A Well Respected Man

Album: Kinkdom (1965)
Charted: 13
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Songfacts®:

  • Kinks frontman Ray Davies wrote this song after the group's 1965 tour of the United States. The tour did not go well, with infighting, fatigue and a conflict with the musician's union that kept them from performing in the country for another four years.

    Davies recovered from the tour with a vacation at the English resort town of Torquay, Devon. There, a wealthy hotel guest recognized him and asked Ray to play a round of golf. Far from being flattered by the invitation, he took great offense. "I'm not gonna play f--king golf with you," he told him. "I'm not gonna be your caddy so you can say you played with a pop singer."
  • Dense with lyrics describing the pretentious gentleman born to good fortune, Ray Davies says this was the first "word-oriented" song he wrote.
  • According to Jay Ferguson, composer of The Office (US) theme song, this was the placeholder theme for the show before he got the job.

Comments: 2

  • Marty from Cleveland, OhOne small quibble about the published lyrics. I think the line is, "And his arm sweat smells the best."

    This is one of my favorite A+ songs.
  • Jim Castro from Rowland Heights. CaLove that banjo intro - marvelous - The Kinks awesome protest song about the rich - the conservative - My fav from them.
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