Arthur may be my favourite album of all time, but I love it predominantly for its music.

Muswell Hillbillies to me is a masterful concept album.

It begins with a statement of purpose in 20th Century Man, a song about machines replacing nature and the welfare state replacing community and the rest of the album display vignettes exploring the consequences of this. Whether you agree or disagree, there is an economic theory called the crowding out effect, which suggests that when the government spends in one area, this reduces private investment. There are papers arguing for and against it, and economists continue to dispute the idea that the welfare state has reduced community culture, civic responsibility, and private charity. The political left tends to blame the loss of community and the rise of selfish individualism on capitalism, while the right blames government intervention through the welfare state. I do not know enough about economics to argue either way, but this tension sets the stage for the themes of mental illness and societal decay that follow.

The rest of the album presents vignettes of mental illness, including schizophrenia, agoraphobia, eating disorders, and alcohol or substance misuse. Ray Davies’ lived experience with bipolar disorder and psychiatric hospitalisation helped him depict these conditions with accuracy, humanity, and humour. The album continues his paranoia towards government bureaucracy and explores social decay through imprisonment, the breakdown of the family unit, and, most interestingly, the coping strategies people use to stay sane in an insane world. These include enjoying holidays in drab environments, watching American musicals, and drinking cups of tea.

The album concludes perfectly with the title track. How do Ray Davies and The Kinks stay sane in an insane world? How do they cope with the loss of community and the pressures of modernity? Their answer lies in American music, which interweaves with the English sensibility of Muswell Hill. The title Muswell Hillbillies itself represents a synthesis of English suburbia and American roots music such as blues, jazz, and country.

The song carries broader sociocultural implications. The Kinks were part of a larger movement of British bands playing American music. America was seen as a beacon of light for drab post-war England. Perhaps the entire British Invasion was an impulsive coping mechanism for the destruction of community and the village green in England. Are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds, and Cream all, in a sense, Muswell Hillbillies?

My own theory is that rock and roll emerged from a generation raised by parents traumatised by World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. These parents were often emotionally unresponsive, as Frank Zappa reflects in Mom & Dad. Yet their children grew up during an era of economic boom and technological progress, which allowed them the freedom and impulsivity to express psychological distress through art, unrestrained by immediate practical realities.

The entire album, and especially its closing track, resonates deeply with my own views. In many ways, Muswell Hillbillies, both as an album and as a song, serves as a symbolic closure to the 1960s and to the entire British Invasion movement.