Lost in the Village Green

In high school as a big FU to the general establishment and the majority of fellow students which I had loathed and envied through my four years of internment, I played a song called 'Lola' at a senior brunch. For those of you unfamiliar with old rocker music 'Lola' is about a regular guy out one night who meets this hot girl. They are dancing, they start getting freaky and what does the guy eventually find out...Lola has got some extra equipment. (The Pharcyde may have run into this same imposter in 'Oh Shit') So I have to tell you there really is no emotion to describe what it was like to be singing about a transvestite while people are eating brunch.

The song 'Lola' is a great window, but not nearly an abstract, of who The Kinks were. Or more importantly who Ray Davies, the off-key singer and writer of The Kinks' sound, was. Like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and other British rockers, The Kinks somehow managed to stay in decent popularity and only recently broke up in the late 90's. The Kinks were often political, usually humorous and writing about what they wanted and saw at the time. In a recent blog article I caught a foolish webhead making a list of the top ten worst album titles of all time. 'The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" was listed as one of them. How he missed 'All My Friends Are Dead" by Freddie Gage, I'll never know.


But forget titles for a second you'll uncover something lovely about 'Village Green'. It was a concept album for The Kinks but one that had nothing to do with heavy handed political agendas or stabs at any person, place or thing. The album was an ode to simpler times of English Hamlet life. Seems almost silly but its an album of songs that have quickly become favorites for any listeners of the era. Ridiculous title or not I think I'll stick to living in the 'Village Green' versus drinking 'Crunk Juice' in the city.

Checkout The Kinks' "This time Tomorrow" on the September '07 FoundTrack MixTape