15 tracks
Side one "The Village Green Preservation Society" "Do You Remember Walter?" "Picture Book" "Johnny Thunder" "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" "Big Sky" "Sitting by the Riverside" Side two "Animal Farm" "Village Green" "Starstruck" "Phenomenal Cat" "All of My Friends Were There" "Wicked Annabella" "Monica" "People Take Pictures of Each Other"

15 tracks
Side one "The Village Green Preservation Society" "Do You Remember Walter?" "Picture Book" "Johnny Thunder" "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" "Big Sky" "Sitting by the Riverside" Side two "Animal Farm" "Village Green" "Starstruck" "Phenomenal Cat" "All of My Friends Were There" "Wicked Annabella" "Monica" "People Take Pictures of Each Other"

"Animal Farm" is the first track on the second side of The Kinks' 1968 album, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The track was written by The Kinks' main songwriter, Ray Davies.

The lyrics of "Animal Farm" visit an escapism theme (one that would be returned to in "Apeman" and "Supersonic Rocket Ship"), with the singer wanting to flee to "where real animals are playing." He yearns "to be back there, among the cats and dogs and the pigs and the goats on Animal Farm, [his] animal home." The singer dreams of his girlfriend, "though she's far from home," but in his fantasy on animal farm, "she's by [his] side." The singer then offers to "take [her] where real animals are playing," "on Animal Farm."

When talking about "Animal Farm", Ray Davies said, "This was just me thinking everybody else's mad and we are all animals anyway - which is really the idea of the whole album."

"Animal Farm" has a folk feel, similarly to many other tracks on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Andy Miller wrote in his book, 33 and 1/3 book Kinks' The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society that "'Animal Farm' has a noticeably bigger sound than much of the rest of the album, with plenty of reverb applied to the drums, percussion and the tack piano that picks out the song's opening riff." When talking about the vocal line of "Animal Farm", Ray Davies said, "'The sky is wide' is a line I knew I could just about reach that note and, to me, the whole record is the way I sing that line. I knew that before it was recorded. I must have been so confident, so sure of myself."

A mellotron was used to impersonate strings in the track rather than using actual string instruments. Drummer Mick Avory claims that "Animal Farm" was recorded in Pye Studios 1.

The recording of Animal Farm was somewhat controversial. Bassist Pete Quaife stated, "There was a big fight about 'Animal Farm'. I thought the bass should be playing the piano introduction as well. Both Ray and Dave threw a hissy fit and said no. So it's not there. I was a bit angry and sour about that one."

"Animal Farm" was first released on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society as the eighth track on said album. However, the track was eventually used as the B-side to the Japanese only single, "Village Green". The track was also released on The Kinks' compilation album Picture Book, and an alternate stereo mix of the track made its debut on the 2004 Sanctuary Records special deluxe edition of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

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Wikipedia