The 1960s produced a mass of consequential acts. It was the era where the song shed its primal skin and developed into its contemporary form. The musical format was imbued with more character and innovation than it had previously been, where it became a tool of absolute sonic and personal resistance. While much of this story usually centres around The Beatles, one of their most important peers was The Kinks, fuelled by the creative brilliance of brothers Ray and Dave Davies.
Capturing the traditional romanticism and idiosyncracies of his hometown, London, as well as the excitement for the future of the quickly developing city, the Davies brothers produced many influential tracks with The Kinks. Their oeuvre ranges from the distorted proto-punk of ‘All Day and All of the Night’ to the era-defining ballad ‘Waterloo Sunset’, which aptly conveys the accomplishment of their art.
True masters of British songwriting, there aren’t many from across the spectrum of popular music who can claim to represent the essence of this tiny island as much as The Kinks. You’d argue that the only ones who pipped their work are their British Invasion brothers-in-arms, The Beatles. Still, even then, their music was considerably more innocuous than the Davies’ most significant work. Their concentration on tangible aspects of life made listeners fall deeply in love with The Kinks.
However, The Kinks’ work was not just brilliant in the 1960s. The following decade saw them take the scope of their work up a notch and craft palettes that were increasingly mature distillations of their persons. One of the group’s greatest records from this period is 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies, an astute comment on the obstacles faced by the working classes.
When speaking to Guitar World in 2023, Dave Davies picked his favourite early 1970s Kinks tracks. During the conversation, he chose the lead single ’20th Century Man’, an incisive take on the pitfalls of the modern world, as one of his band’s most “important” efforts.
Davies explained: “One of my favourite Ray songs. It’s an important song, not just on this album but any album, and it’s still valid today. It’s a very perceptive track with a great feel. It was a privilege to be a part of it. We were trying to get a sort of thoughtful, ‘Well, what’s going to happen?’ kind of mood and to keep the instruments more subdued. That’s where I thought the slide guitar came in handy, and it really changes the mood.”
He added: “As with all of the tracks on Muswell Hillbillies, one of the reasons I used slides a lot was because it evokes a different feel – not nostalgic but wondering. The slide gave you a sense of wonder. The important thing about the arrangement that we used on the master is that it’s kind of [an] undercurrent, underplayed. A track like that needs that underplaying.”
Listen to ’20th Century Man’ below.
