Member-only story
The Kinks Present The Concept of Being English
‘The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society’
With the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II there has been some discussions as to not only the merits of the monarchy, but the merits of the English in general.
One question has been why would we want to preserve any of it?
Ray Davies and the Kinks asked themselves a similar question in 1968. In typical Kinks fashion it is both in step and out of step with the world around it.
Out of step in the sense that it retreats into rustic nostalgia at a time that the rock world was freaking out in an eruption of psychedelia.
In step in that it is an iteration of an emerging rock trend — the concept album.
So this article is a response to Pierce McIntyre’s question, what are my favourite concept albums.
My grandmother was English.
She died when I was very young and I only have the haziest recollections of her, sitting in the armchair at Park Road…
