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Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story
As a boy in post-War England, legendary Kinks' singer/songwriter Ray Davies fell in love with America—its movies and music, its culture of freedom, fed his imagination. Then, as part of the British Invasion, he toured the US with the Kinks during one of the most tumultuous eras in recent history—until the Kinks group was banned from performing there from 1965-69. Many tours and trips later, while living in New Orleans, he experienced a transformative the shooting (a result of a botched robbery) that nearly took his life. In Americana , Davies tries to make sense of his long love-hate relationship with the country that both inspired and frustrated him. From his quintessentially English perspective as a Kink, Davies—with candor, humor, and wit—takes us on a very personal road trip through his life and storied career as a rock star, and reveals what music, fame, and America really mean to him. Some of the most fascinating characters in recent pop culture make appearances, from the famous to the perhaps even-more-interesting behind-the-scenes players. The book also includes a photographic insert with images from Davies's own collection from the band's archive.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
October 24, 2013
Ray Davies’ memoir regarding his "affair" with America and its culture is great on so many levels. The book works on different platforms. The major theme of this memoir is regarding his life or thoughts on America, which makes it sort of a perfect travel journal. When I hear the two words together "Ray and Davies" I think of England and Noel Coward. I think Davies, overall, sees himself as rocker, but the fact he's probably one of the great songwriters that came out of the 20th Century. So yeah of course he rocks, but he is one of the great portrait painters of song. His "Waterloo Sunset," "Lola, " and others are classic samples of setting character with a melody. On top of that he is one of the great entertainers, in the tradition of British music hall of the 19th and 20th Century.
The beauty of this book is the character Ray Davies, who is not only super British, but a very troublesome soul as well. He wears doubt and depression as one would wear a winter coat during a blizzard. It is almost second-nature to him, and I think he uses that aspect of his personality for the songs he writes. To be honest I am not a huge fan of his music done after the late '70's, and still, this book takes place mostly during the Kinks successful years in America. Which at that time, they became boring to me, music wise - but in the '60's and '70's he couldn't have been better. On a genius level his songwriting was great - and now, as a prose memoir writer, his genius comes out again.
if there is another character that comes out of this book besides Ray, it is the city of New Orleans. Ironically enough my other favorite book on this city is by Mod-great Nic Cohn, whose memoir 'Triksta" is a horror show of a ride. Both books, written by Englishmen of a similar age, and from the same culture, wrote incredibly and heartbreaking narratives dealing with both the beauty and nightmare aspect of the city. For Ray, he chose to live in New Orleans, and eventually got shot in the leg during a robbery.
This of course becomes a huge turning point in his life, and in a way it is about the cultural differences between the British character and the New Orleans citizen. Ray obviously loves the city and its music culture, but is of course is shocked by the violence of that culture. Him being a victim, is both heartbreaking and profound. in a way Davies goes from one crisis to another, but when he pauses a bit, to reflect, its a win-win situation for the reader.
All the usual suspects are in the book, his brother Dave and the rest of the Kinks, but they're sort of side-players in this narrative. There is more of a focus on people like Bill Graham, his road managers, and dealing with life on the road while touring America. As a narrative it is not A going to B going to C, but more of a reflection on the people he met in America and how they affected him, both as an artist and on a personal level. One of the legendary characters that comes out through this book, but almost Phantom like, is the great Alex Chilton. Clearly Davies thinks of him and his work fondly, and it is a nice surprise to know that he knew and also thought of him as a fellow artist. Alex of course is part of the New Orleans narrative.
If one had to compare this book to another music memoir it would be Pete Townshend's recent autobiography, due that both are good writers and observers - but I think Ray Davies' is actually more profound, because he has such a strong everyday human element not only for his songs, but I think in life as well.
The beauty of this book is the character Ray Davies, who is not only super British, but a very troublesome soul as well. He wears doubt and depression as one would wear a winter coat during a blizzard. It is almost second-nature to him, and I think he uses that aspect of his personality for the songs he writes. To be honest I am not a huge fan of his music done after the late '70's, and still, this book takes place mostly during the Kinks successful years in America. Which at that time, they became boring to me, music wise - but in the '60's and '70's he couldn't have been better. On a genius level his songwriting was great - and now, as a prose memoir writer, his genius comes out again.
if there is another character that comes out of this book besides Ray, it is the city of New Orleans. Ironically enough my other favorite book on this city is by Mod-great Nic Cohn, whose memoir 'Triksta" is a horror show of a ride. Both books, written by Englishmen of a similar age, and from the same culture, wrote incredibly and heartbreaking narratives dealing with both the beauty and nightmare aspect of the city. For Ray, he chose to live in New Orleans, and eventually got shot in the leg during a robbery.
This of course becomes a huge turning point in his life, and in a way it is about the cultural differences between the British character and the New Orleans citizen. Ray obviously loves the city and its music culture, but is of course is shocked by the violence of that culture. Him being a victim, is both heartbreaking and profound. in a way Davies goes from one crisis to another, but when he pauses a bit, to reflect, its a win-win situation for the reader.
All the usual suspects are in the book, his brother Dave and the rest of the Kinks, but they're sort of side-players in this narrative. There is more of a focus on people like Bill Graham, his road managers, and dealing with life on the road while touring America. As a narrative it is not A going to B going to C, but more of a reflection on the people he met in America and how they affected him, both as an artist and on a personal level. One of the legendary characters that comes out through this book, but almost Phantom like, is the great Alex Chilton. Clearly Davies thinks of him and his work fondly, and it is a nice surprise to know that he knew and also thought of him as a fellow artist. Alex of course is part of the New Orleans narrative.
