Wrong track listing
Rock Master | Los Angeles, CA USA | 12/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I just wanted to mention, if it's helpful, that as of Dec 4 2009, Amazon has the wrong track listing posted for this release. Here is the correct track listing:
1. The Village Green Preservation Society
2. Do You Remember Walter?
3. Picture Book
4. Johnny Thunder
5. Last of the Steam Powered Trains
6. Big Sky
7. Sitting by the Riverside
8. Animal Farm
9. Village Green
10. Starstruck
11. Phenomenal Cat
12. All of My Friends Were There
13. Wicked Annabella
14. Monica
15. People Take Pictures of Each Other
And for the record, I love this record."
Classic
Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 11/25/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Something Else by the Kinks was Ray Davies showing the full range of his abilities, this album shows his mastery at focusing on one concept.
Village Green Preservation Society is about the the English contryside. There is Ray, wanting to save draft beer and vaudville, but he is also disillusioned with his old mate, Walter. The cast also includes a bad little girl, Monica, and a whitch--or at least people thought--Anabella.
This album could be about any small town back in 1968, especially in England, where post war reconstruction and modernazation were reletively new. Everything was local, especially outside London.
The music is diverse, and the concept is never sentimental or quaint, although it could have become so in hands of a lesser composer. "Perserving the old ways from being abused, protecting the new ways, for me and for you."
These were the days of LSD, Hippies, Hendrix at the Maurqee. But some parts of the backcountry did not have indoor toilets yet. This album embraces both.
The concept is unique and risky for an era of revolution and electric hippie blues. It is also beautiful and brillant.
"