The Kinks: Sunny Afternoon

Track of the Week - 4 April 2021

Yep. Back to the weather. We had the hottest March day for 53 years this week so I feel it's worth a mention. Friday was a gorgeous day too and I was basking in the car waiting for my mum after her second covid-19 jab which leads me to Sunny Afternoon as this week's choice.

Checking back through previous posts this would appear to be the first Kinks track I've used which seems like a massive oversight. A lot of their sixties output is fantastic and not just the singles, the albums The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) are well worth your time if you're not already familiar with them.

Sunny Afternoon isn't from either of those records but was a 1966 number one.  Singer-songwriter Ray Davies has a pop at the high tax rates of the time but is careful to make the narrator of the song a character that the listeners won't necessarily feel sympathy with lest he look a bit of a moaner. 

And that's all wrapped up in a superb tune. Sixties pop perfection.