Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Arthur is the seventh studio album by the Kinks, released in October 1969. The concept album was created as the soundtrack to a Granada Television play. It was met with poor sales but nearly unanimous acclaim, especially among the American music press. The album is still considered one of the best Kinks albums, despite being released after the band had left the UK in 1970.
About Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) in brief
Arthur is the seventh studio album by the Kinks, released in October 1969. The concept album was created as the soundtrack to a Granada Television play. It was met with poor sales but nearly unanimous acclaim, especially among the American music press. The Kinks returned to the Billboard charts after a two-year absence with \”Victoria\”, the lead single in the US, peaking at number 62. Arthur paved the way for the further success of the group’s 1970 comeback album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. A stereo version was released internationally. A mono version of Arthur was released in the UK, but not in the U.S. It is the only Kinks album not to have been released as a single or a single album. The album has been described as “the most influential album of the 1960s and 1970s” by many music critics. It has been called the “most influential album in the history of the British rock and roll scene” and “one of the most influential albums of the 20th century” by Rolling Stone. The band have been compared to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones by some music critics, with some calling them the “greatest band of all time” The album is still considered one of the best Kinks albums, despite being released after the band had left the UK in 1970.
The group have never recorded a follow-up album to Arthur, and have only released two singles since the release of the album in 1971. The first two singles, \”Drivin’\” and ‘Shangri-La’, failed to chart in UK; the second, ‘Victoria,’ reached number 62 on the Billboard album chart in the United States. The third and final single was ‘‘Mindless Child of Motherhood’’ which was written by Dave Davies and recorded with the help of his brother-in-law Arthur Anning. The song was recorded in May and June 1969 in Los Angeles with engineer Chuck Britz. The music was recorded by Ray Davies while he was working on his solo album, A Hole in the Sock of. Dave Davies’ solo LP was scheduled for release in July. A press release announced that Arthur would be released in late July, with a late July release date for Dave’s solo album scheduled for late September. A TV play was planned to be broadcast in September 1969, but plans were continually delayed by British filmmaker Leslie Woodhead. The TV programme was never produced and the band continued to work on the album. In April 1969, the band began work on a companion record, entitled Arthur, which was to be released on the same day as the TV play. Development of Arthur occurred during a rough period for the band.
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