The Kinks Album: “Village Green Preservation Society [3-CD Special Deluxe Edition]”

1968 was a very good year for the Kinks - though at the time no one seemed to notice much. Now TKATVGPS is considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and rightly so. It's hard to single out highlights as there are no lowlights. I'd have to say that the title track, Do you remember Walter?, Picture Book, Village Green, All of my friends were there, and People take pictures of each other are my personal favorites.

This seems like Ray Davies pinnacle. Not that he didn't produce great music before and after. But I think this is his most consistently brilliant phase. With every track on this collection his genius grows. His lyrics are sharper then usual with his great wit and pathos for the less fortunate in life. The harmony the band talks about in the CD booklet shows in their playing - which is confident, relaxed and raucous all at once. What ties the album together is the binding theme of the longing for the past. A fondness for the things of yesterday and heap of skepticism towards the present and future. The record is very much of it's time and yet ageless as well. I know these are contradictions, but that's how Ray Davies wrote them. He was a master of using irony in his storytelling.

Now I didn't notice much of a difference between the stereo and mono mixes, except that the vocals were a bit buried more in mono. What really makes this collectors edition special is the great bonus material. Different versions of Walter?, People take pictures, village green and Animal Farm give fresh perspectives to those songs. It also includes some singles and b-sides that can be gotten in other places, but their still all great songs and it's always good when a CD has Days on it (not to mention you get two here). But what really makes this special is the release of some of the tracks from the Great Lost Kinks album. It's hard to believe that classic songs like Misty Water, Lavender Hill, Creeping Jean and Where did my Spring Go took over 35 years to be released. Basically there's not a bad moment in any of the 3 Cd's, even the instrumentals have a nice charm that fits the mood of the album. And that's one of the great things about this release. They add 47 more songs and it still feels like TKATVGPS album, the spirit remains throughout. So get it and see what all the fuss is about.

I first came to this Kinks album in November of 1998 right as I was preparing to end a near year long stay in San Luis Obispo, CA. Unbeknown to me at the time, it just so happened to be the album's 30th anniversary that month! My best friend John came up to visit me on his vacation and while he was there we would walk to the downtown area of San Luis and frequent Cheap Thrills Records. John had recently been getting into The Kinks and picked up two of their CDs on our very last visit to the record store. He bought the original Rhino CD reissue of "You Really Got Me" (long out of print even at that time), and the U.S. Reprise issue of "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society." I, on the other hand, purchased two CDs of The Byrds. We took our CDs back to where I was staying, sat down on the two couches in the living room, and popped in "Village Green." Right from the upbeat strum of the acoustic guitar on the title track, we were mesmerized. We sat there through the entire album not saying a word to each other, but occasionally glancing back and forth with facial expressions of amazement and bewilderment (I specifically recall our reaction to the sped up elf voices in "Phenomenal Cat"). From Nov. 10th, 1998 to this very day The Kinks "Village Green" remains me and John's "buddy album."

I got my copy late that December as a birthday gift from John after I'd moved back to Southern California. I had already listened to it practically a thousand times on a recorded cassette I had made from his copy. In 1999, I bought the first remastered import of the album on Castle that contained both the stereo and mono versions and bonus tracks like "Days" and "Mr. Songbird." While reading the inside booklet included I was enlightened to the fact that the entire process with getting "Village Green" even released in the first place was a long and complicated one. And when it was finally issued, it suffered the dignity of being completely blown asunder by The Holy Trinity of 1968 album releases that fall: "The White Album" by The Beatles (RELEASED ON THE SAME DAY OF ALL THINGS), "Beggars Banquet" by The Rolling Stones, and "Electric Ladyland" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Not to mention The Doors' "Waiting For The Sun," Cream's "Wheels Of Fire," and Big Brother's "Cheap Thrills" released only a couple months prior! It seems the odds were stacked high against The Kinks "Village Green."

In 2004, this enormous three-disc package appeared in a Tower Records (R.I.P) that John and I would visit in the O.C. city of Brea. As impressed as we were with this new reissue, neither John or I bought it that day for some unexplainable reason. Now in 2008, as we Kinks fans celebrate this album's 40th anniversary, I have my very own copy of this deluxe version of what is undoubtedly The Kinks' finest hour ever to be pressed on vinyl! In the liner notes to this edition, Pete Townsend of The Who is quoted as saying that "Village Green" is Ray Davies' very own "Sgt. Pepper" and I couldn't agree more (and neither could John for that matter). Disc One features a newly remastered stereo version, disc two the mono, and disc three is chock full of rarities. You'll get to hear some previously unreleased mixes, jams, and songs that were to be possibly included on the album such as "Berkely Mews," "Misty Water," and "Rosemary Rose" (not to mention the all too true and hilarious "Where Did My Spring Go?" which is worth the price of admission alone if you ask me). Some of these tracks were first issued on either "The Kink Kronikles" in 1972 or "The Great Lost Kinks Album" in 1973, both on Reprise. And while "Kink Kronikles" is still in print, "The Great Lost Kinks Album" has LONG been deleted from the band's catalog making it a highly sought out Kinks collector's item!

