Ray Davies: Life's Great Balancing Act, the Possibility of a Kinks Reunion and More
by Chris Parker
Ray Davies' fierce nature is such that had he not abandoned soccer, art and theater before alighting on music, he probably would have made his name known in one of those disciplines. Indeed, when the former Kinks frontman was knocked down and his girlfriend's purse was stolen near New Orleans' French Quarter almost five years ago, he chased their assailant, only to be shot and wounded.
That uncompromising attitude, along with a keen eye for character and a scathing social wit, put The Kinks on par with British Invasion brethren The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Who—critically, if not commercially.
Of course, The Kinks' incursion was cut short. They couldn't tour America at the Invasion's height from '65 to '69, when disputes with promoters and the use of non-union crews on their first tour led to the subsequent rejection of their work visas. According to biographer Tom Kitts, the unions wanted an example set, and deemed The Beatles too big, the Stones too cooperative.
During this period, The Kinks shifted gears from their early revved-up R&B stompers "You Really Got Me" and "Til the End of the Day" to wistful reflections of their British upbringing like "Waterloo Sunset," "Sunny Afternoon" and "Picture Book," which drew on English folk and music hall traditions, while offering Davies' somewhat wry take on nostalgia ("Picture book / People with each other / To prove they loved each other / A long time ago").
"Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake is really boring," Davies told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "You've got to be a little bit objective about it. It's that balancing act, moving forward and still keeping the best of what you have."
Davies has always been intrigued by issues of identity and self-concept, as epitomized by his huge gender role-swapping hit, "Lola" (beating Paul Westerberg's "Androgynous" by 15 years), and even its "sequel," "Destroyer." These dovetail with a romantic fascination focused on the underdog ("Low Budget," "Misfits"), individualism ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "A Face in the Crowd") and dogged hope amid adversity ("Life Goes On," "Get Up").
Even early tracks like "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" explored these questions, and the issue of identity has loomed even larger for Davies since The Kinks broke up in 1996. Afterward, he supported the fictionalized autobiography (beating James Frey by a decade) X-Ray with a solo tour (and a backing guitarist) featuring Kinks tunes, stories about their origins and new songs—inspiring the VH1 Storytellers series. He released The Storyteller in '98 and then took an extended break. He began living in the U.S. in 2000, eventually settling in New Orleans, though he also spent time in England.
His two solo albums, 2006's Other People's Lives and last year's Nashville-recorded Working Man's Café, were written during this time, before and after the shooting, in some ways book-ending the experience. The former reflects the lull with sketches depicting domesticity and flagging enthusiasm ("Next Door Neighbor," "Is There Life After Breakfast") beneath the implicit specter of advancing age. "The Getaway (Lonesome Train)" captures this tone most poignantly when it explains, "It might hit you on a sunny afternoon / Without a warning there's a thought that just comes over you / ...Get out that door before it's too late."
It's a fine album, boasting his best batch of songs in a quarter-century. Working Man's Café suffers by comparison, though it's hardly bad. It's definitely an "American" album, surveying our place in the world as it conveys a sense of dislocation that mirrors Davies' own after the shooting.
"Vietnam Cowboys" laments outsourcing and commercial homogenization, Davies questions where "The Real World" is, and while the title track tackles similar identity issues ("It's really good to see us come so far / But haven't we forgotten who we are"), its concerns about "taking out a larger loan, equity relief and mortgages" sound prescient. The album's centerpiece "Imaginary World" continues the previous album's existential angst, wondering, "Is this really it? Is this the final station?" as he fails to recognize his reflection in a storefront window.
In recent years Davies has commented how uncomfortable he is as a singer-songwriter, and how he longs for a Kinks reunion. In a recent interview he disingenuously cites the health of his brother, Kinks guitarist Dave Davies—who suffered a stroke in 2004—as a hold-up, though most suspect it's their volatile relationship.
Theirs is the typical singer/lead guitarist rock friction (Daltrey/Townshend, for instance) multiplied by sibling rivalry. Earlier this year Dave compared Ray to Hannibal Lecter in a website post, suggesting that while he could conceive playing live, he couldn't see recording together: "To sit in a room or studio with him and have my brain and heart slowly sucked out...no friggin' thank you."
For Ray, a reunion is predicated on the idea of new material. He's commented how much he longs to write music for his old group, telling The Sunday Times last month, "I miss that opposition. I'm not saying what I do now is unopposed, or that I don't do a certain amount of self-criticism, but I do miss that continually having to prove my point."
A few weeks ago, the BBC reported that the band had begun writing together, along with Ray's promise of a more collaborative process. Time will tell. Meanwhile, we celebrate the physical and creative rehabilitation of one of music's finest songwriters and social critics on his never-ending search for his true nature and place in an ever-changing world.
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God save the kinks and all their fans who have supported and stuck by them through the years. And for all we know they still might have a way to go. Eevryone should just leave well enough alone for now, we have the amazing solo career of Ray who is writing new material and touring like he was a 30 year old and Dave also up until a few years when he got sick was also doing great live shows and writng and recording new material. The Kinks should only get back together if they both really want to and for the right reasons. The music of the kinks has always been too important to their loyal fans and none of us want them back together for nostalgic reasons or to see them go out labeled as an oldies band. New material is a must for a kinks reunion! The last performance of the kinks in the US was in 1995 at the Rock & Roll hall of fame where they suceeded where all those who performed before them failed to get a seated reserved crowd to go stark looney crazy for the good old imperial KinKs. Rock Bands Come, and Rock Bands go, but rock & roll is gonna go on forever, and let's hope so do the kinks and all their fans! Thank you for the days Ray and Dave, Days I'll remember all my life! I remain the one and only Dan the Fan, The Montvale, New Jersey Hillbilly Boy aka Frank Lima
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The Kinks music has always been too important and too relevent for a reunion to take place for just nostalic reasons. No true die hard kinks fan wants to see that or the kinks come back as an oldies act. They mean too much to us. Dave has said on site that he and Ray have not seen each other in over a month now and have not even opened up a guitar case together and there is still a lot of things to sort out, so there is still a long way to go before any reunion even is a thought. Don;t believe all the reunion rumors in the headlines about them rehearsing and wring songs for a reunion tour. However that brings me to another point, there has to be new material brought to the table for a KinKs reunion. Sgain no self respecting true Kinks fans wants to hear just the hits or the old stuff, we want new material from Ray one of if not the greatest songwriter of all time, from the Kinks one of if not the greatest band of all time. Also the real supporters and fans of the Kinks want both Ray and Dave to want this reunion and neither of them should feel forced or pressured in to it. If it never happens so be it just as long as they are both happy. And besides we have their great solo careers to look forward to. Ray has been doing solo shows for over 10 years now an they are great shows, and Dave too up until his stroke a few years ago has also been doing solo shows and I think Kinks tour or no KinKs tour he will be back on the road too. For now I say lets be grateful for all the years of great music and great live shows they have given us. God save The KinKs, Ray, Dave and all their fans who have stuck by them through the years. - Frank Lima, A Montvale, New Jersey Hillbilly Boy aka Dan the Fan.
