"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is a song written by Ray Davies and performed by The Kinks. It reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart (released on ) and #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" lampoons the contemporary British fashion scene and mod culture in general. Originally released as a single, it has been included on many of the band's later albums. British record-buying public enjoyed the j
ab at "the whole Carnabetian army" enough to put the song into the top five. The lyrics won Ray Davies an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting in 1966.
Musically, it and "A Well Respected Man" marked the beginning of an expansion in the Kinks' inspirations, drawing as much from British music hall traditions as from American rhythm and blues, the inspiration for breakthrough Kinks songs like "You Really Got Me". While it was quite scornful toward them, many of the fashionistas the song mocks would later take its title to heart.
In the mid-1960s fashion in Britain was becoming increasingly daring and outrageous, driven by the youth-oriented culture of Swinging London. Boutiques such as Biba, designers like Mary Quant, and the television personalities like Cathy McGowan who popularized them became celebrated as much as the entertainers who wore their mod clothes.
Fashion trends changed rapidly, and the Carnaby Street shops did a brisk business from those trying to avoid seeming out of step with the latest craze. Ray Davies saw all this and satirized the hypothetical extreme, a superficial dandy whose "clothes are loud but never square / It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best ... He thinks he is a flower to be looked at ... In matters of the cloth he is as fickle as can be."
Davies claims he wrote the song in one sitting, typing the lyrics out on a typewriter, with no later revision. It was performed with Davies mostly accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, with the rest of the band joining in on the "It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best 'cause..." and echoing the "Oh yes he is" lines in the refrain. The band attempted recording the song a number of times, playing with the arrangement, lyric diction, and guitar sounds. Davies was never totally satisfied with the release version, and was angered that the song's production and release were rushed by Kinks managers and Pye Records.
Despite its commercial success, the song actually began to trigger some of the identity crises that would later plague Davies' personal life. He wrote later:
"With 'A Dedicated Follower of Fashion' such a hit, people started coming up to me on the street and singing the chorus in my face: 'Oh yes he is, oh yes he is,' as if to say that I knew who I was. Unfortunately, my inner and somewhat distorted sense of reality told me that this was not who I wanted to be: I didn't know who I was."
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SONGFACTS
This Ray Davies composition can be interpreted either as a tribute to Carnaby Street and its ethos, or a gentle send-up of the contemporary British fashion scene. Recorded February 2, 1966, and running 3:05, it was released on the Pye label in the UK on February 25 backed by "Sittin' On My Sofa," and on Reprise in the United States on April 27. The band's 10th UK single, it was produced by Shel Talmy.
According to the online discography compiled by Kinks fan Dave Emlen, it was re-released in the US in August/September the following year, still on Reprise but backed by "Who'll Be The Next In Line."
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"Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" is one of the band's best-known songs, and has been included on a number of albums.
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Although Carnaby Street dates to the 17th century, like the Kings Road, Chelsea, it will be linked forever to the fashion explosion that happened particularly in Britain during the so-called Swinging '60s.
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In spite of its chart success, not everyone in the Davies camp was enamored with the song. After Kinks bass player Peter Quaife died in June 2010, his obituary in the London Independent quoted him on it thus: "an incredibly boring song to play, and I had to play it night after night."
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According to a 2011 NME interview with Ray Davies, despite its fey overtones, the song is actually a scathing attack on a fop who made fun of the singer's trousers.
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Producer Shel Talmy helped frame The Kinks' raucous guitar sound, and also had a great ear for a hit song. In a Songfacts interview with Talmy, he said: "Ray Davies was one of the more prolific songwriters I have ever worked with. He could literally write a dozen songs overnight if he felt the mood. We used to get together about once a month or once every week or two and go through the stuff he had. I would pick out the ones that I thought were real far along, and the ones that were not so far along, and the ones that would probably never be far along. 'Dedicated Follower Of Fashion' was one that stood out immediately."
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