Sitting by the Riverside

"Sitting by the Riverside" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from their sixth studio album, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968). Written and sung by Ray Davies, it was recorded in July 1968. The song features honky-tonk piano and a Mellotron which duplicates the sound of an accordion. An example of psychedelia, the song's relaxed style is offset by the sound of a swelling cacophony between verses, a sound reminiscent of the crescendo in the Beatles' 1967 song "A Day in the Life". The song describes a pleasant experience sitting next to a river and was inspired by Davies's time spent as a child fishing with his father.

"Sitting by the Riverside"
Song by the Kinks
from the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	July 1968
Studio	Pye, London
Genre	Psychedelia
Length	2:21
Label	Pye
Songwriter(s)	Ray Davies
Producer(s)	Ray Davies
Official audio
"Sitting by the Riverside" on YouTube

Background and composition

Ray Davies was inspired to compose "Sitting by the Riverside" after reminiscing about childhood fishing expeditions with his father.^[1] The song's narrator expresses his pleasure at sitting and drinking wine with his partner by the riverside,^[2] asking to "please keep me calm, keep me pacified" so he can enjoy the calming effect of the river.^[3] Author Johnny Rogan considers the song one of several by Davies about "the beauty of a quiet life",^[4] suggesting its mood of "lazy resignation" is reminiscent of "Sunny Afternoon" (1966).^[5] Author Rob Jovanovic considers the song, alongside "Animal Farm" and "Village Green", to be one of the most important thematically on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, all three of which he thinks convey imagery of simple village life.^[6]

"Sitting by the Riverside" is an example of psychedelia.^[7][8] It employs a Vaudeville-like tune and a light piano arrangement.^[9] The narrator closing his eyes results in a rush of overwhelming memories and fear, accompanying which is a swelling cacophony.^[10] A section of rising dissonance between verses serves to briefly undermine the idyllic mood,^[11] before cutting back to the pleasant feeling of the verse.^[12]

Recording and release

The Kinks recorded "Sitting by the Riverside" in July 1968 in Pye Studio 2,^[15] one of two basement studios at Pye Records' London offices.^[16] Davies is credited as the song's producer,^[17] while Pye's in-house engineer Brian Humphries operated the four-track mixing console.^[18] The recording features honky-tonk piano and a Mellotron – a tape-loop-based keyboard instrument – which duplicates the sound of an accordion.^[19] The dissonant section between verses features rising piano strings.^[11] Its wordless chorus and orchestral crescendo are reminiscent of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life",^[20] something Rogan writes was typical of songs recorded soon after the 1967 release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.^[4]

The Kinks lip-synced "Sitting by the Riverside" for the programme Colour Me Pop on BBC Two's Late Night Line-Up on 22 July 1968.^[21] While the studio version of the song was recorded in July 1968, Davies did not include it on the twelve-track edition of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, planned for release in September 1968.^[22] After he delayed the album's release by two months to expand its track listing to fifteen, it was among the songs he added.^[23] Pye released Village Green in the UK on 22 November 1968, sequencing "Sitting by the Riverside" as the final song on side one.^[17]

In a retrospective assessment, Morgan Enos of Billboard magazine placed the song second last in a ranking of the album's songs, writing that it rated above "Monica" only because it displayed more thematic relevance to the Village Green concept.^[24] By contrast, authors Neville Marten and Jeff Hudson consider it one of the album's most memorable songs, displaying "Davies' voice is at its languid best".^[25]

References

1. Rogan 2015, pp. 358–359.
2. Kitts 2008, p. 120; Hasted 2011, p. 127.
3. Mendelsohn 1985, p. 98; Hasted 2011, p. 127.
4. Rogan 1998, p. 64.
5. Rogan 2015, p. 359.
6. Jovanovic 2013, p. 150.
7. Montanari, Dylan (5 November 2018). "The Kinks – The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society". Spectrum Culture. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022.
8. Segretto 2022, p. 180.
9. Moore 2001, p. 101; Rogan 2015, p. 359.
10. Miller 2003, p. 75.
11. Moore 2001, p. 101.
12. Hasted 2011, p. 127.
13. Kitts 2008, p. 120.
14. Matijas-Mecca 2020, p. 107.
15. Hinman 2004, pp. 117, 121.
16. Miller 2003, p. 21.
17. Hinman 2004, p. 121.
18. Miller 2003, p. 21: (engineers MacKenzie & Humphries, operated four-track); Hinman 2004, p. 111: (Humphries worked on recordings from May 1968 and later).
19. Sullivan 2002, p. 89: (honky-tonk piano); Hinman 2004, p. 101: (tape-loop-based); Miller 2003, pp. 74–75: (accordion).
20. Rayes 2002, p. 156.
21. Hinman 2004, p. 118; Miller 2003, p. 36.
22. Miller 2003, p. 74.
23. Kitts 2008, pp. 114–115; Hasted 2011, p. 130.
24. Enos, Morgan (22 November 2018). "'The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society' at 50: Every Song From Worst to Best". Billboard. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022.
25. Marten & Hudson 2007, pp. 96–97.

Sources

• Hasted, Nick (2011). The Story of the Kinks: You Really Got Me. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84938-660-9.
• Hinman, Doug (2004). The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night: Day-by-Day Concerts, Recordings and Broadcasts, 1961–1996. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-765-3.
• Jovanovic, Rob (2013). God Save the Kinks: A Biography. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-671-0.
• Kitts, Thomas M. (2008). Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97768-5.
• Marten, Neville; Hudson, Jeff (2007). The Kinks: A Very English Band. London: Bobcat Books. ISBN 978-0-8256-7351-1.
• Matijas-Mecca, Christian (2020). Listen to Psychedelic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-6198-7.
• Mendelsohn, John (1985). The Kinks Kronikles. New York City: Quill. ISBN 978-0-688-02983-8.
• Miller, Andy (2003). The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. 33⅓ series. New York City: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-8264-1498-4.
• Moore, Allan F. (2001). Rock: The Primary Text: Developing a Musicology of Rock (Second ed.). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-0298-9.
• Rayes, Ken (2002). "The Village Green and The Great Gatsby – Two Views of Preservation". In Kitts, Thomas M. (ed.). Living on a Thin Line: Crossing Aesthetic Borders with The Kinks. Rumford, Rhode Island: Desolation Angel Books. pp. 153–164. ISBN 0-9641005-4-1.
• Rogan, Johnny (1998). The Complete Guide to the Music of the Kinks. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-6314-6.
• Rogan, Johnny (2015). Ray Davies: A Complicated Life. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84792-317-2.
• Segretto, Mike (2022). 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute: A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4930-6460-1.
• Sullivan, Patricia Gordon (2002). "'Let's Have a Go at It': The British Musical Hall and The Kinks". In Kitts, Thomas M. (ed.). Living on a Thin Line: Crossing Aesthetic Borders with The Kinks. Rumford, Rhode Island: Desolation Angel Books. pp. 80–99. ISBN 0-9641005-4-1.