Shepherds Of The Nation. stereo mix, recorded Jan-Mar 1974 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Sung by Mr. Black The Do-Gooders Down with sex and sin, Down with pot, heroin. Down with pornography, Down with lust. Down with vice lechery and debauchery. We are the new centurians. Shepherds of the Nations. We'll keep on our guard For sin and degradation. We are the national guard Against filth and depravity, Perversion and vulgarity, Homosexuality. Keep it clean. Down with nudity, Breasts that are bare and pubic hair. We are here to cleanse humanity From the man in the raincoat's Pale faced glare. So sodomites beware. We are the new centurians, Shepherds of the Nation. We'll keep on our guard For sin and degradation. We are the national, guard Against filth and depravity, Perversion and vulgarity, Homosexuality. Keep it clean. I visualise a day when people will be free From evils like perversion and pornography. We'll cast out Satan and we'll set the sinners free, So people of the nation unite. Put all the pervs in jail, Bring back the birch, and the cat of nine tails. Bring back corporal punishment Bring back the stocks And the axeman's block. Let righteousness prevail. Down with nudity and hard core magazines. We'll bring religion back And keep our country clean. Keep it clean. We are the new centurians Shepherds of the Nation. We'll keep on our guard For sin and degradation. We are the national guard Against filth and depravity. Perversion and vulgarity, Homosexuality. Keep it clean. Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. Depending on what angle you look at it, this song could be hilarious, offensive, or any number of other things really, and I think perspective is going to go a long way as to how one may feel about the song in general. This is a wholly unusual song, lyrically and musically... and I can only share how I see it, but it will be interesting to read others thoughts and feelings towards this one, because it really is open to a broad series of interpretations and feelings regarding the lyrics and music. Over the centuries, leaders from all sorts of political backgrounds, and even monarchal leaders, have used this sort of speech to rally people to their side. It is the idea of picking a bad guy to blame everything on... unite people on an issue, and then find a scapegoat and paint them as the reason the issue exists. It is always approached in the same manner though - find something that the majority of the population are upset about, or want (or even manufacture it) - make it the basis of your public platform - find a scapegoat to blame it on, whether they have any justifiable connection to the problem or not - and then milk that cow until you get the result you're after. Flash is painted as a crony capitalist, and so far in the plot, the only reference that may indicate some kind of sexual version of moral corruption is in Here Comes Flash - "Hide your Daughters, Hide Your Wives" .... but I don't really think that is the point here really. Mr Black has been sitting in his attic, waiting for Flash to fall so far out of favour, due to his corrupt business shenanigans, that the time is right to pounce.... now we know Mr Black has been plotting and scheming, and we know that political parties have a terribly bad habit of trying to dig up dirt on their opposition and using it to gain an advantage, whether the information is true or not seems irrelevant in political circles .... So we could read into it that Mr Black may have been trickle feeding rumour and innuendo into the mix ... perhaps via our radio announcer? Anyway, here we have Mr Black taking the moral high ground. He knows the people are upset with the dubious, if not totally criminal business dealings of Flash, and here Mr Black turns it into a diatribe that is suggesting that it is all about the moral decay, and the first thing that needs addressing is his perceived notion of what the root of moral decay is. In many ways it is completely ludicrous, because of course, corrupt business dealings don't necessarily have anything to do with sexual morality, but I get the impression that Mr Black is tying this all together for his own purposes, and attempting to sound like the morally superior choice as a leader. The Pomposity of the speech/vocal is hilarious to me, and tying sex and drugs all into it, just makes it even more hilarious. I know some folks have an issue with the lyrics, and I guess it is seen as puerile to some degree, but I think that is done intentionally to amplify the preposterous nature of the speech, and add an element of comic relief.... after all, we have been painted a pretty clear picture of who this Mr Black person is, and he is a slimy villain.... or course the people he is speaking to aren't aware of this, so they don't see the absurdity of the speech... they are more likely to have a "yes, this righteous man will fix all our problems by fixing the moral core of society, and that is how he is going to supply us with all this stuff for our homes and comfort" ... certainly it is ludicrous, but I see this play out every election cycle, and it really makes one wonder the logical memory span of the average voter lol Mr Black presents himself and his cronies as the Shepherds who will guide the flock into the pastures of comfort and joy .... the land of milk and honey so to speak ..... It is actually a really interesting lyric in context with the storyline, but I am somewhat doubting it will have many supporters Musically we open with a riff that could have come from Steeleye Span crossed with hard rock and some kind of crime show theme or something. It is a little bit rock and a little bit folk, and it is actually quite punchy. Then we move into a sort of baroque thing. With the harpsichord, the choral vocals, and a series of wind