"Village Green" has a rather lengthy recording history with the track "Village Green" itself dating back to Nov. 1966! The album's original release was scheduled for September '68 but Davies pulled it at the last minute to add a couple more songs, those songs being "Last Of The Steam Powered Trains" and "Big Sky." Even with tracks being recorded so far apart from each other, there is a cohesion evident that wouldn't let you think it was so. The main thing that connects "Village Green" is it's central theme, a yearning to return to innocence. To draw upon memories of happier and simpler times, the joys of one's youth, childhood friends and the where-are-they-now theories. "Village Green" is a happy, peaceful, and very nostalgic piece of wax. An album to put on right before bedtime to dream happy dreams. Just open up your imagination and let Ray tell you his stories.

This set will be a treasure trove for fans of this album like John and myself. I like to refer to it as the "Chunk O' Green." Mr. Ray Davies made a very quick transition from the hit single songwriter that penned "You Really Got Me" to the pop-poet laureate of "Village Green." It's a change evident in many of the popular bands from the era with The Beatles, of course, being the most well known for their transformation. The entire world was changing and so were musicians caught up in what was going on, or going wrong for that matter. Ray Davies wanted to bring listeners solace in 1968 with this masterpiece and that's exactly what he achieved. It may have been out of step with the times but never with the human spirit. That yearning that we all someday find our very own Village Green.

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I'd never heard this album before a few days ago, but I picked up this Deluxe edition, along with all the other Deluxe Kinks albums after having recently heard a few songs that I really liked. They're all absolutely amazing. I highly recommend them all. This one is far and away the best of the bunch, though. I've listened to all 3 discs of this at least a dozen times already, and these songs are now permanently stuck in my head. Hearing this fills me with pure joy and delight in the same way as hearing The Beatles - Revolver, The Who Sell Out, and Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Others have described the album well enough, so I won't bother getting philosophical about it, but I felt that I should add my voice to the chorus and say that this is one of the best purchases a music lover can make. I often find albums that I like or even love, but it's rare that I find one that I can, without hesitation, call one of my favorites ever. This is one such album.

I recommend all of the other Deluxe reissues as well. They are all packed full of excellent music that I won't tire of hearing for quite a while.

I'm a huge fan of the Kinks, and my first album of theirs was Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One. After that I became a little obsessive, and I knew from the get go that this was supposed to be their best album, so I intentionally waited to buy it until I had heard the rest of their albums. When I did buy it on CD I went with the deluxe version, and it was the best decision I ever made! The album itself is amazing beyond description, but all of the bonus tracks (and there are more than I've ever seen) add so much more to the experience. If you had told me that TKATVGPS was a 35+ track album and played this for me, i would have never guessed that these tracks weren't included on the original version. Seriously, buy this album, and it will be all you'll be listening to for weeks. If you are a fan of The Beatles, The Who, The Zombies, or any other 60's british invasion bands whose names start with "The", you owe it to yourself to become a fan of the Kinks! God save the Kinks!

When THE KINKS gave the music industry this cd-nobody gave it a listen or even payed attention. THANKFULLY-THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY hasnt been overlooked anymore.The Kinks never quit and neither did their fans! This DISC set is PHENOMENIAL!! The cd's have mono and stereo sides and then some real good gems-JOHNNY Thunder""Big sky"Animal farm "picture book"VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY' and even instrumentals-"mick avorys underpants.?."For A KINKS fan This is A GREAT Collection to have..and for people intrested in THE KINKS well This IS the Cd to get!! Ray Davies created a masterpiece of brilliant craft. All the songs capture a fleeting moment in(ENGLAND) time and put that listener in a place where nostagia is remembered, charished and revered sacred.tHE OTHER DISC HAS a rockin song"kingkong"and songs featured on The Great Lost kInks album. There is no one stand out track-the album/cd is to be listened to as it is recorded without interruption!!! THIS IS TRUE ART AT ITS BEST!!!! THE KINKS WILL ALWAYS BE A STEP ABOVE THE REST!!