Big Sky (song)

"Big Sky"
Song by the Kinks
from the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Released22 November 1968 (1968-11-22)
Recordedc.12 October 1968
StudioPye, London
GenrePop,[1] rock[2]
Length2:50
LabelPye
Songwriter(s)Ray Davies
Producer(s)Ray Davies
Official audio
"Big Sky" on YouTube

"Big Sky" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks. Written and sung by Ray Davies, it was released in November 1968 on the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Ray has typically avoided providing a direct answer on the song's meaning, but commentators often interpret it as describing God as unsympathetic towards the problems of humans.

Ray composed the song in January 1968 in Cannes, France, after watching people walk beneath the sunrise from his hotel balcony. The Kinks recorded it in October 1968, making it among the last songs recorded for Village Green. Ray's lead vocal alternates between singing, speaking and harmonising with his brother, Dave; Ray's wife, Rasa, contributes a wordless falsetto harmony. Though Ray later disparaged his vocals and the song's production, contemporary reviewers and retrospective commentators have described it in favourable terms, highlighting its songwriting, while disputing its level of thematic cohesion with the other songs on Village Green. It is one of only two songs from the album that the Kinks performed live, including it in their set list from its release through 1971. Yo La Tengo and Matthew Sweet have each covered the song.

  1. ^ Kitts 2008, p. 124; Miller 2003, p. 74.
  2. ^ Savage 1984, p. 101; Matijas-Mecca 2020, p. 107: "['Big Sky'] thematically falls into a postpsychedelic genre of introspective rock music."