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Muswell Hillbillies
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Muswell Hillbillies is an album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1971. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and where the band formed in the early 1960s.
The album is a wide-ranging collection of Ray Davies compositions which focus on the frustrations and stresses of modern life. Davies had addressed this theme in many previous songs, but it reached maturity on this album and forms a unifying theme.
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Encyclopedia
Muswell Hillbillies is an album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1971. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and where the band formed in the early 1960s.
The album is a wide-ranging collection of Ray Davies compositions which focus on the frustrations and stresses of modern life. Davies had addressed this theme in many previous songs, but it reached maturity on this album and forms a unifying theme. The musical styles range from rock ("20th Century Man") and country ("Muswell Hillbilly") to blues ("Here Come the People in Grey") and theatrical, music-hall inspired numbers ("Alcohol"). The general sound of the album is more acoustic than that of the previous album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. The album differs from the others of this period in its blending of strong American references and musical styles with Davies' trademark English subject matter and themes, especially in songs such as "Oklahoma U.S.A." and "Muswell Hillbilly".
Most critics consider this to be the last of the group's great albums from their "Golden Age" of 1966-1972. In 1984, Rolling Stone editors called this album Davies' "signature statement" as a songwriter.
Ironically, the front cover picture was taken in The Archway Tavern, a pub more than 2 miles away from Muswell Hill. The back inset picture showing the band below a signpost giving direction to Muswell Hill was taken on the small traffic island at the intersection of Castle Yard and Southwood Lane in Highgate.
Muswell Hillbillies was the band's first album for RCA Records, their prior recordings having been released on Pye Records (Reprise Records in the United States). Hillbillies was not a commercial success (it failed to chart in the United Kingdom and was only modestly successful in the United States), and its low sales were a disappointment following the success of Lola the previous year. But it was critically well-received and was named 1972 album of the year by Stereo Review.
After the release of the Kinks' next album, 1972's Everybody's in Show-Biz, Davies took the band into a four-year "theatrical" incarnation (1973-1976) with an expanded line-up of musicians and thematic concept albums constructed around elaborate stage shows.
Track listing
All songs by Ray Davies.
- "20th Century Man" – 5:57
- "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" – 3:32
- "Holiday" – 2:40
- "Skin and Bone" – 3:39
- "Alcohol" – 3:35
- "Complicated Life" – 4:02
- "Here Come the People in Grey" – 3:46
- "Have a Cuppa Tea" – 3:45
- "Holloway Jail" – 3:29
- "Oklahoma U.S.A." – 2:38
- "Uncle Son" – 2:33
- "Muswell Hillbilly" – 4:58
1998 CD re-issue bonus tracks
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- "Mountain Woman" – 3:08
- "Kentucky Moon (Demo)" – 3:57
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