Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Traflaga Releasing / Helge Øverås / Jean-Luc
Sun 18 October 2026 16:00, UK
Rock and roll is a young man’s game, and that makes the inevitable ageing process a rather tricky situation to navigate, particularly for songwriters like The Kinks songwriter, Ray Davies, who once typified the spirit of youth rock rebellion.
With only their third single, The Kinks perfected rock and roll back in 1964, with ‘You Really Got Me’ beautifully capturing the amphetamine-fuelled rebellion of Britain’s post-war youth, predicting the sounds of punk rock the following decade, and earning the group a number-one pop hit to boot.
However, there could only be so many times that Davies could repackage that same energy before moving on to more mature climbs, which he did with expected grace on legendary tracks like ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and masterpiece albums like The Village Green Preservation Society.
Ultimately, though, by the time the mid-1970s rolled around, The Kinks were on a downward trajectory in both relevance and songwriting quality. While there were still commendable moments of brilliance throughout those years, Davies struggled to reckon with the changing landscape of rock, along with the changed personalities of his fellow 1960s rockers who had grown up and moved on to less rebellious climbs.
By 1978, many of the young upstarts who had soundtracked the 1960s had, inevitably, come to define the upper echelons of rockstardom, and that was something that didn’t sit right with Ray Davies, who penned ‘Misfits’ as a kind of response.
“I wanted to leave the continent,” the songwriter revealed in an interview, per Rock and Roll Globe. Seemingly, the Kinks frontman was feeling rather disenfranchised after over a decade immersed in the epicentre of British rock.
He added bitterly, “I didn’t fit in with anything. That’s why I wrote ‘Misfits’. I hated my contemporaries, I hated the lifestyle of Paul McCartney; I didn’t want to be like Elton John or Rod Stewart, most of all Rod Stewart, who I grew up with.”
Further reading: From The Vault
Rod Stewart had certainly gone through a transformation from his younger years. By the time ‘Misfits’ hit the airwaves, he had gone from a fast-living young mod on London’s swinging scene to representing the pinnacle of mainstream rock, and all of the excess that comes along with it. Punk rock, for instance, often cited Stewart as a mark of why anarchic DIY rock was so essential during that period.
On paper, Ray Davies was right there with him; The Kinks had amassed enough success, acclaim, and age by that point to consider themselves at the top of the rock pyramid, too. Perhaps given his own appreciation for punk’s explosion, though, the songwriter didn’t seem to feel comfortable embracing that rich rockstar lifestyle, having built his early career on the spirit of working-class rebellion.
In the end, ‘Misfits’ and its ode to outsiders wasn’t enough to reintroduce The Kinks into the pop charts, nor could it be considered a particular highlight of their discography. It does, however, exemplify Ray Davies’ willingness to adapt his songwriting to the changing times and sounds of rock music, without losing his core identity.
ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE 
The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter
All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.