The Kinks were living the life of luxury with this lazy summer ditty bemoaning the squeeze of taxmen and girlfriends. Ray Davies wrote the song in the music hall vaudeville style that had begun to characterize their sound. It would be included on the 'Face to Face' album later that year. Davies recalls: "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 one 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 it's 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."
The song ironically expresses the loss and decline that Davies saw within the mundane normality of life while at the same time celebrating it with colorful imagery. "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." As he feared that listeners might sympathize with this sad, decadent Conservative, "I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty." 'Sunny Afternoon' was a number one hit in Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK; made it to number two in New Zealand and Sweden; and was a top twenty hit in Australia, Belgium, and the US.
The tax man's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everythin' I've got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon
Save me, save me
Save me from this squeeze
I've got a big fat momma tryin' to break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime
My girlfriend's gone off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty
Now I'm sitting here
Sipping at my ice cold beer
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well, give me two good reasons
Why I ought to stay
'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In Summertime, in summertime
In summertime
Save me, save me
Save me from this squeeze
I've got a big fat momma tyin' to break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime
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