Don’t know if it made the 1979 Billboard charts but I remember hearing (and enjoying) the Kinks song “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” on my favorite local (Detroit area) radio station.
Well I heard it today and was able to pay attention to the lyrics which appear to be mostly about America needing but not receiving help from their allies, which Wikipedia confirms.
What was going on back then that inspired Ray Davies (leader of The Kinks) to write this song? I was 17 years and remember the recession and the Iranian hostage crisis but were these things, or was something else happening, that led America to seek help from other countries and be rebuked?
[Yes, the question assumes that it wasn’t merely artistic license.]
One word. Malaise
ETA - Sorry. That’s not very helpful. Probably related more to Western Europe pulling together as a trade and political rival to the US. Former allies were no longer granting the US carte blanch in world affairs and were asserting their independence.
That’s exactly it, but it was even bigger than that. The 1970s were an era of malaise for the U.S., especially after Watergate and the Vietnam War both damaged people’s trust in the government, and in the establishment. Gasoline shortages, along with high inflation, high interest rates, and high unemployment, added to the general sentiment of unhappiness, and the belief that the country was going in the wrong direction. New York City had come very close to going bankrupt in 1975, and the famous blackout there in 1977, which led to widespread looting, led to a belief that the city was in an irrevocable decline.
The assistance which Davies refers to, that the U.S. provided to its allies (“I bailed you out when you were down on your knees”), I’d always interpreted as the Marshall Plan, and other assistance that the U.S. had given to western Europe to rebuild after WWII.
I don’t remember that the U.S. ever directly approached other countries in that era for financial assistance: I think that the song was more about how the U.S., which had given such strong support to Europe when it was needed, was now in need of it, themselves.
Edit: @Elmer_J.Fudd beat me to the use of the word “malaise.”
I also think that, even if the U.S. did need economic assistance at that time, their European allies might have not been in a position to provide it, as they, too, were dealing with the same economic issues, and their own recessions, in the 1970s.
The Kinks, like all of the other British Invasion bands, were enthralled by America and its culture in the 1950s and 1960s. As a touring group, they had a front row (yet, still outsider) view of the deteriorating confidence and fortunes experienced by America during the 1970s.
It was released as a single, but didn’t chart in the U.S. (or anywhere else) according to Wikipedia, though I do remember hearing the song on the radio back then, and it’s still one of my favorite Kinks songs.
Since the OP has been answered, I’ll offer this hijack: the song blatantly quotes the Stones’ riff from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” I can’t think of a connection to the transatlantic theme…except maybe that song (in mid-1968) marked the Stones’ permanent return to American-blues-roots music, just as the Kinks (with the Village Green… álbum) were focusing yet more on hyper-Britishness…which lasted until, well, around the time of “Catch Me Now…”?
Again, an aside as the OP has been answered: for those who don’t know (and it may not be obvious) there’s a pun in there. Ray grew up in the Muswell Hill area of London.
[Moderating]
A question like “What was the nature of America’s malaise” is not easily amenable to a factual answer. This thread could fit in IMHO, but given the connection to the song, I think Cafe Society would fit better.