For starters, you should know that there is no ‘part two’. Perhaps Ray Davies considered this album the start of a thematic series (like “Preservation”, parts one and two), but that never happened.

That’s too bad, because Ray’s songwriting really shines when discussing greedy record company businessmen and social outcasts, the topics that dominate his lyrics on this album. Most songwriters would have trouble even combining these two themes, but Ray handles it easily, expressing sympathy for the downtrodden and abused, and playing that against his own sense of victimization at the hands of strangers who feel entitled to manipulate his art. It sounds like a depressing mess, but the record is consistently entertaining and often genuinely funny.

Featured tracks include:

The Contenders

Strangers

Denmark Street

Get Back in Line

Lola

Top of the Pops

The Moneygoround

This Time Tomorrow

A Long Way from Home

Rats

Apeman

Powerman

Got to Be Free

November 1970 – Billboard Charted #35