Song Musings

Happy Hump Day and I hope this week has been kind to you thus far. Wednesday, of course, also means it’s time to take a closer look at another song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. Continuing my ’60s theme, which btw had not been planned, today’s pick is one of my favorites by The Kinks: Dead End Street.

Written by Ray Davies, Dead End Street appeared as a non-album single in November 1966. That was about five months after Dandy, the second and final single off The Kinks’ fourth studio album Face to Face, and six months prior to Waterloo Sunset, the lead single from their follow-on Something Else by the Kinks. Check out this cool official video, which was posted back in March as part of the celebration of the band’s 60th anniversary.

Dead End Street peaked at no. 5 in the UK, marking the sixth top 5 song for The Kinks in their home country. Elsewhere, it did particularly well in New Zealand and The Netherlands (each no. 4), Germany (no. 5) and Ireland (no. 7). The reception in the U.S. was less enthusiastic (no. 73), likely a reflection of the group’s ban there, which had taken effect after their disastrous 1965 mid-year tour.

“It was written very quickly and it was written for the winter,” said Ray Davies, according to Wikipedia. “It was that thing of living in England and having had a great summer and now the light was closing in and the mood just shifts. The music had that little jazz backbeat, but there were these dark edges. I thought I was writing a trad jazz vamp about hard times that were coming.”

He went on, “My father had lived through the depression and he had talked about it, so the song had that 20s/30s feel to it – those stomping chords, the march of destiny coming to grab you. It was a very visual backdrop to the song.” Here’s a cool live version of Dead End Street, captured in April 1984 at Grugahalle in Essen, Germany, apparently as part of German TV music program Rockpalast.

“‘Dead End Street’ was the epitome, to me, of what the Kinks were all about,” said Dave Davies in his 1996 autobiography Kink, as cited by Wikipedia. “A song full of character, pathos, yet containing an underlying sense of hope. Reflecting a fondness for the past but at the same time expressing a determination and yearning for change. Anguished voices calling to a heartless world. A world where the plight of the ordinary person mattered little. It was interesting to note that more than ten years later, the Clash did a song called ‘London Calling’ that seemed to be inspired by ‘Dead End Street’.”

Wikipedia also notes, Like many other songs written by Davies, it is to some degree influenced by British Music Hall. The bass playing was partly inspired by the “twangy” sound of Duane Eddy’s guitar. Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

This song is about the hopelessness of the British lower class, especially when unemployed. The title “Dead End Street,” which means a one way street, implies the difficulty for many of getting away from the desperate situation they find themselves in.

Ray Davies explained to Q magazine: “My whole feeling about the ’60s was that it’s not as great as everyone thinks it is. Carnaby Street, everybody looking happy, that was all a camouflage. That’s what Dead End Street was about.

I wrote it around the time I had to buy a house and I was terrified. I never wanted to own anything because my dad had never owned property. He’d inherited from his dad that he had to rent all his life. So I still have inbuilt shame of owning anything. It’s guilt.”

Dave Davies claimed this was one of his two favorite songs written by his brother, Ray. The other one he mentioned was “Shangri-La.”

The band pulled a fast one on producer Shel Talmy, who wanted the song to have more of a pop beat. Ray Davies told interviewer Daniel Rachel (The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters): “He finished the track and said, ‘That’s great,’ and went home. Then we pretended to leave but came back to the studio and re-recorded the song. We played it to him the next day and he said, ‘See what I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it.’ He thought we were playing him his version.”

This originally had a French horn arrangement played by a musician named Albert Hall, but it was replaced with a trombone to achieve the somber sound that Ray Davies wanted. “I wanted ‘Dead End Street’ to be a bit dour and a bit earthy and a bit working-class, and the trombone fitted beautifully,” he explained.

As for Albert Hall, his name stuck with Ray and inspired a lyric in the Face to Face track “Session Man”: “He never will forget at all the day he played at the Albert Hall.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfact; YouTube