ABSTRACT
Despite in many ways a positive artistic and commercial 1967 with a firstrate album in Something Else, three brilliant top-five UK singles (“Waterloo Sunset,” “Autumn Almanac” and Dave’s “Death of a Clown”), and the recording of other tracks that would find their way on to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (hereafter Village Green), the Kinks were largely absent from the counterculture conversation-although they had received very positive coverage in both the March and December issues of Crawdaddy!, a hip American underground publication. Allen Klein, the Kinks’ US business manager since July 1966, planned a brief American tour in late 1967, which fell through when even with Klein’s clout the Kinks could not secure recommendations for work visas from the American Federation of Musicians. Apparently, a shady promoter in Texas took advantage of the Kinks’ absence and used American impostors for a few dates.
