Ray Davies Forum

Ray Davies

Forum

web dedicated to Ray Davies
www.kinks.es.vg

>>By C.Ríos (Thursday, 1 May 2003 21:50)

It's very difficult to correctly define how important Ray Davies is in the broad sweep of rock'n'roll because there isn't really anybody out there who has come as close to chronicling post war England in as minute detail as he has.
When he wrote the songs we may refer to as the golden period of Kinks songs (i.e. Face To Face to Arthur era) the songs had a kind of in-built nostalgia self-contained already. These songs emerged in the 1960s at a time when England won The World Cup, Labour were in power and The Beatles ruled the world. It was a bloody brilliant time. Yet they almost bemoaned a lost world of genteel thoroughly British Ealing comedy type stuff that perhaps never really existed at all.
That a young guy in his early twenties should look to connect with that era is puzzling considering the zeitgeist at the time.
The Beatles and The Stones were dropping tabs and smoking joints with Bob and The Byrds - that was the happening thing at the time. It must have been a hell of a time to be twenty something, Yet Ray eschewed his contempories bohemian lifestyles to sing about ordinary things like making cups of tea and having a bad back. The hedonists in the Davies world were dandies and dissolute drunken aristocrats who knew their place and knew ours too.
I'm very glad he did what he did though for those songs have formed a soundtrack to my life and my beliefs as I'm sure they have for many of you.
I really do believe if John and Paul opened a door for the big Sixties party then Ray decorated the house and furnished it. The simple fact of the matter is that no-one has ever bettered those songs and another old cliche that springs to mind is that they are completely timeless. They could have been done by a Palm Court Orchestra in the 1930s or Blur nowadays. I think that this work is priceless and demonstrates how a thing called pop music became a powerful and beautiful form of expression that really has the power to inspire and emote. Masses of people heard and understood these songs. They were moved by the songs. Perhaps the songs connect them to a more vibrant time. Every generation gets the music it deserves as a friend of mine once commented. What does anybody else think about this?

>>By Alan Moore (Monday, 19 May 2003 23:24)

he's a sexy beast

>>By kd (Saturday, 7 Jun 2003 05:46)

Where Oh Where are you, Ray??? I hear you are playing Philadelphia in September, but I just can't find the information!!!

>>By Calamity Jane (Friday, 4 Jul 2003 14:57)

Not familiar with any solo work of his but the Kinks difinately rocked!

>>By twainmiller (Sunday, 30 Oct 2005 19:34)

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