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Post by HollyH on Apr 21, 2007 20:44:31 GMT -5
I thought maybe if we all wrote a little bit here -- some of our board members might print this out and try to deliver it to Mr. Davies in London next month. The fact that we buy albums and concert tickets SHOULD tell him how much we love his music...but maybe he has no idea just how important his music is to us, the ordinary fans. Or what makes it so special to us.
Anybody want to begin?
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Post by franklima on Apr 21, 2007 21:19:37 GMT -5
I wouldn't even know where to begin except to say that Ray has probably been more influential and has had more effect on my life ( in every conceivable and imaginable aspect of ) than anyone and that includes my parents !
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Post by HollyH on Apr 21, 2007 22:04:55 GMT -5
Basically, life is a very perplexing thing. A lot of writers try to solve it for us. Ray Davies never does. He just presents little vignettes, crystallized fragments of other people’s lives, and leaves it up to us to figure out what it means. It’s such a relief to be trusted like that. Ray Davies never insults my intelligence; he never pontificates or preaches.
Ray has the chameleon imagination of a great artist – what Keats referred to as “negative capability” – the ability to enter so fully into someone else’s existence that he loses himself. And while he’s in there, he figures out how that person – no matter what a loser he is – sees the world. That compassion for the forgotten person, for the misfit, the outsider, is one of the most important aspects of Ray’s art to me. On the days when I feel like a loser, I comfort myself with the thought that Ray would understand me, and wouldn’t judge me. It also helps me to be more tolerant and more generous to other people – an essential tool for getting through life without breaking your own heart.
I love how subtle Ray’s humour is – he doesn’t hit us with a sledgehammer. Some of these songs like “Holiday” and “Apeman” and “Maximum Consumption” I have been listening to for over 30 years and they still make me laugh every time. And in this crummy world of ours, a reliable source of laughter is worth its weight in gold. Sometimes I can just feel the burden of my existence lifting off my shoulders when I treat myself to a little bit of Kinky humour. I don’t even have to put the records on any more; I’ve got those songs like talismans in my brain, stored behind a little glass door with a hammer that says “Break in case of emergency.”
Ray’s written lots of songs about how confusing life is. Well, he’s right. Some of us just aren’t built to slug our way out of a tight spot. Even when you’re just trying to get along, things pile up, and change baffles us, and we feel fragile and overloaded. And on those days, I’ve got a Ray Davies song like “Complicated Life” or “State of Confusion” to steady myself with. When things get even worse, I can dream that “I’m On An Island” or wish I could just “Drift Away.” That longing to escape it all, to give up – maybe everyone doesn’t need that message, but I do. I need it most days, in fact.
Which brings us to the question of growing older. There are few things more painful to me than to watch Mick Jagger strip down to his spandex and strut around a stage talking the same old trash about gonna love ya baby. I would like a little advice about how life looks when you’ve passed forty and your heart’s been broken a few too many times. I can get that from Ray Davies, because he is not afraid to grow and change, not afraid to try something that sounds different, not afraid to admit that life’s not as satisfying or as simple as the old pop songs promised us. Thank god for that.
God bless you, Mr. Davies. Please keep on writing and recording your songs. It means more to us than you can ever know.
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Post by TomT on Apr 21, 2007 22:08:41 GMT -5
C'mon Holly, how are we supposed to follow THAT! Great job as usual.
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Post by franklima on Apr 21, 2007 22:11:12 GMT -5
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Post by franklima on Apr 21, 2007 22:13:23 GMT -5
C'mon Holly, how are we supposed to follow THAT! Great job as usual. I agree, that's a hard act to follow! floozie set the bar too high, must go to crow detention hall and be disciplined by el-KaBong
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Post by TomT on Apr 21, 2007 22:22:53 GMT -5
;D
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Post by HollyH on Apr 21, 2007 22:31:16 GMT -5
That looks like Nancy Drew, being rebuked by her father, prominent lawyer Carson Drew. C'mon you guys, I gave you a chance to go first! Is it my fault if I've been working on that essay for three days now? I'll bet Bill Malley would have something interesting to say on this subject. Where is old Uncle Cranky, anyway?