If one had to compare this book to another music memoir it would be Pete Townshend's recent autobiography, due that both are good writers and observers - but I think Ray Davies' is actually more profound, because he has such a strong everyday human element not only for his songs, but I think in life as well.
August 30, 2016
I'm a big Kinks fan, even up through the Arista years (the MCA and Sony years are best forgotten). Ray Davies has written some of the most empathetic and beautiful songs in the rock canon. His first book, X-Ray, detailed the origins of the band through Village Green Preservation Society with a good deal of poignancy. Unfortunately, this volume, which covers 1968 through the present, is ill-formed and lacking in insight. Half of the book is about Ray's time in New Orleans and his recovery from a shooting there, but he doesn't have anything particularly interesting to say about the city or his own state of mind (confused, directionless). The other half covers his recording career and touring in America, but there's only minimal information on the writing and recording of songs in this 40 year period. Ray's bandmates (some of whom, like Mick Avory, he played with for twenty years) get only a few sentences, and his brother Dave only gets a little more description. Instead, Ray is much more preoccupied with the Kinks' business deals (maybe this is why the songwriting and production has suffered so much since the early 80s.) Lastly, it appears that no one read this book before it was published. There is too much repetition of information within the same page, paragraph, or even sentence ("Former Arista promotion man Donnie Ienner was running the company, and Donnie had been part of Clive Davis's Arista promotion team.")
November 8, 2013
I love Ray, more than Elvis Costello, the Stones, or anyone else. Still, I can't say this is a great book on par with X-Ray. He really seemed to be holding back, still unwilling to share himself. That's ok, I guess. He's given enough over the years through his songs.
February 19, 2014
I had a good friend in England, sadly deceased now, who considered the Kinks one of the most “brilliant” rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time--right up there with the Beatles and Pink Floyd. I’m a longtime fan of the Kinks, too, but I also rank them as one of the great “feuding brothers” bands--like Creedence Clearwater and the Everly Brothers and Oasis. The Davies brothers, Ray and Dave--who formed the working-class band back in 1964--haven't performed together since 1996 and seldom miss a chance to beat each other up in the media.
I never read X-RAY: THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY, which is about 20 years old now, so I approached this scrapbooky, herky-jerky narrative with an open mind. It’s obvious that the Kinks’ singer/songwriter Ray Davies fell in love with America--or with its “sound”--even before the band first toured the U.S. as a wavelet in the British Invasion. Now aged 69, Ray reflects on the tumultuous history of the band and on his solo career. Of special interest is what Ray says about his life in New Orleans and the bizarre incident in January 2004, when Davies chased a mugger and got shot in the leg for his heroics.
Frankly, I found AMERICANA hard to follow. I often asked Ray in my mind, “Why on earth did you ...?" without finding a satisfactory explanation in the book. A lot of this autobiography seems unnecessarily cryptic and manipulative of the facts and (presumably) unfair to more people than just brother Dave. To be honest, I think Ray’s time would have been better spent in the recording studio, making music.
I never read X-RAY: THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY, which is about 20 years old now, so I approached this scrapbooky, herky-jerky narrative with an open mind. It’s obvious that the Kinks’ singer/songwriter Ray Davies fell in love with America--or with its “sound”--even before the band first toured the U.S. as a wavelet in the British Invasion. Now aged 69, Ray reflects on the tumultuous history of the band and on his solo career. Of special interest is what Ray says about his life in New Orleans and the bizarre incident in January 2004, when Davies chased a mugger and got shot in the leg for his heroics.
Frankly, I found AMERICANA hard to follow. I often asked Ray in my mind, “Why on earth did you ...?" without finding a satisfactory explanation in the book. A lot of this autobiography seems unnecessarily cryptic and manipulative of the facts and (presumably) unfair to more people than just brother Dave. To be honest, I think Ray’s time would have been better spent in the recording studio, making music.
July 29, 2016
As a lifelong Kinks fan, but one who likes "real" bios (and not dramatic-fictional bios like "X-Ray"). I was looking forward to this, but it's really not all that. Ray Davies may be a genius, but he's a very guarded, non-intimate one, and that comes through in his writing. You get the feeling that his work ethic is unrivaled (he lives to write songs) but at the cost of ever having a truly meaningful relationship with anyone - be it family, brother Dave or the various women muses over the course of his life. I would, however, recommend reading this book in conjunction with listening to Ray's most recent solo effort, WORKING MAN'S CAFE, because a lot of the songs treference very people, places and events Ray describes during his New Orleans soujourn in AMERICANA.
December 6, 2014
The British Invader invades America again…and again
'Americana' is not the first autobiography written and published by Kinks frontman Ray Davies. In the mid-90's, he wrote a fascinating memoir entitled, 'X-Ray.' It had the most creative approach to an autobiography that I've ever encountered. Written in the 90's it took place in the early 21st century (probably a time that has now passed) from the point of view of a young journalist assigned to track down reclusive rocker Davies in his studio and try to get him to disclose his private life for an expose. Most of the book, of course, was the first person recollections of this aging rocker and it provided a Boswell/Johnson framework, all imagined from the Johnson figure. I highly recommend it.
