Paul McCartney calls him the greatest pop composer England has ever had. And Mick Jagger is a mega fan. Ray Davies of The Kinks is a legend. In fact, his band should have been on the same pedestal as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. “But I’m too unruly to follow the media’s lead,” says Davies with self-knowledge.
The man who created mega-hits like Lola , You Really Got Me and Waterloo Sunset wrote rarely gives interviews anymore. “They always write down that I’m a brawler and a bastard…”
But for once, Ray Davies is willing to let himself be roped into a conversation. The reason is the release of The Journey – Part 2 . A tasteful collection of the best work of his legendary band The Kinks.
Apparently that music could get a boost again, because while The Kinks were still fully represented in the Top 2000 in the first decade of this century (from no fewer than 16 times around the turn of the millennium to 10 times in 2008), the number of listings decreased. over the years to a meager two in last year’s list, with the indestructible Lola as an eye-catcher.
Davies is now 79 years old, 2 years younger than Paul McCartney and 1 year younger than Mick Jagger. “I was just there earlier and I dare say that we opened the door wide for the Beatles and the Stones.”
The eloquent Davies may have difficulty getting his words out, but he still uses his London bluff with playful ease. The singer therefore has the right to speak. Together with his guitar-playing brother Dave, he started the Kinks adventure in 1964.
“We immediately hit the mark with the song You Really Got Me . My brother played the first guitar riff in the history of pop music there.”
The Kinks were rough, coarse and often unruly
It was the start of a raffle of hits that seemed unstoppable. I Go To Sleep , A Well Respected Man , Sunny Afternoon , Days – It is just a random selection from the list of classics that flowed from Davies’ pen. “I have always opted for the intellectual approach. I liked watching people and I tried to capture ordinary life in my songs.”
Where The Beatles corresponded to the ideal image of 1960s youth, The Kinks were rough, crude and often unruly.
Davies sighs. “Long before the Gallagher brothers from Oasis copied it, Dave and I were already fighting each other out. That ultimately cost us in America in 1965. Not because of a fight, but because of a fuss with our manager Larry Page. Look, Dave and I came from a working-class family, but we weren’t crazy or stupid. And if anyone tried to screw us, fists would go up in the air.”
‘Lola’ reached No. 1 in 1970 and again 10 years later with a live version
That Page ultimately ensured that The Kinks were not allowed to perform in America for four years. Davies’ face contorts painfully as the subject passes by. “While The Beatles and the Stones were packing America, we were sitting at home in London scratching our heads. We couldn’t go any damn way. It immediately gave me a nervous breakdown.”
Davies says it with irony now, but the reality is that at the time he was teetering on the edge of life and death. “I had the tendency to immediately turn to alcohol and painkillers when I had problems. And that is very excessive.”
But quality does not deny itself. Davies continued to write pop gems and The Kinks made their best records precisely during the period of American exile.
The band also remained popular in the Netherlands. The song Lola reached number 1 in 1970 and exactly 10 years later the band repeated that trick with a live version of the song. “I remember getting a phone call: ‘ Lola is number 1 in the Netherlands again!’ Really bizarre.”
It was a period when Davies also filled the gossip columns with the news that he was dating Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. “Suddenly I saw myself on the cover of the English gossip newspapers. Then it said: ‘Who is that old guy next to Chrissie? She was the biggest pop star in the world at that time and according to them I was a bit of a faded glory…
Appointed king of British pop music
Nonsense of course. In the 1990s, Davies and The Kinks were declared national heritage by the new standard bearers of Britpop. Damon Albarn of Blur and Noel Gallagher of Oasis see Davies as the absolute king of British pop music.
A king who could almost have met a violent end in 2004. “I was happily living in New Orleans until one evening my girlfriend and I went for a walk through the French Quarter, one of the busiest and most touristy places in the city, and suddenly she was jumped and robbed. I went after those thieves but was shot twice in the leg. Even after the shooting in intensive care. Suddenly the man who shot me came into the hospital to finish the job. At that moment I was just signing my X-rays for two doctors because they turned out to be Kinks fans.”
It led to the return to London. He now lives a block away from the place where he was born in 1944. “And I have a lot of contact with my brother again. We talk to each other a lot. Yes, also about The Kinks of course. Will we ever play again? We have been rehearsing in recent years so it could just be possible.”
The album The Kinks – The Journey – Part 2 was released at the end of November.