On Ray Davies' 73rd birthday I decided to put up the title song from his latest album, Americana. What is so interesting to me is that The Kinks and all the 'British Invasion' bands brought England to this young teenager in New England. The music led me to study British literature in college. Much of my reading still is by British writers, and my television viewing is almost exclusively British shows.
I've written about Ray quite a few times here in my letters. You may just type his name into the search bar if you're interested.
After the Americana video, I've also posted two short ones about his knighthood. Sir Ray!
PS - You may read where Ray for the day comes from here. Ten years ago today!!
How interesting that our 1960 bands were your introduction to an interest in England and British lit, Nan. I rather like that. I also maintain that Waterloo Sunset is one of the best songs ever written.
ReplyDeleteI agree about WS. So many of The Kinks' songs featured England - it was a character in the narrative. Ray wrote (writes) about real things. Village Greens, hats, historical figures. His songs are a bit of an English history course. As with Van Morrison, I think his work should be studied in colleges. Just a few years after the English bands, we got Upstairs, Downstairs, The Forsyte Saga, and A Family at War on our Public Television stations, and there was no turning back. I had found 'my' place. After my mother died, we seriously considered moving there. We bought books about how to do it, but were stopped by the quarantine laws. We had cats and dogs that we couldn't put in cages for six months. Gee, we could've been neighbors, Cath!
DeleteHip, hip hurRAY!
ReplyDeleteYou know I love Ray Davies too and all the Brits!
Oddly enough, I just wrote my post and mentioned ANOTHER Ray...Ray Dorset, the lead singer of Mungo Jerry! :-)
Twilight Zone music... before I decided to post about Ray's b-day, I was looking into summer songs, and I watched the Mungo Jerry video. I had decided on Janis' version of Summertime, but then had to feature 'our Ray.'
DeleteGreat to see he's making music again! I was always a fan of theirs.When I was younger i liked their rock standards but later on came to appreciate their diversity as they have some interesting songs that would never be top 10 hits on the radio. I'll have to check out more of his new cd. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased that you commented. Diversity is absolutely the word. The album is well worth buying. I have it on vinyl.
DeleteGosh, I love that song. We must've had it recently on an in-store play. Such a great musician!
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