In 2013, the year 'Americana' was published, Ray was already older than the imagined reclusive aging rocker of 'X-Ray' so it would be interesting to revisit that projected elder statesman as portrayed by his younger self. 'Americana' is more straightforward i.e. all told from the point of view of the 'I' narrator, Ray Davies. However, it weaves back and forth in time, from the mid-sixties, when The Kinks first went on tour in America, to 2004 New Orleans, where the part-time resident Ray is shot in the leg by an on-the-run mugger.
When I first heard about the idea for 'Americana' I had a few trepidations. This most English of the British Invasion songwriters was largely distinctive because of his depiction of life in Britain. Why would he devote an entire book to experiences in America and neglect the majority of his life as it picked up where 'X-Ray' left off in 1971? I didn't want him to lose his distinct Britishness. I needn't have worried. You can take the Englishman out of England but you can't take the England out of the Englishman. Ray's encounters with the United States and their different way of conducting business continually provide at least a slight nationalistic culture shock for Ray, even up to the present day.
Unlike Charles Dickens, the British writer with whom he has been compared (and not just by me), Ray Davies feels no condescension and repugnance toward America, as Dickens felt, possibly even more intensely after his second visit. Ray acknowledges the debt he owes to American culture in providing him with a musical and cultural foundation (as it did for all the British rockers of that generation). 'Conquering America' is what the Beatles always saw as one of their major career goals and The Kinks and other 60's contemporaries felt roughly the same way. Unlike The Beatles, The Kinks were not the focus of mass adulation and press attention before they even left British soil. The Kinks were relatively unheralded by comparison, shuttled into package tours with other acts to play brief sets like assembly line performers. There was the raucous behavior in motels but how could that in itself result in the four-year ban from performing in America? The Kinks had nothing on The Who with their trashing of motel rooms and damaged property. Of course, if The Who had arrived before rather than after The Kinks the story might have turned out differently. To this day, Ray is not clear as to why The Kinks were banned from performing in the United States. Perhaps dancing cheek to cheek with drummer Mick Avory rather than 'grooving' with the go-go dancers on the NBC-TV show 'Hullaballoo' might have had something to do with it? Either way, there were misunderstandings due to bad management, cultural clashes and perhaps offending the wrong people at the wrong time. Therefore, at the end of the 1965 tour, The Kinks did not return until late 1969. In the intervening years they produced their greatest albums and when they returned in November of '69, promoting that most British of albums, 'Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire' they were starting from the very beginning, attempting to make an impact and make inroads into the musical mainstream.
The tale of their rise and resurgence in the U.S. throughout the next decade can be seen in retrospect to be quite triumphant, considering the business changes, the record label disputes and the ever-present interpersonal squabbling, the centerpiece being the lifelong sibling rivalry between Ray and brother Dave. By the end of the 70's, the band had already made career-changing albums for RCA and negotiated a lucrative deal with Arista. Executive Clive Davis promised that he would take them back to the top in the U.S. He kept his promise as by the early 80's, The Kinks, in the era of MTV, were even more popular than they'd been at their U.S. peak in 1965. What went up inevitably had to careen back down as the interpersonal struggles continued to dog the band and they descended into a commercial slump in their final years in the late 80's through the mid-90's.
Interspersed with the earlier accounts of life on and off the road with The Kinks in the 70's through the 90's are chapters set in New Orleans, In the late 90's, Ray was searching for fresh inspiration, discovering new 'characters' to inspire his songs as they once had in the earlier Kinks years. New Orleans provided plenty of inspiration as well as local color and in the course of this book almost becomes a major character, exerting its seductive tug and pull only to retaliate with a voodoo vengeance. At one point he wants to start a music program with a high school marching band. He wants to record but New Orleans, known as such a musical capitol, is notoriously scarce when it comes to great recording studios. The Big Easy is a home of 'live' more than 'recorded' music.
Eventually, Ray reaches the account of the incident that changed his life. In January 2004 he was feeling remarkably upbeat, enthusiastic about returning to England to record his new album, full of the inspiration he gleaned from New Orleans. He was walking down the street with a younger female friend, a club owner he calls J.J. (not necessarily a real name) when a mugger pushed him down and snatched J.J.'s purse, which happened to include not only J.J.'s belongings but all of Ray's identification and credit cards. Something in him snapped and he had an "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more' moment and ran after the mugger, who got in a getaway car and fired a shot at Ray. Luckily, Ray moved to the side and the bullet entered his leg rather than his chest or abdomen.
He follows with the post-traumatic recovery, physical and emotional, of the rest of the year, which included an obligatory meeting with the Queen to receive his C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). He includes a photo of him walking with the medal and a cane in one hand, holding his young daughter's with the other. He includes darkly humorous accounts of doctors coming in to give him a prognosis and, inevitably, interjecting that they're big fans. One of the assistants even asks Ray to autograph his X-ray.
For obvious reasons, the shooting forced him to slow down and reevaluate his life and his outlook toward himself and his songwriting, which he has always needed as therapy. While Ray reveals many of his deepest hopes and fears, he is remarkably circumspect about details of his private life. He alludes to at least two ex-wives and two to three children and uses fictional names for important women such as Rory and J.J. By necessity, he has to name drop his most famous alliance with Pretenders singer Chryssie Hynde. However, even here he says little about their relationship other than that The Pretenders had opened for The Kinks and at some point, Ray and Chryssie (who recorded at least two songs written by Ray Davies) got involved. Ray invited her to sing on one of The Kinks' encores, to the vociferous objection of brother Dave. Ray doesn't even speculate as to the core of Dave's resentment beyond saying that if Dave had asked his female companion at the time to sing with The Kinks, Ray would probably be just as upset.
