There's always a tension in Kinks songs between celebrating and satirizing conventional values. On the face of this, it's a pretty straightforward song about a young girl who goes off to the city and lives a wild --and we can assume sexual --life on her own, and then comes back home.
It seems as though the Kinks are waving a disapproving finger at her --but some ambiguity creeps in with the two versions of the "chains" line. Are the chains on or off for Polly? And is that a good or a bad thing?
There's always a tension in Kinks songs between celebrating and satirizing conventional values. On the face of this, it's a pretty straightforward song about a young girl who goes off to the city and lives a wild --and we can assume sexual --life on her own, and then comes back home.
It seems as though the Kinks are waving a disapproving finger at her --but some ambiguity creeps in with the two versions of the "chains" line. Are the chains on or off for Polly? And is that a good or a bad thing?