Ray Davies Takes out the Kinks

My brother started listening to The Kinks a few years ago. I wasn’t impressed, since all I knew of them was their hits, like Lola(which I liked, admittedly since it reminded me of a girl in a bar I once met who was beautiful, smart, but had an obscenely low voice).

I was a Beatle fan to the core. Doug compared the Kinks to the Beatles and even held them to higher esteem in some spots. I was sore about it, but wanted to hear him out, since he has a great ear for music himself.

He lent me some albums of his with songs like “Yes, Sir, No Sir”  “Picture Book,” “Victoria.” Needless to say, I was hooked! “Arthur(or the Rise and Fall of The British Empire)” played in my car almost constantly. Then there was “The Village Green Preservation Society,” which got as much play as “Arthur.”

Ray Davies was to play at Summerfest in July. We managed to get there-my brothers, Doug and Nick, Doug’s fiancé, Karlie, and a friend, Matt, and we had front row “seats”(general admission bleacher seats, which were first-come, first served).  

Ray Davies was not even 20 feet away. He spoke of his brother Dave, and how they were getting to know each other again, how his brother was doing much better, healthwise. No mention of a Kinks tour at that time, though. He played many of the Kinks’ hits and we didn’t even realize it until he left the stage that he didn’t play LOLA!

“Lola! Lola” people shouted for during the first encore request.

And he came out graciously. His band began to play “Lola” and all was right with the world again. And Ray laughed and looked to be 20 years old again, winking at the audience as he sang and seemed to have a wonderful night, as we all did.