"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" by The Kinks - Regent Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.930 W 000° 08.530
30U E 698284 N 5711025
"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" was a 1966 single by The Kinks. It lampoons the contemporary British fashion scene and mod culture in general of the sixties era. It was originally released as a single.
Waymark Code: WMJDJ4
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/04/2013
Views: 7
The
Lyrics Freak website carries the lyrics for this song:
They seek him here, they seek him there,
His clothes are loud, but never square.
It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best,
Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
And when he does his little rounds,
Round the boutiques of london town,
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends,
Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
He thinks he is a flower to be looked at,
And when he pulls his frilly nylon panties right up tight,
He feels a dedicated follower of fashion.
Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
There's one thing that he loves and that is flattery.
One week he's in polka-dots, the next week he is in stripes.
Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
They seek him here, they seek him there,
In Regent Street and Leicester Square.
Everywhere the carnabetian army marches on,
Each one an dedicated follower of fashion.
Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
His world is built round discoteques and parties.
This pleasure-seeking individual always looks his best
Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
He flits from shop to shop just like a butterfly.
In matters of the cloth he is as fickle as can be,
Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
Hes a dedicated follower of fashion.
Hes a dedicated follower of fashion.
The
Wikipedia website carries an article about the song:
"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is a 1966 single by
British band The Kinks. It lampoons the contemporary British fashion scene
and mod culture in general. Originally released as a single, it has been
included on many of the band's later albums.
Musically, it and "A Well Respected Man" marked the beginning of an
expansion in the Kinks' inspirations, drawing as much from British music
hall traditions as from American rhythm and blues, the inspiration for
breakthrough Kinks songs like "You Really Got Me". While it was quite
scornful toward them, many of the fashionistas the song mocks would later
take its title to heart.
In the mid-1960s fashion in Britain was becoming increasingly daring and
outrageous, driven by the youth-oriented culture of Swinging London.
Boutiques such as Biba, designers like Mary Quant, and the television
personalities like Cathy McGowan who popularized them became celebrated as
much as the entertainers who wore their mod clothes.
Fashion trends changed rapidly, and the Carnaby Street shops did a brisk
business from those trying to avoid seeming out of step with the latest
craze. Ray Davies saw all this and satirized the hypothetical extreme, a
superficial dandy whose "clothes are loud but never square / It will make or
break him so he's got to buy the best ... He thinks he is a flower to be
looked at ... In matters of the cloth he is as fickle as can be."
Davies claims he wrote the song in one sitting, typing the lyrics out on a
typewriter, with no later revision. It was performed with Davies mostly
accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, with the rest of the band joining
in on the "It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best 'cause..."
and echoing the "Oh yes he is" lines in the refrain. The band attempted
recording the song a number of times, playing with the arrangement, lyric
diction, and guitar sounds. Davies was never totally satisfied with the
release version, and was angered that the song's production and release were
rushed by Kinks managers and Pye Records. At least two of the alternate
versions are available as bonus CD tracks and as bootleg recordings.
British record-buying public enjoyed the jab at "the whole Carnabetian army"
enough to put the song into the top five. It reached the top of the charts
in The Netherlands and New Zealand. In the U.S., however, it barely managed
to crack the Top Forty, peaking at #36. The lyrics won Davies an Ivor
Novello Award for songwriting in 1966.
Despite its commercial success, the song actually began to trigger some of
the identity crises that would later plague Davies' personal life. He wrote
later:
With 'A Dedicated Follower of Fashion' such a hit, people started coming up
to me on the street and singing the chorus in my face: 'Oh yes he is, oh yes
he is,' as if to say that I knew who I was. Unfortunately, my inner and
somewhat distorted sense of reality told me that this was not who I wanted
to be: I didn't know who I was.
In subsequent years many of those the song derided would later take its
title to heart. Holly Brubach, fashion writer for The New Yorker, borrowed
the song's title for a collection of her essays. Outside of fashion, the
song's title has remained a metaphor for slavish conformity, but in a more
positive sense as an analogy for the growth of online social networks.
Musician: The Kinks
Name of Song: Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Relevant Verse: See the detailed description.
Location website: [Web Link]
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