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Kinks: The Village Green Preservation Society : Special Deluxe Edition - Disc 1 of 3 CD Track Listing

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Kinks The Village Green Preservation Society : Special Deluxe Edition - Disc 1 of 3 (1968)
2004 Sanctuary Records\n\nOriginally Released November 22, 1968\nReprise CD Edition Released May 2, 1990\nCastle 1CD Edition Released December 4, 1992\nSanctuary 3CD Edition Released June 28, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: \n\nAmazon.com essential recoding\nSensing that the Beatles, Stones, and Who were radically transforming rock music by turning it literate and conceptual, Ray Davies decided the Kinks should be his vehicle to explore his unusual longing for a simpler time when the English empir was not in decline. A reliance on English music hall tradition and sentiments indicated in titles such as "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains," "Picture Book," and "Village Green" clearly show Davies's nostalgia streak. Davies's singing has always ben rough and non-Kinks fans may have trouble getting past his sloppy pitch. But for those listening closely, the tales are one of a kind. --Rob O'Connor \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nmore promising than satisfying, December10, 2004\nReviewer: Michal Landes (Woodside, CA United States) \nPlease be patient as I think this is a fair and useful report. \nFirst: I am a huge KINKS fan. \nSecond: All KINKS cd reissues are unsatisfactory. \n\nThey sound bad. My sixties British vinyl sounds way better Even my inferior U.S. sixties pressings sound far superior to the recent Castle reissues which are a disgrace. \nThe Castle reissues of a few years ago were perfectly compiled. But the sound sucked. I was going to give the entire set to a friend o mine as a gift (a huge fan) , but after I heard them I gave up on the idea. I've thrown mine away (not given away, even forfree I would be ashamed to pawn them off as the KINKS) \n\nSanctuary has acquired the Castle catalog and has simply reissued he exact same masters with new catalog numbers EXCEPT for this one deluxe 3-cd version of Village Green. So, what does their one original contribution to the situation portend for the future? \n\nSanctuary has quite apparently done the best that coud be done. The impression I get after a few careful listenings is that the masterings are good to very good, but the source material itself, the mono and stereo masters themselves are not in good shape. Specifically, whatever has been handled has ben treated with contempt. So that only the material that has generally been left alone has been stored well, and only the material that has been untouchedfor forty years has remained in good condition. \nThe Pye peopleshould be shot. Thus, the Mono msters for the British L.p. are in the worst shape. A real shame as Ray did the mono mixes himself and they are perfect. The Stereo mixes were clearly done by someone else and they are only good when they mirror the mono mixes,whenever they diverge fom this they decline in quality. This isunderstandable. Most Pop producers hadn't a clue how to mix downto stereo even by the late sixties. \n\nNonetheless, the stereo mixes are the ones to listen to here. Probably because they were accessed less ofen than the mono, the masters are clearly in better shape. Every single track has superior fidelity to the corresponding mono master. \n\nNonetheless, they are not consistently acceptable even here. Tracks 1 and 2 are the weakest. It's quite frustraing to try to enjoy We Are The and Walter when they are socompromised. Better are tracks 3-6. I can enjoy (albeit with a little wincing) these. However, the remainder of the tracks reallysound well. Although not perfect, if the first six tracks souned like this I would have been perfectly happy with the entire 3-cd package and thank you. \n\nWhat about the third cd and the bonus tracks on the first two cds? \n\nTo be brief, the versions to hear are on the third cd. These are perhaps the rarestversions and maybe that is the reason (less often accessed ) but regardless of the reason, this material SOUNDS GOOD. Wonderboy and Polly have NEVER sounded so good. I can for the first time on cd, hear thecellos on Polly. That is to say it's the fist time you could TELL they were cellos. It's not just that they sound RELATIVELY good. They just flat out sound fine. As does the rest of cd 3. I mention those two since they are the standout material. Listen to the backing track for Phenomenal Cat Just lovely. The point is that is shows us what the rest of the l.p. should be soundling like!!! \nIt shows us what we've lost. For this reason the important track of the entire 3cd set is the reconstructed Johnny Thunder onthe third cd. This is a rand new stereo master, modeled on Raysmono mix, built from the multi-tracks, and cleaned up in the process. It sounds phenomenal. It sound BETTER than the original british release!! Not surprising as the source material is pristine and the reconstrction technology was digital 2004. \n\nLikewise,the early version of Animal Farm sounds great. Since this is notthe version that was used on the l.p. it has been in storage forforty years and is in very good shape. When I listen to the cd1 stereo vesion of the album I simply replace Johnny Thunder and Animal Farm with the versions from cd3 \n\nBut here is the real point. The producer in his notes in the booklet, skirts around the issue of why there is only one reconstructed track from the multtracks. Perhaps they were afraid that the cult fans would grousethat the company had TAMPERED with history. and quite frankly this is very likely to have happened. Only now that the complete original mono and stereo masters have been released here, an they construct new versions without risking a kind of ignorant backlash. \n\nAfter all, why would they have the multitracks, in pristine condition, for one track, but for none of the others. So I say,go ahead and get this and enjoy it for what itis while you praythat a year from now The entire record, and perhaps the entire sixties catalogue eventually, will be reconstructed from the multi-tracks and released. There doesn't seem to be any hope of the original, poorly stored, masters doing te job. