Ray Davies

Raymond Douglas Davies (born June 21, 1944 in Muswell Hill, London) is a British rock musician, best known as lead singer and main songwriter for The Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave. He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theater and television.

Works

Ray Davies' compositions over his forty year career have been an astonishing study in contrasts, from the influencial proto-heavy metal powerchord rock and roll of the early Kinks hits in 1964-1966 (most prominently "You Really Got Me") followed only a few years later by more sensitive, compassionate songs ("Waterloo Sunset", "Shangri-La", "Big Sky"), and still later by anthems ("Lola"), true musical theater, and commercial rock which combines elements of all of these ("Come Dancing").

Related Topics:
You Really Got Me - Waterloo Sunset - Lola

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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. While his lyrics were often deceptively simple, focused on time-honored 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 lifestyle.) 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 favor of living simply, and "Dead End Street", which portrayed the stagnant British economy of the late 1960's. 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, poigniant dramas of everyday people ("Waterloo Sunset", "Two Sisters", "Till Death Do Us Part"). 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 "British" of all major songwriters of his generation.

Related Topics:
Lyric - Theme - Satire - Suburb - Mod - Muswell Hillbillies - Commercialism - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society - Waterloo Sunset

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Aside from the lengthy Kinks discography, Davies has released two solo albums, the 1985 release Return to Waterloo and the 1998 release The Storyteller. Since the Kinks ceased performing and recording 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 called The Tourist, and is scheduled to release a full album called Other People's Lives in early 2006.

Related Topics:
1985 - 1998 - 2005 - 2006

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Davies wrote a semi-fictional memoir called X-Ray and a book of short stories entitled Waterloo Sunset, and has made two films, Return to Waterloo in 1985 and Weird Nightmare in 1991, a documentary about Charles Mingus.

Related Topics:
Short stories - 1985 - 1991 - Charles Mingus

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