Slight change from yesterday. You'll recall I did nothing but bike, listen to The Village Green Preservation Society and a couple other CDs, and go to dinner with some folks...
Today- same stuff, minus the dinner.
Some observations about The Village Green Preservation Society:
1. The album was originally sent to press with 12 songs. Eventually, Ray recalled it, took off two songs, and put on a total of 15.
The two he took off are a couple that I don't like.
The 15 he left on are all good. That's 100%. It's a great album.
Granted, some of the songs sound better in their mono versions, or other remixes... but since all are included on this 3-CD set, no problems. I also burnt 11 bonus tracks.
2. "Wicked Annabella" sounds like.... no, make that sounds EXACTLY like Pavement!!! It's uncanny. It's this weird song about a witch, and the guitars are really noisy and it degenerates at the end with Ray babbling exactly like Malkmus would. Also, I swear to goddd Pavement used the exact same chorus as "Starstruck" on one of their songs ("ba ba badada/ ba ba ba daadaaa")... but I can't figure out which song (I have too many Pavement songs on CD to check right now).
3. My favorite songs are not about nostalgia for England or women, actually. My two faves are "Johnny Thunder" and "Animal Farm." The former is about a motorcycle rebel... not a junkie guitarist, no. The latter is not about a George Orwell novel, but rather about nostalgia, but not for England, but rather for a literal animal farm. Ray says he wants to be with the cats and dogs, and pigs and goats. Seriously. It's an exact quote.
4. I actually got kinda misty-eyed reading the concluding liner notes while listening to "Animal Farm," which were taken from a Ray Davies interview in Mojo in 2004: "'I wonder if it's not what it says on that album, but the images it conjures up, that people like,' mused Davies... on the subject of Village Green's perceived 'Englishness,' an element he considers to be something of a red herring... 'It means- this is the world we build in our heads as a defense against the real world, not to escape it, but to say- when you're under stress at work, and things are on top of you, think of your own personal version of the village green; think of it that way.'
At thirty-five years's distance, Ray Davies is philosophical about the album's circuitous journey from flop to cult-favorite to all-time classic. 'It's like a club that people get into: Are you a member of the Village Green society? It's all in the head. The good thing is that it was never over-marketed. It's an album that you never really hear on the radio. It's a good record, and I'm so glad it's being rediscovered. I'm not being glib about it- I could write lots and lots of pages about it, but- if you're down, think of the village green... your own personal version of it. Okay?'"
Today- same stuff, minus the dinner.
Some observations about The Village Green Preservation Society:
1. The album was originally sent to press with 12 songs. Eventually, Ray recalled it, took off two songs, and put on a total of 15.
The two he took off are a couple that I don't like.
The 15 he left on are all good. That's 100%. It's a great album.
Granted, some of the songs sound better in their mono versions, or other remixes... but since all are included on this 3-CD set, no problems. I also burnt 11 bonus tracks.
2. "Wicked Annabella" sounds like.... no, make that sounds EXACTLY like Pavement!!! It's uncanny. It's this weird song about a witch, and the guitars are really noisy and it degenerates at the end with Ray babbling exactly like Malkmus would. Also, I swear to goddd Pavement used the exact same chorus as "Starstruck" on one of their songs ("ba ba badada/ ba ba ba daadaaa")... but I can't figure out which song (I have too many Pavement songs on CD to check right now).
3. My favorite songs are not about nostalgia for England or women, actually. My two faves are "Johnny Thunder" and "Animal Farm." The former is about a motorcycle rebel... not a junkie guitarist, no. The latter is not about a George Orwell novel, but rather about nostalgia, but not for England, but rather for a literal animal farm. Ray says he wants to be with the cats and dogs, and pigs and goats. Seriously. It's an exact quote.
4. I actually got kinda misty-eyed reading the concluding liner notes while listening to "Animal Farm," which were taken from a Ray Davies interview in Mojo in 2004: "'I wonder if it's not what it says on that album, but the images it conjures up, that people like,' mused Davies... on the subject of Village Green's perceived 'Englishness,' an element he considers to be something of a red herring... 'It means- this is the world we build in our heads as a defense against the real world, not to escape it, but to say- when you're under stress at work, and things are on top of you, think of your own personal version of the village green; think of it that way.'
At thirty-five years's distance, Ray Davies is philosophical about the album's circuitous journey from flop to cult-favorite to all-time classic. 'It's like a club that people get into: Are you a member of the Village Green society? It's all in the head. The good thing is that it was never over-marketed. It's an album that you never really hear on the radio. It's a good record, and I'm so glad it's being rediscovered. I'm not being glib about it- I could write lots and lots of pages about it, but- if you're down, think of the village green... your own personal version of it. Okay?'"
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
karalynn:
Have you ever heard of the bands people I mentioned in my last post you you?
tryst:
I e-mailed you my address two days ago you nutbar! 