Sunny Afternoon By The kinks

Some background…

The Kinks were one of the most influential English rock bands in the 1960’s, abd were a part of the British rock invation in the United States. It was Formed in 1963 in north London by brothers Ray Davis and Dave Davis.

Some of the most successful hits of the band are “You Really Got Me”, “All Day and All Of the Night”, “Lola”, and of course – “Sunny Afternoon”.

This book is about the song “Sunny Afternoon”, and we will talk about the origins of the song, the meaning of the lyrics and the comparison to the song “Taxman” by The Beatles.

Fisrt, let’s hear the song:

The Official Audio:

And a live preformance from “A Whole Scene Going”, 1966:

About the song

“Sunny Afternoon” was written by Ray Davis in his house when he was sick, tired and lonely.

The song references the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour Goverment of Harold Wilson in those years, and in the same breath criticizing the privileged ones who “suffered” from this phenomenon.

The Beatles also have a song called “Taxman” which refers to the high levels of progressive tax.

Both The Kinks and The Beatles came from working-class families, and as they started to earn more money, they were shocked by the hige level of taxes they needed to pay.

The song reflects how poorly Davis felt when he was sick. He felt screwed by his goverment – having worked up the ladder to reach unchartered heights only to have his account ransacked.

He once said:

“The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself.”

Now, Lets get a bit more familiar with the lyrics (and chords):

The First Verse:

     Dm             C7
The taxman's taken all my dough
     F              C7
And left me in my stately home
A      A/G   A/F  A/E   Dm
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
               C7
And I can't sail my yacht
       F          C7
He's taken everything I've got
A          A/G        A/F  A/E Dm
All I've got's this sunny afternoon

In the line

“The taxman’s taken all my dough”

Davis is complaining about the progressive income tax system enacted in 1960s England. In this system a person with higher income would pay a higer proportional tax rate, and it was significantly more than it is today.

We can see the similarity between the complain in this line to the comlain in the lines

“Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me”

And in the lines

“Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all”

from the song “Taxman” by The Beatles.

But unlike the last line, in the line

“And left me in my stately home“

Davis criticizes the same “privileged” ones who “suffer” from the progressive tax, because the narrator still left in his “stately home”.

Farthermore, Unlike the last line, in the song “Taxman” by The Beatles there is no line that criticizes the rich (“privileged”) people like this line.

The first two lines are a “tongue in cheek contradiction” because the taxman “taken all my dough” but he “left me in my stately home“.

The next two lines

“And I can’t sail my yacht
He’s taken everything I got”

also express the same contradiction from the first two lines. These lines also criticizes the rich people such as the first two lines.

First Chorus

[Chorus]
 
D                  D7                   G   G7
Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
            C7                       F     A7
I got a big fat mama tryin' to break me
      Dm                G
And I love to live so pleasantly
 Dm                  G7   C
Live this life of luxury
F            A         Dm  Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime
         Dm     Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
In a summertime
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime

In The lines

“Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I gotta big fat mama trying to break me”

the “big fat mama” is the British goverment and the squeeze is simply the British goverment, the “big fat mama” trying to tax the people.

Davis said about this line:

“alludes to the government, the British Empire, trying to break people. And they’re still doing it. How are we going to get out of this f—ing mess?”

The two next lines,

“And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury”

are a critique about the rich people that live life of luxury without working hard or making any effort in life.

Second Verse

    Dm             C7
My girlfriend's run off with my car
     F              C7
And gone back to her ma and pa
A         A/G      A/F   A/E   Dm
Tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty
               C7
Now I'm sittin' here
       F          C7
Sippin' at my ice-cooled beer
A      A/G     A/F    A/E   Dm
Lazin' on this sunny afternoon

The interesting fact about this verse is that Davis didn’t want his audience to sympathise with the misfortunes of the protagonist (the rich people in the society).

Davis just wanted to express these misfortunes and he knew he’d find no empathy in his audience.

In the lines

“My girlfriend’s run off with my car”

and

“Tellin’ tales of drunkenness and cruelty“

We can see that the protagonist fought with his girlfriend after a night of darkness and cruelty.

Davis portrayed him like that so the audience won’t sympathize. He said he portrayed him as

“a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty”

this line also critiques the rich people because in his view, rich people were cruel, mostly to the poor working-class people.

The next two lines

“Now I’m sitting here
Sipping at my ice cold beer”

express the validity of the accusations of the narrator’s girlifriend, and implies that after he called her complains “tales” he admits to drinking and alcoholism.

Second Chorus

D                  D7                   G   G7
Help me, help me, help me sail away
            C7                       F     A7
Or give me two good reasons why I oughta stay
      Dm                G
And I love to live so pleasantly
 Dm                  G7   C
Live this life of luxury
F            A         Dm  Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime
         Dm     Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
In a summertime
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime

The first two lines

“Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay”

refers to the fact that the narrator is a spoiled wealthy man, so he needs to good reasons to stay, altough it seems irational (if one reason is good, what is the point of the second one?).

Third Chorus

same as the first one

[Chorus]
 
D                  D7                   G   G7
Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
            C7                       F     A7
I got a big fat mama tryin' to break me
      Dm                G
And I love to live so pleasantly
 Dm                  G7   C
Live this life of luxury
F            A         Dm  Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime
         Dm     Dm/C  Dm/B  Dm/Bb
In a summertime
         A       A/G  A/F  A/E
In a summertime

Written by Shahar Zyss, June 2021, for Prof. Mel Rosenberg’s 60’s music course at Tel Aviv University.