{"id":1335,"date":"2013-05-13T17:18:54","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T21:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2013-09-09T09:38:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T13:38:24","slug":"album-review-preservation-act-i-the-kinks-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/2013\/05\/13\/album-review-preservation-act-i-the-kinks-1973\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: “Preservation: Act I” — The Kinks (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kinksacti\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

By 1973 Ray Davies seemed ready to wash his hands entirely of The Kinks; that is to say, The Kinks of the late 60s through early 70s. Or maybe just popular rock music as a whole. \u00a0The band’s 1970 album Lola\u00a0versus\u00a0Powerman\u00a0and the Money-Go-Round, Part One<\/em><\/a>\u00a0was a monster seller for the band and gave them some serious commercial cache. Their followup, the transcendent Muswell Hillbillies<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1971) was an artistic and critical success, but it was a far statement from the prevailing musical sentiments of the day. Everybody’s In Show-Biz<\/em>\u00a0(1972) was cut from the same cloth as Muswell<\/em>, but not as good (although still quite good) and generally much sloppier. What became increasingly evident with those albums was Ray’s predilection towards indulging whatever creative impulses struck his fancy. Rock music? Top of the Pops? Platinum records and huge commercial success? FEH! At this point The Kinks had been on both extremes of the sales spectrum, so at this point why not get both artsy and fartsy?<\/p>\n

This of course resulted with the\u00a0Preservation<\/b>\u00a0project. Initially Ray wanted to revisit the classic Village Green Preservation Society<\/em><\/a> album, recycle some of the music and expand upon it with new songs. Wiser instincts prevailed and that album was left on its own as a singular piece of work. Instead, Ray used the Village Green as a setting, revisiting a few familiar characters and themes but creating a whole new theatrical work based on that entire milieu. The Village Green would set the stage for an epic battle between an evil, greedy capitalist crook named Flash and the self-righteous ultra-religious do-gooder Mr. Black. Ray himself would position himself as “The Tramp”, a narrator and voice of reason and longing between these two opposing forces.<\/p>\n

Ray wrote a ton of material for the project. So much so, in fact, that the planned double-album turned into a triple-album, and Ray still wasn’t pleased with the end result. Meanwhile the record label — a surely crapping-in-their-pants RCA — was none too pleased with the ongoing delays of the release (and most likely with the quizzical nature of the material), insisting that something hit the shelves by late 1973. Ray compromised and split the album into two separate releases: the single album Preservation:<\/strong>\u00a0ACT I<\/b>\u00a0and the double album Preservation:\u00a0ACT II<\/em>, released in late 1973 and mid 1974, respectively. It wasn’t even a logical break between acts;\u00a0ACT I<\/em>\u00a0introduced the story’s characters and was structured more like a traditional album, whereas\u00a0ACT II<\/em>\u00a0had the bulk of the narrative and was\u00a0decidedly\u00a0less musical and more theatrical.<\/p>\n

Well! Three albums of material released over the span of six months! For Kinks faithful, this must have seemed like a\u00a0mechaya!\u00a0In reality, the project was a big commercial flop, the likes of which hadn’t been seen by the band in years. No singles from the album charted in any remotely significant manner, and the whole thing was generally regarded as a giant WTF moment in The Kinks’s recording career.<\/p>\n

Preservation<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>is a fascinating artifact, the type of ginormous mess only a band as fascinating as The Kinks could throw together. Over the course of both albums, there are indeed some really good songs and one absolutely great one. Most of the good stuff is in\u00a0ACT I<\/em>, which is the better of the two releases. In fact, on it’s own it’s a fairly good LP.<\/p>\n

The largely instrumental “Morning Song”\u00a0kicks off the album, as the lazy village wakes up to simple humming and strings, like the beginning to a gentle Disney animated film. OK. We’re setting a tone. Got it. “Daylight”\u00a0is kind of a neat little tune, painting a lively picture of the serene village and its townspeople. The overlapping lines in the verses give the song a theatrical feel. It’s a good song, nothing deep, and definitely different.<\/p>\n

The album’s so-called “lost masterpiece” comes up next, the sublime pop excellence of “Sweet Lady Genevieve”. How this fits into the entire Preservation<\/em> project, I have no idea. It’s sung by Ray’s “Tramp” character, about a girl he once wronged in the past and longs for again. It’s a pretty great song. It has a fine tempo, catchy melodies, and for a moment we have a glimpse of the band’s pop greatness. If there’s anything wrong with “Sweet Lady Genevieve”, it’s only that it sets a false expectation for the entirety of the project. Nothing will ever be this good again on either album.<\/p>\n