Album: Something Else By The Kinks
Year: 1967
“Death of a Clown” is a weird bird in Kinks world. Not only was it originally released as a Dave Davies solo single — which reached #3 on the U.K. charts! — it’s one of the very few songs credited to both Davies brothers.
None of which I knew, of course, when I first bought Something Else by The Kinks back in late 1980 during a phase where I dug heavily into the late 1960s Kinks. I’m not even sure if I knew it was Dave singing, which of course seems obvious now, but I was trying to absorb The Kinks without questioning much at that time.
And that said, the co-credit was a bit of a mislead: the lion’s share of the tune and words are all Dave, with Ray contributing only the — admittedly key — background vocal hook. And even though Dave was still a bit clunky on the lyrics front — at one point he sings “trainer of insects” instead of the more natural-sounding “insect trainer” — the pathos of “Death of a Clown” shines brightly.
Fitting in musically with that run of Kinks singles that had a vague countryish feel, “Death of a Clown” was an allegory about party animal Dave trying to get himself right as he matured into his early 20s:
My makeup is dry and it cracks round my chin
I’m drowning my sorrows in whiskey and gin
The lion-tamer’s whip doesn’t crack anymore
The lions they won’t fight and the tigers won’t roar
At first, Dave sounds scared and lonely, all by himself — after all, the clownish behavior he’d been indulging was often fun, and who would he be after his clown persona died?
But then — out of nowhere — the etherial vocals of secret weapon Rasa Davies come in for the hook: La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, and the mood picks up. He has support from his sister-in-law, at least vocally.
Eventually his brother — who wrote that hook — also joins in, and soon everybody is singing the chorus together, and “Death of a Clown” is transformed into a weirdly joyous party celebrating the end of partying.
“Death of a Clown”
“Death of a Clown” official promo video
Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page
No comments:
Post a Comment