The Kinks — “I’m on an Island”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 16, 2026

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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,100) The Kinks — “I’m on an Island”

From the the Kinks’ [see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,330, 1,451, 1,591, 1,697, 1,784, 1,907] ‘65 LP The Kinks Kontroversy, Ray Davies tries out “punk calypso” (Peter Doggett, liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy), a “calypso pastiche . . . where [he] sings of isolation with a forlorn yet merry bite”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-kink-kontroversy-mw0000650366) He would later note that “[t]here’s quite an ironical humour coming up there for the first time.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy)

Bob Stanley writes:

The playful . . . calypso feel and odd, almost cod, vocal looks . . . into the Kinks’ future, presaging “Apeman”. It’s much the more endearing, though, and definitely about Ray’s state of mind in late ’65; it’s his “I Am a Rock”, though it also serves as a reminder that he grew up on top a hill in an island nation. No wonder he can come across as isolationist.

liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy: Deluxe Edition

Holly A Hughes ponders the song’s meaning:

“I’m On An Island” has always been a sentimental favorite of mine. With its acoustic arrangement and calypso beat, it makes me picture a tropical hideway, although I’ve heard that Ray wrote it about Iceland. On the surface it echoes John Donne’s “No Man Is An Island,” but the ghost of a failed love affair haunts every line. . . . Yes, loneliness is hard, and heartbreak isolates him from the rest of humanity – but something in that sashaying beat, in his floaty singing, tells me that this island is an irresistible escape.

https://thesonginmyheadtoday.blogspot.com/2007/06/im-on-island-apeman-drift-away-kinks.html

Richie Unterberger writes of the song and the LP:

The Kinks came into their own as album artists — and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter — with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. There are still powerful ravers like the hit “Til the End of the Day” . . . and the abrasive, Dave Davies-sung cover of “Milk Cow Blues,” but tracks like . . . “I’m on an Island[]” . . . were far more indicative of their future direction. Other great songs on this underrated album include the uneasy nostalgia of “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?,” the plaintive, almost fatalistic ballads “Ring the Bells” [see #508] and “The World Keeps Going Round,” and the Dave Davies-sung declaration of independence “I Am Free.”

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-kink-kontroversy-mw0000650366

Here is Roger Denison:

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