Speaking of Dave Davies, Ray doesn't write much about their relationship other than mentioning the well-known fights and sibling conflicts and the fact that Dave had started removing himself from The Kinks for the last few years to focus on his solo career and only flew in to lay down his guitar tracks onto the recordings. Nor does Ray mention Dave's own health crisis the same year as the shooting when Dave had a stroke and had to relearn how to play the guitar.
Ray admits that he has probably spent far too much of his life viewing other people as potential characters for songs, recasting them in his own private scenarios. He had seen himself as 'The Storyteller' and even created the show that inspired the ongoing VH-1 series. The shooting forced Ray to begin viewing other humans as existing in a flow of time rather than in a structure with a beginning, middle and end. While he is far from viewing his life as nearing its end, he has become one of his own characters. He has delineated very carefully the portions of his own story he wishes to reveal to the rest of us.
'Americana' is not the first autobiography written and published by Kinks frontman Ray Davies. In the mid-90's, he wrote a fascinating memoir entitled, 'X-Ray.' It had the most creative approach to an autobiography that I've ever encountered. Written in the 90's it took place in the early 21st century (probably a time that has now passed) from the point of view of a young journalist assigned to track down reclusive rocker Davies in his studio and try to get him to disclose his private life for an expose. Most of the book, of course, was the first person recollections of this aging rocker and it provided a Boswell/Johnson framework, all imagined from the Johnson figure. I highly recommend it.
In 2013, the year 'Americana' was published, Ray was already older than the imagined reclusive aging rocker of 'X-Ray' so it would be interesting to revisit that projected elder statesman as portrayed by his younger self. 'Americana' is more straightforward i.e. all told from the point of view of the 'I' narrator, Ray Davies. However, it weaves back and forth in time, from the mid-sixties, when The Kinks first went on tour in America, to 2004 New Orleans, where the part-time resident Ray is shot in the leg by an on-the-run mugger.
When I first heard about the idea for 'Americana' I had a few trepidations. This most English of the British Invasion songwriters was largely distinctive because of his depiction of life in Britain. Why would he devote an entire book to experiences in America and neglect the majority of his life as it picked up where 'X-Ray' left off in 1971? I didn't want him to lose his distinct Britishness. I needn't have worried. You can take the Englishman out of England but you can't take the England out of the Englishman. Ray's encounters with the United States and their different way of conducting business continually provide at least a slight nationalistic culture shock for Ray, even up to the present day.
Unlike Charles Dickens, the British writer with whom he has been compared (and not just by me), Ray Davies feels no condescension and repugnance toward America, as Dickens felt, possibly even more intensely after his second visit. Ray acknowledges the debt he owes to American culture in providing him with a musical and cultural foundation (as it did for all the British rockers of that generation). 'Conquering America' is what the Beatles always saw as one of their major career goals and The Kinks and other 60's contemporaries felt roughly the same way. Unlike The Beatles, The Kinks were not the focus of mass adulation and press attention before they even left British soil. The Kinks were relatively unheralded by comparison, shuttled into package tours with other acts to play brief sets like assembly line performers. There was the raucous behavior in motels but how could that in itself result in the four-year ban from performing in America? The Kinks had nothing on The Who with their trashing of motel rooms and damaged property. Of course, if The Who had arrived before rather than after The Kinks the story might have turned out differently. To this day, Ray is not clear as to why The Kinks were banned from performing in the United States. Perhaps dancing cheek to cheek with drummer Mick Avory rather than 'grooving' with the go-go dancers on the NBC-TV show 'Hullaballoo' might have had something to do with it? Either way, there were misunderstandings due to bad management, cultural clashes and perhaps offending the wrong people at the wrong time. Therefore, at the end of the 1965 tour, The Kinks did not return until late 1969. In the intervening years they produced their greatest albums and when they returned in November of '69, promoting that most British of albums, 'Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire' they were starting from the very beginning, attempting to make an impact and make inroads into the musical mainstream.
The tale of their rise and resurgence in the U.S. throughout the next decade can be seen in retrospect to be quite triumphant, considering the business changes, the record label disputes and the ever-present interpersonal squabbling, the centerpiece being the lifelong sibling rivalry between Ray and brother Dave. By the end of the 70's, the band had already made career-changing albums for RCA and negotiated a lucrative deal with Arista. Executive Clive Davis promised that he would take them back to the top in the U.S. He kept his promise as by the early 80's, The Kinks, in the era of MTV, were even more popular than they'd been at their U.S. peak in 1965. What went up inevitably had to careen back down as the interpersonal struggles continued to dog the band and they descended into a commercial slump in their final years in the late 80's through the mid-90's.
