“No one can penetrate me. They only see what’s in their own fancy, always.”
– Ray Davies

June 21: Ray Davies was born in 1944 Happy Birthday

Sir Raymond Douglas “Ray” Davies, CBE (born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for The Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave. He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theatre and television.

Ray Davies is one of my favorite british songwriters, he really is up there with Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards. He is that good!

Ray Davies’ influence on british music is large and important. It really became visible during the brit-pop period, but I can hear his way of talking about the english way of live in today’s pop and rap/hip-hop also. They might not know why they do it the way the do, but we do, it is the way Ray Davies taught them through his songs .

While almost every other songwriter working in a rock band at the time was talking about altered states or sticking it to squares, Ray Davies developed a vocabulary of traditional English life, and even mocked Carnaby Street fashion on “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”. The Kinks were culture without the “counter” prefix, a rock band that anomalously acknowledged the dignity in the middle-aged woman who went out and bought a hat like the one Princess Marina wore, the one that adopted the mannerisms of music hall without pastiche or irony, the one that sang about tea and gooseberry tarts and favoring neighborhood life over new patterns of development.

– Pitchfork (Joe Tangari)

20 Century Man (Storytellers, vh1):

The Kinks full show live at The Rockpalast in Essen Germany 1982:

Setlist:

1. Around The Dial
2. The Hardway
3. Where Have All The Good Times Gone
4. Catch Me Now, I’m Falling
5. Come On Now
6. Destroyer
7. Yo,Yo
8. Lola
9. Dead End Street
10. Add It Up
11. Low Budget
12. Art Lover
13. Back To Front
14. A Gallon Of Gas
15. All Day And All Of The Night
16. Give The People What The Want
17. Pressure
18. You Really Got Me
19. Stop Your Sobbing / David Watts

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Awards

• On 17 March 2004, Davies received the CBE from Queen Elizabeth II for “Services to Music.”
• On 22 June 2004, Davies won the Mojo Songwriter Award, which recognises “an artist whose career has been defined by his ability to pen classic material on a consistent basis.”
• Davies was also a judge for the third annual Independent Music Awards. His contributions helped assist upcoming independent artists’ careers.
• 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 for his “enduring influence on generations of music makers” at the 2006 annual BMI London Awards.
• On 15 February 2009, The Mobius Best Off-West End Production in the UK for the musical Come Dancing.
• On 7 September 2010, Davies was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award at the GQ Men of the Year Awards.
• On 26 October 2010, Davies was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at his AVO Session concert in Basel; the concert was televised internationally.
• On 12 June 2014, Davies was inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• On 12 April 2015, Davies won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Achievement for his West End musical “Sunny Afternoon,” which garnered 3 additional Olivier’s.
• Davies was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts.

My fav Kinks song – Waterloo Sunset (live):

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The Kinks In Concert (Live at the BBC 1973)

Setlist:

01. Victoria
02. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
03. Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
04. Lola
05. Holiday
06. Good Golly Miss Molly
07. You Really Got Me
08. All Day And All Of The Night
09. Waterloo Sunset
10. Village Green Preservation Society

– Hallgeir