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The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1968. It was the last album by the original quartet, as bassist Pete Quaife left the group in early 1969. A collection of thematic vignettes of English town and hamlet life, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society was assembled from songs written and recorded over the previous two years.[1] Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Village Green as a "concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions."[1]

The record is widely considered one of the most influential and important works by The Kinks, and of the period as a whole. Although it failed to chart in any country upon release (combined US sales of the album and it's predecessor, Something Else, were estimated at only 25,000 copies), The Village Green Preservation Society has become one of the band's best selling and most popular records.[2][1]

Background

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1966: Face To Face and the genesis of Village Green

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1967: Something Else and Village Green's development

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The first activity towards the The Village Green Preservation Society was the recording of the song "Village Green" during the sessions for the Kinks' 1967 LP Something Else.[3] Inspired by a trip taken by lead vocalist and songwriter Ray Davies to rural Devon, the song served as a catalyst for The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, and Davies began collecting ideas for a thematic album revolving around the village green concept (inspiration for some of the songs on Village Green were derived from several events throughout 1967. One instance, a July gig in Colchester with The Small Faces—for which Ray had to go onstage despite being ill—caused Davies to pen "All Of My Friends Were There").[4] "Village Green" was first committed to tape in November 1966, and would later appear in a re-recorded form on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The band's interest in the project began to grow in mid 1967,[4] and Ray, during a visit to Graham Nash's house in May, discovered the Mellotron, a tape-operated precursor to the synthesizer that he would begin using heavily in sessions throughout the next year.[5] In a June press release promoting lead guitarist Dave Davies' first solo single, "Death of a Clown", it was revealed that a Ray Davies solo LP was scheduled for release in September. This probably referred to Ray's plans for a record of songs centering around a London theme, in the style of "Waterloo Sunset" (an idea which would not take hold), or the Village Green concept itself.[4] The Kinks spent the better part of July finishing Something Else, and went on a short hiatus after the LP's was completed.[4] "Autumn Almanac" was chosen as a single to promote the album, and was released on 13 October, peaking at number five in the charts on 9 November.[6] The Kinks exited 1967 with the release of a second solo single by Dave, "Susannah's Still Alive". Despite reviews in New Musical Express and Melody Maker proclaiming it as even more likely hit-material than "Death of A Clown", the single narrowly missed the Top 10 and sold a modest 59,000 copies. Writer Andy Miller later commented that "By the end the year, The Kinks were rapidly sliding out of fashion."[7]

Recording

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The sessions for Village Green were born out of a rough period for the group. In early 1968, a combination of legal and family issues slowed Ray Davies' songwriting output, and the song "Wonderboy", released in April, was a chart failure, becoming the first Kinks single to not enter the NME Top 30.[4] Davies, determined to restore the Kinks' dwindling success, pulled the group together to begin sessions for Village Green in May.[4] The first songs recorded included "Misty Water" (an outtake), "Picture Book", and "Days", intended for the group's next single release.[4] After laying down rough versions of the tracks, the group departed for a short tour of the Netherlands on 18 and 19 May.[4] After returning, the group headed straight for the studio to continue work on "Days".[8] On 27 May a new song was recorded, "Pictures In The Sand", and "Days" was revised. The final version of the song was released on 28 June, backed with an outtake from 1966, "She's Got Everything", used due to a lack of new recorded material.[8] The single proved successful, and quickly climbed to number 10 on the charts.[9] Shortly after its release, Dave Davies revealed the title and subject matter of the upcoming LP, stating that it will be called Village Green, and will revolve around a town and its people. He added that it was "the best thing we've ever done."[8]

In early August, the band focused on completing the LP, tentatively titled Village Green.[8] The last track was completed on 12 August, "Village Green Preservation Society", and tapes were delivered to Pye. A release date was scheduled for 27 September.[10] Ray Davies, however, was frustrated with how the record had turned out, and asked the label to postpone the album's release to rework and add new material to it.[8] This decision came so late that Pye had already shipped tapes to some for its foreign subsidiaries, and the twelve-track incarnation of the record was released in France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand—these copies have since become extremely rare and collectible.[10] Ray Davies began negotiating with Pye to expand Village Green into a double album, but Pye refused. A compromise was eventually reached—Davies was allowed to resequence a fifteen-track edition of the album within a single disc.[10] Davies agreed to this, and the band returned to the studio to lay down two more tracks: "Big Sky" and "Last of The Steam Powered Trains".[10] Writer Andy Miller commented on these changes:

