All of My Friends Were There
"All of My Friends Were There" is a song by the British rock band the Kinks. The song, written by the band's main songwriter Ray Davies, appeared on their critically acclaimed album, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.
| "All of My Friends Were There" | |
|---|---|
| Song by the Kinks | |
| from the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society | |
| Released | 22 November 1968 |
| Recorded | Summer 1968 |
| Studio | Pye, London |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 2:23 |
| Label | |
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Davies |
| Producer(s) | Ray Davies |
Lyrics
The lyrics of "All of My Friends Were There" describe a performer who became drunk before a big performance, resulting in a huge embarrassment in front of all of his friends. Afterwards, he hides himself in a disguise until his next performance, where he redeems himself and realizes that the first performance didn't matter anymore.
"All of My Friends Were There" was inspired by a real event that happened to Kinks member Ray Davies. Ray Davies said of the moment, "It was an R&B concert and I had a temperature of 104 but they asked me to do it because there was a contract. I had lots and lots to drink and I thought 'It doesn't matter.' The curtains opened and all my friends were sitting in the front row .... It was a terrible night and I thought I would write a song about it."[1]
Release and reception
"All of My Friends Were There" was recorded during the summer of 1968, but was scrapped from the original 12-track edition of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. However, upon the album's pull from shelves on Ray Davies's insistence, the song was resurrected to be added to the new 15-track version of the album. When talking about the song's release, Ray Davies said, "If I'd done that song today, it would have been A&R'd off the album. But sometimes you need minor gems like that to set up other songs."[1]
Critic Robert Christgau described "All of My Friends Were There" as "a wry comipathedy about public embarrassment which demonstrates the weird control, similar in its not-quite surreal tone to that of Randy Newman, that Davies has at his best."[2]
Guesting on NPR's All Songs Considered, musician/producer John Vanderslice selected "All of My Friends Were There" as his pick for "perfect song."[3] Vanderslice called the song "deceptively simple" and observed, "no one wrote about the mechanics of creativity like Ray Davies."[3]
References
- Miller, Andy. Kinks' The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.
- Christgau, Robert (10 April 1969). "Kinks Kountry". The Village Voice. New York. ISSN 0042-6180. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
- "Perfect Song: Artist Picks". All Songs Considered. NPR. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
