'Preservation Act 2' by the Kinks is part of the largest and most complex series of interconnecting albums ever done in the rock genre, either a two, three or four record set with at least five albums and one individual single involved, spanning not only six years in creation but at least one generation in the telling. Ray Davies, singer and songwriter for the Kinks, was perhaps the most ambitious English rock artist, along with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, writing stage plays for his band, for London and Broadway production, as well as directing and acting in movies. Ray also must hold the record for most concept albums, if anyone is counting. And he did all this with a band that never really sold that well once the initial bloom was off the rose.
Ray didn't do it alone. Dave Davies, simultaneously loved and loathed by his brother, was his secret weapon, a hugely under-rated guitarist, the one constant at his side, able to make the music rock no matter how obscure or arcane Ray became. The two battled for three decades, a string of classic music the result of the conflict between the two. The interpersonal strife between the two is legendary, the gold standard for dysfunctional in rock music. Other brother acts, from the Everly's to the Gallagher's, would also had public fights, but never at the pitch these two went at it. Fur would fly, even spreading to other band members.
The Kinks were resolutely English and lower middle class, the two Davies brothers the youngest in a family with six older sisters. Dave was more the musician, Ray going to art school, like so many other from his generation, including John Lennon, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend. It was Dave's band which older brother Ray joined in 1963, and not that good a band, either. The Kinks rarely displayed the technical polish of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or the Who. But once Ray started writing songs, the second in Britain after the Lennon-McCartney team, the brilliance was found in the songs.
It helped that Dave was an innovative guitarist. Right from the start, he found a way to more-or-less invent the power chord, inventing hard rock and predating heavy metal. The Kinks were huge world wide in 1964, but by the end of 1965 were banned from touring in America. The reason has never been specifically given, but probably has to do with both the argumentative nature of the Davies boys and the sloppy non-professional attitude of the band. The lack of exposure in America slowly removed the band from the US top ten charts.
Ray, however, was only starting to blossom as a writer, turning more and more English with every song. There is a fundamental perversity to Ray's writing, never trendy or hip, always the most uncool guy in the room. Dave was different, a raver, always drunk or high by his own account. Ray got married early and had children, a stay home dad during the height of Swinging London. Dave staggered from woman to woman, men too, barely remembering what he did the night before.
Strangely, it was Ray who had the nervous breakdown. Two in fact, the first in 1966, bad enough that the band had to find another singer to complete a German tour. That was the year Ray did his first concept album, something he really invented, although the critics would rather that he hadn't bothered. 'Face to Face' was an album about worry and trouble, the opposite of the budding psychedelic movement. Songs interconnected, themes bouncing from song to song, still not specific in character or plot.
'Something Else' kept up the trend, all about alienation, as much from the current youth society as anything, all about being alone, isolated. That was Ray in a nut shell; in his own world, a voyeur watching the hip young people enjoying themselves, convinced he couldn't join them. It produced his greatest song, 'Waterloo Sunset'. The Kinks' popularity might be fading, but their music was getting better and better.
Dave also started writing, not nearly as prolific as his brother, but he had success with a series of singles, especially in Europe, where the Kinks still retained popularity. He recorded a solo album using the Kinks as sidemen, but the record company decided not to release the results, afraid of watering down the already weak brand. Dave was devastated, going through an existential crisis made worse by a rather unhealthy drug intake.
'The Village Green Preservation Society' is now considered one of the greatest albums in the history of English rock music, but it sold dismally at the time. The bass player quit and emigrated to Canada, convinced the band was over. Another concept album, again perversely against the grain, this time extolling the joys of traditional British small town life at a time when everyone else was calling for a revolution to burn all that down. Time would prove it to be Ray's masterpiece, but at the moment it meant dire financial straights.
The band ate crow, apologizing to the American Musician's Union, being allowed to tour again, though this time at the bottom of the bill at the Fillmore. Another concept album, 'Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire.' Another masterpiece, this one rocks harder now that the band had to play to vast Stateside audiences. Singles started to chart, and Anglophile critics started calling Ray a genius. By 1970, the band was back on the top of the charts with 'Lola' and 'Apeman', both humorous observational songs. The Kinks were in danger of becoming trendy, if only for a moment.
They switched record companies and did their most cohesive concept album, 'Muswell Hillbillies,' and decrying a changing England, this time getting a little political in the process. No hits, but the critics were with the band, at least for a time. The next album, a double, was one side of studio material and one side live, showing the band as still sloppy, now successful enough to support a three piece brass section. 'Everybody's In Show Biz' was another big hit single for the band, the last one for a while.
