‘Sunny Afternoon’ is a song by the Kinks, written by frontman Ray Davies. The track later featured on the Face to Face album as well as being the title track for their 1967 compilation album. Like its contemporary ‘Taxman’ by the Beatles, the song references the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson, although it does so through the lens of an unsympathetic aristocrat bemoaning the loss of his vast unearned wealth. Its strong music hall flavour and lyrical focus was part of a stylistic departure for the band (begun with 1965's ‘A Well Respected Man’), which had risen to fame in 1964–65 with a series of hard-driving, power-chord rock hits.
‘Sunny Afternoon’ was written in Ray Davies' house when he was ill. He recalled: “I'd bought a white upright piano. I hadn't written for a time. I'd been ill. I was living in a very 1960s-decorated house. It had orange walls and green furniture. My one-year-old daughter was crawling on the floor and I wrote the opening riff. I remember it vividly. I was wearing a polo-neck sweater.” Davies used the song's narrator to reflect on his own situation in the song's lyrics: "The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself." In order to prevent the listener from sympathizing with the song's protagonist, Davies said, "I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty."
Davies explained of the circumstances in which the song was written and recorded: “‘Sunny Afternoon’ was made very quickly, in the morning, it was one of our most atmospheric sessions. I still like to keep tapes of the few minutes before the final take, things that happen before the session. Maybe it's superstitious, but I believe if I had done things differently—if I had walked around the studio or gone out—it wouldn't have turned out that way. The bass player went off and started playing funny little classical things on the bass, more like a lead guitar: and Nicky Hopkins, who was playing piano on that session, was playing ‘Liza’—we always used to play that song—little things like that helped us get into the feeling of the song. At the time I wrote ‘Sunny Afternoon’ I couldn't listen to anything. I was only playing the greatest hits of Frank Sinatra and Dylan's ‘Maggie's Farm’—I just liked its whole presence, I was playing the Bringing It All Back Home LP along with my Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller and Bach—it was a strange time. I thought they all helped one another, they went into the chromatic part that's in the back of the song. I once made a drawing of my voice on ‘Sunny Afternoon’. It was a leaf with a very thick outline—a big blob in the background—the leaf just cutting through it.”
Released as a single on 3 June 1966, ‘Sunny Afternoon’ went to number one on the UK Singles Chart on 7 July 1966, remaining there for two weeks. The track also went to number one in Ireland on 14 July 1966. In America, it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart early autumn 1966. The promotional video for the single featured the band performing in a cold, snowy environment. Billboard praised the single's "off-beat music hall melody and up-to-date lyrics." Cash Box said that it is a "slow-moving, blues-drenched, seasonal affair with a catchy, low-key repeating riff." ‘Sunny Afternoon’ was placed at No. 200 on Pitchfork Media's list of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.
Labels – Pye (UK). Reprise (US)
Songwriter – Ray Davies
Producer – Shel Talmy
SONG LYRICS
[Instrumental Intro][Verse 1]
The tax man's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everything I've got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon
[Chorus]
Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
[Verse 2]
My girlfriend's run off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty
Now I'm sittin' here
Sippin' at my ice-cold beer
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
[Chorus]
Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well, give me two good reasons why I oughta stay
'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
[Chorus]
Oh, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime