The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon

(Hardback)

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Emerging from the same British music boom that birthed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Dave and Ray Daviess band, the Kinks, became one of Englands most influential groups. Remembered best for such singles as You Really Got Me, Lola, and Sunny Afternoon, the Kinks produced 24 studio albums between 1964 and 1996. The Kinks prolific and varied catalog have made them both a mirror of and a counterfoil to nearly five decades of British and American culture. The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon examines the music and performance of this quintessentially English band and shows how aspects of everyday life such as work, play, buying a house, driving a car, drinking tea, getting drunk, and getting laid, affected and shaped their creative output. Through an investigation of their music, lyrics, and image, Carey Fleiner shows how the Kinks reflected both the ordinary and the absurd, sometimes confronting topics with anger and sometimes with self-deprecating humor. The Kinks follows the bands trajectory more or less chronologically and explores themes such as growing up in post-war Britain, the packaging and exploitation of the British Invasion bands, satire and self-consciousness, sexuality and gender-bending, social and political pessimism, the comforts of family, and the effects of fame and fandom. Fleiners investigation into the influences on and impact of the Kinks music takes readers on an engaging adventure through the musical culture of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, revealing how the Kinks created an undeniable sound and image that still attracts new followers today.

Reviews

Fleiner, who teaches classical history at the University of Winchester, nicely places the reader into the atmosphere that produced the Kinks, one of the most important bands of the British Invasion. The book veers from their image as teenage rebels into their status as champions of average folk; Fleiner sets the tone early, saying this is 'not a biography of the band,' and focuses on the culture and world that surrounded the Kinks and influenced their music. Arranged chronologically, the book offers an excellent history of postwar Great Britain told through the eyes of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, and their bandmates. The authors background as a historian shines through in the books meticulous research and analytical perspective on the cultural context in which the Kinks wrote their music. Coming out of Britains working class in the mid-1960s, the Davies experienced a bit of social mobility during the postwar economic boom. The book deftly discusses the influence of their economic perspective on both the sound of their music and the stories they chose to tell. * Publishers Weekly *
The Kinks were among the most idiosyncratic bands that emerged during the British Invasion of the 1960s. They were defiantly English. In fact, as Fleiner notes, they were often celebrated as an icon of 'Englishness.' And, true to form, their Englishness was in full display in such works as The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968) and Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969). Their songs evoked social satire, personal memories, political satire, and, especially, nostalgia for a lost England. Still, their best-known song is probably the enduring and gender-bending 'Lola,' about a transvestite. Fleiner examines the Kinks musical influences, which ranged from the music-hall tradition to the Davies familys own Saturday night house parties, when the front room was filled with family and friends singing and dancing around the piano. Other strong influences were the exciting sounds coming over from America. Fleiner also explores the bands very distinctive, and often self-deprecating, humor; the sexuality and gender issues in their music; the Kinks as a socially conscious band; and, especially, their reputation as champions of the 'ordinary guy' as well as their ongoing legacy. Fans of the beloved, and often underappreciated, band will enjoy this thoughtful examination of their music. To paraphrase a line from their own lyrics, and as this book proves, the Kinks arenot like everybody else. * Booklist *
[The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon] adds to the understanding of the Kinkss universe as Fleiner concentrates on their continual motif of music-hall style/themes blended in with topics of everyday life. This entertaining (and very successful) coinage had been impossible without the lyrics of Ray Davies that contained a very special dose of absurdity, irony, social criticism, satire, humor and sometimes a bleak outlook on Englands future. * Popcultureshelf.com *

Author Bio

Carey Fleiner is currently a senior lecturer in classical and early medieval history at the University of Winchester. She has taught classes in both ancient history and the history of rock and roll.