Nobody was better at the detailed character sketch than Ray Davies of The Kinks during that band’s late ‘60s, early ‘70s heyday. Davies often delivered these snapshots as part of the concept albums that were the band’s specialty.
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Yet even when the band moved away from that approach, Davies was still capable of delivering a moving slice of life. On The Kinks’ 1978 song “Misfits,” he tried to capture the essence of a larger group of people instead of focusing on just a single person.
Back to their Rocking Roots
The Kinks started out their career with a pair of rocking, fuzzed-out singles that helped establish the garage rock genre. But chief songwriter Ray Davies soon moved well beyond that template to create much deeper material.
He started out by doing so within pop-rock boundaries on songs like “Sunny Afternoon” and “A Well Respected Man,” which slipped in some sly social commentary with their slick hooks. By the second half of the decade, The Kinks often incorporated musical styles much more common in the first half of the 20th century than the second.
These sounds fit well with the stories Davies was telling on albums like The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur, records that explored the traditions of Great Britain. But once The Kinks’ concept albums started to become less and less commercial in the first half of the ‘70s, the band needed to retrench.
They did so by plugging back in with more modern arena-rock sounds. Still, Davies didn’t stray too far from the more tender writing of those earlier years. “Misfits,” found on the album of the same name released in 1978, was just such a song. Although the instrumentation was more rock-oriented than some of the music hall influences of the earlier years, the writing was just as delicate and moving.
Examining the Lyrics of “Misfits”
The title of “Misfits” says it all about the type of person Davies wants to elucidate here. He manages to mix admiration at the way these folks stick to their beliefs with exasperation at the stubbornness that might actually damage their chance at happiness.
The narrator begins by cataloging the protagonist’s recent whereabouts and activities: You’ve been sleeping in a field but you look real rested / You set out to outrage but you can’t get arrested / You say your image is new, but it looks well tested. This study in contradictions takes a proactive approach to being on their own: You’re lost without a crowd yet you go your own way.
In the second verse, Davies hints this person might be well past their prime: You say your summer has gone / Now your winter is crawlin’ in. The narrator never quite writes this person off, however, as Davies’ empathetic streak keeps rising to the surface: Because you know what they say / Every dog has his day.
The narrator keeps trying to get through to this person, insisting they need not be so isolated: You’ve been a misfit all your life / Why don’t you join the crowd and come inside. In the bridge, he widens the scope, and we realize this is a song about a whole slew of mad eyed gazers and sad eyed failures: They’ve given up living ‘cos they just don’t care / So take a good look around / The misfits are everywhere.
Songs like “Misfits” proved the late-era Kinks could be just as affecting with reflective material as their earlier incarnation. It’s just that they dressed it up in more modern garb instead of old-fashioned togs.
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