“A crossroads record”: The classic album Ray Davies called a musical death wish
Most musicians face a turning point after establishing a certain level of success. For some, the strain comes with maintaining momentum without causing audience fatigue. For others, however, reaching a certain level means having the freedom to take risks, even if it means ostracising some audiences along the way. For The Kinks‘ Ray Davies, this moment arrived when he was at his angriest.
In the late 1960s, there was a lot to be frustrated about. For an English musician, the main root of paranoia was how small the world suddenly felt, with influences from overseas suddenly coming through and threatening everything that was once familiar. For Davies, this manifested in how America infiltrated England, diluting its beloved traditions in favour of a more mythicised landscape.
This haze brought about unease for many, including Davies, who wore his British pride on his sleeve throughout the entire decade before making a concept album all about it, called The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. A mouthful for anybody to attempt and an even larger thematic and lyrical complexity to comprehend, Village Green saw Davies drawing from several distinctively British sources, from his favourite poets to references to his childhood neighbourhood.
This all came from a place of intensified fervour, reflecting both the ever-changing landscape of British culture and Davies’ inability to keep up with its pace. “I was angry,” he later explained, delving into how he “repressed the competitive instincts” he had previously entertained while writing hit singles. Instead of crafting his vision around outsider expectations, he wrote authentically, even if it presented a risk, commercially.
According to Davies, this record held an inexplicable significance, mainly because it felt like a broader make-or-break moment, the kind most musicians face when it seems like there is a right or wrong answer. However, despite its sleeper quality, the record later became their most career-defining, proving that Davies’ fight for authenticity paid off, even if it took a little longer to get there.
“I think every band goes through a phase where they sit back and think about what their future’s going to be, a crossroads record,” Davies reflected to Uncut. He continued, “Wilco did it with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. …Village Green was ours. Maybe it’s an artistic death wish, to put something out like that. But you had underground music starting, with the West Coast explosion in America, and our management were sending us to play working-men’s clubs up north.”
While the band’s nostalgic gaze no doubt contributed to the slow uptake, the record eventually became a staple of ’60s rock culture, standing in defiance against the mounting pressures of embracing various genres and cultures to remain relevant. Against this, Davies remained a loyal traditionalist, creating music that reflected a time already slipping away, lost to the glistening horizons of a shrunken world.
