"Moving Pictures" is the final track on

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm ...

' 1979 album ''

Low Budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

''. Like the other ten tracks on the album, it was written by

Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother Dave on lead guitar and backing voca ...

Lyrics and music

The lyrics of "Moving Pictures" focus on how life passes people by. It laments on how life is "always moving" and that "nothing in life is a permanent fixture". It then goes on to analyze life in general, with lines such as "we live, we die, no one knows why" and " life can sometimes not be very nice, but then you make your choice so you must pay the price." It then warns that "Life is only what you make out so make the verses rhyme and all the pieces fit, there isn't any time to make much sense of it, it soon fades away." It also makes mention of racial problems, with the line "black girls, white girls oh what a mixture, looking as pretty as a picture." The track, like " (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" (the lead single from ''

''), attempts a disco feel, with a steady drum beat opening the song. Also, like most Kinks tracks,

handles the lead vocal, which is double tracked at certain points during the track. Like the bulk of the album, Moving Pictures was recorded at the

Power Station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

, a studio located in New York City.

Personnel

As per the credits given on

- lead vocals, synthesizer, piano

Dave Davies David Russell Gordon Davies (born 3 February 1947) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the English rock band the Kinks, which also featured his elder brother Ray Davies. He was ind ...

- lead guitar, backing vocals

Jim Rodford James Walter Rodford (7 July 1941 – 20 January 2018) was an English musician, who played bass for several British rock bands. He was a founding member of Argent, which was led by his cousin Rod Argent, and performed with them from their format ...

- bass guitar, backing vocals

Mick Avory Michael Charles Avory (born 15 February 1944) is an English musician, best known as the longtime drummer and percussionist for the English rock band the Kinks. He joined them shortly after their formation in 1964 and remained with them until 1984, ...

- drums

Release and reception

"Moving Pictures" was released as the second U.K. single from ''

'', backed with "In a Space", a track also from ''

''. It was not very commercially successful, as it did not make a dent in the charts. The single was not released in either the United States or Continental Europe. The track was considered "blandly reflective" by

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

. According to author Johnny Rogan, he described the track as a perspective of life seen through the eyes of an “impermanent film”. When released, ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' described the track as "an amiable, proficient shuffle, but the lyrics hardly approach the timeless elliptical acuity of 1960s material like 'Fancy' or '

Wonder Boy The series, also known as the series, is a franchise of video games published by Sega and developed by Westone Bit Entertainment (formerly Escape). Beginning with the original ''Wonder Boy (video game), Wonder Boy'' arcade game released in April ...

References

The Kinks songs Songs written by Ray Davies Song recordings produced by Ray Davies 1979 songs 1979 singles Arista Records singles {{1970s-single-stub