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nNearly the ultimate edition of classic album, July 21, 2004\nReviewer: Wayne Klein "Wayne Klein" (Fairfield, CA United States) \n"The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society" appeared and disappeared wth nary a trace when it was first released in 1968. Overshadowed by "The White Album" (The Beatles), Beggar's Banquet (The Stones)and other major releases, it seemed horribly out of step with its time when it was first released. That's because, as ws often the case with The Kinks, it was. "Village Green" preceded the move back to the pastoral sounds and eagerness to recapture the innocence of the past by about twenty years. It sounds surprisingly fresh and vital now even if some the productionoccasionally sounds dated. That only adds to its charm. \n\nNow expanded to fill three CDs (as it should have been when Castle/Essential remastered and re-released the album a couple of years ago), "Village Green" has never sounded so great and so cmplete. While it has a few glaring omissions (most notably "She's Got Everything" which Davies didn't really want on this album along with a couple of other tracks that were originally slated for but withdrawn from the finished line up), this is abot as complete a representation as were going to get of the material recorded during the 1966-1968 time frame when "Village Green" was recorded. Lovingly restored and remastered under the supervision of Andrew Sandoval (how does Andy get all these grat jobs?)with remastering done by the magical Bill Inglot and Dan Hirsch at Digiprep, "Village Green" sparkles and sounds the best it ever has on CD. \n\nDisc one focuses on the original stereo version of the album. A better sounding version of thisedition has never appeared before(although the Japanese K2 remaster sounded pretty darn close). We also get bonus tracks featuring a single A side from the time "Days" and the stereo alternate mixes that appeared on the withdrawn 12 track edition of"Village Green". We "Mr. Songbird" (stereoversion)as well. \n\nDisc two features the mono version of the album. Since the mixes differ slightly, hardcore Kinks fans will want both versions. On the mono version we also get bonus tracks as well includng the mono version of "Mr. Songbird", "Polly", "Wonderboy", "Berkeley Mews" and a no strings version (the earliest from 1966)of "Village Green" to close out the CD. \n\nDisc three is the one that will have fans salivating. The "rarities" disc asit' subtitled features a number of tracks previously unavailable (offically and unoffically) on CD plus tracks that have never been released. We get the following stereo "rarities"; "Misty Water" (and also the mono version which hasn't been released beore),"Berkeley Mews", "Easy Come(previously unreleased on CD), There You Went", "Polly", "Animal Farm" (alternate stereo mix previously unreleased), "Johnny Thunder" (an alternate stereo remix), "Didyou See His Name", "Mick Avory's Underpants"(an intrumental previously unreleased), "Lavender Hill", "Rosemary Rose", "Wonderboy", "Spotty Grotty Anna", "Where Did My Spring Go?", "Groovy Movies", "Creeping Jean"(and unreleased longer, stereo mix), "King Kong". We also get the following mono tracksincluding "Misty Water", "Do You Remember Walter" (a BBC session remix), "Animal Farm(A BBC sesion remix), "Days"(A BBC session remix)and "Phenomenal Cat" (a mono instrumental mix). \n\nA note on the "rarities"--many of these were previously availabe on "The Great Lost Kinks Album"and on bootlegs but never with sound this good. Also, the BBC sessions are, like many from the time, the instrumental backing with some new vocals dubbed on. They don't sound significantly different from the originalversions but collectors will want them. \n\nThe deluxe packaging features a booklet with new comments from Ray, Dave, Pete and Mick on the making of the album and various tracks. We also get a discussion on the genesis and difficulties that the albu faced. Sandoval also co-authors a brief synposis with info drawn from Doug Hinman's excellent book on The Kinks that discusses when the various recordings were made, differences between them and the process of putting together the album. "Village Geen" is presented in a deluxe digipak accordian fold out sleeve. Sure, it's missing a few key album tracks but, really, this is as good as it gets when dealing with the corporate world and the compromises of reissuing classic albums. \n\nHalf.com Alum Notes\nDigitally remastered and expanded special edition of what many consider the best of The Kinks catalogue. Ray Davies' sentimental streak grew to a full blown manifesto on this concept album aboutthe passing of old fashioned English traditios. The title song opens the album favouring the preservation of "draft beer & virginity" through a series of stories, sketches and characters of a picturesque fantasy of England. It's a lovely, gentle album with amad streak of regret running through but Davies' fondness of the past is warm, evoking somewhat of a hazy dream. There are endless layers of musical & lyrical innovation...much of which has become the foundation of generations of British power pop! Includes a plethora of remixes, stero tracks, demo versions, instrumentals, BBC sessions, b-sides...even an audio interview with Davies and of course, extensive sleeve notes and photos.
This rock cd contains 19 tracks and runs 49min 49sec.
Freedb: 000bab13
Buy: from Amazon.com

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