"Davies was a perfectionist, and by this stage his perfectionism was verging on the neurotic, indulged by a management and record company who hoped The Kinks' main man would soon recapture his hit making form. In a sense, he was also reluctant to finish the project, describing it as "a pet dream". The album was already highly personal; now it represented ... a decisive break in 'the hit machine'."[11]

By October, mixing was complete for the expanded 15-track album, renamed The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.[8] After several other re-arrangements, Davies was finally pleased with the outcome, and delivered the master tapes to Pye. The album was released on 22 November.[12]

Themes

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Ray Davies crafted the concept album as a homage to English hamlet and country life and culture.

 
"Picture Book"
The theme of nostalgia established in the opening track of the album, "The Village Green Preservation Society", continues through "Picture Book", which prominently features percussion.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
 
A village green, a communal open-air green park space usually located in a village or rural setting, used for relaxation and recreation (sports such as Cricket are common on the green); a meeting place for the people of a village during times of celebration or public ceremonies.

The album theme was inspired by a track recorded by the band in November 1966, "Village Green", which was inspired by the Kinks' performances in rustic Devon, England in late 1966 (Davies has also stated that Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood was an indirect inspiration for the concept). This song neatly sums up the album's broad theme: "I miss the village green, and all the simple people..." In addition to nostalgia, the album's songs touch on a wide range of emotions and experiences, from lost friends ("Do You Remember Walter"), memories ("People Take Pictures of Each Other", "Picture Book"), bucolic escape ("Animal Farm"), social marginalization ("Johnny Thunder", "Wicked Annabella"), public embarrassment ("All of My Friends Were There"), childlike fantasy ("Phenomenal Cat"), straying from home ("Starstruck") and stoical acceptance of life ("Big Sky", "Sitting By the Riverside"). Davies did not compose many of the songs to fit the predetermined theme of the album, rather their commonality developed naturally from his nostalgic songwriting interests at the time. The title track, one of the last written and recorded (in August 1968), effectively unifies the songs through an appeal to preserve a litany of sentimental objects, experiences, and fictional characters from progress and modern indifference: "God save little shops, china cups, and virginity". This last lyric inspired the slogan, "God save the Kinks" which was used in the US promotion for the album, and was associated with the band through the 1970s.[13]

Songs

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Side one

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"The Village Green Preservation Society"

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Main article: The Village Green Preservation Society (song)

The album opener and title track was one of the last songs recorded during the Village Green sessions. Ray Davies wrote the song while at a creative sticking point, as he struggled to find a title for the upcoming Kinks album. Davies recalled to Brian Matthew of Saturday Club in November 1968: "I was looking for a title ... and somebody said that one of the things The Kinks have been doing for the last three years is preserving."[14] The suggestion prompted Davies' choice in the album's title, and also inspired the song "The Village Green Preservation Society", which Davies described as the record's "national anthem".[14] The tune is based around four strummed chords,[15] and the lyrics revolve around objects of old Britain ("We are the Village Green Preservation Society/God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety ... God save little shops, china cups and virginity"). In an interview with Jon Savage,[16] Davies commented on his writing style in the song. "A lot of people accuse me of being fascist—traditional, you know? But it's not. It's a warm feeling, like a fantasy world I can retreat to."[16] Robert Christgau pointed out in his review of The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society: "Does Davies really want to preserve virginity? Presumably not. But the fictional form allows him to remain ambivalent."[16]

"Do You Remember Walter?"

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Main article: Do You Remember Walter?

The song "Do You Remember Walter?", the second off the album, was inspired by a childhood friend of Ray Davies. "Walter was a friend of mine, we used to play football together every Saturday ... Then I met him again after about five years and we found out we didn't have anything to talk about" Davies commented shortly before The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society's release.[17] Davies used the feeling awkwardness as the basis for the song. Andy Miller profiled the song: "Against the measured pounding of the piano and bass ... Davies sings with passionate restraint, his vocal track cleverly enhanced by some occasional double-tracking and a hazy Mellotron line that shadows the melody."[18]

