THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,108) The Kinks — “Mr. Songbird”
Left off all but the initial Scandinavian versions of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, this track is “blissfully infectious”, “beguilingly sweet”, and “you are just in the palm of it’s hand and may just as well be sitting by that idyllic riverside”. (All Down the Line, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-268) It is “a sublime Davies creation . . . . far too good — no, great — a record to be forgotten” (Andy Miller, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society), “[a]ll the way down to the little jazz feel at the end . . . this is just a delightful way to spend two and a half minutes” (Mark Winstanley, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-kinks-album-by-album-song-by-song.1075714/page-268), “offer[ing] the simple, happy-go-lucky lyrics of the films supervised by Davies’ hero Walt Disney, but [its] melod[y] prove[s] as irresistible as Paul McCartney’s best” (Geoffrey Himes, https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/ray-davies/the-curmudgeon-ray-daviespreserving-old-rural-ways), The Music in My Ears writes:
Its subject matter also aligns with the overall theme of [TKATVGPS]. Nature and nostalgia. Ray Davies tells the listener about a bird that provides him the comfort and enthusiasm to wake up and start a new day with its singing. The mellotron plays the role of the bird here, answering Davies’ “Sing Mr. Songbird” plea with a little trill.
https://themusicinmyears.blog/2021/08/01/876-the-kinks-mr-songbird/
Yet, as Andy Miller notes, while “a little melody will keep the devil at bay . . . don’t doubt for a minute the devil is there. The song’s concluding phrase [“You help to keep the devil away”] is Davies’ ”one hard line” technique in full effect”. (The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society)
The Reconstructor tells us that:
Scheduled for release on September 27th [1968], th[e] 12 song “Village Green” album was soon canceled under Ray’s wishes. He had asked Pye, their label, to have some additional time to track new songs, and perhaps even expand it into a 20-track double LP. The label reluctantly agreed, and so in September, they recorded an additional two songs for the record, them being “Big Sky” and “Last of the Steam Powered Trains”, and started to mix the new double LP. However, Pye weren’t that confident in the band back then. The failure of their latest single, “Wonderboy”, which barely made the top 30 in England, had left a bad taste in their mouths, and a double LP by them would be a big bet. They decided to nix the idea, much to Davies’ anger and insisted on it being a single album. As a compromise, however, they decided to allow the album to feature fifteen tracks, instead of the original twelve. That meant two tracks would be removed, them being “Days” and “Mr. Songbird”, and the two newly recorded songs and three outtakes would be added.
https://the-reconstructor.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-kinks-village-green-preservation.html
Wikipedia adds:
Because the original 12-track edition had already been sent to several European countries, [“Mr. Songbird”‘s] first release was in Sweden and Norway in October 1968. . . . Though the Kinks began recording most of [the album in] March 1968, Davies recalled the band recording “Mr. Songbird” “a long time before” the rest of the album. Kinks researcher Doug Hinman places the song around November 1967 . . . .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Songbird#CITEREFErlewineBogdanovWoodstra1995
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Wow a new (to me) song from The Kinks. Cool!
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