Interspersed with the earlier accounts of life on and off the road with The Kinks in the 70's through the 90's are chapters set in New Orleans, In the late 90's, Ray was searching for fresh inspiration, discovering new 'characters' to inspire his songs as they once had in the earlier Kinks years. New Orleans provided plenty of inspiration as well as local color and in the course of this book almost becomes a major character, exerting its seductive tug and pull only to retaliate with a voodoo vengeance. At one point he wants to start a music program with a high school marching band. He wants to record but New Orleans, known as such a musical capitol, is notoriously scarce when it comes to great recording studios. The Big Easy is a home of 'live' more than 'recorded' music.
Eventually, Ray reaches the account of the incident that changed his life. In January 2004 he was feeling remarkably upbeat, enthusiastic about returning to England to record his new album, full of the inspiration he gleaned from New Orleans. He was walking down the street with a younger female friend, a club owner he calls J.J. (not necessarily a real name) when a mugger pushed him down and snatched J.J.'s purse, which happened to include not only J.J.'s belongings but all of Ray's identification and credit cards. Something in him snapped and he had an "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more' moment and ran after the mugger, who got in a getaway car and fired a shot at Ray. Luckily, Ray moved to the side and the bullet entered his leg rather than his chest or abdomen.
He follows with the post-traumatic recovery, physical and emotional, of the rest of the year, which included an obligatory meeting with the Queen to receive his C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). He includes a photo of him walking with the medal and a cane in one hand, holding his young daughter's with the other. He includes darkly humorous accounts of doctors coming in to give him a prognosis and, inevitably, interjecting that they're big fans. One of the assistants even asks Ray to autograph his X-ray.
For obvious reasons, the shooting forced him to slow down and reevaluate his life and his outlook toward himself and his songwriting, which he has always needed as therapy. While Ray reveals many of his deepest hopes and fears, he is remarkably circumspect about details of his private life. He alludes to at least two ex-wives and two to three children and uses fictional names for important women such as Rory and J.J. By necessity, he has to name drop his most famous alliance with Pretenders singer Chryssie Hynde. However, even here he says little about their relationship other than that The Pretenders had opened for The Kinks and at some point, Ray and Chryssie (who recorded at least two songs written by Ray Davies) got involved. Ray invited her to sing on one of The Kinks' encores, to the vociferous objection of brother Dave. Ray doesn't even speculate as to the core of Dave's resentment beyond saying that if Dave had asked his female companion at the time to sing with The Kinks, Ray would probably be just as upset.
Speaking of Dave Davies, Ray doesn't write much about their relationship other than mentioning the well-known fights and sibling conflicts and the fact that Dave had started removing himself from The Kinks for the last few years to focus on his solo career and only flew in to lay down his guitar tracks onto the recordings. Nor does Ray mention Dave's own health crisis the same year as the shooting when Dave had a stroke and had to relearn how to play the guitar.
Ray admits that he has probably spent far too much of his life viewing other people as potential characters for songs, recasting them in his own private scenarios. He had seen himself as 'The Storyteller' and even created the show that inspired the ongoing VH-1 series. The shooting forced Ray to begin viewing other humans as existing in a flow of time rather than in a structure with a beginning, middle and end. While he is far from viewing his life as nearing its end, he has become one of his own characters. He has delineated very carefully the portions of his own story he wishes to reveal to the rest of us.
May 19, 2014
During his book talk at Norwich Playhouse on Saturday 10 May 2014, Ray Davies says, ‘I didn’t use a ghostwriter, I could have done.’ This isn’t news to me because I’ve read it, and there’s no doubt in my mind he weighed and wrote every word.
There is nothing inherently wrong with rock stars using ghosts for their memoirs. These books, composed from hours of recorded interviews, are filled with pleasing anecdotes captured in the speaking voice of the ‘author’ and are often eminently readable. Keith Richards virtually shared credit with his ghost, James Fox. The problem with the ghost-written conceit is that when an artist comes along who actually does write their own book – and in doing so creates a work of dignity worthy of being read – there’s no way of telling the difference by looking at the cover.
In ‘Americana’, Davies tells two stories about his life and work in the United States. The first narrative spans three decades, beginning with the Kinks’ arrival as part of the British beat invasion in June 1965 and subsequently getting banned due to ‘bad management, bad luck and bad behaviour’. What follows is the slow rehabilitation of the Kinks’ credibility through years of touring and some 20+ studio albums until, in 1990, they are officially accepted back into the hearts and minds of America when they’re inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The second story is more recent, recalling the dramatic events surrounding a day in January 2004 when Davies was shot by a mugger in New Orleans. When news filtered back across the Atlantic that the lead singer and songwriter of one of the most influential bands of the twentieth century was hospitalised with a gunshot wound, the obituary writers must’ve been ebullient . . . but they were left unsatisfied because Ray Davies survived.
Enough is written in print and on the internet about Ray Davies’s accomplishments so I won’t repeat them here, except to say ‘Waterloo Sunset’ is a flawless masterpiece. In ‘Americana’, he calls his song-writing muscle the ‘doo-di-dum-dums’ and describes it as too personal to share, an explanation that will frustrate music theory scholars for years to come. Characters and their stories are the lifeblood of his songs, and his book introduces the reader to several characters of note over the Kinks’ career including loyal roadies, trusted security minders and foppish managers. By no means is this a tell-all autobiography. There are no insights into the cause of apparent bad feelings between himself and his guitarist brother, Dave Davies, merely an acknowledgment of them and a tenor of regret. Gossip here is limited, so readers looking for vicarious sex-and-drug fuelled experiences will have to go elsewhere (although the part when Dave Davies and Keith Moon are unable to throw a television out a hotel widow because the window was too small did make me laugh).
