The Village Green Appreciation Society

We are the Village Green Preservation Society,

God save little shops, china cups, and virginity

Although it sold poorly at the time, The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society is now seen as one of the major album releases of the 1960s. Pete Townshend of the Who described the album as Ray Davies' masterpiece, his Sergeant Pepper. Davies himself called the album "pop's best-kept secret." 

Davies was less interested in making a commercial, radio-friendly album but was looking for something more creative.  In many ways, the album was the complete opposite of the more aggressive, experimental music that was being produced by the Kinks' contemporaries including the Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. This could almost be described as a folk music album with its tuneful descriptions of real "Englishness."  Dave Davies recalled in his autobiography; 'While other songwriters were metaphorically tearing up the 'old' in favour of the 'new', the Kinks were trying to point a way to a future where the good from the past could be interwoven with the new and the radical.'

Recorded between November 1966 and August 1968, the album's release was delayed initially as Ray Davies wanted to add some more songs to build on the theme. The bluesy feel of "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is the closest the album comes to rock & roll, and Dave Davies' cameo on the menacing "Wicked Annabella" comes as surprise, since the album is so relaxed. It was an album which was out of step with the time, but ironically it was also ahead of its time in its preoccupation with the past which was being replaced by concrete office blocks, high rise flats and motorways.  According to Dave Davies 'The feelings expressed in the song 'Village Green Preservation Society' were like voices calling out of the darkness'.

Its lack of success may also been caused by the lack of a major hit single.  It includes many outstanding songs nevertheless including the title track, Village Green and Starstuck.