MixedThe Irish Times (IRE)...biography serves as a mere backdrop for Doyle ... Despite its title, his work is less about the Kinks than it is a study of the art of Ray Davies seen through the prism of sociological research. As a result, the subsidiary Kinks are almost invisible ... the emphasis is on social history, with particular reference to class, kinship, mobility and the environment in which the Kinks operated, as well as previously undocumented influences that may have informed Davies’s songwriting ... It’s academically sound, the scope is impressive but, paradoxically, the deeper Doyle delves, the greater distance we’re taken from the Kinks to a point where even the most insightful connections appear tantalisingly tenuous. It’s as if a completely new book is surfacing, overwhelming and threatening to displace the current one.
Elton John
RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)... a remarkably self-lacerating and frequently hilarious account of a fantastic life ... There are numerous, enormously entertaining tales, many of which have never appeared in print before ... The jaw-dropping stories must have had the subsidiary rights department of his publisher salivating over the sales potential, but they serve a secondary function, distracting critical attention and sanctimonious judgments from John’s endless extravagances ... a rollicking and salutary story, written with verve, humour and pathos. Few, if any, rock autobiographies have been so nakedly revealing.
