40 Years Ago Today

[womzilla]

On November 22, 1968, one of the greatest rock albums of all time was released.

Two years ago, By Neddie Jingo! said this about the Beatles' album Revolver (via):

If Rubber Soul, from late 1965, marked the moment that the Beatles began to see the world through the eyes of adults, then Revolver gives us the world as seen by adults who know they are going to die.

If Revolver was the first rock album to acknowledge the inevitability of death, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was the first to acknowledge the inevitability of old age and the passing away of the world that was. In just 2:50, the eponymous song--written by Ray Davies, an old man at 25--captures generations of decline, memory, and loss while remaining relentlessly, smartly, cheerful.

And that's only the best of a great bunch of songs, an album marked by a solidity and coherence all the more remarkable given its incredibly chaotic and piecemeal composition while the Kinks stared down their own pop oblivion.

God save little shops, china cups and virginity . . . What more can we do?

Comments

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

I came to the Kinks via "Come Dancing," and only discovered the stuff from their heyday later. Which reminds me... (adds song to Word file of '80s songs I need on my eventual iPod)

I will have you know I went from the Making Light thread linked above to YouTube to see if they had Earth, Wind & Fire's (awesome) cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" and got an eyeful of their appearance doing that very song in the film version of Sergeant Pepper's from 1978. Which I'd had no knowledge of, never having seen the film, only having read about it in The Golden Turkey Awards. See what you made me do?

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

BTW, my best friend in HS, who I'm sadly out of touch with (no one you've met), was born 11/22/68, which makes him 40 now. So it was already a cool day to me.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I actually saw Sgt. Peppers in the theatres. I was twelve. It was a rock musical, sort of. It was dark. They had guns.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

There is absolutely no reason for you to admit that.