Tag: Village Green Preservation Society

This is the last Kinks day. I’m going to finish up with one of my favorite Kinks songs. I want to thank everyone who wrote and everyone who read the posts! I thought I would be lucky to get 10-12 people to do this… so I was shocked with 18 Kinks songs. I’ll be listening to The Kinks for months now.  I did this song back in 2018 or 19 but I wanted to make sure it got covered during this Kinksathon so I revamped it.

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular.
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty, and Dracula.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity.
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.

Some songs can be written by anyone and some can be very popular but generic. Some can only be written by certain songwriters. This would be one of those songs. Ray Davies’s songs have their own DNA. This was on the great 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The album is a concept album reflecting on the loss of the old England that Ray remembered, he captures older village life, tradition, and the impact of the rapid changes happening in British society during the 1960s.

One thing that makes this song and many Kinks songs stand out is  Dave Davies…I’m not talking about his highly underrated guitar playing. It’s his high-pitched harmony singing with Ray that compliments the songs so well. Without Dave’s voice, the Kinks would not sound like The Kinks.

This nostalgic song is a favorite of mine. This is a big jump from You Really Got Me to…”We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular, God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty, and Dracula.”

I learned a lot about older British Culture with this song. Desperate Dan, Mrs. Mopp, and Mother Riley… he fits the words like a jigsaw puzzle that magically falls into place. There are no forced lyrics and with these lyrics…that is not easy. This song to me, is up there with their best songs.

Ray Davis: “The people in it are all characters I liked as a kid or people my family could relate to, like Old Mother Riley and Mrs Mopp. Because I used to love listening to the BBC Light Programme on Sundays, like Round The Horne with Kenneth Williams. A time when the population was allowed to be trivial.”

Ray Davies: “You have to remember that North London was my village green, my version of the countryside. The street and district I grew up in was called Fortis Green, and then there was Waterlow Park and the little lake. I sang in the choir at St James’s Primary School until I was about 10, then I trained myself to sing out of tune so I could hang around with a gang called the Crooners instead. Our Scottish singing teacher Mrs. Lewis said, ‘Never mind, Davies – I hear crooners are making a lot of money these days.'”

Pete Townshend: “The Kinks were much more quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should be one day, be Poet Laureate. You know, he invented a new kind of poetry. A new kind of language for Pop writing, which I think, influenced me from the very, very beginning. (It was) very strange that I should be so directly influenced because it was from sideways. We were moving forward together. But I was very influenced by him.”

“I think that Dave Davies is also very underestimated. When we started, I used to feel that. Well, it’s obvious that Dave couldn’t have done the kind of innovation that I did. Because I was with Jim Marshall building the bloody amplifiers. Somehow The Kinks adopted some of that as well. They didn’t actually use the Marshall-size amps that we used. But they were loud, they were raucous. The guitar sound was similar, there was feedback there.”

I added a live version which for me is superior to the studio cut but that is just me. This is a rare time when I liked the live over the studio. I heard this live version before the studio recording. The horns add a lot to this song.

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society.   Amen, Ray…

Village Green Preservation Society

We are the Village Green Preservation Society.
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety.
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society.
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society.
God save Mrs. Mopp and good old Mother Riley.
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium.
God save the George Cross, and all those who were awarded them.

Oooh…

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular.
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity.
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliates.
God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards.

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Village Green Preservation Society.
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety.
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society.
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.

God save the village green!