All language subtitles for The.Kinks.Echoes.of.a.World.2018.1080p.HDTV AC3.x264

(SOUND OF LEATHER ON WILLOW)
No!

(GENTLE CHATTER)

(SOUND OF LEATHER ON WILLOW)

Out!

# We are the Village Green
Preservation Society. #

It's an album that you don't
want to tell many people about.

I think it's so personal
to everyone that hears it.

# Walter, remember
when the world was young. #

He was somehow able to fuse together

all these different styles of music

and points of view.

# People take pictures
of the summer. #

It's a romance of England
that is in the details.

It's not in the big stuff,
it's in the little stuff.

That is easily one of the top
three albums you have to have.

# Johnny Thunder lives on water

# Feeds on lightning. #

It pretty much encapsulates
all that I like about England.

Whether it's the real England
or an imagined one,

it doesn't really matter
too much because it's art.

We made an album
about childhood friends

and characters we knew
when we were growing up.

The band have played great
and the record

is going down well
with everyone who hears it.

The thing is, the record companies
want us to be a singles band.

Not one to make a thematic album
about lost youth

and innocence on the village green.

So, things don't work out, this could
be the last record we ever make.

Time will tell, I guess.

So, we'll have to wait
and see what happens, won't we?

# God save the village green. #

# Girl, you really got me going

# You got me so I don't
know what I'm doing now

# Yeah, you really got me now

# You got me
so I can't sleep at night. #

Totally unbelievable really.

It seemed like everything
we did was in the newspapers.

It was really... It was like
something that caught fire

all of a sudden.
We were surrounded by girls.

I was only, like, 16. 15, 16.

Women and girls.

And, um, it was
really extraordinary.

We used to do a lot of theatres

and they'd all be
sitting there screaming.

Er, but I never thought
I'd experience it but I did.

The Kinks!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

# All Day And All Of The Night

Going to America, I thought this
was going to be, like, marvellous,

it's going to be like heaven.

And, um, and I was actually
quite disappointed

because the Americans
seemed a little bit

out of touch and stuck
in the '50s a bit.

I was waiting to hear all the great
blues players and where were they?

# Girl, I want to be
with you all of the time

# All day and all of the night. #

In those days, it was,
like, four singles a year

and an album and two EPs, four-track
EPs. So the pressure was always on.

Well, actually,
we were a very prolific band

and Ray really started
to become a prolific writer.

And, um, it used to be relentless.

Going to the studio and recording
a single in a day. Right, next.

You know, I'm uncomfortable
being a so-called pop celebrity.

I don't want to play that game.

I just want to write songs
about things I care about.

We're a working-class band
celebrating being British

and I don't know if America
always understands

that aspect of the Kinks.

Also, our managers are in
a legal dispute with each other

and it's creating tension
within the group.

I've got a distinct feeling
something bad is going to happen.

# Well, lived my life and never
stopped to worry about a thing

# Opened up and shouted out
and never tried to sing...

We went over there.
Got thrown in the deep end a bit.

Then things went wrong.
Union trouble.

And we did things
we weren't supposed to do.

# Won't you tell me

# Where have all the good times gone?

# Where have all
the good times gone? #

It all got into a bit...

We had some... A bit of
a hot-headed sort of argument.

It got a bit physical at one time.

America cut us off really
in our prime in many respects.

Why were you banned?

(SIGHS)

A series of things. Fistfights,

union dispute, badly managed.

There's a side of America
that is extremely conservative

and resents anybody else coming over
and beating them at their own game,

which is what the
British groups were doing.

There were visa problems for a lot
of British groups in that period.

The American Musicians' Union
was very, very obstructive.

So I'm sure that was
probably a major part of it.

America was the source
of all my musical inspiration,

so we felt cheated.

It never really bothered me
because it was kind of...

I'd rather be at home anyway.

Since we've been banned
from touring America,

everyone says we should sing our
new songs with American accents

to broaden their appeal but, to me,
it wouldn't suit the material.

Don't get me wrong, it was American
music that first inspired me

to become a musician but
I'm a working-class Londoner

and I can't pretend to be otherwise.

So, from now on, I'm singing
about where I come from,

about people that I know
and in my own accent.

# Cos he gets up in the morning

# And he goes to work at nine

# And he comes back home
at five-thirty...

I think when Ray Davies just
decided to, like, stop pursuing

the kind of R&B, the American
thing and drop the accent a bit,

they did turn more introspective,
more English.

Everybody in the mid-'60s had to
sound American. If you didn't

sound American, you weren't
dealing in the correct currency.

'Sorry, we don't take Scottish
pounds,' or whatever it was.

You weren't...
You just couldn't get arrested.

And so everybody had
smatterings of R&B

and the blues and rock and roll
and that sort of stuff.

But then the Kinks hit
this huge seam of Englishness

and wa-hah! It gelled.
It just took off.

Ian Hunter from Mott the Hoople
said, when they asked him,

'Why have you written
All The Way To Memphis?'

He said, 'Well, I can hardly write
'All The Way To Walthamstow.'

But, in fact, Ray Davies did write,
'All The Way To Walthamstow.'

And, indeed,
Willesden Green and beyond.

# And he's oh, so healthy
in his body and his mind

# He's a well-respected
man about town

# Doing the best things
so conservatively

# And his mother goes to meetings

# While his father pulls the maid

# And she stirs the tea
with councillors

# While discussing foreign trade

# And she passes looks...#

Because we were banned
from touring America,

I decided to become British
and look at where I'm from.

Write songs about
the place I grew up.

And nobody was doing that.

You have the first Kinks EP
which is, um,

the first of Ray's
social-comment songs,

which is A Well Respected Man.

And suddenly,
he finds a new, um, avenue,

a very fertile path to go down.

Kind of having a dig at
the middle classes, really.

Um...

I thought there was an element
of people thought that was, um,

was just very cynical,
really, of Ray, you know.

But they were all valid,
very valid, er,

points to be made, really, you know.

The old establishment
were still there running things.

It might have been
swinging and, er...

But the same systems
were still in place.

We made a huge impression with our
blues invasion over in the States.

But really underneath all of that,

there is, um, Harry Champion,

Noel Coward, Max Miller

and there's this sort of music,
these sort of songs.

Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.

If I don't work fast tonight,
please forgive me, I'm very tired.

I've been shoplifting.

And some of those shops are very
heavy, I'll tell you. (LAUGHTER)

People like Max Miller. All
these great wonderful characters.

George Formby.

This interesting, quirky,
eccentric Englishness about them.

Wonderful to discover
on our own land.

Although I just wanted
to grow up being Eddie Cochran,

there was also this background

or a backstory of music
that was our own, that was English.

In England, I feel like was really
focusing in on a lot of American

sound and the American blues
and rhythm and blues

and stuff like that.

You find Ray just kind of going for
these, like, almost old-fashioned,

you know, references and songs
that parents were listening to.

When you read about their Saturday
night parties and all that stuff

around their house and everyone
singing and everyone doing a song

on their turn, that's all
fed into that music, really.

# It's a great big shame
and if she belonged to me

# I'd let her know who's who

# Nagging at a fella
who is six-foot three. #

# And her not four-feet two

# They hadn't been married
not a month nor more

# When underneath her thumb goes Jim

# Oh, isn't it a pity
that the likes of her

# Should put upon the likes of him. #

1966 was the year

when mod began to become rock,
began to become psychedelia.

The influence of drugs
was beginning to percolate

into mainstream white music.

You're starting to get
more complicated, more urgent,

more compressed, a lot of ideas,

still being compressed into
a two, three-minute single.

An incredibly fertile time.

In a way, Ray Davies and the Kinks
found themselves in the middle of it

because he was able
to tap into the various moods

with three extraordinary
singles that year.

And they really are
among his best work.

Which are Dead End Street,
Sunny Afternoon

and Dedicated Follower Of Fashion.

# They seek him here

# They seek him there

# His clothes are loud

# But never square

# It will make or break him
so he's got to buy the best

# Because he's
a dedicated follower of fashion...

I've known from very early on,
the best way to attack somebody

is with humour, or make a statement.

You can't just be angry at things.

Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
came out of a falling out with

a clothes designer who
accused me of wearing flares.

Anyway, I wasn't,
I was wearing tapered trousers.

He said, 'You're going
to end up buying flares.'

I said, 'Get out of my house,'
at a party.

'It's my party
and I'll cry if I want to.'

And I went...
Instead of having a fight,

I went straight back to my typewriter

and typed out
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion.

Word... Didn't have to change a word.

Humour, the silliest things

that he might think of

that probably to anybody else

was totally unfunny

but he came, 'Oh, yeah!
Ha-ha-ha.' Big laugh.

It is that connection that really
helped to keep the Kinks moving.

When you're in a band
with a family member,

that can be the band's
greatest strength

but it's also the band's
greatest weakness.

Um, but the thing that brothers
have when they're singing together

is there's nothing like two
family members singing together.

# And when he pulls his frilly
nylon panties right up tight

# He feels a dedicated
follower of fashion

# Oh, yes, he is
# Oh, yes, he is

# Oh, yes, he is
# Oh, yes, he is. #

Every schoolboy sang that. We'd be
bellowing it over the playground.

# Oh, yes, he is. #
It became a huge catchphrase.

It plugged straight into
the English music hall psyche.

You've got a very dangerous
sort of precipice of novelty,

you know, it's very easy
to fall into novelty.

But to walk that line
is a really marvellous thing.

Everyone's talking about
Swinging London

but, as far as I'm concerned,
it's a diversion, a form of escape.

I can't help feeling
that something, a time,

is coming to an end.

There are more important
things going on in the world.

So I've decided to stay home,
sing for my fans.

Get the message across
through the music.

(CHEERING)

Sport was my only way,
before songwriting,

of associating with the world.

When we got Germany in the final,
it brought in the old rivalry again.

It was amazing because
we didn't really think

we had the team to win, really.

Racing to beat the whistle, Geoff
Hurst saw an opening in the defence

and achieved a hat-trick.
(CHEERING)

I wanted everything to end then

because it doesn't
get any better than that

England winning the World Cup.
I learnt a lot from football.

And Ray was good at football also.

It helps with music as well
because, you know,

you can't just play
all the way through,

you know. When you're in a team,
it's the give and take and emphasis.

Then you've got to cover
things in a different way.

Music is often about
when and not to do things.

We're a team. Everything,
all that rivalry is cast aside

because that was our
common denominator.

And it was just magical, really.

We were touring, recording

and living together,

fighting together,

love and hate.
All the emotions were there

and it just came through.
Playing was the good part.

# The tax man's taken all my dough

# And left me in my stately home

# Lazing on a sunny afternoon...

To actually get a number one
and the British football team

winning the World Cup,
that was wonderful.

Sunny Afternoon was...
I remember Ray phoning me up

and say, 'Come and have a listen.'

And he started this
dissenting line with a piano.

And it's incredible. You hear
that and you get those vibes,

those moments, a positive feeling.

You know you're
doing something right.

It makes me think of Philip
Larkin, it makes me think

of John Betjeman, some of those very
well-established English poets.

But I also think it's a very
underrated craft, you know.

It's easier almost
to write abstraction

than it is to write rhyming
couplets that tell a story.

That more often than not
end up being with, you know,

er... you know, it's me as well,
you know what I mean.

It's not like I'm slagging you off.

# Telling tales
of drunkenness and cruelty...

I loved his cynicism and I loved
his kind of wry sense of humour

but, at the same time,
there was this earnestness.

And there was this dichotomy that
always seemed to be going on

in his voice.

# Help me, help me,
help me sail away. #

He influenced a lot of people
in pop music at that time,

especially English bands.

Certainly, the Rolling Stones did.

The Rolling Stones did
at least two or three songs

that were overtly Kinks-like.

Mother's Little Helper,
that's like ersatz Kinks.

The Kinks' influence
went everywhere.

I have a feeling that underneath
all the fashion and glamour,

society seems to be struggling.

But I wouldn't exactly
say it's falling apart

but there's poverty,
unemployment, homelessness,

just like my dad used to tell
me about the Great Depression.

But the world keeps on
rocking regardless.

So I'm going to keep
writing songs about it.

# There's a crack up in the ceiling

# And the kitchen sink is leaking

# Out of work and got no money

# A Sunday joint
of bread and honey...

From celebrating the boom with
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion,

in a kind of ironic way,
to catching the down turn

with Sunny Afternoon.
With Dead End Street,

you actually have this
empathy for the poor

and the downtrodden.
# We don't understand

# Dead end! # Why we
should be in dead end street?

# Dead end! # People are living
in dead end street # Dead end! #

His gift of melody and, um,

and the subject matter
he was writing about,

no-one else was really covering
that, you know. With something like

Dead End Street, no-one
was really writing about that.

That other side of England.
Everything was swinging, you know,

apparently, Swinging London.

But there was still, you know, there
was still many, many poor people.

England won the World Cup, everyone
was ebullient, jumping around,

waving their flags and quite
rightly so, it was a great time.

But underneath it, there was
this hard Labour government

and decisions were being made.

# There's a crack up in the ceiling,
The kitchen sink...#

It's kind of metaphorical
in many respects.

# Dirty old river,
must you keep rolling,

# Rolling into the night?

# People so busy, make me feel dizzy

# Taxi light shines so bright

# But I don't...#

It was called Liverpool Sunset

and it was about
the demise of Mersey Beat.

But Waterloo has always
been an important place.

I still get a buzz
when I go down there.

It's totally and utterly human.

It's a small observation
of a big scene.

I'd say Waterloo Sunset's my
favourite pop song of all time.

Bar none.

It's a hugely romantic song,
isn't it, you know,

Waterloo Sunset?
It's got everything.

It gives me this feeling of, um,

comfort in an alienating world.

I do believe Ray Davies
is a musical genius.

I think, to be of such
a young age and to write

consistently brilliant singles,
as he did,

er, for a good old stretch as well,
for a long time as well,

from, like, '64 up until,
for me anyway, up until, like, '71,

kind of, um... I don't know if
it gets too much better than that

in terms of songwriting anyway.

Many a time I've been writing songs

and got the Kinks on
for a bit of inspiration

and just put the pen down
and gone, 'Fuck it!'

There's no point. (LAUGHS)
It's already been done.

Yeah, I'm still
writing popular songs

but everything else
is turning upside down.

If we lose this court case,
we could become bankrupt.

My family is breaking apart too.

My older sister Rosie
is emigrating to Australia.

And other members of the family
are moving out of London.

I need an emotional refuge.

A place to escape.

Somewhere I can
keep my memories intact.

# From the dew-soaked hedge
creeps a crawly caterpillar

# When the dawn begins to crack

# It's all part of my autumn almanac

# Breeze blows leaves
off a musty-coloured yellow

# So I sweep them in my sack

# Yes, yes, yes,
it's my autumn almanac

# Friday evenings...

I have spent my
entire career chasing

that song, trying to write

a song as good

as Autumn Almanac.

Something that had these
little miniature movements,

like a little tiny symphony,

little parts of a clock
that interconnected and...

Oh! I've chased it since then.

How does one write a song
as perfect as that?

One of the high points, I think,
in terms of its complexity, yeah,

and yet, its simplicity.

And you think about writing a song
about Sunday roast and football

and all that could sound
so cliched and, um,

and, er, sentimental.
But it just isn't

because it always
has that kind of, er,

melancholic kind of undertone.

# I like my football on a Saturday

# Roast beef on Sundays, all right

# I go to Blackpool for my holidays

# Sit in the open sunlight. #

Ray doesn't just sit down
with a guitar and sing it.

He's got different
parts he's working on.

And he doesn't really tell you
what it's all about at all.

Then the vocal goes on
and then it comes alive

and you think,
'Oh, that's how it sounds.' (LAUGHS)

The Kinks did get off
the radar in America.

It's unfortunate that people
missed out in America

on this great music. I feel like
it became more British sounding,

so, you know, it was a very
particular sound palette

that maybe America
wasn't used to hearing.

1968 was the year
when it all comes down,

in that there's,
you know, the Czech Spring,

there's increased demonstrations
against Vietnam in America,

there's Grosvenor Square
demo in London

that the Rolling Stones wrote
Street Fighting Man about.

So suddenly into
an even more polarised time.

And musically the same.

The trends of '67 continue and now
there's almost a complete split

between chart music
and underground music.

And underground music moves from

psychedelia into hard rock,
the start of country rock.

Suddenly, it all becomes a bit dour.

So it's a very, very serious year.

In the parlance of the time,
it's very heavy.

The world seems so chaotic.

I want to make an album
about things that matter to me.

This church is just down the
road from where I used to live.

I want to celebrate where I grew up
and my parents' generation.

Write something they could sing
in a church or down the pub.

I long for a more innocent time.

My school choir sang in this church.

All my sisters got married here.

Sometimes, I think hymns
have been replaced by pop songs.

It was always my ambition to write
a song for the school assembly.

Set aside the anger and
the bitterness of the time.

Create my own dreamscape.

My own village green.

# Out in the country

# Far from all the soot
and noise of the city

# There's a village green

# It's been a long time

# Since I last set eyes
on the church with the steeple

# Down by the village green...

Village Green is about innocence,

a time when things
could have been different.

