| Ray Davies |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Raymond Douglas Davies |
| Born |
June 21, 1944 (1944-06-21) (age 63) |
| Origin |
 Fortis
Green, London
England |
| Genre(s) |
Rock, Rock
'n' Roll |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer-songwriter |
| Years active |
1963 - present |
Associated
acts |
The Kinks
|
Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE
(born June
21, 1944 in Fortis
Green, London)
is an influential English
rock
musician,
best known as lead singer-songwriter for The
Kinks - one of the most influential, prolific and long-lived British
Invasion bands - which he led with his younger brother, Dave.
He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theatre and television.
|
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Work
- 3 Awards
- 4 References
- 5 External
links
|
Biography
Ray Davies (pronounced DAY-vis
) was born and raised in the North London area of Muswell
Hill. He is the seventh of eight children, including six older sisters
and his younger brother, Dave. He has been married
three times, and has four daughters - Louisa, Victoria, Natalie Rae and
Eva.
The musically inclined Davies was an art student at Hornsey College of Art in
London in 1962–1963, when the Kinks developed into a professional
performing band. After the Kinks obtained a recording contract in early
1964, Davies emerged as the chief songwriter and de facto
leader of the band, especially after the band's breakthrough success of
his composition "You Really Got Me." Davies led the
Kinks through a period of musical experimentation between 1966 and
1976, with notable artistic achievements and commercial success.
Between 1977 and their breakup in 1996, Davies and the group reverted
to their earlier mainstream rock format and enjoyed a second peak of
success.
In 1990, Davies was inducted, with the Kinks, into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and, in 2005, into the UK
Music Hall of Fame. Davies has performed solo since the mid 1990s.
Davies has had a tempestuous, 'love-hate' relationship with
younger brother and Kinks guitarist Dave
Davies that dominated the Kinks' career as a band. His
compositions and talent as a performer are universally hailed within
the music industry, but he has maintained a career-long reputation for
being fiercely independent and iconoclastic, resulting in a
decades-long pattern of conflict and alienation within the industry.
In 1973, a fed-up Ray attempted to announce the breakup of the band
onstage (the microphone had been turned off though) and then attempted
suicide by gobbling down handfuls of prescription drugs and washing
them down with liquor.
He was quoted in 1967: "If I had to do my life over, I would
change every single thing I have done."
In 1983, Davies had a daughter, Natalie Rae, with
then-girlfriend Chrissie Hynde (of The
Pretenders).
On January 4, 2004, Davies was wounded when he was shot in the leg
while chasing thieves, who had snatched the purse of his companion as
they walked in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Coming less than a week after being named a Commander of the Order
of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, the shooting
was memorialized by Bay-Area singer-songwriter Jim Bruno in the song Ray Took a Slug in the Leg.
Work
-
Davies' compositions over his lengthy career have been an
astonishing study in contrasts, from the influential proto-heavy
metal, powerchord rock and roll of the early Kinks hits
in 1964–1966 (most prominently "You Really Got Me" and " All Day and All of the
Night"); followed a few years later by more sensitive, compassionate
songs ("Waterloo Sunset", "Shangri-La",
"Big Sky"); and still later by anthems ("Lola", "Celluloid
Heroes"); neo-Romantic pastiches of English
culture ("Autumn Almanac"); true Music
Hall-style musical theatre (the Preservation
albums); and commercial rock which combined elements of all of these ("Come
Dancing", "Do it Again").
Davies' songwriting has often been acclaimed as more mature,
sophisticated, and subtle than that of many of his peers among American
and British rock
musicians
and he has been called the "greatest humanist in rock". While his lyrics were often
deceptively simple, focused on time-honoured rock themes
such as love, sexual attraction and partying, they often contained
elements of satire,
examples including "A Well-Respected Man", which ridiculed conservative
suburban
values, and "Dandy", which mocked the superficiality of the mod
subculture.
In addition, his later work showed signs of social conscience, examples
being "God's Children" and songs on the album Muswell
Hillbillies, which denounced commercialism
in favour of living simply, and "Dead End Street", which portrayed
pockets of poverty in the thriving British economy of the mid 1960s.
Davies' songs on the 1968 Kinks album The
Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
embraced nostalgia and preservation as themes long before they became
fashionable. Many of his best songs focus on the small-scale, poignant
dramas of everyday people ("Waterloo Sunset", "Two
Sisters", "Till Death Us Do Part"),
commonly told as wistful mini-stories.
