The KINKS, WoW! - remember their big hit - "You Really Got Me". Well, when you are talking about the Kinks most people recall that song which is not on this album. Arthur is not about King Arthur or Camelot or Excalibur or The Round Table, its about Arthur Morgan, you know! I especially like 'Victoria', the albums debut, an airy tune about the queen. 'Brainwashed', a lumbering tale of down home life in his suburban London home called 'Shangri-La', which, incidentally, is another catchy tune, 'now that you've found your own paradise...you just want to sit in your shangri-la...you're in your place and you know where you are.' Especially psychedelic 'She Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina' is the dream of Arthur's wife Rose who bought the hat and wears it to clean house,'...but you'll never see her at Ascot' The album concludes with the title song; 'Arthur, the world's going to pass you by, don't you know it...'
"When everybody else thought that the hip thing to do was to drop acid, do as many drugs as possible, and listen to music in a coma, the Kinks were singing songs about lost friends, draught beer, motor-bike riders, wicked witches and flying cats." Ray Davies, The KINKS.