Ray had his second nervous breakdown right after, partially from the breakup of his marriage, partially from all the touring. He announced on stage that he was quitting the band, then went home to his residence, which his wife and children and moved out of that day. Fortunately, he didn't die in the overdose of sleeping pills. His brother Dave nursed him back to health. Ray set to work on his first true rock opera, 'Preservation Act One,'
The album was a direct sequel to 'The Village Green Preservation Society', except this time there was more of a plot involved instead of a series of observations. Critics preferred it the other way and the album was quietly released without much notice. The Kinks had taken their American profits and built their won studio under Dave's supervision, now having a laboratory to create music. They were becoming a tight band, now expanded to fourteen with extra musicians and backup singers. Not that they could really afford it.
'Preservation Act 1' was Ray's last truly English album, even including a song, 'Cricket', to that most British sport. It goes even deeper into the politics of this day, predicting the rise of the Right and the Thatcher regime. Musically, it was tighter and cleaner, not that enough people heard it to make much of a difference. Then the Kinks doubled down immediately after with 'Preservation Act 2', two platters that continued the plot in a science fiction direction.
For the first time, it really was starting to sound like a rock opera, complete with program songs to describe the plot points. The individual Kinks each supposedly portrayed different characters in the play. It was a theatrical performance, with Ray playing the part of Mr. Flash, the villain of the piece, who by the end actually becomes the hero fo sorts, or at least the character where your sympathies lie. It sounded great, the first time that the Kinks had managed to create an entire album of truly state-of-the-art production.
It sold reasonably well, although the critics hated concept albums, whether from progressive rock acts or classic British groups. By now it was the theatrical live performances that were keeping the band afloat, not record sales, and Ray had constructed these to be performed as a whole. There were songs for the female singers to sing, as well as Dave. The plot was very complicated but all based on visual clues, mostly concepts. Even though it was all very English, the touring production, helped by the fact that the Kinks had by now turned into a formidable live band, played America to sold out crowds.
The plot is about how Mr. Flash rips off the real estate market, destroying the traditional English village, only to be knocked out of power by reactionary right wing politicians must worse than he ever was. The new society at the end of the album is closer to George Orwell than George Formby. Flash had accidently set in motion a dystopian future. It was complicated, but it did outline what was to happen to Britain for the next fifteen years.
One reason that the two 'Preservation' albums work is that Ray makes room for romantic sub plots, complete with musical accompaniment. This keeps things from getting too strident, and Ray was always an excellent ballad singer. Dave was really coming into his own as a hard rock guitarist, as well as his always exemplary backing vocals, so the harder material really had a crunch to it. In other words, there was something for everybody. The plots never took themselves too seriously, more an excuse to parade around stage in character.
Ironically. the Kinks, Ray in particular, was turning his back on Britain, more interested in America, endlessly touring. More theatrical concepts flowed. 'Soap Opera', about a pop singer slumming for a project and losing his identity in the process, might have been the best. The critics were really starting to hate the band again, but the band were used to it by now, soldiering on. Even stranger still, one last concept album was a prequel to the entire 'Preservation' project. 'Schoolboys in Disgrace' was a hard rocking album, not politically correct, a return to the earlier band's sound, detailing Flash's days as a pupil in England's education system. It provides the back story for a character that was obviously close to Ray's heart.
Switching record companies again, the Kinks fell under the corporate yoke of Arista and the hands of the ultimate music business hack, Clive Davis. He made the band stop doing concept albums and did get them back on FM radio, although it didn't take long for Ray to reassert his domination over the group. The Kinks turned into a stadium rock band, making goo d money until Ray and Dave finally couldn't stand being in the same room together anymore. Thankfully, Dave had started a solo career by then.
The only real comparison to 'Preservation Act 2' is not with McCartney, who is the only British musician with a sense of tunefulness even greater that Ray's, or Pete Townshend, who also created multiple concept albums, or even Roger Water, who became mired in British politics in 'The Wall' and especially 'The Final Cut.' It would be, strangely, George Clinton, who was guiding his unique band Funkadelic from crazed psychedelia to even more crazed funk. One listen to 'America Eats Its Young', his own double platter, reveals a complex narrative about being black in the States during the rather harsh early years of the 1970s. It uses program music also, sounding very much like a stage production in the making. And with the Parliament-Funkadelic army, Clinton had the people to do it, especially with secret weapon Bernie Worrell, one of the great unsung keyboard players.
Perhaps the kinkiest thing about the whole five disc 'Preservation' concept is that it was spelled out once, in the single 'Preservation'. In three and a half minutes, Ray tells the entire plot line concisely, the playing good hard rock behind him. Unfortunately, the single was barely released, not widely heard until the late 1990s, when all this material was re-released on CD. Then it was added as a bonus track, and the whole project came together. A fitting end to the rather perverse genius that is Ray Davies and his hugely under-rated 'Preservation' epic.
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