instrument sections that kind of make me think of King Arthur for some reason ... or perhaps Henry the Eighth .... Ray's delivery here, really seems to drive home the tongue in cheek nature of the song. He is putting on this hilariously affected, pompous vocal .... I could actually visualise the guys having smoked a couple of doobies before doing this, and laughing their butts off while trying to put the track's vocals down. The opening riff comes back in as a link between verses. The second chorus comes in with the full band, and in a less baroque manner, we even have what sounds like some kettle drums, or tympani in there. Then we move into a kind of ballad delivery for a bridge, and the vocals are the female vocals in the front, which makes me think of Tipper Gore and her mothers movement, trying to censor musicians who were covering topics that didn't sit well with her, using her husbands governmental power to get more exposure than she should ever have got. This isn't really a favourite Kinks song, but it is musically very well written and arranged, and we have some very well written melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, key modulations ... etc etc This song works for me on the album, but of all the tracks folks have said they couldn't/wouldn't listen to outside the context of the album, this is the first one for me. I sort of love the over the top lunacy of this song, and I appreciate the writing more than like it, if that makes sense. If I am listening to this album, I am not going to skip it ... I'm not really one to skip much ... for me, if I feel the need to start skipping tracks, I am probably not going to put the album on. I guess this comes under the banner of entertaining and strange, but not a song I would seek out.... having said that though, it doesn't bother me, or make me want to avoid the album... I'm really interested in what folks have to say about this weird little number.
I'll observe that the whole problem with the Flash regime up to this point has been corporate corruption, and now Black pivots to public morals exclusively, marking yet another weird development in our story.
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Shepherds of the Nation To me, this is one of the best songs on the album, precisely because it’s funny. I doubt Ray intended it but I see this song as a total p*ss-take of the puritanical streak that sometimes comes to the fore around election time in the utterances of conservative politicians. I don’t need to give any examples but there are many. Of course the message is completely over-the-top which should be sufficient evidence to show Ray is being humorous rather than intending to offend anyone’s serious religious beliefs! The vocal style Ray employs accentuates the humour of the lyrics making this one of the highlights of the album. 9/10 from me.
This crazily outre creation is like a grotesque self parody of the title track of ‘The Village Green Preservation Society’: it takes the inherently small c conservative values that song celebrates and distorts them into a politicised screed, in many ways the reductio ad absurdism end point of that kind of attitude.(Already kind of hinted at with the virginity line in the earlier song). The story/landscape by now has changed nearly beyond recognition from the original VGPS album, to the point where it’s hard to square that LP with the current one as part of the same narrative, but if you’re looking for a direct thematic link to the original LP (whether actually intended by Ray or not) you could see this as Mr Black observing the villagers benignly conservative outlook as expressed on the 1968 title track and exploiting it for his own ends.
Now that’s what @Michael Streett was talking about, right ? What a bass sound. Fat and loud and with huge separation. Despite this, the track is almost not pop music at all, with the medieval announcement-styled horns and the operetta-styled singing (Ray so clearly relishes in it that it soon becomes infectious). We’re not supposed to talk contentious politics here, I’m well aware of that, but Ray’s aversion for state control and religious puritanism (and especially state-controlled puritanism inspired by religion) is self-explanatory. To be fair, the track makes a good case for seeing it as the worst political nightmare you could think of. We get the slogans of Mr Black’s “army” of "shepherds, enunciated by a bunch of looney fanatics and then the return of the seductive (and hypnotic) Mr. Black theme from Act 1's I'm Your Man, deliciously delivered by the female singers. The piece is a brilliant musical and arranging construction that conveys both the violent impulses, the brainwashing technics and the sex obsession of many a totalitarian regime based on Zealotism. I agree with @ajsmith, the icing on the cake is the throwback to the Village Green Preservation Society, the title song. This time Ray doesn’t use the music but the words – namely the “we are” turn of phrase– to quote himself. “We are the new Centurions”, “We are the national guard”, repeated again and again, “We are here to cleanse humanity”. The whole “preservation” idea has been hijacked and turned on its head. I’m almost certain a lot of criticism against the two Preservation Acts has to do with listeners and critics being confused by Ray’s own confusion (or change of hearts) about what the hell his own “preservation” concept/ideal was supposed to mean in the first place. In five years, the "village green" became a nation and the preservation society has been replaced by indoctrinated brigades. When he sang “we are” in 1968, he clearly included himself and his band in the plural pronoun. They were the preservation society. This time, the “we are” phrase comes from the brainwashed baddies. Nostalgia is definitely not what it used to be.
