "Arthur" and "Lola vs the Powerman" higher than "The Village Green Preservation Society."

I'm curious as to why people hold it in such an elevated status. Is the cult factor at work?

In the late 60's the Kinks were on Clay Coles "Cole Bin" a local tv show in NYC,

I was there with my Cousin Rosie and some friends. My cousin Rosie was a knock out back then. I happen to see the Kinks lead singer Ray Davises grab her arse. Then I intern knocked him on his arse. Then the security at the studion theough us all out but not on our arses.

[nancyb]

In the late 60's the Kinks were on Clay Coles "Cole Bin" a local tv show in NYC,

I was there with my Cousin Rosie and some friends. My cousin Rosie was a knock out back then. I happen to see the Kinks lead singer Ray Davises grab her arse. Then I intern knocked him on his arse. Then the security at the studion theough us all out but not on our arses.

So far, that's the best explanation I've heard.:p

[Dan Loney]

Beats the hell out of me. Maybe because it sold so incredibly poorly, and was so deliberately out of touch with the marketplace. I think "Arthur" is just flat-out stronger all the way through.

[nancyb]

I don't know about the popular thinking but for me, I like it because it plays the whole way through without a dud. Plus, it has a bit of a theme running through it which ties all of the tracks together into a true album.


Because it has "Big Sky" and "Animal Farm". :D

I'd put Arthur and Face To Face over it for reasons of personal taste. But for sheer quality and consistency, it's pretty hard to touch it.

I think that Something Else is darn near as complete as VGPS, is also themetic and it has one of the best songs ever written, David Watts. Tell me that there's a person who never experienced the feelings of envy the narrator in that tune expresses.

I'd weigh in on Arthur, except that my disk disappeared from the cover and I'm having a hard time dealing with the tragedy of finding that case empty. But, damn, that song Victoria is unbelievable.

I just relistened to it and it just makes me want to listen to Arthur or the Muswell Hillbillies. Maybe it's because it piques the interest and directs you the really good stuff? And while it may not have a dud, there's not a really great song either. Animal Farm and Big Sky? Yeah, they're good, but...

And speaking of the Muswell Hillbillies. Now, that's a record I can totally get down with.

[taosjohn]

This topic came up in the album draft when two judges implied that was the best Kinks record. I have to say I don't agree. I rate "Something Else by the Kinks", "Arthur" and "Lola vs the Powerman" higher than "The Village Green Preservation Society."

I'm curious as to why people hold it in such an elevated status. Is the cult factor at work?

Beats the heck outta me-- I'm a "Muswell Hillbillies" and "Everybody's In Show Biz" kinda guy myself; with a little love for "Sleepwalking" as "the other Davies'" best effort on the side...

[bojendyk]

I just relistened to it and it just makes me want to listen to Arthur or the Muswell Hillbillies. Maybe it's because it piques the interest and directs you the really good stuff? And while it may not have a dud, there's not a really great song either. Animal Farm and Big Sky? Yeah, they're good, but...

I need to get more records by the Kinks. But, as much as I love the Kinks songs you mentioned (especially "Victoria"), probably my two very favorites are "Animal Farm" and "Waterloo Sunset."

And even though it gets dissed a lot, I want to defend "Come Dancing."

[nancyb]

When I listen to bands like the Libertines and the Jam, they are just screaming Kinks at me.

[Real Ray]

I think the consitency of the songwriting is a strong factor. And perhaps a bit of nostalgia vis-a-vis the band's history. It's also an album that cuts against the grain of the music style of the time-bands where getting harder in 1968 (look at the work of The Who, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles during this period). There's something refreshingly contrarian muscially about this album-and I think people have come to wear it as a badge of honor of sorts.

It also embarces "Englishness" in a way that was interesting too-it's almost an anti-British Invasion sensibility.

[CHICO13]

'Something Else by The Kinks' does it for me. Everything else just lines up behind it...

[gocaps]

And even though it gets dissed a lot, I want to defend "Come Dancing."
That song has held up really, really well. Wasn't it their last real chart hit?

[bojendyk]

That song has held up really, really well. Wasn't it their last real chart hit?

I believe so. I remember it from the early 80s, which would put it on the charts at roughly the same time as Madness's thematically similar "Our House."

[taosjohn]

I believe so. I remember it from the early 80s, which would put it on the charts at roughly the same time as Madness's thematically similar "Our House."

"Don't Forget to Dance" got into the top 30 briefly a few months later, so it depends on your definition of "real."

[obie]

To follow up on Real Ray's point: The run of Face To Face, Something Else, Village Green, and Arthur are in retrospect more quintessentially English than nearly anything released for a decade in either direction. What did it mean at the time to be in British pop? You were either the Beatles, a lesser version of the Beatles (Dave Clark Five, Hollies), cloyingly twee (Herman's Hermits, Peter & Gordon), or semi-regionless blues-rock (Who, Yardbirds, Stones, etc.). Late '60s Kinks embraced their Englishness, not as a cutsey moptop selling point but as an integral part of who they were. (Of course, they distanced themselves from this a bit with Lola, which became a big comeback hit, and they followed that trail for a while, eventually hitting financial heights but artistic lows with Low Budget. But I digress.)

The early 90s were celebrated for bands like Oasis, Pulp and Suede being proudly British. The Kinks did the same thing 30 years earlier.

[655321]

In the late 60's the Kinks were on Clay Coles "Cole Bin" a local tv show in NYC,

I was there with my Cousin Rosie and some friends. My cousin Rosie was a knock out back then. I happen to see the Kinks lead singer Ray Davises grab her arse. Then I intern knocked him on his arse. Then the security at the studion theough us all out but not on our arses.

Everytime the Kinks come up on these boards, you tell this story.

[655321]

When I listen to bands like the Libertines and the Jam, they are just screaming Kinks at me.

Buy the Babyshambles record. Seriously. It comes out domestically in like a month or so.

[Dan Loney]

And even though it gets dissed a lot, I want to defend "Come Dancing."Why on earth does "Come Dancing" need defending? It was their second-to-last truly great song.

("Scattered" was their last, in my opinion. But the "Phobia" album sold down in VGPS territory, so there you go. The Kinks played this one at the House of Blues, it was the only song the crowd didn't know pretty much by heart, and it was stunning. People were listening, and thinking, "My God, this is brilliant.")

[BillQ]

That song has held up really, really well. Wasn't it their last real chart hit?

Yeah, although I remember Living on a Thin Line getting a lot of air time.

Kicking myself that I can't go see Ray Davies in Chicago this weekend.