Albums I Love: The Village Green Preservation Society

While the influence of some bands will manifest immediately, spawning a surge of sound alikes attempting to saturate radio waves while the trend is still fresh, others may linger for years before fully coming to fruition. In this case, I am alluding to The Kinks and their 1968 album 'The Village Green Preservation Society'. And the hangover influence I refer to, thankfully, has nothing to do with Van Halen. By '68 the Kinks (led by songwriter Ray Davies) had dropped the straightforward riff heavy radio pop that gave the world "You Really Got Me", and moved into, although still distinctly pop, much more obscure territory. In fact the album failed to even chart on its release, a possible explanation why further forays into the material being mined here weren't truly picked up again until 23 years later in 1991 with the formation of the Elephant Six collective.

Now I, being somewhat of an Elephant Six enthusiast, don't want to trick any casual listeners into thinking that they have just discovered the predecessor to 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea'. Likewise, 'Village Green' does not go anywhere near the heavily psychedelic or ambient experimentation of The Olivia Tremor Control. To those who are looking for the parent of the quirky, concept based, sunny pop releases like Of Montreal's 'Cherry Peel' or 'Gay Parade', Elf Power's 'Dream In Sound', The Essex Green's 'Cannibal Sea', The Apple In Stereo's 'When The Red King Comes', or even, in not quite so lo-fi a fashion, The Music Tapes 'First Imaginary Symphony For Nomad', there is not a more quintessential record to point straight back to.

On 'Village Green' there is a consistent and heavy theme throughout which is solidified by the title: nostalgia. The theme is epitomized by the title track ("We are the office block persecution affinity/God save little shops, china cups and virginity.."), and then pounded home time and again on subsequent songs like "Do You Remember Walter?", "Picture Book", "The Last of The Steam Powered Trains", etc. Each paint a portrait, either of small town values, ideal heros, childhood, or family. Side two then begins with "Animal Farm", and the overarching statement "This world is big and wild and half insane..". From there the record becomes, well, quirky. Perhaps in an expression of how insane the world has become, songs characterize the destruction of the village green ("Village Green"), world-traveling-speaking-obese felines ("Phenomenal Cat"), and child-eating witches ("Wicked Annabella"), among other things. The album concludes with "People Take Pictures of Each Other", a brilliant satirical stab at how futile such grabs at nostalgia are. The past, ultimately, is stuck in those little snapshots. The song, in keeping with the album however, manages to make this ominous statement more in an expression of joy than hopelessness.

Nostalgia has always been at the heart of E6, but oftentimes passed off as a mere musical nostalgia. Close listens to "The Gay Parade" (an opus to the small town) or "First Imaginary Symphony For Nomad" (a zany sort of argument against television) show that the ties do in fact run deeper than this. If nothing else, the sheer childlike innocence exuded by so many of the early E6 records is nostalgic in itself. And like 'Village Green', the "sort-of concept album" is a staple within the collective. Albums tied together by loose messages (which while never didacticly pounded home, and never allowed to pull the music in a direction it would not otherwise be headed) are never so typified outside of the two examples portrayed here. And while the 60's was a time of experimentation, no one else at the time had the sheer unabashed quirkiness to put out the kind of lyrical insanity over such subdued, gentle backing tracks, as if it all were perfectly normal, as Ray Davies. Had this ever truly resurfaced until Elf Power and "Simon (the Bird With the Candy Bar Head)"? It had not. Perhaps the largest tie here, however, is simply that despite all of the concepts and quirk crowding such records, every track is unfailingly appealing and listenable. Consistently excellent pop material. Over top the odd instrumentation and lyrical content, this is still toe tapping sing along 60's rock. And frankly, as any E6'r already knows, its a lot of fun to be able to sink your teeth into something a little juicier than "Love Me Do" on occasion.

Essentially, this is what I'm saying: in 1968 a seed was planted, a seed called "The Village Green Preservation Society". Invisibly it grew for 20+ years, until the tree finally began to branch out in myriad directions, ultimately giving birth to the rightful followers it deserved (E6). Then Nickee Coco climbed the tree and fell asleep in it. Point being, if you picked up on that last sentence, you need to hear this record. Honestly, you owe it to the world to "help save fu manchu, moriarty and dracula", and you owe it to yourself to listen to The Kinks.

Best Tracks: "The Village Green Preservation Society", "Picture Book", "Big Sky"