| "No More Looking Back" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Kinks | ||||
| from the album Schoolboys in Disgrace | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | 23 January 1976 (UK) | |||
| Recorded | 19 August 1975 –24 September 1975 at Konk Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:27 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Songwriter | Ray Davies | |||
| Producer | Ray Davies | |||
| The Kinks singles chronology | ||||
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"No More Looking Back" is the penultimate track on the Kinks' 1975 concept album, Schoolboys in Disgrace . Like all of the other tracks on the album, it was written by Ray Davies.
Like the rest of the tracks on Schoolboys in Disgrace , "No More Looking Back" describes the back story of Mr. Flash, the main character from the Preservation saga. In the song, Flash is seen "walking along a crowded street", where he keeps "seeing the things that remind [him] of [his former lover]". He sees her every day, but she's "not really there 'cause [she belongs] to yesterday." Now, for Flash, there is "no more looking back". On Schoolboys in Disgrace, the track is second-to-last, only followed by the 1:04 long track "Finale", which borrows elements from "Education", another track on the album.
The track was released as a maxi-single in Britain (the only single from Schoolboys in Disgrace) with "Jack the Idiot Dunce" and "The Hard Way" (both album tracks from Schoolboys in Disgrace) on the B-side. The track was unsuccessful. However, it has since appeared as the only song from Schoolboys in Disgrace on the compilation album Picture Book .
Drummer Mick Avory noted the song as one that stylistically matched his drumming, commenting, "It's like something you didn't play full-out. It had nice parts to it and Ray always went into a nice sort of middle part that changed the feel of it and the interesting parts suited my playing at the time. I enjoyed that one." [1]
"No More Looking Back" has received mixed reviews. Rolling Stone's Paul Nelson spoke negatively of the track, saying that "'No More Looking Back' is no 'Waterloo Sunset'". [2] However, Joe Tangari of Pitchfork Media was more approving of the song, saying in his review of the Picture Book album that "'No More Looking Back', is a cinematic preview of 90s Britpop, from Dave's harmonized lead guitar intro to Ray's perceptive lyrics about the way people who've left us linger in strange ways." [3]
Drummer Mick Avory singled out the song as a favorite that often got overlooked, selecting it for inclusion on the compilation The Journey. Avory commented, "'No More Looking Back' was one of my favorites – I'd never seen it on a compilation. That was one of my choices." [4]