{"id":43554,"date":"2018-12-10T20:08:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T20:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=43554"},"modified":"2018-12-13T09:27:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T09:27:51","slug":"stir-of-echoes-the-kinks-are-the-village-green-preservation-society-evokes-an-arcadian-vision-of-a-vanishing-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/12\/stir-of-echoes-the-kinks-are-the-village-green-preservation-society-evokes-an-arcadian-vision-of-a-vanishing-england\/","title":{"rendered":"STIR OF ECHOES – ‘The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society’ Evokes An Arcadian Vision Of A Vanishing England"},"content":{"rendered":"

One the few bright spots In an Autumn dominated by knife crime, lousy weather and the endless, wearying, machinations of Brexit, was the news that The Kinks <\/strong>had finally gone gold<\/a><\/span> with The\u00a0Village Green Preservation Society.<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

With customary alacrity, it\u2019s taken this Sceptred Isle a mere 50 years to fully appreciate an album that, perhaps more than any other, celebrates and venerates what it means to be English.<\/h4>\n

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Released at a time when mind expanding drugs like LSD were encouraging musicians\u00a0to look outward to universal themes, with typical perversity The Kinks turned inward, focussing on the minutiae of the everyday.<\/p>\n

Ray Davies<\/strong>, arguably the finest songwriter Britain has ever produced, moved on from the American music that had originally inspired him and looked behind the facade of so called \u2018Swinging London\u2019.<\/p>\n

With a warmth and wry wit, Ray crystallised Englishness in all its absurd, eccentric, prosaic glory \u2013 football, church, Sunday roasts and comic books \u2013 without ever appearing sneering or judgmental.<\/p>\n

His poetry finds beauty in the mundane and commonplace, memories of old friends and childhood heroes, days out in the country and adolescent longing.<\/p>\n

Swapping R&B for music hall, the music is equally evocative of the characters and neighbourhoods that populate the songs on what many critics regard as The Kinks\u2019 most complete album.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the key selling points of the 50th<\/sup> anniversary box set is previously unreleased \u2018new\u2019 track Time Song<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Clearly included with half an eye on the completists, it\u2019s a slight but clever piece.<\/p>\n

The song highlights time\u2019s ability to heal, but cautions that it\u2019s always running out and gone before you know it, leaving the dreams of youth in the wake of its passing tide.<\/p>\n

Like all of the band’s best work, it\u2019s inclusive, The Kinks are part of this world, not just commentating on it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re just as flawed as the rest of us, making the same mistakes and telling the same lies.<\/p>\n

Ironically, given the febrile times in which we live, it was performed at a concert at London\u2019s Drury Lane in 1973 to celebrate Britain\u2019s entry into the Common Market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to use the song as a warning that time was running out for the old British Empire.\u2019 Ray says. \u2018Oddly enough, the song seems quite poignant and appropriate to release at this time in British history, and like Europe itself the track is a rough mix which still has to be finessed.\u201d<\/p>\n