Lyrics to
Artificial Light

This version of Artificial Light was released by The Kinks in 1977.

Our About The Kinks page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Artificial Light from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Kinks that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Kinks or about the 1970s in general.

Slow dancing in a disco,
Standing underneath the light show,
Illuminated by the artificial light.

I disbelieved it at first sight,
I couldn’t tell if she was black or white,
It didn’t matter in the artificial light,
Artificial light.
Artificial light.
Artificial light.
Artificial light.

First time I saw her she was easy to know,
She had nothing to hide, she put it all out to show.
She didn’t cover up or try to conceal,
I knew the way that she felt ’cause her expression was real.
She didn’t cover up the inside,
She showed it all on the outside,
Stark naked in the artificial light.

Everybody gotta learn to relax,
To be yourself you have to put on an act.
Get together in the artificial light.

And if I saw her in the light of day,
I wouldn’t know what to say, I wouldn’t know what had happened.
I only wanna know a world below,
Where we can be ourselves beneath an artificial glow.

And if you’re scared what your friend’ll say,
And you’re embarrassed by the light of day,
Get together in the artificial light.

Everybody let yourself go,
Everybody to a floor show,
Get together in the artificial light.
Artificial light,
Artificial light,
Artificial light,
Artificial light.

---

Want more lyrics and songs by The Kinks?

The Kinks has released many songs over the years besides Artificial Light. The Kinks released songs from 1964 to 1993 spanning across albums like Kinks, Kinda Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One, Muswell Hillbillies, Percy, Everybody's In Show-Biz, Preservation Act I, Preservation Act II, Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, Give The People What They Want, State Of Confusion, Word Of Mouth, Think Visual, UK Jive, and Phobia. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Kinks.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Artificial Light by The Kinks

The lyrics to Artificial Light are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Kinks used when the song was created in 1977. The lyrics to Artificial Light have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Kinks and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Artificial Light by The Kinks. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Artificial Light" means the words set to the music of Artificial Light, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Kinks. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Artificial Light and the lyrics to Artificial Light are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Kinks who came here looking just for the lyrics to Artificial Light, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by The Kinks

Visit our The Kinks profile for more The Kinks songs, lyrics & info!

)