Ray in Todays Evening Standard

[sleepwalker24]

There's an interview with Ray in today's Evening Standard. I'm a bit cross actually as I went into town this morning, especially to buy a copy and none of the shops in my town sell it One shopkeeper told me I was the first person to ask for that paper in 12 years!! Oh Ray, why couldn't you be in a paper that I can actually buy?!

Anyway, I looked online and managed to find the interview, it's a good read -

www.standard.co.uk/arts/music/ray-davies-what-closing-ceremony-8030723.html

[sleepwalker24]

So I called my mum and we decided to go to a nearby town and I nipped into a good newsagents - they didn't have it either
It has since come to my attention that the Evening Standard is a London newspaper...no wonder I couldn't get it

Then I see Dave Emlen's site has been updated and there is a review of the Kinks At The BCC in the Telegraph...typical, I have seen that newspaper several times today but was unaware of the article until a few minutes ago or I would have bought it.
It's so hot today though that I just can't be bothered traipsing back to the shops to get a copy.
I'm not too impressed by a couple of the interviewers comments, but on the whole he seems reasonably taken with the set -

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopreviews/9465070/The-Kinks-and-Ray-Davies-The-Kinks-at-the-BBC-Waterloo-Sunset-the-Very-Best-of-the-Kinks-review.html

[HollyH]

Yeah, that Telegraph blurb was disappointing. He really thinks Lola is the pinnacle of pop perfection? I don't trust his ears at all after hearing that.

But the Evening Standard interview was marvelous! I love the bit where Ray interrupts the interviewer with his own rambling, off-topic questions. Dressed in a sloppy T-shirt and trainers, fiddling with his earplugs, eyes restlessly roving around the square -- yep, that's Ray all right! And I love the line about him talking over old times in the pub with Mick last night.

I'm very curious to know what the tracklist is for the London Songs disc. I hardly think I'll buy that 2-disc compilation -- it doesn't seem to be for sale here in the States, so I'd have to pay import prices to get a bunch of songs I already own. I can't imagine that the packaging would make it worth the price! But I would love to know that tracklist so I can make up my own London Songs CD.

Interesting that Ray would have two releases coming out at the same time, the BBC box set and this "best of" package. Wonder what the logic is?

[sleepwalker24]

It wasn't really the Lola stuff that bothered me Holly. I didn't like that this bit at all -

''The Kinks were often a bit of a mess, with variable timekeeping, dodgy tuning, sloppy harmonies, shabby arrangements and sometimes quite atrocious singing, frequently applied to songs whose conceptual and musical ambitions seem beyond all of their abilities, including their own chief songwriter. For every perfectly observed vignette of English life (Sunny Afternoon, Autumn Almanac) and pithily satirical narrative (Village Green Preservation Society, Dead End Kids) there’s a clunking, unwieldy, elaborate novelty song (Supersonic Rocket Ship, Skin & Bone). The band just aren’t brilliant enough to carry off Davies’s duds.''



But I guess he was being paid to review the set which I guess kind of gives him the right to be critical and voice his personal opinions (unlike that idiot who interviewed Ray in Q and then wrote all that crap about him on Twitter )

Yeah, the Evening Standard piece was a much better read, I had to smile when I read that Ray had a UPS t-shirt on, so he has a shirt to match that jacket he loves so much!
He seems to really like doing interviews on benches too, I wonder if it's always the same one?
He seems to be getting a bit more eccentric as he gets older but that's one of the reasons I love him - I do like eccentricity in a person! ;D
Yeah, I liked the bit about Mick too, so nice that they still meet up He turned up for Ray's Come Dancing show too, but not the night that I was there.

Holly, I had a look on Amazon at that Best Of set. Of course you'll have all the tracks on the 'London Songs' disc, but here's the tracklisting if you want to make your own copy -

Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
Come Dancing
Where Have All The Good Times Gone?
Victoria
Big Black Smoke
Yours Truly Confused N10
Working Man's Cafe
London Song
Fortis Green
Postcard From London
Muswell Hillbilly
Denmark Street
Berkeley Mews
Holloway Jail
Lavender Hill
Willsden Green
Life On The Road
End Of The Season
Next Door Neighbour
Did Ya?
Most Exclusive Residence For Sale
Waterloo Sunset (choral version)

[HollyH]

Thanks, Sleepwalker! I believe I will make myself a London Songs CD for my car drives!

I actually didn't mind the bit about how sloppy their live performances were, as I find it rather exciting to see live performances that aren't canned, that aren't exact copies of the recorded versions. But I agree that it's annoying to be told that the "novelty" songs aren't great. Those are some of the best! They're often the songs where Ray dabbles in other musical styles (like "Supersonic Rocket Ship," where he tries his hand at a West Indian steel drum sound) or presents a quirky little slice of life (like "Ducks on the Wall"). Those are the most Kinksian songs of all! Anyone who can't appreciate those has no right to pass judgment on the Kinks at all.