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"

"Big Sky" is a song by the British rock band The Kinks. Appearing on their critically acclaimed album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, the song was written by Ray Davies.

The lyrics of "Big Sky" tell about how "big sky looked down on all the people looking up at the big sky," and how "big sky looked down on all the people who think they got problems ... but big sky is too big to sympathize." Ray Davies originally came up with the song at a hotel in Cannes. Davies said, "I spent an evening with all these people doing deals. The next morning at the Carlton Hotel I watched the sun come up and I looked at them all down there, all going out to do their deals. That's where I got the "Big sky looking down on all the people" line. It started from there." At one point, Davies was asked whether the "Big sky" was God, he refused to give a clear answer.

"Big Sky" was one of two tracks recorded in Autumn 1968 (the other being "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains"), after Ray Davies had convinced Pye to withdraw the original 12-track version of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Since it was written far prior to its recording, author Andy Miller speculates that the song, like "Picture Book", was intended to be on a canceled Ray Davies solo album, but upon the project's collapse, it was used for The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

"Big Sky" was one of two tracks from The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society that was performed live ("Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is the other) by The Kinks. The song was performed in a more heavy rock style, which Andy Miller described as "horrible." The song was dropped from the band's live set after 1972, and hasn't been performed by either Ray Davies or Dave Davies since.

"Big Sky" first saw release on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, where it was the sixth track. Despite not being released as a single, the song also appeared on the compilation album Picture Book and the bootleg album Good Luck Charm.

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Wikipedia