The Kinks, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, called the tune on a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Dr. Mark Doyle

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Mark Doyle, a professor of history at MTSU, first aired May 26 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org. You can listen to their conversation above.

Doyle is the author of “The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached.” The book examines bandleader Ray Davies and his brother, lead guitarist Dave Davies, through the lens of their transition from their working-class roots to a middle-class neighborhood following the Nazis’ World War II attack on Great Britain.

A working-class sensibility remained consistent in Ray Davies’ lyrics throughout the band’s existence. Dave Davies, however, pursued the more hedonistic rock lifestyle that the band’s success afforded him.

Doyle also studies The Kinks though the philosophical prisms of various British intellectuals, including Charles Dickens and Edmund Burke. Ray Davies has said that George Orwell, author of “1984,” also has been a huge influence on him.

“Orwell was an English patriot,” Doyle said. “He believed strongly in the decency and common sense of the English. He believed that, even in their prejudices and their class system and all the rest of it, the English were a fundamentally human and lovable people.”

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.