Dig It! Magazine

Wishing Ray Davies a very happy birthday today, born on June 21st 1944, he is the co-founder and mind behind legendary british rock band, The Kinks. With top hits like You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset and many more, The Kinks became icons of the 1960s british music scene.

Today is a special day for me because firstly, I am a big admirer of Ray and The Kinks in general so this is like a national holiday and secondly, I asked people from around the world to send in something lovely about Ray that you can check out at the end of the article! (Thank you!)

The Kinks formed in the early sixties and went by several names like The Ravens or The Pete Quaife Band, which later turned out to be The Kinks, with Pete Quaife on bass, Mick Avory on drums, Dave Davies on guitar and Ray Davies on vocals and guitar.

The Kinks changed rock music as soon as You Really Got Me got released in 1964. Originally written on a piano, Dave decided to play it on his newly distorted (slashed with a razor or according to Ray, Dave stuck knitting needles through it) amplifier, a whole new sound was born that changed the way we listen to music. The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductees brought a whole new fuzzy sound that didn’t sound like anyone else around that time and it truly shaped the future of the genre.

You can hear their influence in bands like Oasis and Blur and you can hear them a little in some punk songs, some might say they even invented the punk sound too. I could talk about their impact all day but for now, onto Sir Ray Davies himself.

Sir Raymond Douglas Davies CBE (yes) is a rock and roll icon of the 1960s. He wrote some of the most influental songs with creative lyrics, focusing on the ordinary, the everyday life of people, his songs simply remind the listener that there are so many things we don’t notice but are around us and they are beautiful. His songwriting is very special, the ability to capture emotions and present them in ways you always get chills is something really valuable.

Ray is a well respected man and a very important figure in music. He not only wrote songs, there was a time where he wrote an entire Rock Opera that is also a full album, named Soap Opera that unfortunately never really got aired but you can find the entirety of it on Youtube. Soap Opera is about two men, Norman, the boring everyday man and The Starmaker who is very much full of himself and is on a mission to turn the most ordinary man in the world into a rock n’ roll star. He moves into Norman’s home, goes to his work just like Norman would but then in the repetitiveness of Norman’s life, The Starmaker realizes that all in all he is just an ordinary man too.

Ray proved the people that he is much more than a songwriter, he also starred in a movie called The Long Distance Piano Player where he tries to beat a record by playing the piano for a whole week straight and to be honest with you, when I watched it I didn’t expect it to have that big of an impact on me but here we are, it’s a great movie!

In his biography X-Ray, Ray mentions that maybe it was good for The Kinks to be ‘banned’ from America for 4 years because that way they had a whole new fresh start to show the audience who they really are and what they were capable of doing. Sadly missed out on the british invasion craze in the U.S with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, The Kinks managed to move onto bigger things and make great records because they had a driving force: to make something different, something better.

What I appreciate about The Kinks and their solo works is that you get to listen to so many genres in one artist: from punk to garage rock, pop, blues, you name it, The Kinks have it!

Now onto the lovely words I mentioned earlier:

“I really appreciate his songwriting, it feels very down to earth, very working class with a tinge of melancholy. I feel like him and John Lennon were really pushing the boundaries when it came to songwriting in the 60s. It’s all very catchy as well, I think Ray’s songs could really fit into any situation in life.”

“I remember listening to Sunny Afternoon as a teenager and something just clicked in me. I just had to pick up the guitar because I got so inspired by it. Of course my mother didn’t let me get one, but I eventually got one and to this day I still play.”

“The Kinks gave me the soundtrack for my life and I am very thankful for that.”

“My favorite song from The Kinks has been Phenomenal Cat ever since I’ve heard it. I like the little high pitched voice, it reminds me of a little yellow man in glittery pants. The whole song and album brings me comfort and reminds me of the times I had with my sister.”

Happy Birthday Ray Davies!

Want to share your experience? You had a chance to meet any of the people mentioned in the article? TELL ME MORE! email me at: submit.dig.it.magazine@gmail.com if you’d like to be featured in the upcoming article(s)! I sadly do NOT own any of the pictures seen in the article.