Instead Davies builds a picture of years of touring and recording, of a relentless pressure to deliver the next show and the next album, and how these obligations have taken their toll. The road is not conducive to a stable family existence, and he missed the court appearances of his shooter and, by an unkind twist of fate, the death of his mother due recording commitments he felt he had no choice but to fulfil.
The creative life once chosen does not always go according to plan. Anxiety comes with the effort of producing and perfecting work. There’s a lovely chapter set in March 1978 in New York when Davies admits to having writer’s block and struggles even to leave the apartment:
‘Who were music people, anyway? It’s just another business, after all, and I don’t have to put myself through all this. I wanted to cry out, “I am a successful songwriter with many songs to my credit. I am an artist. I deserve to be heard.” The reality was that I didn’t feel like a songwriter because I couldn’t produce at that time. Questions kept running through my head. What are you trying to prove, anyhow? You just got lucky a few years ago, so why should the world open up to you just because you wrote a few hits in the distant past? I thought about going home to get a trade and a day job. I was ready to quit the music industry altogether . . .’
In his talk as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (a literary event, not a music one) Davies says that when he gives a bad performance, he walks the streets. It’s easy to imagine the stream of self-reproaches, the over analysis of each mistake, the resolutions to get it right next time. In the Q & A part of the evening, I ask how the creative process has changed over the years? He replies he is more refined and more critical now, that it’s important to get the bad ideas out as well as the good ones, that no matter what else has gone before, the writing still begins with a blank piece of paper. It is refreshingly honest. And this is the real thrill in ‘Americana’, the honesty with which he deals with the recent past.
Davies goes to New Orleans in search of inspiration, to soak up blues, jazz, the spirits of musicians living and dead. He stays at a house where he can hear a high school marching band practicing nearby and decides to facilitate a project with them.
Then he tells the story of being gunned down and it is astonishing.
After being circumspect about the history of the Kinks, the reader is taken fully into Ray Davies’s point of view: the weather on the day, the face of the attacker, the instinct to fight back that was later the source of victim-blaming in the press by New Orleans authorities. The wound, the shock, the miasma of pain relief. The fact that for a time in hospital, because all his cards had been stolen, the medical staff called one of England’s famous sons, ‘Unknown Purple’. These chapters are full of intimate detail and stark vulnerability. The author wears his heart on his sleeve and whatever can’t be said directly is illustrated through selected lyrics.
‘See the sun, the day has come, and the night is just a memory / Do you live in a dream or do you live in a reality?’
It is a sincerely attempted self-portrait and a revelation.
‘Americana’ is not Davies’s first memoir. ‘X-ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography’ was a playful experiment in semi-fiction published in 1994. Twenty years later he is using prose to tease out personal truths and as healing; the result is a piece of writing of rare and thoughtful quality. With perhaps one or two exceptions (‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith springs to mind) the vast majority of Davies’s musical peers are simply incapable of this much depth and self-awareness in book form.
In the audience in Norwich, I suspect I am the only person who has read ‘Americana’ in advance and is more excited about meeting Ray Davies, the author, rather than Ray Davies, bona fide rock god. I want the interviewer to ask about his literary influences, not his musical ones, but the questions put are predictable and crowd-pleasing. The crush in the book-signing queue after is not conducive to writerly confidences and I sense an opportunity slipping away. There are several things I wish to know from this author and only the length of a signature left to ask; so I take a leap of faith based on the person I’ve met on the page.
‘It’s a great book,’ I say. ‘Are you going to write another?’ Yes, he replies. ‘What are you going to write about?’ And he tells me.
There is nothing inherently wrong with rock stars using ghosts for their memoirs. These books, composed from hours of recorded interviews, are filled with pleasing anecdotes captured in the speaking voice of the ‘author’ and are often eminently readable. Keith Richards virtually shared credit with his ghost, James Fox. The problem with the ghost-written conceit is that when an artist comes along who actually does write their own book – and in doing so creates a work of dignity worthy of being read – there’s no way of telling the difference by looking at the cover.
In ‘Americana’, Davies tells two stories about his life and work in the United States. The first narrative spans three decades, beginning with the Kinks’ arrival as part of the British beat invasion in June 1965 and subsequently getting banned due to ‘bad management, bad luck and bad behaviour’. What follows is the slow rehabilitation of the Kinks’ credibility through years of touring and some 20+ studio albums until, in 1990, they are officially accepted back into the hearts and minds of America when they’re inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The second story is more recent, recalling the dramatic events surrounding a day in January 2004 when Davies was shot by a mugger in New Orleans. When news filtered back across the Atlantic that the lead singer and songwriter of one of the most influential bands of the twentieth century was hospitalised with a gunshot wound, the obituary writers must’ve been ebullient . . . but they were left unsatisfied because Ray Davies survived.
Enough is written in print and on the internet about Ray Davies’s accomplishments so I won’t repeat them here, except to say ‘Waterloo Sunset’ is a flawless masterpiece. In ‘Americana’, he calls his song-writing muscle the ‘doo-di-dum-dums’ and describes it as too personal to share, an explanation that will frustrate music theory scholars for years to come. Characters and their stories are the lifeblood of his songs, and his book introduces the reader to several characters of note over the Kinks’ career including loyal roadies, trusted security minders and foppish managers. By no means is this a tell-all autobiography. There are no insights into the cause of apparent bad feelings between himself and his guitarist brother, Dave Davies, merely an acknowledgment of them and a tenor of regret. Gossip here is limited, so readers looking for vicarious sex-and-drug fuelled experiences will have to go elsewhere (although the part when Dave Davies and Keith Moon are unable to throw a television out a hotel widow because the window was too small did make me laugh).
