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The Village Green Preservation Society
 
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The Village Green Preservation Society [Deluxe Edition, Box set]

The Kinks | Format: Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: £13.57 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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The Kinks were formed by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in their hometown of Muswell Hill, North London. The brothers began playing skiffle and rock and roll, recruiting Peter Quaife to play bass with them. By the summer of 1963, as The Ravens, they'd recruited drummer Mickey Willet. Eventually their demo tape reached American record producer Shel Talmy who helped the band land a contract with Pye… Read more in Amazon's The Kinks Store

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Frequently Bought Together

The Village Green Preservation Society + Something Else (Deluxe Edition) + Arthur (Deluxe Edition)
Price For All Three: £37.25

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Product details

  • Audio CD (15 Jun 2009)
  • Number of Discs: 3
  • Format: Deluxe Edition, Box set
  • Label: Sanctuary
  • ASIN: B00280J1HI
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,802 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


Disc 1:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. The Village Green Preservation Society (Stereo Version) 2:48£0.89
Listen  2. Do You Remember Walter (Stereo Version) 2:25£0.89
Listen  3. Picture Book (Stereo Version) 2:36£0.89
Listen  4. Johnny Thunder (Stereo Version) 2:30£0.89
Listen  5. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains (Stereo Version) 4:10£0.89
Listen  6. Big Sky (Stereo Version) 2:49£0.89
Listen  7. Sitting By The Riverside (Stereo Version) 2:21£0.89
Listen  8. Animal Farm (Stereo Version) 2:59£0.89
Listen  9. Village Green (Stereo Version) 2:08£0.89
Listen10. Starstruck (Stereo Version) 2:20£0.89
Listen11. Phenomenal Cat (Stereo Version) 2:37£0.89
Listen12. All Of My Friends Were There (Stereo Version) 2:24£0.89
Listen13. Wicked Annabella (Stereo Version) 2:41£0.89
Listen14. Monica (Stereo Version) 2:15£0.89
Listen15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other (Stereo Version) 2:12£0.89
Listen16. Mr. Songbird (Bonus Track: Stereo Version) 2:24£0.89
Listen17. Days (Bonus Track: Stereo Version) 2:52£0.89
Listen18. Do You Remember Walter (Bonus Track: Original Stereo Mix from 12-Track Edition) 2:24£0.89
Listen19. People Take Pictures Of Each Other (Bonus Track: Original Stereo Mix from 12-Track Edition) 2:24£0.89


Disc 2:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. The Village Green Preservation Society (Mono Version) 2:52£0.89
Listen  2. Do You Remember Walter (Mono Version) 2:27£0.89
Listen  3. Picture Book (Mono Version) 2:35£0.89
Listen  4. Johnny Thunder (Mono Version) 2:30£0.89
Listen  5. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains (Mono Version) 4:10£0.89
Listen  6. Big Sky (Mono Version) 2:50£0.89
Listen  7. Sitting By The Riverside (Mono Version) 2:22£0.89
Listen  8. Animal Farm (Mono Version) 3:00£0.89
Listen  9. Village Green (Mono Version) 2:10£0.89
Listen10. Starstruck (Mono Version) 2:26£0.89
Listen11. Phenomenal Cat (Mono Version) 2:38£0.89
Listen12. All Of My Friends Were There (Mono Version) 2:24£0.89
Listen13. Wicked Annabella (Mono Version) 2:42£0.89
Listen14. Monica (Mono Version) 2:19£0.89
Listen15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other (Mono Version) 2:17£0.89
Listen16. Days (Bonus Track: Mono Version) 2:55£0.89
Listen17. Mr. Songbird (Bonus Track: Mono Version) 2:25£0.89
Listen18. Polly (Bonus Track: Mono Version) 2:49£0.89
Listen19. Wonderboy (Bonus Track: Mono Version) 2:48£0.89
Listen20. Berkeley Mews (Bonus Track: Mono Version) 2:36£0.89
Listen21. Village Green (Bonus Track: No Strings Version) 2:12£0.89


Disc 3:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Village Green (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Orchestra Overdub) 2:20£0.89
Listen  2. Misty Water (Bonus Track: Stereo Version) 3:03£0.89
Listen  3. Berkeley Mews (Bonus Track: Stereo Version) 2:37£0.89
Listen  4. Easy Come, There You Went 2:23£0.89
Listen  5. Polly (Bonus Track: Stereo Version) 2:49£0.89
Listen  6. Animal Farm (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Alternate Stereo Mix) 3:00£0.89
Listen  7. Phenomenal Cat (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Mono Instrumental) 2:49£0.89
Listen  8. Johnny Thunder (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Stereo Remix) 2:34£0.89
Listen  9. Did You See His Name 1:57£0.89
Listen10. Mick Avory's Underpants 2:17£0.89
Listen11. Lavender Hill 2:56£0.89
Listen12. Rosemary Rose 1:44£0.89
Listen13. Wonderboy (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Stereo Version) 2:42£0.89
Listen14. Spotty Grotty Anna 2:04£0.89
Listen15. Where Did My Spring Go 2:09£0.89
Listen16. Groovy Movies 2:32£0.89
Listen17. Creeping Jean 3:10£0.89
Listen18. King Kong 3:23£0.89
Listen19. Misty Water (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased Mono Version) 3:09£0.89
Listen20. Do You Remember Walter (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased) 2:17£0.89
Listen21. Animal Farm (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased) 2:56£0.89
Listen22. Days (Bonus Track: Previously Unreleased) 3:02£0.89

Product Description

BBC Review

In 1968 The Kinks released The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, an album curiously closer in spirit to that year's new sitcom hit, Dad's Army, than to the more familiar rock 'n' roll preoccupations of the day. While his contemporaries were revolting in style or getting mystic, Ray Davies spent much of the summer putting together a concept album steeped in nostalgia for an 'Olde England' of corner shops, custard pies and steam trains; an album which seemed to draw as much on the prewar music-hall of Max Miller as it did the blues. While the rock mainstream embraced Satanism and free love, Davies sang about preserving virginity and Sunday School. The Kinks' latest heroes were, apparently, Desperate Dan and Mrs Mopp, rather than Abraham, Martin or John. It was seriously out of step with prevailing trends.

