Animal Farm (song)

While the song's title references George Orwell's 1945 novella of the same name, the lyrics are unrelated to the book's dystopic themes and instead express feelings of pastoral bliss in recollecting life on a small farm.

[6] The song's narrator recalls an earlier time where he was happy living a simple life on a small farm,[7] an experience unrelated to Davies's actual childhood growing up in North London.

[10] Author Andy Miller finds "Animal Farm" musically both "light and joyful", describing it as the "most unapologetic pop song" on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

[21] Instead of piano, author Johnny Rogan thinks session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins plays a harpsichord, which he writes "imbues the track with a stately grace".

[22] "Animal Farm" is one of two songs on Village Green to possibly features a real string section, as arranged by English composer David Whitaker.

[23] "Animal Farm" was among the fifteen tracks Ray Davies sent to Reprise Records in June 1968 for the later aborted US-only album Four More Respected Gentlemen.

[26] He did not include the song on his original twelve-track edition of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, planned for UK release in September 1968.

[28] Pye released the fifteen-track edition of Village Green in the UK on 22 November 1968, sequencing "Animal Farm" as the opening track of side two.

"[7] Among band biographers, John Mendelsohn focuses his praise on the song's bass slides and the string arrangement,[8] elements Miller similarly lauds while mentioning Davies's "uncommonly lusty" lead vocals, which he thinks "put the seal on a skilled and infectious group performance.