I'm writing a song now called 'You Ain't What You Used to Be' which expresses what I feel. It has been included in several critics' and listeners' polls for the best albums of all time, including those published by Rolling Stone magazine and in the book All Time Top 1000 Albums. The album has since become the Kinks' best-selling album in the UK, where it was certified silver in 2008 and gold in 2018. Driven in part by this influence, the album experienced a critical and commercial resurgence in the 1990s, and it has been reissued several times, including an expanded edition in 2018. The album had no accompanying lead single in the UK, though ' Starstruck' was issued in the US and Europe.ĭespite its initial commercial shortcomings, it has influenced numerous musical acts, especially American indie artists from the late 1980s and 1990s and Britpop groups like Blur and Oasis. The album's planned September 1968 release was delayed by two months in the UK after Davies's last-minute decision to rearrange and augment the track listing, though release of the earlier twelve-track edition went ahead in several European countries. In addition to the non-album singles ' Wonderboy' and ' Days', the sessions resulted in numerous tracks, some of which went unreleased for years. Other than ' Village Green', which was recorded in November 1966 and re-recorded in February 1967, sessions for the album began in March 1968 at Pye Studios in London. It also marked the final collaboration between the Kinks and session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, whose playing features heavily on piano, harpsichord and Mellotron. It was the first album which Davies produced on his own and was the last to feature the original Kinks line-up, as bassist Pete Quaife departed the band in March 1969. Musically an example of pop or rock music, the album incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including music hall, folk, blues, psychedelia and calypso. Centring on themes of nostalgia, memory and preservation, the album reflects Davies's concerns about the increasing modernisation and encroaching influence of America and Europe on English society.

It was embraced by America's new underground rock press, completing the Kinks' transformation from mid-1960s pop hitmakers to critically favoured cult band.īandleader Ray Davies loosely conceptualised the album as a collection of character studies, an idea he based on Dylan Thomas's 1954 radio drama Under Milk Wood. A modest seller on release, it was the band's first studio album which failed to chart in either the United Kingdom or United States, but was lauded by contemporary critics for its songwriting. Released on 22 November 1968, Village Green is regarded by commentators as an early concept album. © 2017 The Wildlife Society.The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Kinks. Moderate grazing to maintain grass heights ≥25 cm may increase quality of non-native cool-season grass and native warm-season grass forage fields for grassland birds. Shrubland songbirds selected wildlife fields managed with less frequent disturbance than forage fields. Our data suggest dense stands of tall, native warm-season grass are not a better alternative to non-native cool-season grass pastures for grassland songbirds, especially eastern meadowlark. Reproductive effort for grassland and shrubland birds did not differ among field types. Indigo bunting ( Passerina cyanea) territory density was 5.6 and 14.6 times greater in wildlife fields than in grazed and hayed, non-native cool-season fields, respectively.

Field sparrow ( Spizella pusilla) territory density was ≥3 times greater in wildlife fields than in all other field types. Eastern meadowlark ( Sturnella magna) territory density was ≥2 times greater in grazed, non-native cool-season grass fields than other field types, but grasshopper sparrow ( Ammodramus savannarum) territory density did not differ among field types. We measured territory density and reproductive effort for grassland and shrubland birds in 7 native warm-season grass forage fields (4 hayed and 3 grazed), 7 non-native cool-season grass forage fields (4 hayed and 3 grazed), and 3 native warm-season grass–forb fields managed for wildlife (hereafter, wildlife fields) during May–August 20 in the western Piedmont of North Carolina, USA. Converting fields of non-native cool-season grasses to native warm-season grasses has been proposed as a strategy to enhance avian habitat and diversify forage production for livestock, but may yield poor-quality food and cover for birds.

Songbird society