Last of the Steam-Powered Sawmills, Hear That Ray Davies?
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Last of the Steam-Powered Sawmills, Hear That Ray Davies?So I'm watching this totally cool video about the Phillips Brothers operating one of the last steam driven sawmills and all the while a vintage Kinks' song, "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains," is buzzing in my brain.

What could I say that might reconcile the moment of these images depicting kinder, gentler times?

Trust me, it's too scary of a thought to invite you into my brain.

Fortunately, though, through the modern miracle that is Youtube, I have been enabled to conjoin a video of the Phillips Brothers' iconic sawmill (above) in Oak Run, CA, and the aforementioned song from one of my all-time fave Kinks' albums, "The Village Green Preservation Society" in one space and time (below).

The Phillips Brothers, a manufacturer of wooden boxes, traces its history back to 1897, when Edmund Phillips purchased the wheels, rollers and levers of a dismantled sawmill for $25 a piece to make the log carriage for the sawmill still in existence on North Cow River.

The Kinks, founded by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964 and inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, were a major player in the British Invasion with Top 10 hits like You Really Got Me, All Day and All the Night and Lola among many others. Ray and Dave, recovered from a debilitating stroke, are still rocking half a century later. 

 

 

 

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