Instead Davies builds a picture of years of touring and recording, of a relentless pressure to deliver the next show and the next album, and how these obligations have taken their toll. The road is not conducive to a stable family existence, and he missed the court appearances of his shooter and, by an unkind twist of fate, the death of his mother due recording commitments he felt he had no choice but to fulfil.
The creative life once chosen does not always go according to plan. Anxiety comes with the effort of producing and perfecting work. There’s a lovely chapter set in March 1978 in New York when Davies admits to having writer’s block and struggles even to leave the apartment:
‘Who were music people, anyway? It’s just another business, after all, and I don’t have to put myself through all this. I wanted to cry out, “I am a successful songwriter with many songs to my credit. I am an artist. I deserve to be heard.” The reality was that I didn’t feel like a songwriter because I couldn’t produce at that time. Questions kept running through my head. What are you trying to prove, anyhow? You just got lucky a few years ago, so why should the world open up to you just because you wrote a few hits in the distant past? I thought about going home to get a trade and a day job. I was ready to quit the music industry altogether . . .’
In his talk as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (a literary event, not a music one) Davies says that when he gives a bad performance, he walks the streets. It’s easy to imagine the stream of self-reproaches, the over analysis of each mistake, the resolutions to get it right next time. In the Q & A part of the evening, I ask how the creative process has changed over the years? He replies he is more refined and more critical now, that it’s important to get the bad ideas out as well as the good ones, that no matter what else has gone before, the writing still begins with a blank piece of paper. It is refreshingly honest. And this is the real thrill in ‘Americana’, the honesty with which he deals with the recent past.
Davies goes to New Orleans in search of inspiration, to soak up blues, jazz, the spirits of musicians living and dead. He stays at a house where he can hear a high school marching band practicing nearby and decides to facilitate a project with them.
Then he tells the story of being gunned down and it is astonishing.
After being circumspect about the history of the Kinks, the reader is taken fully into Ray Davies’s point of view: the weather on the day, the face of the attacker, the instinct to fight back that was later the source of victim-blaming in the press by New Orleans authorities. The wound, the shock, the miasma of pain relief. The fact that for a time in hospital, because all his cards had been stolen, the medical staff called one of England’s famous sons, ‘Unknown Purple’. These chapters are full of intimate detail and stark vulnerability. The author wears his heart on his sleeve and whatever can’t be said directly is illustrated through selected lyrics.
‘See the sun, the day has come, and the night is just a memory / Do you live in a dream or do you live in a reality?’
It is a sincerely attempted self-portrait and a revelation.
‘Americana’ is not Davies’s first memoir. ‘X-ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography’ was a playful experiment in semi-fiction published in 1994. Twenty years later he is using prose to tease out personal truths and as healing; the result is a piece of writing of rare and thoughtful quality. With perhaps one or two exceptions (‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith springs to mind) the vast majority of Davies’s musical peers are simply incapable of this much depth and self-awareness in book form.
In the audience in Norwich, I suspect I am the only person who has read ‘Americana’ in advance and is more excited about meeting Ray Davies, the author, rather than Ray Davies, bona fide rock god. I want the interviewer to ask about his literary influences, not his musical ones, but the questions put are predictable and crowd-pleasing. The crush in the book-signing queue after is not conducive to writerly confidences and I sense an opportunity slipping away. There are several things I wish to know from this author and only the length of a signature left to ask; so I take a leap of faith based on the person I’ve met on the page.
‘It’s a great book,’ I say. ‘Are you going to write another?’ Yes, he replies. ‘What are you going to write about?’ And he tells me.
Read
December 20, 2020Another good example of how well what’s happening off stage is so often hidden from the ordinary fans. Among the things that surprised me included the number of gigs in the 1970s when The Kinks were opening for people, whom I would have expected to be themselves the openers. Ray Davies’ Journey to the centre of the self is recorded with the kind of humour and attention to quirky detail that one would expect from the person who wrote all those songs.
August 19, 2017
Ray is a musical genius and a pretty good book writer to boot!
October 29, 2016
Raymond Douglas Davies may be one of our greatest songwriters but he's also a pretty self-obsessed individual.
It doesn't take long for the references to The Kinks as "my band" and their albums as "my record" to grate. In his mind, they are clearly all secondary to him. Even Dave who is expected to be at Ray's beck and call (whilst Ray objects to being in such a position for anyone else) is seem to be much the same although his sibling status does force further acknowledgement than I suspect Ray would secretly prefer.
The book is centred around the shooting of Davies in New Orleans in 2004 and provides the basis for an entirely American-centric overview of The Kinks story. It's also incredibly partial - it would appear that The Kinks records from the 1970's onward were all huge creative successes according to the author who seems unwilling to admit to their increasing patchiness. Also avoided are his 1974 suicide attempt - presumably on the basis that this occured in the UK - but which should be a significant part any life story.
It's enjoyable enough and well enough written (if a bit too florid at times) but, if anything, encourages you to dismiss it as the ramblings of an egomaniac and to head to something more objective about the career of one of our greatest bands and songwriters.