That pivotal moment in your life
when you went on to become an adult.

Village Green is a perfect
example of Ray conjuring up

these new characters that
are based on real people.

It's, er...

Which is a wonderful thing to be
able to do. It's like painting.

Village Green is special
for everybody.

Everybody's got their
own version of it, I think.

# I miss the village green

# And all the simple people

# I miss the village green

# The church, the clock, the steeple

# I miss the morning dew

# Fresh air and Sunday school

# And I will return there

# And I'll see Daisy
and we'll sip tea, laugh

# And talk about the village green

# La la-la-la la

# We will laugh and talk about

# The village green. #

It's not often that an album
works as a collection of tracks

just on their own
and then as an album as well.

They're rare those records.

Love the production on it, the
songs, the melodies, Ray's voice.

I love the fact that
it wasn't overblown.

It's intimate. It's beautiful.
There's a sadness to it all.

It pretty much encapsulates
all that I like about England.

I was brought up in London.
I feel myself as a Londoner.

I find it very difficult to
grasp what England really means.

So I would suggest, if I had to,

that album would be
what I feel England means.

It's a great snapshot of England.

Um, whether it's the real
England or an imagined one,

it doesn't really matter too much

because it's art and you can
make of it whatever you want.

I think it's the same place
that George Orwell talks about

when he talks about the air
is different in England

when you arrive back here.
The coins are heavier.

The beer is bitterer.

Um, it's a romance of England.

It's a romance of England
that is in the details.

It's not in the...
It's not in the big stuff,

it's in the little stuff,
it's in the little collection box

shaped like a lifeboat in the pub.

Ray started to carve
these lovely, er,

this lovely poetry, really,

about these people that
we knew but didn't know.

You know, I love that mystery.

That reminds me of so-and-so,
you know.

I think that's when it
kind of hit home

what a beautiful romantic
concept it was.

The village was in the city.

And the community was important,

although I didn't
think so at the time.

You know, you've got the church,
opposite you've got the cinema,

which used to be called the Odeon.

Opposite there's a dance hall,
which is now a Sainsbury's.

So, within that roundabout,
was all our cultural experience.

Ray's writing is drawn from real
people that we knew or knew of.

And a lot of these
characters, I think,

became characters in songs.

The countryside symbolised
the freedom from the city.

So the countryside
represented the adventures

we didn't speak about in London.

The secret world, the secret people.

# Picture yourself
when you're getting old...

Picture Book is really
important for many reasons.

That family unity thing.
Me and Ray always worked best

when we did the octave vocal thing.

# Picture book,
pictures of your mama

# Taken by your papa a long time ago

# Picture book,
of people with each other

# To prove they loved
each other a long time ago

# Na na na na na-na...

Mick Avory is playing the drums
and the snare drum has no snare.

The snares are not on, so you hear
this kind of thud on the snare drum,

then mixed with
the 12-string guitars.

It's a sound I really haven't
heard on any other record.

It gives it a different sound.

It seemed to work on that number,
I don't know why.

Mick Avory's drumming
on the whole album, I think,

he's, like, my favourite drummer.

He's just got the, you know,
whether he knows it or not,

he's just got such
a great flair for

and feeling for the drum rolls,
you know.

And, er, I know it's a muso thing
but it's really important

within the sound and
the songs of the Kinks.

I think Mick Avory
is brilliant on that album.

# Picture book, a holiday in August

# Outside a bed and breakfast
in sunny Southend...

And then you have this
really interesting

sort of circle fifths kind of thing
going on with the chords,

which is going up a fourth and
then a fourth and then it sort of

very cleverly kind of brings you
back to the beginning again.

# Picture book

# Picture book

# Picture book

# Picture book, oh, na-na-na-na...

The picture book that my family
had hasn't changed since

1975. Yeah.

And it's full of these
faded photographs

of parties and yellow shirts,
the collars are far too big.

Me dressed as a cowboy. My sister
with her first acoustic guitar,

which I nicked when I was 13.

# ..a long time ago.

# A long time ago. #

A lot of the Kinks was,
'Let's get away from modern life.

'Let's do all those dumpy things.

'Let's sit in a deckchair.'

You know, 'Let's have a hanky on our
head at the seafront at Brighton.'

My favourite on that album
is Do You Remember Walter?

What a tune.
What a shiver that gives you.

# Walter, remember
when the world was young

# And all the girls
knew Walter's name?

Every time I hear it, I think
of an old fella with a pipe

and he's thinking about his
best pal at the time, Walter.

# Do you remember Walter
playing cricket

# In the thunder and the rain?

# Do you remember Walter
smoking cigarettes

# Behind your garden gate?

He's somebody I pass almost
every day in the street

and I'm sure he was my best friend
when I was about seven or eight.

But I cannot pluck up
the courage to say to him,

'Didn't you used to be...?'
You know.

I'm kind of afraid
of what he might say.

Well, he'll only say no.
If he says yes,

it'll be like, 'Why didn't you
say something every time we pass?'

You know, it's... It...

Do You Remember Walter
digs up a very personal

common trope for everybody.

# Walter

# Remember when the world was young

# And all the girls
knew Walter's name?

# Walter

# Isn't it a shame the way

# Our little world has changed?

The song is modulating
all over the place.

the chords, you know, the key
centre is changing all the time.

Then you have this very
sort of memorable melody on top

that's almost like a nursery rhyme.
It's just tying it together.

The first verse of the song,
you have in C, you have...

We're now in the key of B-flat.

E-flat being the four of B-flat.

Now in the five of B-flat,
which is F.

And so we're here,
now we modulate it.

Now we go to E-flat.

Now we modulate to G.

Still on G. Now we go to E-flat.

And then back to C.
Very cleverly done.

