I will do an Album Project update! (Big surprise!) Today I listened to the seventh studio album by The Kinks - 'Arthur or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire' (1969). This is a marvellous album full of all sorts of things that give the British their identity (including the hope of a new life emigrating to the colonies!). It's an album full of songs about the working man, war, class, hopes and dreams and everyday life. It's an album full of emotion. It's brilliant stuff, even though you may not have heard any of the songs on it before. Perhaps you've heard 'Victoria'. But chances are it would all be new to you.
The album was written for a TV project, though Granada pulled out and in the end it was only released as an album. The project featured a man called Arthur. The original story of Arthur (from the album cover) is as follows:
Arthur? Oh, of course, England and knights and round tables. Excailbre, Camelot. "So all day long the noise of battle roll'd among the mountains by the winter sea". Sorry, no. This is Arthur Morgan, who lives in a London suburb in a house called Shangri-La, with a garden and a car and a wife called Rose and a son called Derek. Derek who's married to Liz, and they have these two very nice kids, Terry and Marilyn. Derek and Liz and Terry and Marilyn are emigrating to Australia. Arthur did have another son, called Eddie. He was named for Arthur's brother, who was killed in the battle of the Somme. Arthur's Eddie was killed, too - in Korea. His son, Ronnie, is a student and he thinks the world's got to change one hell of a lot before it's going to be good enough for him. Derek thinks it's changed a bloody sight too much - he can't stick England any more, all these bloody bureaucrats everywhere, bloody hell, he's getting out. Ronnie and Derek don't exactly get on. Arthur wasn't named for Arthur of Camelot and all that, he was called after Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and Earl of Sussex, because Arthur's parents knew their place, and children ought to be named in honour of Queen Victoria's children, and Prince Arthur, you know, he was her third and married... Arthur has spent most of his life on his knees, laying carpets. Oh, and he had his plans, he was thinking very seriously indeed about setting up on his own, only he hadn't much in the way of savings and there was this Hitler and... it all seemed a bit risky. There were the children to think of, weren't there? Arthur doesn't like risks, he never has. He bought a car instead, and took the kids out on Sundays. Things aren't exactly easy now he's retired, but he owns his own house, and most of his car. You've got to be careful. But you don't want to worry too much about the world, the way Ronnie does, or complain all the time like Derek, you're not going to get anywhere like that, you know. You want to take things as they come.
Things have been coming at Arthur all his life. Arthur's life, and the life of millions of English people like him, is shown through the songs Ray Davies has written. The Granada TV story in which they're set all takes place on Derek and Liz's last day in England. Nothing happens very much - everyone has Sunday dinner together, then Ronnie turns up and the men go to the pub where Ronnie gets all worked up about The System, while Liz and Rose talk about the past, and then Arthur takes them all to the boat, and they have a picnic on the way, and all the time Arthur's remembering his life and... It's been a sad day for Arthur, seeing them off. People haven't been nearly as nice to Arthur as he's been to them, and... What's it all about, then? Is this what he's lived for? He's got the house, hasn't he? And the car? It's been a good life, hasn't it? Well, hasn't it?
(By Julian Mitchell)
Labels: 1969, Album Project, Arthur or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, The Kinks
0 Comments:
Post a Comment