“Death of a Clown” is a song by Dave Davies, member of British rock group the Kinks, released as his debut solo single in 1967. Side B was, “Love Me Till The Sun Shines.”
The song was co-written with his brother, Ray Davies, who contributed the 5-bar “La la la” hook. Ray’s first wife, Rasa, sings this phrase as well as descant in the second verse, while Ray himself sings harmony in the refrain. Nicky Hopkins played the distinctive introduction, using finger picks on the strings of a piano. Other personnel on the song were Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums.
The single was credited to Dave Davies but the song also appeared on the Kinks’ album Something Else by the Kinks, released later in 1967.
Album cover of Something Else by the Kinks
In an interview with Yahoo!, Dave Davies said that “Death of a Clown” was written about the repetitive performing schedule he and the rest of the Kinks worked through. He said,
One night I nodded off at a party and woke up and saw all these decadent people running around. I had a vision of being a circus clown. I thought, ‘What are we doing?’ We were going from day to day to day like performing seals. And that’s where I got the idea for ‘Death of a Clown.’ I went back to me mum’s house with the same old out-of-tune piano and I plunked out three notes, and it turned into the song.
Death of a Clown
My makeup is dry and it cracks ’round my chin
I’m drowning my sorrows in whisky and gin
The lion tamer’s whip doesn’t crack anymore
The lions, they won’t bite and the tigers won’t roar
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
So let’s go and drink to the death of a clown
Won’t someone help me to break up this crowd?
Let’s all drink to the death of a clown
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Let’s all drink to the death of a clown
The old fortune teller lies dead on the floor
Nobody needs fortunes told anymore
The trainer of insects is crouched on his knees
And frantically looking for runaway fleas
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Let’s all drink to the death of a clown
So won’t someone help me to break up this crowd?
Let’s all drink to the death of a clown
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Let’s all drink to the death of a clown
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Written by: Dave Davies, Ray Davies
Album: Something Else by The Kinks
Released: 1967
Jim Adams is the host of Song Lyric Sunday. Today Jim’s challenge is to post about a song that mentions a profession (suggested by Di of pensitivity101)
Data source: wikipedia
Tao Talk 
cool tune Lisa! :-) don’t know a lot of their music but this song was good!
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Glad you like it :)
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Excellent choice, Lisa! We love the Kinks. They are the group we have seen perform like more than any other group, at least 5 times. Terrific post!
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Omigosh, Nancy. Seeing them at least 5 times is amazing. One of the groups I will see live once I get my time machine. Thanks.
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Not a song I’m familiar with, its always more meaningful when you can relate the lyrics with a personal experience.
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Agreed, Randy. I like the origin story of this one.
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Great choice. I love this one and the band as a whole, have done since they first started.
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Clive I rank them right up there with the Beatles and the Stones.
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I agree. Ray Davies is one of the best songwriters this country has ever had.
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<3 A few years back I learned that Ray had a baby with Chryssie Hynde and I can't help but wonder if the child is now into music? What a match!
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Their daughter is Natalie. She became a model and got into eco activism. Christie was married to Jim Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds, and had a daughter, Yasmin, with him. Yasmin became an actor, so no sign of the musical genes being passed on!
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Thanks for the update on the kids.
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You’re welcome. Autocorrect fail on Chrissie though 🤣
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Great selection, Lisa. I have always enjoyed the Kinks.
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Thanks, Eugi! They have quite the catalogue of great songs don’t they.
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You’re welcome, Lisa. Yes, they are a very talented group.
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This is a Kinks song that I never heard before and I like it a lot. Thanks for sharing this, Lisa.
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Jim, once I caught on that I could borrow music CDs and burn them onto my computer, I have vastly increased my music library. I picked up Best of the Kinks from 1964-1971 and it’s on there with 16 other kickazz tunes. Glad to introduce you to it. You’re welcome.
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It was great to watch the Kinks grow from the garage band sound of their early hits to the complete vision of Muswell Hillbillies. The Kinks plus Nicky Hopkins! What more can you ask?
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Steve, you can ask no more. Glad to see you’re a fan.
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No Kinks kollection is komplete without this one.
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Kompletely agree with you, Glyn :)
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I like Dave’s voice a lot…glad the brothers could get along long enough to work on this. Like The Beatles and The Who…there are not many songs by the Kinks I don’t like. They have a quality about them.
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Max, me too, and I like the way you describe it as a quality about them. It’s truly magical that quality.
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Wow, I almost missed your post, Lisa. I’ve always loved that song! I pretty much dig anything ’60s by the Kinks. That said, it’s also their period I’m most familiar with.
It’s also nice you picked a song that was written by Dave Davies. I think it’s fair to say when you think Kinks, you primarily think Ray Davies.
BTW, another Kinks song by Dave Davies I dig, which isn’t a ’60s track, is “Living on a Thin Line,” off their 1984 album “Word of Mouth”.
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Good tune, Christian, just finished listening to it.
https://youtu.be/5hl25DT6zBY?si=7h39k0hIEODgCeXV
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Thanks, glad you liked it. Even though it has a bit of an ’80s commercial sound, I just dig it!
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Can’t go wrong with the Kinks. (K)
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Nope :)
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Oh thanks for sharing this Li! Love the song.. cheers the the Kinks❣️
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:) <3
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Enjoyed this look back at Dave and the rest of The Kinks, who I’ve always felt were underrated as a band. This song was new to me – enjoyed the listen!
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Happy you enjoyed the look back, Bruce.
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Thanks for this Lisa, the first single I bought was “You Really Got me”. In an odd way, the Kinks invented heavy metal before they became quintessentially English. JIM
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Glad you enjoyed the post, JIM. I believe you about them.
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