Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Ray Davies, Sony music 2018.
This album is the second instalment of Ray Davies’ tribute to America, the land that shaped his music.
Ray Davies is better known, to those of us old enough to remember, as the lead singer and songwriter of one of pop music’s greatest bands, The Kinks.
It is somewhat ironic that one of the most British of all 60’s English rock outfits would consider America to be the wellspring of their music, especially considering the subject matter of some of Ray Davies best known lyrics.
Songs like Waterloo Sunset, Dead End Street, Shangri-la, A Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of fashion, and Victoria, just to name a few, are quintessentially English and his two masterpiece albums, The Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur (and The Decline and Fall of the British Empire) actually owe nearly as much to English Music Hall and Skiffle as they do to American Rock’n’Roll.
Through both of these Americana albums, Davies is examining the American dream that he grew up with and how it shaped him.
Like any long-term relationship there have been ups and downs.
The Kinks were banned from entering America for four years at the height of their fame in the 60s, and when they did return they toured relentlessly trying to make up for lost opportunities.
Ray’s reflections on his experiences in America have been documented in song and spoken word, and in a way celebrate his own rediscovery of his musical origins and his abiding love for this deeply flawed nation.
There are 19 tracks on this album and it’s a cross between a talking book (a biography) and a pop album and it’s totally captivating to any fan of rock music, and the Kinks in particular.
Ray Davies’ wonderful lyrical abilities weave stories around people, situations, and locations associated with countless gigs in huge stadiums in major cities to smaller venues in the backwoods of middle America.
He introduces us to a cavalcade of characters met on the road and in so doing draws from the broad spectrum of American music forms to tell their stories.
I believe that these albums are real gems.
They are highly entertaining musically as well as providing an insight into the psyche of one of pop music’s greatest songwriters.
