They called us the Invaders
Americana. It started as a flickering black and white image through an old
movie projector. Faces of cowboys and indians. The good guys victorious over
the emissaries of evil. My early visions of America came from the cinema.
Then there were the guns; deliverers of truth, justice and the American way.
The day the Invaders came
In the early 1950's, Communism was still the scourge of the so-called free
world. UFOs had been sighted across America, and films such as 'The Invaders
from Mars', 'The Blob' and 'Creatures from the Black Lagoon' served as a warning that there were still forces of evil waiting if America ever dropped
its guard.
They called us the Invaders
As I grew up the music took over. Rock, jazz, skiffle and blues — those country
songs came to liberate me. The music gave me hope, a feeling that I could
express myself. The cowboys in those old black and white movies seem to have
values. You knew who the good guys were. Then, as I toured America with my band,
I saw the place first hand: from the roadside of a dreary bus stop to the big
gigs at the Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden. America was secure.
Its borders were safe.
It was against such a backdrop that the unbelievable happened: the Invaders
landed. The British pop invasion had arrived.
Cos the world as we knew it turned upside down
And things would never be the same
The day the Invaders came
At the height of our success in the 1960s, The Kinks were banned from touring
the U.S.A. for 4 years. When we did return, we toured the U.S.A. relentlessly.
Tour after tour. Year after year. To win back what we’d lost.
They called us the Invaders.