With Walter, I always felt
really sad when we did it

because it reminded me of, like,

guys that you'd got
best friends at school

and, all of a sudden,
they're not there.

His guitar playing
is great on that album.

In stuff like,
Do You Remember Walter?

It's, er... He's playing...
He's playing the song, isn't he?

Because the songs have changed,
the songwriting changed.

But he's still got a great sound.
He's really melodic.

And it comes through.

I think his guitar playing
is really underrated, Dave Davies.

# We'd save up all our money

# And we'd buy a boat
and sail away to sea

# But it was not to be...

All those memories
about people you loved

and played with at school

and who are they? Where did they go?

# Walter

# You are just an echo of a world
I knew so long ago

# Walter

# If you saw me now,
you wouldn't even know my name

# I bet you're fat and married

# And you're always home in bed
and tucked up safe

# And if I talked about the
old times, you'd just get bored

# And you'd have nothing left to say

# Yes, people often change

# But memories
of people can remain. #

'We said we'd fight
the world so we'd be free.'

You know, point.

Oh-oh!

Oh, shit. Oh!

Sometimes I have trouble
communicating my ideas.

that's why I express
myself better through songs.

I find it easier to do that.

Songs allow me to say something
serious in a funny way.

Speak from inside myself so that

you can feel happy
and sad in the same moment.

Living reality and fantasy, the past
and the present at the same time.

No, it's not nostalgia.

It's more like time travel.

# Under a lamp light

# Monica stands at midnight

# And every guy thinks
he can buy her love

# But money can't buy
sweet loving from Monica...

You can imagine Monica. You can
have your own relationship with her.

There is something
lovely and romantic about..

..about the Village Green
and the characters

and, um, the foreboding...
You know, the age-old thing

of don't go into the woods,
you know.

And, um,

and weird fat cats in trees.

And then

beautiful but aloof girls.

# You take the sunshine

# I'll take the nightly shadows

# Because everyone knows
that Monica glows at night

# She'll do something wrong
and prove to you she is right

# I, I shall die, I, I shall die

# If I should lose Monica
Oh, Monica, my love...

Monica was a real person.

Unlike the way she's depicted
by many people as glamorous,

you know, stockings,
she was quite a modest girl.

In fact, we walked
just over there one night.

Just over by that tennis court,
whatever it is.

So they're all real people.

I was aware of litigation
even in those days,

so I changed them
into different people.

That's why I like
to paint the way I do

because I feel like

I'm expressing a lot of what's
going on in our subconscious.

Because it's just as important,
probably more important

than our conscious, physical reality

because that's where a lot
of this weird shit comes from.

And I decided to do a Monica,

which is a more
abstract surrealist thing.

I love the rhythm of that song,
that kind of Latin vibe of it.

And did her with a stuck-up nose

and looking down on
all these guys that adore her

and pay a few bob for. (LAUGHS)

# Monica knows every line

# Don't ever propose
because Monica knows, you know

# She'll turn up her nose
and say what a fool you are

# Monica. #

I'd like to add that I walked
with Monica but nothing happened.

Phenomenal Cat is one of the tracks

on the record that
really stood out to me,

I'm a big fan of the Mellotron and
this is the perfect Mellotron song.

# A long, long time ago

# In the land of idiot boys

# There lived a cat, a phenomenal cat

# Who loved to wallow all day...

The artists I find most compelling
are those that can create a world.

He was somehow able to fuse together
all these different styles

of music and points of view.

Literary devices.
Whether it was first person

or creating characters
and having them interact.

# Though he was big and fat

# All the world was good to him...

The voice that is, like,
the fa-la-la-la-la voice

in Phenomenal Cat, it sounds like
it's been speeded up slightly

Almost like some strange sort
of little person from a circus

or another sort of
elfish character there.

# Fum, fum, diddle-um di

# La la la la, la-la la la

# La la la la, la-la la la la. #

His production on it, to me, is
great because it's very honest.

it's not really production
that gets in the way.

And, as a producer, that's, to me,
you know, one of the goals.

I always loved Wicked Annabella.

That's kind of the most scariest
and rock and roll of the lot,

with the buzzing guitars
and that incredible

drum sound at the beginning.

The subject matter has
always fascinated me.

That's why I did that painting.

It's a painting of Wicked Annabella.

In the end, I was looking for
somebody who was really quite

alone and sad and angry.

# Wicked Annabella mixes a brew

# That no one's ever seen...

Of course, I love it
because I sing it.

And it's quite
a raunchy song to sing.

I always particularly
liked singing bridge

and when I do it live,
I put two bridges on it

because it seems like...
I think that bridge is so...

..cool, it should have been twice.

# I, I've seen her hair

# I've seen her face

# Look towards mine

# I, I've felt her eyes

# Burning my soul

# Twisting my mind...

It's the most impudent album.

Dangerous isn't the right word.

I just knew it was
risky putting it out.

# Little children who are good

# Should always go to sleep at night

# Because Wicked Annabella

# Is up in the sky

# Hoping they will
open their eyes. #

# Don't go...

It's just a really
dark-sounding track.

Which, again, I think
is the skills of Dave Davies,

you know, to, um, to create that...

the aura of that track.

The great artist Ray is,

I'm sure I should be
paying him that compliment,

and, er, it's like painting.

You know, these people
appear out of the invisible.

I heard a band from America
called The Turtles.

Their big hit was Happy Together.

They phoned me up where I was living

and they said, 'We want you
to produce our next album.'

I sad, 'Why?' 'Because
you produced Village Green.'

I said, 'Yeah, but you
just had a big success

'and I can only offer you failure.'

They said, 'We want that danger and,
other than that, risk taking.'

We took risks.

I think, more than anything else,
that's important.

Big Sky, Big Sky
is such a great song.

I love the whole magic of Big Sky

and the way Ray sings it.

