Song of The Day: The Kinks 'Art Lover'!

In celebration of Ray Davies' 72nd birthday today, we're cranking "Art Lover" from the band's 1981 album Give The People What They Want. Not only is it one of Davies' most poignant character studies, it is a song that, by today's political over-correction, has fallen decidedly out-of-fashion.

I'm not a flasher in a rain coat,
I'm not a dirty old man,
I'm not gonna snatch you from your mother,
I'm an art lover.
Come to daddy,
Ah, come to daddy,
Come to daddy.

Pretty little legs, I want to draw them,
Like a Degas ballerina.
Pure white skin, like porcelain,
She's a work of art and I should know
I'm an art lover.
Come to daddy,
And I'll give you some spangles.

Ray Davies with Blondie's Debbie Harry

Even so, it's a riveting snapshot of a younger, more innocent time when such lyrical explorations didn't immediately catch the attention of those who seek to stomp upon any acknowledgment of our own humanity and the conflicts that exist within every one of us.

Little girl don't notice me
Watching as she innocently plays.
She can't see me staring at her
Because I'm always wearing shades.
She feeds the ducks, looks at the flowers.
I follow her around for hours and hours.
I'd take her home, but that could never be,
She's just a substitute
For what's been taken from me.
Ah, come to daddy, come on.

Thankfully, Davies' and brother Dave appear to be in the process of reuniting the Kinks, going so far as to perform together last December.