The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-detached

(Paperback)

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An illuminating study of the relationship between the Kinks and their city, London.

Of all the great British bands to emerge from the 1960s, none had a stronger sense of place than the Kinks. Often described as the archetypal English band, they were above all a quintessentially working-class band with a deep attachment to London. Mark Doyle examines the relationship between the Kinks and their city, from their early songs of teenage rebellion to their album-length works of social criticism. He finds fascinating and sometimes surprising connections with figures as diverse as Edmund Burke, John Clare and Charles Dickens. More than just a book about the Kinks, this is a book about a social class undergoing a series of profound changes, and about a group of young men who found a way to describe, lament and occasionally even celebrate those changes through song.

Reviews

"Doyle extracts meaning from narrative without simply going through the lyrics. Rather, he offers what he calls 'historically informed rock criticism' careful descriptions of the social, political, and cultural contexts of each album, with the Kinks placed convincingly in the longer continuum of English artistic expression, from Hogarth to Dickens, from Orwell to Betjeman. The result is a beautifully crafted, sustained meditation on postwar, working-class London and on the gentle balance between memory and nostalgia. . . . For those unfamiliar with the Kinks in all their 'sloppy, joyous and occasionally maudlin' glory, Doyle's Songs of the Semi-Detached is both an informed guide and sterling companion. And at a time when the very idea of England is changing, the Kinks' music is both a bright remnant of the past and a dark portent of times to come."-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"Doyle finds the world of postwar Britain, rapidly changing yet also nostalgic, endlessly fascinating. He sees class and social attitudes through the eyes of an outside observer, and places Davies in the company of Betjeman, Auden, and Larkin as a chronicler of suburbia. . . . The Kinks is thoughtful and readable."-- "Literary Review"
"Few bands have expressed as strong a connection to a particular geographical location as the Kinks. Waterloo Sunset is perhaps the ultimate London song, but as this fascinating book points out, the connections to the capital and its cultural, historical and literary traditions run even deeper."-- "Choice Magazine (UK)"
"Just when you think most everything that could be written about (or by) The Kinks has been published, along comes a wonderful assessment about the band and the city it has always called home. . . . Doyle brings an academic but far from dry lens to the crucial years of the band, from inception in 1964 to the autobiographical Muswell Hillbillies album from 1971 . . . Davies clearly loves and hates the past. He has grappled with that dichotomy for decades, and Doyle does a fabulous job of elucidating the conundrum that is Ray Davies."-- "Entertainment Today"
"The author interprets Lola versus Powerman . . . and Muswell Hillbillies as distinctly angry responses to personal and social issues, as Davies chronicles his disillusionment with the music business and rages about urban renewal. Doyle's wide-ranging analysis takes in town planning, modern architecture, the seeds of Thatcherism, and more. . . . The scope is impressive."-- "Irish Times"
"Doyle is less a fanboy, more inclined to trace the psychogeography of Ray Davies's immaculate lyricism, drawing a ley line from Fortis Green to all things Carnabetian. . . . As an example of critical rather than academic investigation, Songs of the Semi-Detached nails Davies's observational cynicism and class-consciousness, revealing his many masks."--Max Bell "Classic Rock"
"Quixotic . . . [and] excellent. . . . Doyle's book is a welcome piece of historically informed criticism that situates the Kinks in their proper milieu--postwar, working-class North London--and their cultural moment: the British music explosion of the 1960s. . . . For a book that doesn't once mention Brexit, The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached demonstrates precisely how Britain arrived at the referendum of June 2016."--Wesley Stace "Wall Street Journal"

Author Bio

Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of Fighting Like the Devil for the Sake of God: Protestants, Catholics, and the Origins of Violence in Belfast (2009) and the editor of The British Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia (2018).