Everybody's a Star (Starmaker)
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| "Everybody's a Star (Starmaker)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Kinks | ||||
| from the album Soap Opera | ||||
| B-side | "Ordinary People" | |||
| Released | April 1975 | |||
| Recorded | August – October 1974 at Konk Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:57 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Songwriter | Ray Davies | |||
| Producer | Ray Davies | |||
| The Kinks singles chronology | ||||
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"Everybody's a Star (Starmaker)" is the opening track on the Kinks' poorly received 1975 concept album, Soap Opera. It was written by the Kinks' primary songwriter, Ray Davies.
Like the two albums of the Preservation rock opera before it and Schoolboys in Disgrace after it, Soap Opera follows a storyline throughout the album. In "Everybody's a Star (Starmaker)", Ray Davies portrays the main character of the album, Starmaker. Starmaker describes himself as "a creator, inventor and innovator" who watches "the ordinary people, no matter what [their] occupation is." He goes on to say that "everybody's a celebrity, and we've all got personality and individuality. We all read lines, and we all act a part, we all need a script and an audience to play to. No matter what you do, or who you are, everybody's a star." He also claims that he "can turn the most ordinary man in the world into a star," "no matter how dull or simple" he is.
According to Rolling Stone critic John Mendelsohn, the music is based on a rhythm guitar riff similar to that of the Who's "I Can't Explain".[1] The track opens with a guitar, and goes on to have a short guitar solo later in the song. It also features female vocalists in the background (like many other songs that the Kinks recorded in their theatrical phase).