His work has an idiosyncratic quality that has appealed
greatly to the Kinks' large cult following over the years. Throughout
his career, he has also been considered the most singularly "English"
of all major songwriters of his generation. He has consistently used an
English (sometimes Cockney) accent, as opposed to the faux-American
accent of some of his contemporaries.
Aside from the lengthy Kinks discography, Davies has released
three solo albums, the 1985 release Return to Waterloo
(which accompanied a television film he wrote and directed), and the 1998
release The Storyteller, followed by a full album Other
People's Lives in early 2006. Since the Kinks
ceased performing in 1996, Davies has toured independently (such as the
Storyteller tours), and more recently with a backing
band. In 2005, Davies released a four-song EP
in the UK called The Tourist,
and a five-song EP in the U.S. entitled Thanksgiving
Day. I n the liner notes, Davies confesses he still does not
know who he is and where his roots are. In the sing-along "Next Door
Neighbour", he seems to be suggesting he is all three characters. The
printed lyrics sheet contains some fascinating insights into the
songwriting process.
Davies published his 'unauthorized autobiography',X-ray,
in 1994, a romp through the Swinging Sixties, which settles
burning issues ranging from which band produced the first concept album
(not The
Who), to whether or not his tour companion, Gene
Pitney, had an affair with Marianne Faithfull. In
1997, he published a book of short stories entitled Waterloo
Sunset, described as 'a concept album set on
paper'. He has made two films, Return to Waterloo
in 1985 and Weird Nightmare in 1991, a documentary
about Charles Mingus.
A new album, working title "Music from the Big Weird", is
scheduled for release in 2007. On October 3, 2006, Ray Davies told the BBC that he was planning
to start work in November, 2006, on his second full-length solo studio
album, and said that he was trying to track down his brother, Dave,
saying, "Maybe he could guest on a few tracks".
. As of May 2007, the album has been recorded in Nashville and produced
by American producer Ray Kennedy.
Ray is currently touring the United Kingdom. The tour started
on 2nd May, 2007 in Milton Keynes and will finish at Glastonbury
Abbey on the 12th August. New songs performed have been provisionally
entitled "No-One Listened to Me" and "The Imaginary Man". Davies stated
during the tour that he hoped the album would 'be out this year'.
Awards
- On March 17, 2004, he collected a CBE from Queen Elizabeth
II for "Services to Music."
- On June 22, 2004, Davies won the Mojo
Songwriter Award, which recognises "An artist whose career has been
defined by their ability to pen classic material on a consistent basis."
- Davies and the Kinks were the third British band (along
with The
Who) to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1990, at which Davies was called "almost indisputably rock's
most literate, witty and insightful songwriter." They were inducted
into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
- On October 3, 2006, Davies was awarded the BMI Icon Award
References
-
A Solo Ray Davies Peers into 'Other People's
Lives'. All Things Considered, April 3, 2006.
Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
-
Kinks star shot in New Orleans. CNN.com,
January
5, 2004.
Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
-
Ray
Davies fuels Kink reunion rumours. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
External links
| The Kinks |
| Ray Davies – Dave
Davies – Mick Avory |
| Pete
Quaife – John Gosling – John Dalton – Ian
Gibbons – Jim Rodford – Bob
Henrit – Andy Pyle – Gordon Edwards |
| Discography |
| Albums:
The Kinks
(1964) - Kinda Kinks
(1965) - The Kink Kontroversy
(1965) - Face to Face
(1966) - Something Else by the
Kinks (1967) - The
Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
(1968) - Arthur
(Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
(1969) - Lola
versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
(1970) - Muswell Hillbillies
(1971) - Everybody's in Show-Biz
(1972) - Preservation: Act 1
(1973) - Preservation: Act 2
(1974) - Soap Opera
(1975) - Schoolboys in Disgrace
(1976) - Sleepwalker
(1977) - Misfits
(1978) - Low Budget
(1979) - Give the People What
They Want (1981) - State
of Confusion (1983) - Word of Mouth
(1984) - Think Visual
(1986) - UK
Jive (1989) - Phobia
(1993) |
| Songs:
"You Really Got Me" – "Waterloo
Sunset" – "Sunny Afternoon" – "Lola" – "Dedicated Follower of
Fashion" – "All Day and All of the
Night" – "Celluloid Heroes" |
|
| Related:
British Invasion - Argent |