Quite, like, scared.

Scared of the universe almost.

I think Big Sky
is really futuristic.

And, er, I think,
if it was written today,

I think it's, um, I think
it's a really great lyric,

delivered in, you know,
just the speech.

It's the first song I'd ever
heard that had no singing in it

but it was just talking.

There was just this monologue about

people looking up at the Big Sky
and the Big Sky looks at the people.

I just though, 'What?' You know,
you couldn't sing along to it.

You know, it was this...
It was like...

I don't know what the musical
term is for that thing

but Damon did it in Parklife.

Er, Ian Dury used
to do it all the time.

# Big Sky looked down on all the
people looking up at the Big Sky

# Everybody's pushing
one another around

# Big Sky feels sad when he sees
the children scream and cry

# But the Big Sky's too big
to let it get him down...

He's sort of addressing it
almost like a vicar.

Big Sky, da-da-da-da.

It's got that kind of tone
going on in the, you know...

Big Sky, we're all
talking to you now, Big Sky.

I suppose it's Ray writing
about God. I don't know.

I guess, anyway,
that's what I always assumed.

Looking down on all
these little people

and, um, not really giving a fuck
and not really helping them.

Er, that's what
I got from it anyway.

Big Sky was about
an imaginary preacher.

Playing it today, sounds like
all the Bible-bashers on TV,

it sounds very contemporary.

But then there's the bridge.

I always loved the,
'One day we'll be free.'

We sing the harmonies together

and it sounds like... It feels like,

we can get there somehow
and be free and happy.

Free from work, free from religion,

free from anything
that drives you insane.

# One day we'll be free

# We won't care, just you see

# Till that day can be

# Don't let it get you down...

The middle eight of Big Sky,
the guitar plucking,

it's a really beautiful part of it.

And then it's sort of
like a dreamscape

and then it goes back into
the main talking section.

# I think of the Big Sky

# And nothing matters much to me

# Big Sky looked down on all the
people who think they got problems

# They get depressed and they
hold their heads in their hands

# And they cry

# People lift up their hands
and they look up to the Big Sky

# But the Big Sky
is too big to sympathise. #

I got the feeling that
it was our last album.

That's why I said, 'This will be
about friendship and magic times.'

Time for reflection. Hm!
And some funny dodgy characters

and some angry characters,
Johnny Thunder.

# Johnny Thunder

# Lives on water

# Feeds on lightning

# Ba ba-ba ba ba-ba ba
Ba ba-ba ba ba-ba ba

# Johnny Thunder

# Don't need no-one

# Don't want money. #

He's a character I'd like to be.
He's kind of Neal Cassady/Kerouac.

He's a great character,
the person in the song, you know.

Likes the highways, doesn't
care what anyone else thinks.

The imagery in the lyrics
are just, wow, fuck! Amazing.

He reminded me of someone
I knew in Muswell Hill.

A biker and he was kind of like...
I forget his name.

But he was, er...

..out on his own,
just riding his bike.

Yeah, there were a couple...
It was based on a couple of guys,

a couple of heroes.

Always got the girl
on the back of the bike.

The fact that Johnny Thunders
from New York Dolls

must have got his name for it.

Johnny Thunder
is just an amazing sound.

Ray's voice is, er...

It's hard to put into words.
Just the way he sings it.

The melody of it is amazing.
Nick Avory's drum rolls

into the bridge part of it
is just beautiful, you know.

Johnny Thunder, in particular,
was always a big favourite of mine.

Um, so it's a very varied record.

You've got Smokestack Lightnin'
again coming up

with Last Of The
Steam-Powered Trains.

# Like the last of the
good old puffer trains

# I'm the last of the
blood and sweat brigade...

It's a celebration
of the music that inspired me.

It's tipping your hat to
Smokestack Lightnin' by Howlin' Wolf.

It's a different metre
and different chords.

I'm going to keep rolling. It's about
an old rocker who won't give up.

I'm gong to keep on
rolling until my dying day.

So there is a sense that it's the
most rebellious song on the record.

# Steam-powered trains...

All those great riffs
that we kind of borrowed

or tried to copy and fucked them up.

Because that's how
I learned to improvise

because I wasn't
very good at copying.

It sounded like something else.
I thought, 'Do it anyway.'

It sounded really live.
It sounded like

you could just walk in to
a room and the music was happening.

At the time, I was listening
to a lot of bands from England,

like Roxy Music
and I loved David Bowie.

And those records seemed
a little more pristine,

especially the Roxy Music records.

And, um, the Kinks records just
seemed very live and sloppy and...

Dave, you know, you could
get a better guitarist

to come in and do
an overdub and that.

But it wouldn't...
It wouldn't have the right feel

or the right attitude that Dave had.

Because he knows
instinctively what to play.

He's just a great guitar player
as in that he plays the song.

I think that especially at a time
when everyone's getting, like,

groups around like Cream and all.

You know, I really didn't
care for them and their...

He's just holding it down
over his brother's songs,

which, I would imagine,
would have been tricky, you know,

knowing what we all do
of their relationship.

And he's just doing it very humbly

and, er, very melodically.
And I love him for that.

Dave is...

I cannot stress enough
what a guitarist that guy is.

And Ray as a songwriter.

Um...

So for them to create that
sound between the two of them,

without even thinking about it,

it must say something
about their genetic make-up.

# Like the last of the
good old choo-choo trains. #

He's an incredible,
memorable guitar player.

Especially for people like me
who didn't want to spend ages,

who wanted to just be raw
and just play and emote

and be expressive,

Dave Davies was the man really.

He was doing it, he didn't play
like Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton

or Hendrix, but they were already
doing that, so what's the point?

Whether Ray was metaphorically
writing about the Kinks at that time

because they were being very
much marginalised by that time,

critically and also
in terms of success and stuff.

