The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon

Fleiner, who teaches classical history at the University of Winchester, nicely places the reader into the atmosphere that produced the Kinks, one of the most important bands of the British Invasion. The book veers from their image as teenage rebels into their status as champions of average folk; Fleiner sets the tone early, saying this is “not a biography of the band,” and focuses on the culture and world that surrounded the Kinks and influenced their music. Arranged chronologically, the book offers an excellent history of postwar Great Britain told through the eyes of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, and their bandmates. The author’s background as a historian shines through in the book’s meticulous research and analytical perspective on the cultural context in which the Kinks wrote their music. Coming out of Britain’s working class in the mid-1960s, the Davies experienced a bit of social mobility during the postwar economic boom. The book deftly discusses the influence of their economic perspective on both the sound of their music and the stories they chose to tell. (Mar.)