"Do You Remember Walter?" was recorded on 15 July, along with "Wicked Annabella", "Starstruck", and "People Take Pictures of Each Other". The songs were hastily mixed in August for the 12-track release of Village Green, and they would eventually be remixed for the final cut of the album.[9] The mono version of "Do You Remember Walter?" features Dave Davies' guitar raised in the mix, the Mellotron lowered, and no usage of tambourines.[18]

"Picture Book"

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Main article: Picture Book (song)

"Picture Book", after "The Village Green Preservation Society" and "Do You Remember Walter?", rounds out what Miller calls "the opening triumvirate that introduces the major themes and images of the LP."[19] Described by Ray Davies as a "paper hat, kiss me quick"[20] song, "Picture Book" exhibits strong themes of nostalgia.[21] The track was first recorded in early May 1968, during a session that also yielded "Misty Water" and a scrapped version of "Days".[22] Davies was frustrated with how the song had turned out, and it took several takes before he was pleased with the outcome. The released version utilised a "bottom-heavy" mix, which "emphasizes Mick Avory's cleverly sloppy drums and a Pete Quaife bass run that doubles Davies' rhythm guitar part for the song's primary hook," according to Stewart Mason.[21] After the song's completion, it was released as the b-side to several singles—"Starstruck" in Sweden, Norway, and the US, and "The Village Green Preservation Society" in Denmark.[23] After several decades in obscurity, the song suddenly became one of The Kinks' best-known songs when it was featured in a popular Hewlett-Packard television commercial.[21]

"Johnny Thunder"

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Main article: Johnny Thunder (song)

Ray Davies said that "Johnny Thunder" was "about a rocker ... I wrote it after Wild One [sic] was released."[24] The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and starring Marlon Brando. The film, initially banned in the UK, received its first official release in 1968, and was an influence on Davies' crafting of "Johnny Thunder"; Brando's character himself, leader of a motorcycle club, is named Johnny, "and it may be Brando that Davies had in mind as his model for Johnny Thunder,"[25] according to Miller. Dave Davies told Disc and Music Echo that "He's the local hound—a real swine ... but he's inside at the moment!"[25]

"Last of the Steam Powered Trains"

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Main article: Last of the Steam Powered Trains

Miller estimates that the bluesy number "Last of the Steam Powered Trains" was the final song composed by Davies for The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.[26] The longest track on the album, a connection is often drawn between "Last of the Steam Powered Trains" and Chicago blues musician Howlin' Wolf's 1956[27] standard Smokestack Lightning, with which it shares the key of E major and a similar riff.[2] The BBC's Rob Webb said of the two songs: "Only Davies would care that Britain's last main-line steam train finally reached the buffers that year [1968] and write an instant retro song like 'Last of the Steam-Powered Trains', a sort of British Rail 'Smokestack Lightnin''."[28] Re-released in 1964, "Smokestack" became a minor hit in Britain and an important part of the early Kinks' (and many other R&B groups such as The Yardbirds') live set during the period.[29] Miller: "basing ... [the song] on an instantly recognisable riff from four or five years earlier ['Lightning''s 1964 reissue] ... There are jokes and allusions to 'Smokestack Lightnin'' ... scattered throughout the song".[2]

"Big Sky"

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Main article: Big Sky (song)

"Sitting by the Riverside"

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Main article: "Sitting by the Riverside"

Outtakes

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As the sessions for The Village Green Preservation Society spanned almost a two year period, Ray Davies drew from a large pool of tracks for the final fifteen-track release of the album.

Aftermath

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Marketing and sales

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Upon its release in the UK, Pye Records failed to promote The Village Green Preservation Society properly, and few trade advertisements were posted in magazines. Reviews appeared in Melody Maker and New Musical Express,[30] and small notices eventually appeared in newspapers on the day of release, but these efforts failed to boost the record's sales.[31] Several popular albums released at the same time also overshadowed it. Most of the competition came from big sellers like Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, released in October, and The Beatles' White Album, released on 22 November, the same day as Village Green.[31] The Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet, released in December, also dominated the Christmas market. Another contributing factor to the album's commercial failure was the lack of a popular single being included, namely "Days", which was removed by Ray Davies from the track listing at the last moment.[32]

The Village Green Preservation Society failed to chart, selling only 100,000 copies worldwide, a small amount for the time. Combined US sales of the album and it's predecessor, Something Else, were estimated at only 25,000 copies. In 1980, Creem magazine's John Kordosh, after consulting with Reprise Records, reported that the company had shipped only 38,000 units to date.[33] Village Green experienced a revival in the CD age, and the album has gone on to sell more copies than any other original Kinks album to date.[34]

Four More Respected Gentlemen

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While the long-delayed recording for The Village Green Preservation Society was underway, Reprise Records, the group's American label, began to grow impatient, and in June 1968 demanded a Kinks LP of new material from Ray Davies. Under pressure, Davies acquiesced, and submitted the tapes for a fifteen-track mixture of past singles and outtakes and album tracks from the current Village Green sessions. The original track listing as submitted consisted of "She's Got Everything", "Monica", "Mr. Songbird", "Johnny Thunder", "Polly", "Days", "Animal Farm", "Berkeley Mews", "Picture Book", "Phenomenal Cat", "Misty Water", "Did You See His Name", "Autumn Almanac", "Susannah's Still Alive", and "There is No Life Without Love". Reprise decided to cut the last four tracks from the listing, reducing it to an eleven-track LP.

Critical Response

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Upon its release, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society was greeted with almost unanimously positive reviews from both UK and US rock critics, but at the time the album failed to sell strongly, with an estimated 100,000 copies sold worldwide.[2][1] Despite this, the album has become The Kinks' best selling original record.[2] The album's deliberately understated production contrasted with the extravagant style then in vogue, and it did not have a popular single ("Starstruck" was released in North America and continental Europe, but failed to chart anywhere but the Netherlands).[1] Although it was commercially unsuccessful, Village Green, upon its US release in January 1969, was embraced by the new underground rock press, particularly in the United States, where The Kinks' status as a cult band began to grow.[35] In The Village Voice a newly-hired Robert Christgau called it "the best album of the year so far",[35] and Circus magazine ran an article under the heading "Kinks—Unhip But Original", which stated: "The Kinks are backdated, cut off from the mainstream of pop progression. Just the same they're originals and now have a fine new album out."[35] In Boston's underground paper Fusion, a review was released stating "The Kinks continue, despite the odds, the bad press and their demonstrated lot, to come across ... Their persistence is dignified, their virtues are stoic. The Kinks are forever, only for now in modern dress."[35] Paul Williams in Rolling Stone wrote a review that heaped praise on Village Green, saying "I've played [Village Green] twice since it arrived here this afternoon, and already the songs are slipping into my mind, each new hearing is a combined joy of renewal and discovery."[35][36] The record was not without criticism, however. In the student paper California Tech, one writer commented that it was "schmaltz rock ... without imagination, poorly arranged, and a poor copy of the Beatles."[35]

The LP went virtually unnoticed in the UK, receiving only a single review in Disc. The nameless reviewer commented that "[Davies has managed to bypass] everything psychedelic and electronic ... The Kinks may not be on the crest of the pop wave at these days, but Ray Davies will remain on of our finest composers for many years."[37]

Legacy

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Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the LP thus: "there are endless layers of musical and lyrical innovation on The Village Green Preservation Society, and its defiantly British sensibilities became the foundation of generations of British guitar pop."[1]

Accolades

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The record soon achieved a cult following, and remains popular today. Davies' timing with the album's nostalgic concept proved to be just out of step in the cultural turmoil of 1968, but it soon gained a much greater mainstream appeal. In 2003, the album was ranked number 255 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Sequels and follow-ups

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From its inception, Davies considered the album for stage presentation and its general theme served to inspire the Kinks' more ambitious, but less popular, two-part theatrical work Preservation in 1972–1974. In his biography X-Ray, Davies would refer to the three albums as his "Preservation trilogy," confirming that Preservation is directly related to Village Green Preservation Society.

Track listing

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All songs by Ray Davies.

UK and U.S. version

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Side one

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  1. "The Village Green Preservation Society" – 2:45
  2. "Do You Remember Walter?" – 2:23
  3. "Picture Book" – 2:34
  4. "Johnny Thunder" – 2:28
  5. "Last of the Steam-powered Trains" – 4:03
  6. "Big Sky" – 2:49
  7. "Sitting by the Riverside" – 2:21

Side two

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  1. "Animal Farm" – 2:57
  2. "Village Green" – 2:08
  3. "Starstruck" – 2:18
  4. "Phenomenal Cat" ("Phenominal" on the LP sleeve) – 2:34
  5. "All of My Friends Were There" – 2:23
  6. "Wicked Annabella" – 2:40
  7. "Monica" – 2:13
  8. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" – 2:10

Song and album notes

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In late summer of 1968, the Kinks had hoped to release the album as a two-record set with 20 tracks, but Pye Records rejected this plan. A twelve-track version of the album was released in September 1968 throughout certain European markets; these are now valuable collector's items. Production of this version was quickly halted at Ray Davies's insistence and the final revamped fifteen-track version was released in the UK in November 1968.

