50th anniversary of Village Green Preservation Society

[Brian]

BMG releases this box set of "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" on October 26.

The Kinks released their greatest album on November 22, 1968, the same day that the Beatles put out the White Album and the Rolling Stones issued "Beggar's Banquet."  Reprise Records in the U.S. reportedly sold only 20,000 copies through the 1970's, but the label never took the LP out of its catalog, unlike other brilliant and essential Kinks albums that Reprise cut out like "Face to Face."  I hadn't listened to the White Album in years until last week, when I found myself skipping a lot of songs.  I think that "Beggar's Banquet" is one of the best Stones albums, but I don't play it often.  Fifty years later, "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" remains timeless.

In 2004, Sanctuary Records released a three-CD set of Village Green Preservation Society with remastered stereo and mono versions of the final album, tracks intended for previous versions of Kinks LP's internationally and in the U.S., and somewhat rare gems from 1966-69.  I assumed that the well had finally run dry.

Buried beneath the book, redundant vinyl, commemorative singles and the reproduced memorabilia in that photo above are five CD's with songs and mixes that I have never heard.  I've seen preorders of the box set selling for $25 less elsewhere, but I chose to buy it on Music Glue for $157 using the link below because the money goes directly to the artists.  Music Glue came through last month with my order of Neil and Liam Finn's new album.

www.musicglue.com/the-kinks/browse/the-kinks-usa/products/the-kinks-are-the-village-green-preservation-society-super-deluxe-box-set

Why do I love Village Green so much? I could've picked any of its 15 songs, but I choose the one with Ray Davies' Burt Lancaster impersonation and some of Mick Avory's tastiest drumming:

[Brian]

As of today, I only have to wait two more weeks for the box set of "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" to be released.  That's the unboxing video posted on You Tube by The Kinks Official. The BMG label in the U.K. has been sending out e-mail blasts teasing some of the rarities.  And there's a new Kinks website:

thekinks.info/

[Brian]

"Time Song," a previously unreleased song from 1973, comes with the box set.

I didn't expect any new music to emerge from 1968 in the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set yet we got another backing track, "Egg Stained Pajamas," the working title of a song inspired by feeding his infant daughter that Ray Davies never finished for "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" album.  Kinks fans have been chasing lost classics from those sessions since Reprise Records started raiding the vaults in 1972, after the Kinks signed to RCA, and we were so richly rewarded with "The Kink Kronikles" and "The Great Lost Kinks Album."  Then Sanctuary Records gave us instrumentals titled "Mick Avory's Underpants" and "Spotty Grotty Anna" in the 35th anniversary edition of Village Green.

This "Time Song" is something else.  Why sit on a song this great for 45 years?  Ray recorded it for the Kinks' "Preservation Act I" but left it off the album because it didn't fit the grand theme of that  theatrical project.  He mixed it for the first time in 2018.

I got the box in the mail last week.  The first disc I played was the original stereo album to compare it to the 2004 remastered CD, and boy it sounds beautiful.  Technology may have saved the worst produced album in the Kinks' canon.  The real audiophile test will come when I hear the new heavyweight vinyl disc alongside the original 1968 pressing, but I need to hook up the turntable for that.

Don't know why it is that I can listen to multiple variations of a Kinks throwaway song like "Mr. Songbird" but I have no interest in hearing "Blackbird" again by the Beatles on their 50th anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set of the White Album.  Maybe I'll get around to buying that one, if I ever climb out of the Kinks' box with those five CD's.

[Brian]

Back in the spring of 2003, Dave Davies played the Alex Theatre in Glendale, of all places, to benefit Soroptimist International of the Verdugos, of all people -- and I missed it.  I didn't hear about the concert until it was over, but Angel Air Records in the U.K. put out a great live album.

