This is a song I could have taken or left for ages. Now, I see and hear the brilliance of it. Ray and the band do a good job of summing up the rock n roll band-rock n roll fan symbiosis. As others have said, it’s a plea from Ray to Dave to please don’t leave the band. Ray’s probably talking to himself a bit as well. But, the plea includes “evidence”, he’s trying to show a tired and melancholy musician that, contrary to what they may believe, they make a huge difference in the lives of their fans and vice versa:
The opening (2 verses and change) states the problem, somebody wants to leave the group. They’ve lost their faith or they feel they don’t make much difference anymore. They want change because we ALL sometimes fall into that trap: “Somethibg’s gotta change”, but Ray asks his indulgence as he tells a story, then he can leave if he still wants to.
BRIDGE 1: Ray tells Dave of someone he knows personally who truly feels he couldn’t get by without The Kinks/Rock n Roll. An example of what THEY DO FOR THE FANS, in case Dave can’t see it, which Ray believes is the case, obviously.
CHORUS: We get the title, but what Ray is saying here is that this guy needs and uses RnR/The Kinks as his dose of sanity in an insane world. We all, absolutely, NEED escape from Society, which is a construct of man. “No live organism can exist for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream”. This sums it up, I think, how the word “fantasy” is used by Ray here.
BRIDGE 2: An example of WHAT THE FANS DO FOR THEM, again, in case Dave (and/or Ray himself) can’t see it. “DAN the Fan” may not play an instrument or sing but he (and she, let’s not forget the women), is what REALLY makes it work, the fans who “get it”. “He’s watched us grow and he’s seen all our shows, he’s seen us low and he’s seen us high”. If someone is truly lucky to find one friend that good in their lifetime, someone who has your back even on a bad night because they know what you can do on a good one, if you finding a single friend that good in your entire life, then who’s luckier than US?!? , Ray seems to be saying. And the line “But you and me keep thinking that the world is just passing us by”, that you feel like you’re living in a “rock n fantasy” except “fantasy” is used pejoratively here to express Dave’s (and Ray’s) misgivings and misunderstandings about how they impact the lives of their fans and vice versa. So Ray shows him that the situation they are in, with fans that ADORE THEM, couldn’t be any better, that they HAVE what they want, what every band wants, and going off their separate ways is t going to get them closer to what they believe they want, it’d be taking them away from it. Ray shows him that the power of the music and the fans love of the music ???? and the IMPACT this has on all their lives is very real, not a “fantasy” at all, only “Fanastic” insofar as it’s an AMAZING PHENOMENON.
To sum it up, I realize that I am The “fans” in this song, especially fan number 1, and this song just hits me in the gut, it unlike the way I feel when I hear ‘Drift Away’ by Dobie Gray. Really really POWERFUL STUFF, because I really do “believe” in rock n’ roll, certainly on a personal level, if not quite so powerful it could “change the world”, i.e., Stop the Wars, as Bono once sang. I find nothing as inspirational as great rock n roll. Nothing. And trust me, I need inspiration these days. as much, if not more, than most.
This is a song I could have taken or left for ages. Now, I see and hear the brilliance of it. Ray and the band do a good job of summing up the rock n roll band-rock n roll fan symbiosis. As others have said, it’s a plea from Ray to Dave to please don’t leave the band. Ray’s probably talking to himself a bit as well. But, the plea includes “evidence”, he’s trying to show a tired and melancholy musician that, contrary to what they may believe, they make a huge difference in the lives of their fans and vice versa:
The opening (2 verses and change) states the problem, somebody wants to leave the group. They’ve lost their faith or they feel they don’t make much difference anymore. They want change because we ALL sometimes fall into that trap: “Somethibg’s gotta change”, but Ray asks his indulgence as he tells a story, then he can leave if he still wants to.
BRIDGE 1: Ray tells Dave of someone he knows personally who truly feels he couldn’t get by without The Kinks/Rock n Roll. An example of what THEY DO FOR THE FANS, in case Dave can’t see it, which Ray believes is the case, obviously.
CHORUS: We get the title, but what Ray is saying here is that this guy needs and uses RnR/The Kinks as his dose of sanity in an insane world. We all, absolutely, NEED escape from Society, which is a construct of man. “No live organism can exist for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream”. This sums it up, I think, how the word “fantasy” is used by Ray here.
BRIDGE 2: An example of WHAT THE FANS DO FOR THEM, again, in case Dave (and/or Ray himself) can’t see it. “DAN the Fan” may not play an instrument or sing but he (and she, let’s not forget the women), is what REALLY makes it work, the fans who “get it”. “He’s watched us grow and he’s seen all our shows, he’s seen us low and he’s seen us high”. If someone is truly lucky to find one friend that good in their lifetime, someone who has your back even on a bad night because they know what you can do on a good one, if you finding a single friend that good in your entire life, then who’s luckier than US?!? , Ray seems to be saying. And the line “But you and me keep thinking that the world is just passing us by”, that you feel like you’re living in a “rock n fantasy” except “fantasy” is used pejoratively here to express Dave’s (and Ray’s) misgivings and misunderstandings about how they impact the lives of their fans and vice versa. So Ray shows him that the situation they are in, with fans that ADORE THEM, couldn’t be any better, that they HAVE what they want, what every band wants, and going off their separate ways is t going to get them closer to what they believe they want, it’d be taking them away from it. Ray shows him that the power of the music and the fans love of the music ???? and the IMPACT this has on all their lives is very real, not a “fantasy” at all, only “Fanastic” insofar as it’s an AMAZING PHENOMENON.
To sum it up, I realize that I am The “fans” in this song, especially fan number 1, and this song just hits me in the gut, it unlike the way I feel when I hear ‘Drift Away’ by Dobie Gray. Really really POWERFUL STUFF, because I really do “believe” in rock n’ roll, certainly on a personal level, if not quite so powerful it could “change the world”, i.e., Stop the Wars, as Bono once sang. I find nothing as inspirational as great rock n roll. Nothing. And trust me, I need inspiration these days. as much, if not more, than most.