There’s a lot going on for safety professionals right now: Economic uncertainty, massive job cuts at agencies like the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, and the impact of those things on their own jobs and businesses. For the Song of the Week, we’re going with the Kinks’ 1983 album cut “State of Confusion.”
By the time the Kinks released their album of the same name, the British band was 20 years into their career, which at that time was an impressive total. State of Confusion was a big hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 album chart, mainly thanks to the song “Come Dancing,” which charted at #6 on the Hot 100 chart.
“State of Confusion” wasn’t released as a single in the U.S., but it got play on radio and MTV and got as high as #26 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song wasn’t specifically about economic unrest, but it certainly applies to the current situation for a lot of people.
State of Confusion was the last big Kinks album. The band only released four more studio albums before splitting up in the mid-’90s. Bandleaders and brothers Ray and Dave Davies continued on with occasional solo ventures and there were rumors of Kinks reunions that never materialized. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame in 2005.