Vinyl Vault

Ray Davies has never been your average rock hero. Case in point: The Kinks’ 1971 album, Muswell Hillbillies, in which Davies and the band spurn sex, drugs, and rock and roll in favor of tea, solitude, and the simple life. But does all of that simplicity add up to great music? Only a song-by-song album review could possibly tell the tale.

Muswell Hillbillies (1971, RCA Victor)

Side A

“20th Century Man” **** Listen
“This is the age of machinery/A mechanical nightmare.” With those ominous opening lines, it’s clear that Davies isn’t thrilled about technological advances. (Wonder how he feels now.) Starting as an acoustic strum, it builds to the kind of power chord rock the group is known for, as the music tries to blast its way out of the dead end that Davies sees in his lyrics.

“Acute Paranoid Schizophrenia Blues” *** Listen
With the milkman, grocer, and the KGB agent next door bearing down on him, it’s no wonder Davies suffers from the titular ailment. Typically clever lyrics are aided by jazzy horns.

“Holiday” ** Listen
This lark of a song about a seemingly enforced vacation (“I’m so glad they sent me away”) has it’s funny moments but is a bit slight.

“Skin and Bone” *** Listen
Deprived of many chances to rock out on the album, the band takes what it can get by locking into this foot-stomper about Ray’s distaste for those who overdo the whole weight-loss thing.

“Alcohol” *** Listen
With what sounds like a prohibition-era jazz-band behind them, the Kinks warn about the dangers of the bottle. And with lyrics this nimble, Davies sounds like he practiced what he preached.

“Complicated Life” ** Listen
The ragged but fun harmonies help to alleviate yet another the world-is-too-much-for-me lament, but the message is starting to seem unrelentingly bleak at this point.

Side B

“Here Come the People in Grey” ** Listen
Again, this one seems like overkill in the gloom-and-doom department, although what stands out here is Davies’ sudden aggressivenvess at those who would intrude on his idyllic life: “we’re gonna buy me a gun to keep the policemen away.”

“Have a Cuppa Tea” *** Listen
This hilarious trifle takes good-natured aim at English society’s embrace of tea as a cure for all ills.

“Holloway Jail” ** Listen
The Kinks sound more like The Band here, but, for once, it’s Davies’ lyrics that are the problem. They aim to pay tribute to traditional prison dirges, but they come off more like parody.

“Oklahoma, U.S.A.” **** Listen
A lovely, brief piano ballad bathed in accordion, this song tells the tale of a working girl who escapes the drudgery of her life by daydreaming about American movies and musicals. Davies would revisit this topic later in the Kinks career, but not with as much subtley and tenderness.

“Uncle Son” *** Listen
A nice portrait of an ordinary man who lives a life unaffected by all the divisive groups trying to bring him over to their side.

“Muswell Hillbilly” **** Listen
Referring to the area in which he and brother Dave grew up, Ray Davies defiantly maintains his identity in the face of all the pressure around him to conform to society (“They’ll never make a zombie out of me”). And Dave scores big with an unforgettable opening riff that’s part British Invasion, part Nashville.

The Bottom Line

Although some more rock interludes and affecting character studies might have offered needed variety to Muswell Hillbillies, it’s hard to knock the uniqueness of Ray Davies’ vision and the Kinks ability to pull off their genre homages more often than not.

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