And, um, and obviously not having
the recognition from America,

which all of his
contemporaries were having.

Village Green felt like it was
the last record we'd ever make.

In fact, it was the last
record of the original band.

Pete Quaife left at the end of it.

And that shot of us
standing on Hampstead Heath

is one of the last
photographs taken together.

# We are the Village Green
Preservation Society

# God save Donald Duck,
vaudeville and variety

# We are the Desperate Dan
Appreciation Society

# God save strawberry jam
and all the different varieties

# Preserving the old ways
from being abused

# Protecting the new ways
for me and for you

# What more can we do?

I love the quintessential
Britishness of that song,

The Village Green
Preservation Society.

I learned the song
about 40 years ago

but when I learned it I didn't
know what Ray was referring to.

Over the years, I've figured out
what a George Cross is

and, um, Moriarty

and Mrs Mopp
and Mrs Mopp and, er...

Of course, china cups and virginity,

I could figure out on my own.
(LAUGHS)

But I love,

yes, the Englishness of it all.

It makes you feel nostalgic,

um, but, by the same token,

it still sounds so fresh,

even though it was about nostalgia
and preserving the past.

The opening track, to me,

lyrically is staggering.

I've listened to it, um,

you know, from time to time

and to get all those images
to rhyme in that song...

(LAUGHS) ..it's absurd.

# We are the Sherlock Holmes
English-speaking Vernacular

# God save Fu Manchu,
Moriarty and Dracula

# We are the Office Block
Persecution Affinity

# God save the little shops,
china cups and virginity. #

Ray just always looked at the
subject of what was around him

and was deconstructing it
but he was also saying,

'This is progress. Everyone's
talking about moving forward.'

I don't think that's a context of
what America meant at that time.

And he's saying, 'Just before we go,
let's just kind of register

'what is going on around us,
even if it's not all perfect.'

You know, in The Village Green
Preservation Society, what is it?

'Protecting the old ways
from being abused.'

You know, 'Protecting the new ways,
for me and for you.'

I think that really
sums the whole thing up.

Although it's not
a concept record, as such,

it has a certain sort
of theme to it, I suppose.

Er, a longing and a loss of, um...

things that might not
have even really existed, you know.

He was... He was looking back.
He was...

But, in a way, that's kind of

revolutionary in itself.

It... It... It's not necessarily

what teens wanted.

Um, and it probably

annoyed some of them
and all the better for it, you know.

If you can't annoy a teenager,
who can you annoy?

# Thank you for the days

# Those endless days,
those sacred days you gave me

# I'm thinking of the days

# I won't forget a single day...

I think because they
wanted it as a single,

I was a bit of an upstart,
I said, 'If it's a single,

'I want Village Green
not to have any singles on it.'

Silly thing because business
sense says put the single on.

So it was a bad choice on my part.

Perfect songwriting, you know,
it's like every section,

to me, sounds like
it's a chorus, you know,

just when you think it's peaked, you
kind of get into the next section

and then it's almost like
that even peaks even more.

I feel like it's sort of
moves you through the song.

# I wish today could be tomorrow

# The night is dark

# It just brings sorrow anyway

# Thank you for the days...

It would have made
the album even stronger.

The yearning in that song,
the yearning

and that semitone climb,
you know, that ratchets up.

And ah! The release.
Great piece of musicianship.

# Days. #

It's just an amazing tune
and such beautiful words as well.

And, er, yeah, that's it.
It's a classic.

Great words, great melody.
That's it. That's a great song.

Village Green is an album
for friends, a personal record

and to hell with airplay and sales.

Maybe it wasn't their time.
Some things don't click,

do they, at the time? Which,
you know, is kind of shocking

looking back and seeing how
great it still is as an album.

If you look at the context
of when it came out,

yeah, and everyone's going really
wild and freaking out and, yeah.

You know R&B
is turning into heavy metal,

Led Zeppelin and, you know, people
are throwing their clothes off.

You know, and then Ray turns up
dressed as Max Miller. (LAUGHS)

The Kinks were out of whack
with British tastes.

Er, in '68, we did
want to look to America.

I felt more akin to the Kinks'

British music hall
sense... sensibility.

The Kinks were not
forthcoming as characters.

If you look back on YouTube
and look at their interviews,

they don't want to be
doing interviews.

They don't want to be
having their picture taken.

They don't want to be
talking to anyone.

You see the Beatles,
they're loving it.

OK, so the record didn't
manage to find an audience.

But, who knows, perhaps one day it
will end up connecting with someone.

I'm just glad we stood our ground,

celebrated this
somewhat eccentric land.

And, as for the village green
and all those great characters...

..they're here in the songs.

# People take pictures of the summer

# Just in case someone
thought they had missed it

# And to prove that it really existed

# Fathers take
pictures of the mothers

# And the sisters take
pictures of brothers. #

The Kinks were an uncool band,
we still are very uncool.

And, um... Which saved us in the end.

If you make a records
for an audience,

there's always a chance that
it will start to lose its lustre.

If you make a record that is
deeply personal to yourself,

then, you know, there's a resonance,

there's something genuine
in that piece of music.

It's kind of created
its own time, really.

It doesn't sound psychedelic.

It doesn't really sound
like the late '60s.

It doesn't sound like anything else
that was going on around that time.

And, um, therefore,
I feel it's timeless, really.

It's a cult album.

And, thankfully, lots of people
like it, are fond of it.

Well, the Village Green album
is one of those records

that ahs just got this
incredible reputation now.

And it's deserved because,

um, it is an extraordinary
collection of songs.

It's the best Kinks album, the
Village Green album is, I think.

And, er, it's the, um... And the
Kinks are one of the best bands,

you know,
that England have ever produced.

It's as an important record
as Sgt Pepper's,

which, on a global scale,
of course, is Sgt Pepper's

and, you know, we all know that
meant, um, and still means.