I like the way that the Announcement is used to set up "Shepherds" - completely unrealistic of course, but then the whole thing is over-the-top absurd. I thought this was awful when I first heard it back in the 80s, and the lingering memory of that is one of the reasons why most of the RCA albums were a complete no-go area for me until the last year. These days I can appreciate the lunacy of it - it's genuinely funny, plus the tune is quite infectious as well. Very proggy at the start, and completely unlike anything we have heard from The Kinks up to this point. Because on this iteration I heard Act II before Act I, I didn't realise that the "I visualise..." bit was being reprised from an earlier song, so that transition seemed even more impressive on first listen. It's very cleverly put together, and it's all part of the show. You would have thought, though, that maybe after hearing this speech, a lot of the people might have concluded that this Mr Black isn't quite the man they wanted. Perhaps it's now too late to stop what has been put into motion.
Shepherds of the Nation Sorry, I haven't read anyone else's posts yet: have only a second to spare to paste what I wrote in advance. Will be back to read everyone's thoughts later. My favourite song on the album, by a lot. So spooky! The strangeness of medieval and early-modern instruments, and the musical intervals they used in Early Music. The sonorous boom of these stark contrasts and occasional discordancies. The stunning musical introduction to this track really wakes me up after "Money Talks" which has always snet me to sleep a bit. Oh, and the whole song is really, really catchy Lyrically, it's so eerie to hear rock lyrics that are anti-rock lyrics: the opposite of all that rock and roll is supposed to stand for (see also fundamentalist Christian VU-imitators The New Creation). At the time Mary Whitehouse was huge in the UK with her anti-permissiveness crusade. This could be her theme tune. I'd say it was a brilliant parody but it's impossible to parody these people.
I realise that this is odd, but I think I slightly prefer Shepherds to Money Talks! It's just such an odd sounding track and lyric, that it qualifies as interesting if nothing else. Being funny also helps.
I don’t quite agree with @Fortuleo above: Ray is definitely anti-state control in any form, but I don’t think he’s anti-religious Puritanism per se, esp his own personal brand, and in fact several of his songs up to this point (I’m thinking in particular of ‘Gods Children’ of course) have expressed such viewpoints without irony. I think part of the reason Ray is able to go so full on in his delivery of Mr Black’s rant in this song is that he is in part exorcising some his own tendencies through this ridiculous character! I’ve always loved the way he comes back in so passionately, soulfully even with the line ‘Down with nudity, and hardcore magazines!’ It’s so absurd, such a crazed mix up of form and content, although it’s also anticipating the reality of the New Christian Right and Televangelists etc. Truly, who else out of any of their contemporaries was doing anything close to this in 1974?
Nice catch on the lyrical link to the Village Green Preservation Society guys.. . I somehow missed it. It seems, taking that into consideration, that it gives this even more creedence, seeing how frequently we see good, solid ideas, or whatever, twisted and manipulated into something quite perverse.
Someone mentioned Mary Whitehouse earlier and, to me, this song is much more about her and her Festival of Light nonsense than 'state puritanism' or 'state religion' or whatever. She was all over the UK media all through the 70s until Thatcher came along and stole much of her thunder and, as we have seen, Ray's concerns and inspirations are often pretty parochial. Anyway Ray just bundles together this kind of religious conservatism (or even Conservatism) with all that other stuff he dislikes, from all over the political spectrum, into the comic book villain, Mr. Black. The song itself is absolutely hilarious, and that must be intentional - you can't write a lyric like "So sodomites beware" with a straight face surely? It's a comic song so the music is really there to support the lyric and does it perfectly. It starts off like Steeleye Span but the rest of it reminds me of the Bonzos. Sorry, I still hate the Announcements, all that crossing of t's and dotting of i's would be better kept to the lyric sheet
Shepherds Of The Nation I also make the connection to Whitehouse when I hear this song. For those Brits of a certain age she needs no introduction. If she was alive now she would be sleeping easy at night as tv in the UK these days is very tame. Hardly a week went by in the 1970's without some controversy about sex or swearing on tv. A very good track when listened to within the context of the album but too difficult a listen in isolation. The best sounding track on the album - I just wish the whole album had been recorded with such care. Its appearance on the B side to Holiday Romance has to be some sort of joke. Mary Whitehouse - Wikipedia
I also thought of Mary Whitehouse who was a person who spoke about lyrics in rock n roll records that were deemed "immoral". I see "Shepherds Of The Nation" as an in character satire of the mind set of Whitehouse and her ilk. Nowadays, teenagers pick up music from their parents but in the 1970s, I believe the generation gap was pretty huge. My own parents appreciated the Beatles but were much more wary of other performers. Musically, "Shepherds" sounds like nothing I would choose for myself to listen to but, like @mark winstanley noted, the Kinks were always interesting.
