Kinks – Dead End Street

There’s a crack up in the ceilingAnd the kitchen sink is leakingOut of work and got no moneyA Sunday joint of bread and honey

I’ve posted a lot by The Kinks but there are always more great songs I never covered and this is one of them. I like this one more than some of their huge hits…it’s a great song…catchy and meaningful.

Another Ray Davies song on the struggles of working-class life in Britain during the 1960s, focusing on themes of poverty, social inequality, and hopelessness. Not only in Britain in the 60s but extends to now as well all over. The title of the song says it all of being in a vicious cycle. This is just another example of Ray Davies’s brilliant songwriting. When you read the Ray Davies quotes at the bottom you will see where he was coming from.

Dead End Street was released in 1966 as a non-album single. It was quite successful peaking at #5 in the UK, #4 in New Zealand, #28 in Canada, and #73 on the Billboard 100. At that time, Ray, Dave, Pete Quaife, and Mick Avory were the Kinks. Also joining them was again…super session piano player Nicky Hopkins. It would be easier to list the songs Hopkins didn’t play on during the sixties. Quaife did not play bass on this song because of a scooter accident but John Daulton subbed for him.

Ray Davies said that Shel Talmy produced the song but he wanted more of a pop beat so they tricked Talmy. Ray Davies said:  “He finished the track and said, ‘That’s great,’ and went home. Then we pretended to leave but came back to the studio and re-recorded the song. We played it to him the next day and he said, ‘See what I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it.’ He thought we were playing him his version.”

The video of this song shows the boys dressed as undertakers and it was directed by Ray himself.

Ray Davies: I wrote it around the time I had to buy a house and I was terrified. I never wanted to own anything because my dad had never owned property. He’d inherited from his dad that he had to rent all his life. So I still have inbuilt shame of owning anything. It’s guilt.”

Ray Davies: “My whole feeling about the ’60s was that it’s not as great as everyone thinks it is. Carnaby Street, everybody looking happy, that was all a camouflage. That’s what Dead End Street was about.

Dave Davies: “A song full of character, pathos, yet containing an underlying sense of hope. Reflecting a fondness for the past but at the same time expressing a determination and yearning for change.

“Anguished voices calling to a heartless world. A world where the plight of the ordinary person mattered little. “

Dead End Street

There’s a crack up in the ceilingAnd the kitchen sink is leakingOut of work and got no moneyA Sunday joint of bread and honey

What are we living for?Two-roomed apartment on the second floorNo money coming inThe rent collector’s knocking, tryna get in

We are strictly second classWe don’t understand

Why we should be on dead end street(Dead end!) People are living on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah!)Dead end street (yeah!)

On a cold and frosty morningWipe my eyes and stop me yawningAnd my feet are nearly frozenBoil the tea and put some toast on

What are we living for?Two-roomed apartment on the second floorNo chance to emigrateI’m deep in debt and now it’s much too late

We both want to work so hardWe can’t get the chance

People live on dead end street(Dead end!) People are dying on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah!)Dead end street (yeah!)

People live on dead end street(Dead end!) People are dying on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

Dead end street (yeah)Head to my feet (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

How’s it feel? (Yeah)How’s it feel? (Yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

Yeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeah

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Kinks – Dead End Street”

  2. This was a rare treat. I don’t believe I have heard this song before! It really shows the creativity of The Kinks. Davies writes what he knows but finds a creative way to deliver the message. Loved that video.

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  4. I dug the Kinks. They were raw power before the term was coined and applied. I guess the Summer of Love in Britain wasn’t so lovey-dovey, according to Ray. Around 2002, my band went sideways and started playing a lot of British tunes. JP, our lead guitarist, and me bought Vox AC 30 amps, and with our Epiphone Casinos, we could get that raw sound that the Kinks and Yardbirds had. Good post, Max.

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      2. Yea mine was basic…just reverb…none of the new stuff which I’m thankful. Our guitar player has a Line 6…it has some great sounds but when I saw him whip out an iPad to control it…I said no for me…I just play through my 1968 Kustom amp.

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      3. Kustom, one of the great raw killer amps. I had a Kustom brain with a six-foot tower speaker with 4 12’s and 2 horns. That is why I wear hearing aids now. It was so loud it made my hair and clothes move.

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      4. Yes….and they are hard to break as far as sound…you want loud clear guitar…you have it with them. When they are overloaded that wonderful raw sound comes out.

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    1. CB I knew this song before but didn’t pay a lot of attention to it for some reason until last night. It’s got everything…great lyrics, music, and vocals. This is a perfect example of Ray Davies writing.

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      1. So good. A little horn in there for good measure. Blows me away, the creativity that manifests itself. I know it’s not rocket science but it still blows me away. To cheap to hire a woman so Ray dons the whig. He’s not fooling anyone. Great choice for a summer day.

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      2. Damn you are right…it’s a trombone…I meant to put that in the post.
        Many of their songs are great for summer. I have to say that if I had to pick a favorite…it would be Waterloo Sunset which is damn near perfect….or and this will surprise you…Rock and Roll Fantasy…I love that song by them. I had the single in 1979 or so.

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      4. It’s hard to go wrong with any of them…so when I start digging for more Kinks…it’s all there and I haven’t really hit the later 60s or 70s albums real hard yet.

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      8. I like hearing you say you’ll be posting more of their music. You got me putting their greatest hits from 64-71 on. Sounds so damned good. Looking outside and listening right now I feel transported to a perfect place ❤

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      9. They had like 3 or 4 different eras…early, concept album era, arena rock era, and then punk era…then back to rock/pop…and I liked them all.

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      11. That would be early and the concept album…I just wrote one up with Dave Davies as singer. I’ll give it away now…it’s called Strangers…he wrote it and it’s beautiful and painful about a close friend he had that died. I won’t post it until around August or so.

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    1. Yes they were…sneaking in all of those great songs…under America’s radar. You keep digging and finding more good songs.

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  10. Great choice for a Friday, Max. Ray is a talented guy not only with the song realm but as a director, as evidenced the video. The title is clever, showing you’re going nowhere when you live on it. As many years ago that it was released, its timeless in its description.

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    1. That is what I was thinking…hell in the past few years it’s true now! The way prices are out of control…many are living on this dead end street.

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  11. Looking at all the comments it just shows how much the Kinks mean to so many people. This one hits that balance between upbeat musically and downbeat lyrically. So many great songs. ‘Days’ is yet another. ‘A Well Respected Man’ another. Ray Davies, the master of mordant songwriting.

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    1. I do like that style of writing as far as camouflaging the down lyrics with up beat music. Warren Zevon comes to mind also. The more I dig more gold I find with them.

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