drums, the latter of which critic Stewart Mason terms "cleverly sloppy". "Johnny Thunder" Ray composed "Johnny Thunder" after watching László Benedek's 1953 film The Wild One, which had been banned by British censors until February1968. Like the film's lead character Johnny, played by Marlon Brando, Johnny Thunder is a rebellious biker and an enemy of conformity. A straightforward rock song, the recording joins acoustic guitars, bass and drums with an electric guitar contribution by Dave, who plays a countermelody low in the mix. The backing vocals are wordless and imitate the sound of a brass section, while it is one of the few instances on the album of Ray's lead vocal not being double-tracked. "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is likely the last song Ray wrote for Village Green. Its lyrics describe a steam train that has outlived its usefulness and moved to a museum. The composition coincided with a years-long reduction in the British railway network and the replacement of steam trains by diesel engines, a change which went into effect two months before the song's recording. Based around the riff of Howlin' Wolf's 1956 song "Smokestack Lightning" – a popular recording among early 1960s British R&B groups – the song recalls the Kinks' roots as an R&B focused band. Several commentators regard the song as Ray's criticism of early British R&B groups for being inauthentic compared to the American blues artists who wrote many of the songs they recorded, while others think it expresses his feelings of disconnect from contemporary culture. "Big Sky" Ray composed "Big Sky" in late January1968 while attending the second annual MIDEM festival, a music publishers gathering held in Cannes, France. While watching the sunrise from his balcony at the Carlton Hotel, he noticed the businessmen walking below, a moment which inspired the line "Big Sky looking down on all the people". While Ray has typically been coy about interpreting the song's meaning, retrospective commentators often interpret it as describing God as unsympathetic towards the problems of humans. Ray's lead vocal alternates between singing, speaking and harmonising with Dave while Rasa contributes a wordless falsetto harmony. Ray compared his spoken lyric to the voice of God, and Dave later suggested that Ray was impersonating American actor Burt Lancaster. "Sitting by the Riverside" "Sitting by the Riverside" joins honky-tonk piano with an accordion produced via Mellotron. The singer enjoys the