Nearly 16 years later, Kinks songs will be performed again at the Alex, and at another benefit concert.  Thanks to Bill and Sharon, I learned about an evening with the Wild Honey Orchestra & Friends playing "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" album along with other Kinks songs from that era at 8 p.m. Saturday, February 23, 2019, to aid the Autism Think Tank.  From the e-mail Bill forwarded:

All of the album’s fifteen songs will be performed with exacting detail – every oboe, Mellotron, vintage acoustic twelve-string, harpsichord and cello will be represented by the real instruments – by musicians and vocalists dedicated to and in love with this music. The Wild Honey Orchestra players have backed up everyone from Brian Wilson to Arthur Lee, and have earned international respect for bringing tricky studio creations to the live stage.

Tickets went on sale to the general public on Monday. The link to the event's webpage on the Alex Theatre's site is below. Tip: You do not have to log in or create an account to buy tickets -- when the Sign On page comes up, click on "skip login and proceed to checkout."

www.alextheatre.org/event/wild-honey-orchestra-friends-play-the-kinks-village-green-autism-think-tank-benefit

[Sharon W]

I really hope you enjoy this show. We attended the past two years and both shows were excellent. They honored the Band in 2017, www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-wild-honey-the-band-autism-benefit-20170326-story.html

This year it was Buffalo Springfield:

We can't be in two places at the same time or we would join you. Another old favorite of ours, Bob Seeger, is playing the Forum so we're heading to Inglewood that night.

[Roberta]

I saw a little blurb in the L A Times and got tickets, I forget exactly when. I’m always glad to see something to my taste at the Alex!

[Jeanne]

I just got myself a ticket in Row F. I'm really looking forward to this. Think I'll dust off a few of my LP's and give them a spin.

[Brian]

Dec 11, 2018 0:00:09 GMT -8 Brian said:

...Kinks songs will be performed once again at the Alex Theatre in Glendale...I learned about an evening with the Wild Honey Orchestra & Friends playing "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" album along with other Kinks songs from that era at 8 p.m. Saturday, February 23, 2019, to aid the Autism Think Tank.

And what a wonderful evening that was, seven months ago.  Now, here's some evidence for those who weren't there.  Yesterday, Paul Rock posted this broadcast quality video on You Tube of the Wild Honey Orchestra featuring Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey and Millie McGuire singing "The Village Green Preservation Society," the show opener.



This thread began a year ago with the release of the super deluxe box set marking the 50th anniversary of the "Village Green" album. This year, a trimmer deluxe box set of 1969's "Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)" will be released on October 25.  I'll start a thread about "Arthur" in the Entertainment and the Arts section soon.

By the way, the compiler and engineer of both of those monumental anniversary re-masters -- Andrew Sandoval -- can be seen playing acoustic guitar in a few shots in that video above.

[Brian]

You Tube's algorithms know I'm a Kinks fan, so I was duly notified after "The Kinks:  Echoes of a World - The Story of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" was uploaded last week.  The 71-minute documentary, copyrighted by BMG in the U.K., was aired by American Public Television stations around the album's 50th anniversary in November 2018:



What a find!  The first 25 minutes covers the Kinks' career before 1968 with historical film and photos along with contemporary interviews of the surviving original band members -- Ray and Dave Davies, Mick Avory -- and some of the songwriters who were most influenced by them.  Natalie Merchant thinks that "Waterloo Sunset" is the best song ever recorded.  I do too.  Andy Partridge says that he's spent his entire life trying to write a song as good as "Autumn Almanac."  XTC's exquisite catalogue shows the results.  There were a couple of guys I don't recognize who were obviously born long after "Village Green" was released, but the album shaped their lives as well.  Then the documentary addresses each of the 15 songs with archival clips -- including previously unreleased footage of Ray and Dave's last public performance together in Konk Studios in 1994 -- and original paintings and drawings interpreting some of the songs rendered by Dave Davies, Natalie Merchant and others.  I was confused by the black and white sequences with a young man outdoors talking to the camera until I figured out that it was an actor playing Ray Davies, narrating the past.  A typical Ray conceit.

[anni]

Just finished watching "The Kinks Echoes of the World." Best documentary...EVER! Thanks for the link, Brian. WOW!