I woke up to torrential rains on hump day called in sleep and woke up an hour later on hump day, a million articles running through my mind and none I can be bothered to write. Certainly now might be a good time to review Lauryn Hill’s new single before she goes off to jail? And how about a full on Rod Stewart new album review? I’m thinking about both but for right now I’m gonna tell you about the Kinks “Sunny Afternoon”, the 1966 UK # 1 off their masterful Face To Face album.
Face To Face is surrounded by the Kinks Kontroversy on one side and Something Else on the other, which makes it, baffling enough, the runt of the three album litter! If that isn’t enough to have you hold your breath and wonder why music isn’t as great now as it was in the mid-1960s, “Sunny Afternoon” had “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” on one side and “Dead End Street”. “Waterloo Sunset” hadn’t been written yet.
Similar to the two singles that surround it, and not a million miles away from the McCartney of “Your Mother Should Know” but much better, the song uses British Dancehall as a knees up topped by Ray Davies world weary vocals. The song begins with a descending chord progression and runs in place on the verses before breaking free but free to do what? on the bridge.
This makes sense because it is the story of England’s Paradise Postponed, where Prime Minister came up with supertax which taxed the rich (and the rock star of course) 110% of earnings. The comparison is with the Beatles “Taxman”: “The taxman’s taken all my dough and left me in my stately home…” is how it begins. But there is little more to it than this: “Sunny Afternoon” also finds his girlfriend gone with his car, his yacht gone, his Stately home on the chopping block and all he has is an ice cold beer and a sunny afternoon.
The song is a self portrait but not just of Davies -a rock and roll star never entirely comfortable with the shenanigans, of any man has had enough pressure, who just wants to lay back and enjoy the day. Who doesn’t care the tax are on his tail or his girl or gone. There is a deep satisfaction to his aloneness, to his coolness, to the warmth of the weather and the cool of the beer. And his own chiliness to his predicament and while his concerns bash through in the chorus “Save me save me save me from this squeeze” -the decision to leave the UK has been made.
All of this is backdrop to the way “Sunny Afternoon” is heard today. Nearly 50 years later it is a song of pure, tingling summer pleasure. “I love to live so pleasantly”, Ray has three tones on this song and this one is the sweetest, is a call to enjoy life. To find happiness if and when you can.
Grade: A+