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Post by franklima on Apr 21, 2007 23:00:01 GMT -5
Holly 3 days??? I know you and you could whip out an essay of that quality in 30 minutes to an hour at most! Your brains can run but they can't hide. el-KaBong surronds himself with intelligent, pretty floozies! ;D
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Post by HollyH on Apr 21, 2007 23:01:23 GMT -5
Okay, I'll admit, it took 33 1/3 minutes.
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Post by franklima on Apr 21, 2007 23:02:47 GMT -5
Okay, I'll admit, it took 33 1/3 minutes. You can't fool el-KaBong!
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Post by TomT on Apr 21, 2007 23:05:42 GMT -5
Ray's music meant enough to me and my wife that we used Waterloo Sunset as our 1st dance at our wedding reception. We then closed out the night with a rousing Better Things. Twas perfect in every way.
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Post by HollyH on Apr 21, 2007 23:09:49 GMT -5
Lovely picture, TT! Mia looks especially radiant there. I know you two have known each other since about first grade , but which one of you got into the Kinks first?
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Post by TomT on Apr 21, 2007 23:10:59 GMT -5
Big fight ensueing at the T household.... it was definitely me.
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Post by complicatedlife on Apr 22, 2007 1:18:19 GMT -5
Basically, life is a very perplexing thing. A lot of writers try to solve it for us. Ray Davies never does. He just presents little vignettes, crystallized fragments of other people’s lives, and leaves it up to us to figure out what it means. It’s such a relief to be trusted like that. Ray Davies never insults my intelligence; he never pontificates or preaches. Ray has the chameleon imagination of a great artist – what Keats referred to as “negative capability” – the ability to enter so fully into someone else’s existence that he loses himself. And while he’s in there, he figures out how that person – no matter what a loser he is – sees the world. That compassion for the forgotten person, for the misfit, the outsider, is one of the most important aspects of Ray’s art to me. On the days when I feel like a loser, I comfort myself with the thought that Ray would understand me, and wouldn’t judge me. It also helps me to be more tolerant and more generous to other people – an essential tool for getting through life without breaking your own heart. I love how subtle Ray’s humour is – he doesn’t hit us with a sledgehammer. Some of these songs like “Holiday” and “Apeman” and “Maximum Consumption” I have been listening to for over 30 years and they still make me laugh every time. And in this crummy world of ours, a reliable source of laughter is worth its weight in gold. Sometimes I can just feel the burden of my existence lifting off my shoulders when I treat myself to a little bit of Kinky humour. I don’t even have to put the records on any more; I’ve got those songs like talismans in my brain, stored behind a little glass door with a hammer that says “Break in case of emergency.” Ray’s written lots of songs about how confusing life is. Well, he’s right. Some of us just aren’t built to slug our way out of a tight spot. Even when you’re just trying to get along, things pile up, and change baffles us, and we feel fragile and overloaded. And on those days, I’ve got a Ray Davies song like “Complicated Life” or “State of Confusion” to steady myself with. When things get even worse, I can dream that “I’m On An Island” or wish I could just “Drift Away.” That longing to escape it all, to give up – maybe everyone doesn’t need that message, but I do. I need it most days, in fact. Which brings us to the question of growing older. There are few things more painful to me than to watch Mick Jagger strip down to his spandex and strut around a stage talking the same old trash about gonna love ya baby. I would like a little advice about how life looks when you’ve passed forty and your heart’s been broken a few too many times. I can get that from Ray Davies, because he is not afraid to grow and change, not afraid to try something that sounds different, not afraid to admit that life’s not as satisfying or as simple as the old pop songs promised us. Thank god for that. God bless you, Mr. Davies. Please keep on writing and recording your songs. It means more to us than you can ever know. I was just about to write that.
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