Featured as the opening track on the Kinks’ 1969 concept album, “Arthur – Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire” (released the same year as the Who’s “Tommy”) “Victoria” wasn’t a major hit by traditional Kinks standards, charting at Number 62 in the US and Number 33 in the UK.
Yet it’s the kind of song that Raymond Douglas Davies will long be remembered for: a keenly satirical look at “preserving the old ways from being abused,” artfully combined with Chuck Berry-like guitar riffs and Elgar-like brass and string crescendos.
Brilliant, articulate, witty, innovative, decidedly quirky and … bipolar, the man even has a heroic streak, as was widely revealed when Davies was shot in the leg while chasing purse-snatching thieves in New Orleans’ French Quarter, less than a week after being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her (current) Royal Majesty. God save the village green.
LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Wednesday 16 January
Victoria
Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad and obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my Queen
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Canada to India
Australia to Cornwall
Singapore to Hong Kong
From the west to the east
From the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria
