Everything about Ray Davies totally explained
» See also Ray Davis.
Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE (born
21 June 1944 at
Fortis Green,
London) is an influential
English rock musician, best known as lead
singer-songwriter for
The Kinks - one of the most 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.
Since the demise of the Kinks in the mid-90s Ray Davies has embarked on a solo career. His
February 2006 release
Other People's Lives was his first top 40 hit in UK since the 1960s, when he worked with the Kinks. His second solo album,
Working Man's Café was released in
October 2007.
Biography
Ray Davies (pronounced DAY-viss ) 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 with 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's 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'd to do my life over, I'd change every single thing I've done."
On
4 January 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. The shooting came less than a week after Davies was named a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth II.
Relationship with Chrissie Hynde
Davies' relationship with
Pretenders singer,
Chrissie Hynde came at the expense of his marriage to his second wife, Yvonne, who named Hynde as the other woman in the divorce papers. Davies and Hynde were involved in a number of bust ups, the most infamous being when they were due to get married but the registrar refused to marry them. In January 1983, Hynde gave birth to Natalie Rae Hynde, her first child and Davies' third. Within a year, Chrissie had taken the baby with her on a world tour. The relationship ended in 1984.
Work
Davies' compositions over his lengthy career have been an astonishing study in contrasts, from the influential proto-
punk, 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 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 albums); and commercial rock which combined elements of all of these ("
Come Dancing", "Do it Again").
Davies' songwriting has often been called more mature, sophisticated, and subtle than that of many of his peers among
American and British
rock musicians. His
lyrics 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.
Aside from the lengthy Kinks discography, Davies has released four solo albums, the 1985 release
Return to Waterloo (which accompanied a
television film he wrote and directed), the 1998 release
The Storyteller,
Other People's Lives in early 2006, and
Working Man's Café in October 2007. The release of
Working Man's Café was followed on 28 October with a performance at the
BBC's
Electric Proms series, at
The Roundhouse,
Camden. The concert was broadcast the same evening on
BBC Two. An edited version of
Working Man's Café, excluding two bonus tracks and
liner notes, was given away with 1.5million copies of the
Sunday Times on 21 October.
Since the Kinks ceased performing in 1996, Davies has toured independently (such as the mainly acoustic
Storyteller tours with guitarist Pete Mathison), and more recently with a live band consisting of Toby Baron - drums, Dick Nolan - bass, Gunnar Frick - keyboards and
Michael "Milton" McDonald - guitar (who replaced Mark Johns in 2007). 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. In the liner notes for
Other People's Lives, Davies confesses he still doesn't know who he's and where his roots are. In the sing-along "Next Door Neighbour", he seems to be suggesting he's 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 he'd 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.
Awards
On 22 June 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 3 October 2006, Davies was awarded the BMI Icon Award
Solo discography
» For Kinks discography see The Kinks discography
Return to Waterloo (1985)
The Storyteller (1998)
Other People's Lives (2006)
Working Man's Café (2007)Further Information
Get more info on 'Ray Davies'.
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