U.S. record label Reprise had intended to release many of album's tracks on a separate Kinks album titled Four More Respected Gentlemen sometime in mid-1968 to fulfil a contractual album obligation. This was in the final stages of pre-production when Reprise dropped all plans to issue it, based on the strength of the forthcoming Village Green album.

"Starstruck" was released as a single in Europe and the United States, and charted in The Netherlands, peaking at #13. This is the only appearance of any track from the album on the hit parade in any country.

A promotional film shot for "Starstruck" in late 1968 is the last surviving footage of the original 1960's Kinks lineup, before Pete Quaife's March 1969 resignation from the band.

The photography used for the album art was shot in August 1968 on Parliament Hill, a part of Hampstead Heath, North London.

Out of print on vinyl for years (it has been consistently available on US Reprise CD since 1990), today the album is reported to be the best-selling non-compilation album in the Kinks' catalogue. Ray Davies has recently referred to it as the "most successful flop of all time".

"Picture Book", not one of the singles from the album, became popular after it was used in a 2004 television commercial for Hewlett-Packard digital imaging products.[38]

Personnel

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Erlewine
  2. ^ a b c d e Miller 2003, p. 65 Cite error: The named reference "Miller" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Hinman 2004, p. 109
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Hinman 2004, p. 114
  5. ^ Miller 2003, p. 25
  6. ^ Hinman 2004, p. 106
  7. ^ Miller 2003, p. 16
  8. ^ a b c d e f Hinman 2004, p. 118
  9. ^ a b Hinman 2004, pp. 116–117
  10. ^ a b c d Miller 2003, pp. 39–42
  11. ^ Miller 2003, p. 41
  12. ^ Hinman 2004, p. 121
  13. ^ Mason, Stewart. "The Village Green Preservation Society". AllMusic Guide. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
  14. ^ a b Miller 2003, p. 46
  15. ^ Miller 2003, p. 47
  16. ^ a b c Miller 2003, p. 48
  17. ^ Miller 2003, p. 53
  18. ^ a b Miller 2003, p. 54
  19. ^ Miller 2003, p. 55
  20. ^ Miller 2003, p. 58
  21. ^ a b c Mason, Stewart. "Picture Book". Allmusic. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  22. ^ Hinman 2004, p. 114
  23. ^ Emlen, Dave. "Picture Book". Kindakinks.net. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  24. ^ Miller 2003, pp. 59–60
  25. ^ a b Miller 2003, p. 60
  26. ^ Miller 2003, p. 60
  27. ^ Janovitz, Bill. "Smokestack Lightning". Allmusic. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  28. ^ Webb, Rob. "BBC – Music – Review of The Kinks ... Are The Village Green Preservation Society". BBC Music. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  29. ^ Miller 2003, pp. 64–65
  30. ^ Hinman 2004, p. 121
  31. ^ a b Hinman 2004, p. 42
  32. ^ Miller 2003, p. 43
  33. ^ Kordosh, John. Kordosh's Konvenient Kinks Konsumer Katalogue. Retrieved 2 January 2010
  34. ^ Miller 2003, p. 138
  35. ^ a b c d e f Hinman 2004, p. 125
  36. ^ The Village Green Preservation Society, Williams, Paul. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 27 November 2009
  37. ^ Miller 2003, p. 42
  38. ^ Mason, Stewart. "Picture Book". AllMusic Guide. Retrieved 2007-01-29.

References

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Bibliography

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  • Hinman, Doug (2004), The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night, Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 087930765X
  • Rogan, Johnny (1998), The Complete Guide to the Music of The Kinks, London, UK: Omnibus Press, ISBN 0711963142
  • Kitts, Thomas (2007), Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else, London, UK: Routledge, ISBN 041597769X
  • Miller, Andy (2003), The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826414982

Online sources

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