20th Century Man

Makes me wonder what Ray thinks of the world now that the digital age is here. The internet, social networking, iPods, cell phones. And he thought the 70s were bad. Ray's generation were the first ones to have to deal with life as we know it now, in fact people's every day lives and culture were radically different before and after WW2 (to a degree I can not even fathom). Advertising, television, radio, popular music, interstate highways, affordable automobiles, the rise of the cities and fall of the country, even suburbs and housing developments. Wasn't happening before the Boomers came to be. How many times a day do you hear music? (all day long, right? how weird is that? imagine if you had to rely on [expensive] records and stereo systems. or before the '50s when hardly anyone listened to recorded music and had to hear it live) How many times a day do you see an advertisement? Travel more than 3 miles from your home? Purchase a product made by a corporation worth billions of dollars and is available everywhere? It must have driven some people crazy having to deal with all of these changes at once, the modernization of the western world. People used to have quiet, simple lives, until the last 50 years. Anyway that's what Ray is on about. If you like when he covers this theme in Kinks songs then definitely check out Grandaddy, especially the album Sophtware Slump, it picks up where this song leaves off and is completely awesome.

This song deserves to have a whole bunch of comments. Muswell Hillbillies is a pretty good album, but this first song is incredible. This is one of the best portrayals of modern day fatigue and weariness, the absurdity of war, the onslaught of technology and the loss of humanity and everyday emotion that I've heard. It's about how the hustle and bustle of this day and age swallows the individual. You lose your ambition, your privacy, your liberty. People are aggravated and disturbed by the loss of empathy and the rise of war and technology. The quainter times are lost and desperation sets in.

That's what I get from these lyrics. A sense that time is swallowing up your soul and you're losing in the insanity of modern times. I'd very much like to cover this song. It's a powerful social comment on the flaws of modern living and the fragility of the human condition. It's about the abuse of power and resources to crush the individual.

'I was born in a welfare state Ruled by bureaucracy Controlled by civil servants And people dressed in gray'

• This part is so wonderfully melodic and epic, and shot through and through with weariness. Sounds like he's given up on life, he's got nowhere to go in this society, but then at the end he's fighting back and screaming 'This is the twentieth century. But too much aggravation!!. There's life left in him, he'll fight back.

This song is amazing.

mrpieeater pretty much spoke my mind. I also can't beleive more ppl don't comment on this song, it's addictive as hell.

I also love the guitar in this song. It's unique sounding and is a good exmaple of how versatile their sound is.

I saw this live in Brighton a couple of years ago at a Ray solo show, so glad he played it, I was massively into this album at the time, and he also played Oklahoma, USA :o)

I just love the Englishness of The Kinks, they've got this great blues riff going on, played with so much rock and roll passion, yet he's singing about going back to previous times, "I'll take Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Titian and Gainsborrrrooooooouuuuuugh!"

Such a great riff, and great fun to play on guitar too (always the sign of a good song), and the bridge section is just beautiful, neither major or minor to start, just kind of dissolves into a feeling of numbness at how modern life has dragged him down continually, then slips into a minor key with "Got no privacy, got no liberty..." before rocking back into the riff for the final push.

One of the all-time great opening tracks on any album, you have to give it a listen.

he accomplishes more lyrically in this ONE SONG than thom yorke has done in HIS ENTIRE CAREER

If this song strikes a chord, then Other Peoples' Lives will also. The themes return again and again with Ray and Dave, and they always seem fresh, with a new twist and even a tip of the hat to others whose voices have been added to those critical of the dehumanizing and depersonalizing trend of 21st Century society.