Totally missed/forgot the Mary Whitehouse allusion of this track. Of course, that would be the main reference point for a song like this in 1974.
But, weirdly, I agree with you … He's definitely not "anti-religion", this is quite well established I think. But his views on puritanism, or him having puritan tendencies despite going through the motions in the sixties (or because of it) ? That's a real interesting question that I've never quite been able to sort out, going back to the "sex was bad, called obscene" line in Victoria. I don't have the slightest idea where his heart lies on this matter when he sings this line. Was it better or worse back then in his opinion ? No clue. On the other hand, the lyrics of Shepherds of the Nation are on the nose about any kind of control religion may hold over the masses (the "control" part being the one he loathes, of course). Thanks all for the Whitehouse reference, which I lacked. Nevertheless, this play's ultimate bad guy Mr Blackhouse is not only using socialist technics and phraseology, he makes good use of people's puritan impulses by recasting obvious religious terms ("Satan", "sin", "sinners", "shepherds", "sodomites", "we'll bring religion back") to indoctrinate an army of zealots. That can't be coincidental, can it? Then again, as implied in yesterday's discussion, Mr Black is probably also a Ray Davies avatar, so this whole thing will likely remain open to conjectures… As for the phrase "So Sodomites Beware", no, you certainly can't write it with a straight face. But you can sing it with one, as they do, and that makes it all the more hilarious!
I do think it possible that Ray is indulging in a bit of self parody or self criticism in this track. I think he was aware that he often came across as some kind of reactionary whinger with all his songs about the terrible modern world and dewy-eyed evocations of a world gone by. Now, whether that impression of him was fair or not I think it had begun to rankle a bit and this song turns it up several notches until it becomes absurd.
Exactly (and perhaps solo Stanshall, even more so). Two bands I love, though only really the early stuff in Steeleye Span's case. I've actually been listening to this album on my computer without the announcements for a while (except for one). This wasn't deliberate but the result of when I selected an operation on my music software to "detect and delete duplicate tracks" as my music collection was a mess of duplication. It got a bit carried away and deleted a lot of tracks which just had the same title. Anyway, the album sounds fine without the announcements.
Shepherds of the Nation: Once again another song that I can envision being performed in my mind’s eye; a visual experience where a group is formed as choir, dressed in severe, all black, clothing, faces stern and dour. Perhaps the women have their hair pulled up into buns. Dum dum da dum dum dum, a stern, solemn sounding riff and, “Down with sex and sin…” I’m uncertain as to whether there’s a choir conductor (if there is, it’s Mr. Black) though I suspect there is. After the “keep it clean” part, the soloist sings, “I visualize a day when people will be free,” with a pure, innocent-sounding vocal, the melody dramatically different from the ponderous main theme. Then it’s back to the choir, “put all the pervs in jail.” Mr. Black turns around and sings a rock-based vocal solo, “down with nudity and hardcore magazines…” and, after the short verse, it’s back to the choir for the finale. “We are the new centurions…” So there we have it, the Anti-public Corruption Bill that is referenced in the announcement, presented as a chorale piece. Ray is not wasting space on this Act II; everything, so far, is relevant to pushing the storyline. As usual, this track isn’t meant as a stand-alone; it’s part of the musical theater. We’ve had the sinister, scheming Mr. Black in his attic, the full-of-himself, swaggering Flash and entourage and, now, the do-gooders; straight laced and humorless. What’ll it be next? My initial notes (vs above): pompous, maniacal number. Different parts, horn section really nice.
Exactly. The vocal arrangements on “keep it clean” alone may have taken multiple re-takes to eliminate hints of laughter in the voices.
Interesting to ponder Ray's beliefs..... I have no idea what they are, but I hear this track, slightly taken out of the album context, as a reaction to extremism. I'm a Christian, but hate the judgemental, self righteous extremists. It's as if they fail to comprehend the grace and love they are supposed to share. I've always found when people are dogmatically pointing out others flaws, it is to try and distract from their own.
I’m not so sure about the lack of irony, particularly when it was written for a movie about a penile transplant.
Shepherds of the Nation This is kinky. This is kooky. This is killer! I love that opening riff; almost Black Sabbath in its gritty intensity... what a grabber... and then we go right into the pseudo-religious renaissance chant? Yeah, krazy man. Not really a stand alone song, but at the same time as others have noted, not a super neat fit for this story either. But my mind just recognizes this as exposition of another form of extremism, so while it's not central to the story, it's more or less cut from the same cloth, so not really a bad fit at all. So is it a silly song or not? Is it out of place or is it relevant here? No matter, it all works wonderfully for me.
