Politics & Power Quote by Ray Davies

Ray Davies is writing a sneer you can sing along to, and that’s the trick: he turns grievance into a hook, then uses the hook to make the grievance feel collective. The line is built like a chant, stacking accusations until it resembles the breathless cadence of someone who’s finally stopped trying to sound polite. “Money and corruption” isn’t a policy critique; it’s a mood, a diagnosis that the system has been sold off. Davies aims straight at the busted social contract: politics as a confidence game where the “working man” is invoked like a mascot and discarded like an expense.

The subtext is class anger filtered through showmanship. “Crooked politicians” is blunt, but “treating us like sheep” is the sharper blade, because it implicates the listener too. Sheep are compliant; the insult dares the audience to reject the role. Davies isn’t just describing exploitation, he’s trying to break the spell that keeps people accepting it. The “pocketing the profits” phrasing lands with tabloid clarity: no abstractions, just hands in tills.

Context matters: Davies emerged in a Britain wrestling with postwar austerity, shifting labor politics, and a pop culture newly able to broadcast dissent at scale. His intent isn’t revolutionary doctrine so much as populist exposure. The promise he refuses to “hear” is the recycled campaign narrative - progress deferred, patience demanded, resentment monetized. The line works because it sounds like it could be shouted at a picket line or sung at a pub, and either way it converts private bitterness into public rhythm.