| "Monica" | |
|---|---|
| Song bythe Kinks | |
| from the albumThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society | |
| Released | 22 November 1968 |
| Studio | Pye, London |
| Genre | Calypso |
| Length | 2:13 |
| Label | Pye |
| Songwriter | Ray Davies |
| Producer | Ray Davies |
| Official audio | |
| "Monica" onYouTube | |
"Monica" is a song by the Englishrock bandthe Kinks from their sixth studio album,The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968). Written and sung byRay Davies, the song was recorded sometime between late 1967 and May 1968. The song featurescongas and asyncopated rhythm, indicating Davies's continued interest incalypso music. Its lyrics are a serenade for a prostitute and were partly inspired byDylan Thomas's radio drama,Under Milk Wood (1954), though Davies kept the lyrics deliberately subtle to avoid a radio ban. Retrospective commentators have disputed the song's level of thematic cohesion with the others onVillage Green.
I like the way I did "Monica" ... I didn't actually say she was a prostitute ... so it can apply to a lot of other people ... If you say somebody is a prostitute or a hooker you're restricted. Like "Miss Straight-back" who goes to work in the morning and doesn't do anything else isn't affected by it. I suppose that if you don't say that she's a prostitute she might see little things in the song about herself.[1]
Ray Davies composed "Monica" as alove song, sung as a serenade to a prostitute.[2] Its lyrics are deliberately subtle, never directly referencing her profession, something that arose out of Davies' desire to avoid a ban byBBC Radio.[3] The song's narrator claims Monica for himself,[4] but sings that while she is a prostitute her love cannot be bought.[5] Davies may have been inspired by the prostitute character Polly Garter fromUnder Milk Wood,[6] a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poetDylan Thomas.[7] The drama began to influence Davies's songwriting in late 1966,[7] and he later directly referenced Garter in his composition "Polly",[8] probably recorded around March 1968.Under Milk Wood's format of exploring characters in a small Welsh town later served as Davies's broader inspiration forthe Kinks' 1968 albumThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.[9] Author Mark Doyle suggests that in addition to Garter, the woman addressed in "Monica" may have been inspired by fellowUnder Milk Wood character, Gossamer Beynon, the local school teacher whom all the men in town desire.[10] Author Thomas M. Kitts writes that in "Monica", Davies uses a typical trick of Thomas whereby a single word in astock phrase is altered – in particular, Davies changes the phrase "morning to midnight" into "morning to moonshine".[4]
Musically, "Monica" is an example ofcalypso music,[11] a genre Davies first explored in his 1965 song "I'm on an Island".[12][a] AuthorJohnny Rogan suggests Davies often used calypso as a contrast against his more serious songwriting and compares its "Acapulco-style beat" to another of his songs onVillage Green, "Starstruck".[6] Kitts thinks the calypso rhythm is meant to suggest that the song takes place in the narrator's fantasy and emphasise that he actually only possesses Monica in his mind.[4] Author Ken Rayes describes the song's arrangement as "celebratory" in its incorporation ofCaribbean rhythms,jazztempo changes and a playful vocal from Davies suggesting a schoolboy-like innocence.[13]
The Kinks recorded "Monica" sometime between late 1967 and May 1968, during a period when the band recorded numerous songs without initially knowing when or in what format they would be released.[14][b] Recording took place in Pye Studio 2,[17] one of two basement studios atPye Records' London offices.[18] Davies produced the song,[17] while Pye's in-houseengineer Alan "Mac" MacKenzie operated thefour-trackmixing console.[19] The song features asyncopated backing track, including an acoustic guitar,congas andorgan.Bass guitar does not appear until the secondverse.[3]
"Monica" was among the songs Davies selected for the aborted US albumFour More Respected Gentlemen,[3] originally planned for a late 1968 release.[20] While sessions forVillage Green continued through the summer of 1968, the Kinks performed the song for BBC Radio on 1 and 9 July 1968.[21][c] Davies planned to include "Monica" on the original twelve-track edition ofVillage Green and he kept the song on the album when he decided to expand it to fifteen tracks, though he changed the planned sequence from the first to the second side of the LP.[22] Pye releasedVillage Green in the UK on 22 November 1968, with "Monica" sequenced as the penultimate track.[17] In his preview of the album forNew Musical Express magazine, critic Keith Altham wrote that "Monica" is an example of "the beauty of [Ray Davies]" in that "you are never quite sure when to take him seriously".[23]
Among retrospective commentators, Miller considers "Monica" "the flimsiest thing" on the album,[3] and Morgan Enos ofBillboard placed it last in his ranking of the songs.[24] Rogan considers the song and "Starstruck" to be "distinctly un-Village Green compositions",[5] while Kitts counters that it fits into the album with its theme ofescapism through obsession, something he thinks is also heard on "Starstruck" and "Phenomenal Cat".[25] Kitts and Miller each consider the song one of the album's several character studies.[26]