The Kinks, 1970-1971

The - Apeman album: Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1, 1970

I think I'm sophisticated
'cos I'm living my life a good homo sapiens.
But all around me ev'rybody's multiplying

And they're walking round like flies man:
So I'm no better than the animals
Sitting in the cages in the zoo man

'cos compared to the flowers and the birds
And the trees
I am an APEMAN.
I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilised

'cos strict vegetarian. And with the over population
And inflation and starvation crazy politicans.
I don't feel safe in this world
No more don't want to die in a nuclear war.
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an APEMAN.

I'm an APEMAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a APE MAN.

'cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an APE MAN. Lalalala...

In man's evolution he has created
The cities and the motor traffic rumble

But give me half a chance and I'd be taking
Clothes and living in the jungle.
But the only time that I feel at ease
Swinging up and down in a coconut tree.
Oh, what alife of luxury to be like an APE MAN.

I'm an APE MAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a Ape MAN.
I look out of the window, but I can't see the sky
'cos air polution is a fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an APE MAN.

Come and love me
be my APE MAN girl
And we'll be so happy in my APE MAN world.
I'm an APE MAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a APE MAN.

I'll be your Tarzan
you'll be my Jane
I'll keep you warm and you'll keep me sane
We'll sit in the trees and eat bananas
All day just like an APE MAN.

A "call of the wild", a humoristic imaginary escape and reverse evolution in order to save ourselves from the dangers, stress, loss of freedom and uncertainty of the based in technology and consumerism civilization



"20th Century Man" album: Muswell Hillbillies, 1971

This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm hydrogen bombs biological warfare,

This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.

Ain't got no ambition, I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.

You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,

Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here.

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna die here.

My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security,
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

The same theme as Apeman but now described in a dramatic and reppessing way. The heavy urbanizing and polluted environment, the threat of the uncontrolled development of technology, the everyday stress make young people anxious and with the need for escape.


"Mountain Woman" album: Muswell Hillbillies, 1971

They lived together in a dirty old shack
At the edge of the black rocky mountain
And they drank mountain dew and they lived on the food
That they grew at the side of the mountain

She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
They live their lives down the valley
She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
Uneducated but they're happy

Mountain woman couldn't read nor write
But she knew good from evil, she know wrong from right
When the government tried to buy her water rights
Her intuition was her only guide

She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
They live their lives by the valley
She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
Uneducated but they're happy

Spend my life with my mountain woman
We're uneducated by we're happy

The civil servant used compulsory purchase
To acquire the valley for the nation
They'll dig up the land, they're gonna make a dam
And build a hydroelectric power station

And now she lives on the 33rd floor
Of a man-made concrete mountain
She got an elevator and refrigerator
And an automobile to run around in

Fast talkin' lawyers from the government
Went and beat proud mountain woman down
Hey mountain woman, take your mountain man
They took your land and flood your valley

Spend my life with my mountain woman
They're uneducated by they're happy

A song about a "Mountain woman", probably an Indian woman, or a resident from an imaginary untouched by civilization mountainous village. No need to read or write, but she knows exactly what she wants full with deeper natural senses and happiness. But the state took and destroyed her natural land for developing purposes (Dam,electric power, etc ) and now she lived in concrete urban "mountains" as an anonymous consumer of facilities of "civilization"


You can hear these songs in youtube

Apeman

20th century man

Mountain woman