And it wasn't only the subject matter: with hard-rock bands like Led Zeppelin poised on the horizon, it simply sounded too whimsical. Its potential success was not helped by the injunction which prevented The Kinks from touring the US between 1965 and 1969, essentially isolating them from rock's biggest market. Despite their position as one of the founding-fathers of mid-Sixties British pop/rock, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society flopped big-time.

But over the years, it has undergone something of a reassessment. For manyit's now justly considered Davies' most satisfying album: a creative highpoint matched only by the band's landmark singles of the period. Only Davies would care that Britain's last main-line steam train finally reached the buffers that year and write an instant retro song like ''Last of the Steam-Powered Trains'', a sort of British Rail ''Smokestack Lightnin'''. Only Davies would bother to think about why people take photographs of each other ('To prove that they really existed', of course!) and write ''People Take Pictures''. But it's not all wistfully genteel: the childlike ''Phenomenal Cat'' is a nod towards psychedelia and there are some sterling Dave Davies riffs in ''Wicked Arabella'' and ''Johnny Thunder''. It's as English as billiards, but with more balls.

Village Green Preservation Society now comes as an expanded 3-disc package. The first disc is taken from the stereo masters. It also includes additional stereo mixes of ''Mr Songbird'', ''Do You Remember Walter'' and the attendant single, ''Days'', not part of the original album, but a welcome addition here. Village Green had a tortuous history from recording to release - all brilliantly explained in the extensive sleeve notes and the book of the album (published by Continuum), both by Kinks scholar Andy Miller. The original album released in November 1968 was a 15-track mono version, which now comprises disc 2 of the current reissue. Apart from the inclusion of the single mix of ''Wonderboy'', it's fairly dispensable, though, unless you have an urge to hear the sound squeezed like toothpaste into one channel.

The third disc is the real gem, covering contemporaneous outtakes and rarities, most previously unavailable on CD. ''Lavender Hill'' was once considered as a follow up to ''Waterloo Sunset ''and there is the stately ''Berkeley Mews'' and an instrumental version of the title track. It concludes with some excellent Beeb material omitted from the BBC Sessions 1964-1977 roundup: yet another version of ''Do You Remember Walter'' (a persistent question, arising for the fourth time in this reissue) and the big-Kink sound of ''Animal Farm''.

If you don't know the Kinks albums, or you only have a Best Of, pop down to the corner shop for a custard pie and take a trip to a part of the 60s you may not have visited before. Welcome to the Village Green. --Rob Webb

Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window

Product Description

3CD 2009 reissue in deluxe packaging fts both mono & stereo mixes + bonus cd of rarities & extensive liner notes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Although Village Green Preservation Society was a commercial failure when originally released its reputation has burgeoned over the years. This reputation is well-founded. The songwriting is of a consistently high standard and the band is playing at its best.

At the time, Ray Davies was just short of enough material for a great double album. The first 12-track single album was hastily withdrawn amidst arguments about the best way ahead, to be replaced by the better known 15-track version. Five songs were added by the change and two songs removed: Days (which had become a successful single) and Mr Songbird. The confusion resulted in a botched publicity programme and, when eventually released into the new world of hard rock and revulutionary student politics, the album's unifying theme of memories about people and place had become deeply unfashionable.

Thus, despite its earlier obscurity, Village Green Preservation Society is a first class slice of British pop/rock. The main question is whether you should buy this 3-CD "deluxe" version or go with the single CD, saving £5 or so. The following notes might help you choose.

In the CD age, the fashion for bonus tracks has resulted in versions of the album that include all 17 of the original tracks. However, if you look at the current single CD version you find Days and Mr Songbird buried amongst alternate versions of songs repeated from earlier in the track listing. In contrast, on the stereo version that comprises the first CD in this 3-CD, the long-standing 15 track album is followed immediately by Mr Songbird and Days, the latter finally taking its rightful place at the end of the "full" album. "Thank you for the days....."

CD number 2 is a mono version of the 17 tracks in the same running order, with some good near contemporary songs as a bonus. My own view is that is too little difference between the mono and stero versions for the 2nd CD to offer much value, but doubtless there are some completists who would beg to differ. However, since the current single CD version mixes stereo and mono tracks, either one of the first two CDs in this "deluxe" version is likely to sound more consistent.

The 3rd CD contains a number of rarities recorded from the same period. The best of these is Misty Waters, which would have readily slotted into Village Green's concept. Others such as Lavender Hill and Rosemary Rose might have helped transform it into a classic double album. Inevitably the third CD also contains quite a lot of forgettable stuff including the instrumentals such as "Mick Avory's Underpants" - personally I would be about as willing wear Mick Avory's underpants than listen to it again. But all things considered, the CD-3 is a clinching argument for spending the extra few quid compared to the single CD alternative.
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preserved 2 Nov 2011
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Did own the single disk. Now upgraded to this 3-disc edition. Lots of extra stuff here especially disc three is worth the deal,for a very reasonable price. Very nice deluxe packaging. Will buy more Kinks deluxe editions when their price reaches the same level as this one
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9 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By mjf
Format:Audio CD
This 3 CD version of the Kinks brilliant 1968 album gathers together the mono & stereo versions of the original UK LP`s beautifully remastered with a third CD of rare & unreleased gems! Stunning value for money too.
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