But, um, Village Green is...

It's, for me anyway, it's equal.

That's one of the albums
that I'll go back to.

You know, when I'm working
with different artists,

sometimes I'll kind of listen
to stuff just to kind of,

you know, get inspired.
And, you know,

the Kinks is absolutely, you know...
Village Green Preservation Society

is one of the ones that
is definitely to go to.

Some of the subjects
he was writing about,

things that would be of
no concern to most people

and yet all the beautiful little
details that he's spotted

and put in some song.

So that would be a definite
influence on my writing.

It's so obvious how
many musicians love it

because you see it in other songs.

It appears in so many other songs.

There's a bit in Johnny Thunder that
appears in In The Crowd by the Jam.

And there's the beginning
of Do you Remember Walter?

which, whenever I hear Mr Blue Sky,

I go, 'Ooh, they've updated this.'

And then,
'Of course, it's Mr Blue Sky.'

So, um...
And that is people paying homage.

The first one that
springs to mind is Blur.

Not sure Damon would have
a career without Ray Davies.

You can see the Kinks...
The thread went forward through us.

I think it went forward
through people like Blur.

Um, and I think you can
detect it in a lot of other bands.

Um, the Franz Ferdinands,
the Kaiser Chiefs.

You can see the Kinks
thread going on there.

Er, I think any band
that doesn't try too hard

to be American and/or international

and just allows themself,
if they're from Britain,

allows themself to be British.

You can't help but tip your hat
in a big way toward the Kinks.

It goes into Ian Dury,
it goes into us,

it goes into Blur, Lily Allen,
a number of other people.

You know, black comedy
but with a bit of kind of going.

# He lives in a house,
a very big house in the country

# Watching afternoon repeats and
the food he eats in the country...

They were very similar
to Blur in a lot of ways.

Well, Blur were very similar
to the Kinks, I should say.

They had an incredibly
hard-working kind of songwriter.

A kind of nutcase on guitar,

who invented everything
on his instrument.

Um, kind of down-to-earth drummer

and a sort of groovy stylish
bass player, you know. (LAUGHS)

# Heard the neighbour
slam his car door

# Don't he realise
this is respectable street

# What do you think
he bought that car for?

# Because he realised
this is respectable street. #

Possible the most Kinks thing we
ever did was Respectable Street,

which is totally and utterly

what I saw out of my window
and what... The neighbours

were banging on the wall every
time I put the record player on.

Or I'd look at the caravans that
people would buy as status symbols

and just leave them in
their gardens all-year long

and then, for one week,
they'd disappear for the holiday.

And, to me, I knew at the time,
Uncle Ray would approve of this.

# Our house,
in the middle of our street

# Our house, in the middle of our

# Our house, it has a crowd

# There's always
something happening. #

For me,
I equate it to my own career.

It'll be Our House, that,
for us, was exactly the same.

It was a kind of mythical idea

of what house we
all would've lived in.

Our Rise & Fall album
is very similar in that sense

because it's set around
part of Primrose Hill

and it's set around all the
characters that we grew up with.

I know that the Kinks influenced
Weller greatly and the Jam.

And the Jam influenced us...

..greatly. So there's
a kind of linear thing there.

It lived with us
a long time that record

and it still is one of our
favourite albums of all time.

And so it, you know... We would go
straight from our flats the next day

to go recording
and it would rub off definitely.

The thing with those bands is

they're not ashamed
of sounding British,

singing in their own accent,

write about subject matters that
could happen where they grew up.

Village Green Preservation Society.
Er, one, two...

Er, one, two, three, four.

# We are the Village Green
Preservation Society

# God save Donald Duck,
vaudeville and variety

# We are the Desperate Dan
Appreciation Society

# God save strawberry jam
and all the different varieties

# Preserving the old ways
from being abused

# Protecting the new ways,
for me and for you

# What more can we do?

I love the man, you know.
I love his work

and what he's given me
and influenced me

and, um, and so many
other people as well.

Hs work lives on and always will do.

The Kinks have always been sort
of an influence on me, you know.

I always was drawn to this
juxtaposition of this very dark

lyric over something that could
be sort of very old-fashioned.

He became a character in my life.

And I listened to him quite a bit.

So, um, I'm sure he kind of infused
me with his style of writing

and I'm sure it was
in there somewhere

when I started writing my
own songs shortly afterwards.

One of the greatest things
that I learnt from Ray

was that, yeah, just observing
what's going on around you

and deconstructing it a bit

but still, you know, loving it,

you know what I mean,
even though it may not be perfect.

I wouldn't be a songwriter
if it weren't for the Kinks.

Paul McCartney and Ray Davies
are our greatest songwriters.

He has possibly
written songs on his own

that are better... Uurrgghh!

I'm sorry about this.
I'm committing heresy.

..that are better
than Lennon and McCartney.

I don't think Lennon and McCartney
have ever come up with something

as poignant as Waterloo Sunset.

I don't think they've ever
come up with a little symphony

like Autumn Almanac or Shangri-La.

I don't think they've
ever some up with

quite the social commentary
of Sunny Afternoon.

Or the romance of Days.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry but it's got to be said.

I love being within a band.

It wasn't the greatest
band in the world

but we had moments
when nobody could beat us.

# God save the village green! #

(APPLAUSE)
Hallelujah!

So who knows what the future
holds for us or the Village Green.

And all the characters we sung about?

All I can say is,

people often change

but memories of people can remain.

# One day we'll be free

# We won't care, just you see

# Till that day can be

# Don't let it get you
Don't let it get you down

# And when I feel

# That the world's too much for me

# I think of the Big Sky

# And nothing matters much to me

# One day we'll be free

# We won't care,
just you wait and see

# Till that day can be

# Don't let it get you

# Don't let it get you down. #

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