| "A Gallon of Gas" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Kinks | ||||
| from the album Low Budget | ||||
| B-side | "Low Budget" | |||
| Released | 7 August 1979 (US) | |||
| Recorded | January – June 1979 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:49 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Davies | |||
| Producer(s) | Ray Davies | |||
| The Kinks USsingles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Low Budget track listing | ||||
11 tracks
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 Japanese single sleeve | ||||
"A Gallon of Gas" is the ninth track from The Kinks' album, Low Budget. It was written by Ray Davies.
"A Gallon of Gas",like many songs by The Kinks from this period,tells of economic problems of the time,in this case the gas shortage. [2] The singer laments about how he "can't buy a gallon of gas",even "for any amount of cash". Author Nick Hasted describes it as "a heavy electric blues." [3]
The song was the second single released from "Low Budget",and is one of two singles from the album to be released in America but not in Britain (the other being "Catch Me Now I'm Falling"). The single version was longer than the album version. [2] It was backed with "Low Budget". In addition to its release as a single in America,the single was also released in Japan that same year.[ citation needed ]
"A Gallon of Gas" also appears on the greatest hits albums Come Dancing with The Kinks and the live album To the Bone . An alternate edition of the song appears on Picture Book.
Record World said it has "cool,cocky,British vocals observing an American crisis with plenty of wit and rocking rhythm." [4] The track was praised by AllMusic [5] as well as Rolling Stone ,who said that "A Gallon of Gas" is "no great poetic achievement,but its slow,bluesy arrangement—meant,no doubt,to re-create the effect of a snail's pace gas line —heightens the good-natured irony of a situation in which drugs are easier to come by than gasoline." [6] Hasted also refers to the song's humor in that it is easier to buy drugs than gas. [3] Hasted further notes that Davies,who years earlier wrote "Apeman," a song about abandoning the city to live in the jungle,"can't disguise his pleasure" in the fact that without gas there are no planes in the sky or cars on the road so that "the air smells unnaturally clean." [3] Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Rob Sheffield calls it an "embarrassing novelty." [7] Critic Johnny Rogan commented on the song's comedy and wryness. [2]
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"The Village Green PreservationSociety" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Written and sung by the band's principal songwriter Ray Davies,the song is a nostalgic reflection where the band state their intention to "preserve" British things for posterity. As the opening track,the song introduces many of the LP's themes,and Ray subsequently described it as the album's "national anthem".
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The Great Lost Kinks Album is a compilation album by the English rock band the Kinks. Released in the United States in January 1973,it features material recorded by the group between 1966 and 1970 that had mostly gone unreleased. The compilation served to satisfy Reprise Records after executives determined that the Kinks contractually owed them one more album,despite the band's departure from the label in 1971.
Low Budget is the eighteenth studio album by English rock group the Kinks,released in 1979. It was their first to feature bassist Jim Rodford who would remain with the group until their disbandment in 1996. Following the minor success of their 1978 album Misfits,the band recorded the majority of the album in New York rather than London. Unlike the more nostalgic themes of many Kinks albums prior to Low Budget,many of the album's songs allude to contemporaneous events. Musically,the album is a continuation of the band's "arena rock" phase,resulting in a more rock-based sound and more modern production techniques.
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"Picture Book" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Written and sung by Ray Davies,the song's lyrics describe the experience of an ageing narrator flipping through a photo album reflecting on happy memories from "a long time ago". Recorded in May 1968,its cheerful sound is defined by the jangle of an acoustic twelve-string guitar and a disengaged snare drum. In continental Europe,the song was issued as the B-side of the album's lead single,"Starstruck",in November 1968. The same single was issued in the United States in January 1969,though it failed to appear in any charts.
"(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" is a song written by Ray Davies that was first released on the Kinks' 1979 album,Low Budget. The song,inspired by Superman:The Movie,employs a disco beat and lyrics that describe the singer's wish to be like the fictional character Superman. The song's disco style was created as a response to Arista Records founder Clive Davis's request for "a club-friendly record," despite Ray Davies' hatred of disco.
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"State of Confusion" is a song written by Ray Davies and first released by The Kinks as the title track of their 1983 album State of Confusion. Although it was not released as a single in the United States,it reached #26 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was released as a single in Continental Europe.
"Low Budget" is the sixth track from The Kinks' album of the same name. It was written,produced and sung by Ray Davies.
"You Can't Stop the Music" is a song by the British rock band The Kinks. The song,appearing on the band's 1975 album Soap Opera,was written by the band's principal songwriter,Ray Davies.
"Ducks on the Wall" is a song by the British rock band the Kinks. The song,appearing on the band's 1975 album Soap Opera,was written by the band's principal songwriter,Ray Davies.
"Johnny Thunder" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from their sixth studio album,The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968). Written and sung by Ray Davies,the song was recorded in March 1968. Davies was inspired to write the song after seeing the 1953 film The Wild One,basing it on Marlon Brando's character Johnny as well as on a classmate Davies admired as a child. A rock song,its recording features a countermelody played by Dave Davies on electric guitar,wordless vocal harmonies and one of the album's few instances of a single-tracked vocal by Ray.
"Big Sky" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks. Written and sung by Ray Davies,it was released in November 1968 on the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Ray has typically avoided providing a direct answer on the song's meaning,but commentators often interpret it as describing God as unsympathetic towards the problems of humans.
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