Music Monday: The Kinks...Are the Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks...Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

Whenever I listen to one of The Kinks many classic albums, I wonder why they never were as popular are such other British Invasion groups such as The Who, The Beatles, or The Rolling Stones. Ray Davies was not only a catchy song-writer, but an innovative one as well. The Kinks basically pioneered the power chord riff. Sadly, in the US, they are just known as the band that did "Lola" and "You Really Got Me".

Village Green is arguably their finest album. By this point, the hard-rocking sound of the early 60's had been ditched for a folkier, more British sound. Almost like "Waterloo Sunset" for a whole album. The chords are perky and fun. The songs are catchy and endlessly singable. I defy one to listen to "People Take Pictures of Each Other" and not clap along. Oddly enough, this album had no charting hits, thus resulting in one of their poorest selling albums of the 60's. Thankfully, this has grown on the music loving public to become their most popular album, outside of greatest hits collections (which is sad, cause The Kinks recorded only a handful of weak songs in the 60's). This is essential for anyone!

Music Monday: Three Friends by Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant - Three Friends

Prog Rock seems to be divided into two main categories, the "pop" prog of bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull (well, if you can really call this pop) and the true prog that just made complex music, no matter what the audiences think. The most notable of these are King Crimson and Gentle Giant.

Mixing classical music and rock is one of the main hallmarks of progressive rock, but whereas bands like Yes incorporated more romantic or baroque styles into their music, Gentle Giant reached even further, throwing in touches of Medieval and Madrigal harmonies, creating a large, complex polyphonic sound that I can't help but love.

They've had a few great albums in the 70's and Three Friends, their third album, stands as one of their best. It is not quite as complex as the prior Acquiring the Taste or their next, Octopus (both are fantastic by the way), but is still more busy than most bands outputs. The playing is top notch, especially Kerry Minnear's keyboards. This album rocks hard with fantastic solos as the softer parts are beautiful. The piano chords of "School Days" are haunting beautiful and their tone was copied by Radiohead. (that's my theory anyway) If you don't like prog, you won't like this album. If you do however, this is worth owning.