caswellcookejr
11-16-2006, 07:50 PM
Ray Davies
Former Kinks Leader rocks with new album and tour
Ray Davies, leader of The Kinks, probably the edgiest of 1960’s British invasion artists has not lost his touch. The 61 year old Davies has just released his first ever solo album “Other People’s Lives” and has embarked on a tour of the US with a new band. After his performance at the Orpheum in Boston recently, 2006 may well have been 1966 for Davies vocally. But this was not a night of feel good hits only. It was a night of storytelling and new music. After all, Ray invented the VH-1 Storytellers TV Series!
Usually when older artists put out new music it is average. Take the Stones latest album… average. It is almost obligatory to do it, but not for Ray. As he sang in the opening of his show “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” he proved it. At his age, 61, this is his first solo record and his first album at all in over a decade. It has freshness to it that most of his peers have lost. Some tunes (like “After the Fall”) sound like they could be from any alternative band out their today. Other tracks like the tongue in cheek “Next Door Neighboor” sounds a bit like the Kinks “Sunny Afternoon”, which he of course performed in concert.
The best way to describe Ray is a teenager in a grown up body. He can’t sit still, he constantly asks the audience to sing or clap along, which they gladly do and he keeps telling the sound man to turn it up (it was deafening, but that’s rock and roll) and he either breaks guitar strings or starts a song with one guitar and if he does not like the sound switches in mid verse! He did that during “Lola” which of course brought the house down. As did “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.”
Ray dug deep. For every hit there was a rare gem. He relied heavily in the first set on tunes from an obscure hippy era album called “The Village Green Preservation Society” which sold poorly but as Davies said is now a “Cult Classic.” Songs like “Animal Farm,” “Johnny Thunder,” Village Green,” and the somewhat familiar (at least from a recent TV commercial) “Picture Book” sounded so fresh and new.
In addition to the older music, Ray must have sang just about all of his new album. But the audience loved it. They loved it all. There was no “Waterloo Sunset” or “Come Dancing.” But there was “Low Budget” and “Tired of Waiting.” Clearly he missed his brother Dave. And on some of the songs Dave’s harmonies were absent, especially on “Lola.” It did not matter. Ray sang with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age. So for all the Kinks fans out there, go get his new album and make sure you see him on tour!
Former Kinks Leader rocks with new album and tour
Ray Davies, leader of The Kinks, probably the edgiest of 1960’s British invasion artists has not lost his touch. The 61 year old Davies has just released his first ever solo album “Other People’s Lives” and has embarked on a tour of the US with a new band. After his performance at the Orpheum in Boston recently, 2006 may well have been 1966 for Davies vocally. But this was not a night of feel good hits only. It was a night of storytelling and new music. After all, Ray invented the VH-1 Storytellers TV Series!
Usually when older artists put out new music it is average. Take the Stones latest album… average. It is almost obligatory to do it, but not for Ray. As he sang in the opening of his show “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” he proved it. At his age, 61, this is his first solo record and his first album at all in over a decade. It has freshness to it that most of his peers have lost. Some tunes (like “After the Fall”) sound like they could be from any alternative band out their today. Other tracks like the tongue in cheek “Next Door Neighboor” sounds a bit like the Kinks “Sunny Afternoon”, which he of course performed in concert.
The best way to describe Ray is a teenager in a grown up body. He can’t sit still, he constantly asks the audience to sing or clap along, which they gladly do and he keeps telling the sound man to turn it up (it was deafening, but that’s rock and roll) and he either breaks guitar strings or starts a song with one guitar and if he does not like the sound switches in mid verse! He did that during “Lola” which of course brought the house down. As did “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.”
Ray dug deep. For every hit there was a rare gem. He relied heavily in the first set on tunes from an obscure hippy era album called “The Village Green Preservation Society” which sold poorly but as Davies said is now a “Cult Classic.” Songs like “Animal Farm,” “Johnny Thunder,” Village Green,” and the somewhat familiar (at least from a recent TV commercial) “Picture Book” sounded so fresh and new.
In addition to the older music, Ray must have sang just about all of his new album. But the audience loved it. They loved it all. There was no “Waterloo Sunset” or “Come Dancing.” But there was “Low Budget” and “Tired of Waiting.” Clearly he missed his brother Dave. And on some of the songs Dave’s harmonies were absent, especially on “Lola.” It did not matter. Ray sang with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age. So for all the Kinks fans out there, go get his new album and make sure you see him on tour!