Our lives at 45 rpm

Fourth in a series of posts on one Dullard's collection of 45s

Song: "Do It Again"
Artist: The Kinks
Year released: 1984
Highest U.S. chart position: 41

DULLARD TAKE: Despite the band's name, the track's title and the cover art for this single, "Do It Again" is not a sex song. It's another example of Kinks leader Ray Davies exploring issues of conformity, class and culture, the intertwined topics of much of his songbook.

Rung in with a chord that is reminiscent of "A Hard Day's Night," this song starts slowly, with a plaintive vocal from Davies. Then it kicks into a fairly ferocious rocker, with Davies brother (and occasional fight-club partner) Dave in fine form on guitar. The lyrics and music are fierce and angry, tempered with a dose of Ray's famous drollery:

The days go by and you wish you were a different guy,
Different friends and a new set of clothes.
You make alterations and affect a new pose,
A new house, a new car, a new job, a new nose.

"Do It Again," with its commentary on the mind-numbing repetition of life in Maggie Thatcher's England, was a precursor to "Return to Waterloo," Ray's short film that was accompanied by a "Kinky" soundtrack of the same name. Absent of the whimsy and nostalgia of the band's previous 1980s hits, "Do It Again" failed to crack Casey Kasem's American Top 40. Indeed, its failure proved to be a signal for the Kinks' artistic and commercial difficulties to come, and the band would never again score a hit Stateside. Yet "Do It Again" is arguably a better track than "Come Dancing" and continues to ring true more than 20 years on.