It doesn't take long for the references to The Kinks as "my band" and their albums as "my record" to grate. In his mind, they are clearly all secondary to him. Even Dave who is expected to be at Ray's beck and call (whilst Ray objects to being in such a position for anyone else) is seem to be much the same although his sibling status does force further acknowledgement than I suspect Ray would secretly prefer.
The book is centred around the shooting of Davies in New Orleans in 2004 and provides the basis for an entirely American-centric overview of The Kinks story. It's also incredibly partial - it would appear that The Kinks records from the 1970's onward were all huge creative successes according to the author who seems unwilling to admit to their increasing patchiness. Also avoided are his 1974 suicide attempt - presumably on the basis that this occured in the UK - but which should be a significant part any life story.
It's enjoyable enough and well enough written (if a bit too florid at times) but, if anything, encourages you to dismiss it as the ramblings of an egomaniac and to head to something more objective about the career of one of our greatest bands and songwriters.
January 30, 2014
The highlights for me were Davies' reflection on touring, writing, recording, and navigating the industry in the 1970's. His depiction of the medical care he received after being shot in the leg was also engaging. The story gets a bit choppy at times. He hops from deep reflection about what was happening with the band in the 70's and early 80's ahead to the period around the shooting and it can be jarring when you are highly interested in one or the other of the time periods. For those who love the Kinks but don't already know a lot about the band's career after Muswell Hillbillies, this is a great read.
October 28, 2013
A nice biographical journey through America over three decades. Davies comes across as a very normal person who has discovered himself living a rock star's life. His sensibilities and observations tend to lean conservative, whether or not he is overtly aware of this, and as such provide a unique lens through hitch to view the decades of the 60s, 70s and beyond. It's hardly great literature, but it is good stuff. Highly recommended!
July 6, 2014
Thoroughly enjoyable book for those of my generation, I'm sixty, we grew up with the Kinks when they were big stars. Our musicians back then were the inventors of rock guitar playing. I was surprised how serious Ray Davies is. Very interesting.
February 24, 2023
Ray Davies is one of the iconic British invasion musicians from the 1960s and his songwriting has provided the soundtrack for somewhere in the region of 60 years of popular culture. His rambling and expensive memoir ‘Americana: The Kinks, The Road and the Perfect Riff’ is his attempt to make some sense of his life. The narrative of the book is framed around to key elements to his life; the first being his career in and with the Kinks and the second being his life as it has been lived in or affected by the United States. In some respects like the travelling that Davies documents in the book, this is a meandering story that flags down many spots and takes the reader on a journey, however it is neither ordered nor does it have an end point. The reader is asked to just jump on board and travel along with Ray as he navigates us through his story.
There’s lots to enjoy in this book, particularly if you are a fan of the music and songwriting of Ray Davies. Of course it’s highly unlikely you would’ve picked up this book if you didn’t already have that in mind. Because of the reliance of Davies on at least some nodding acquaintance with his work and that of The Kinks the reader won’t be given too much of an insight into their early years. In fact if there is one cohesive narrative strand in this book it is more about Ray and the band working through the period from approximately 1969 through to around 2010. There is quite the focus on how The Kinks and Ray made the effort to conquer America after they were effectively banned from touring the US in 1965. Through the story of the various gigs and concerts that the band performed at as well as life on the road and the commercial arrangements and musical landmarks along the way Davies recounts the second rise of the Kinks to popularity and success.
There is also a considerable amount of narrative energy spent on Davies discussing and analysing his own personal life and his experiences in the city of New Orleans. He spends quite a bit of energy talking about several lows and some highs in his domestic life, away from the band, the stage and the studio. He speaks to some familial and romantic relationships, his friends and other great musicians and perhaps most importantly his experiences related to his being shot in 2004. It is this aspect of his life that serves as a fulcrum for the book. This memoir is effectively an attempt to try and make sense of his life and what it all means as focused or warped by that specific event in that specific place at that specific time. Davies uses the shooting and New Orleans as the framing experience fir his personal narrative.
There’s lots to enjoy in this book and Ray is an engaging author. Has said earlier if one is a fan of him and the Kinks then it’s highly likely that he will enjoy what he has written. If not a fan you will hopefully get some pleasure and also learn a bit about the man and his art. Davies writes with plenty of clarity in his prose and he also includes plenty of his song lyrics, thus giving the book a poetic element. It’s hard to assess the veracity of the book because this is after all of personal narrative. This is Ray’s story, not The Kinks’ story. There is a curious mix of ego and humility in his story and the mood of ‘Americana..’ is strangely sad, even with the career triumphs that Ray maps along the way. This is perhaps no surprise because Ray is shown to be a very introspective man in this book. He is aware of the challenges, the ephemeral success his music offers and how this comes at a cost to his personal life. This book has a similar emotional resonance as found in his songs ‘Days’ and ‘Waterloo Sunset’. There is a wistfulness, a nostalgia, a sense of more loss than gain permeating Davies’ text.
In conclusion I enjoyed reading ‘Americana…’. It also reminded me of how great The Kinks were and encouraged me to listen to more of the music they created. The wandering narrative and a certain lack of coverage of The Kinks’ early success was a little frustrating, and the imposition of the song lyrics in the text became a little tedious. These are of course my own issues with the book; I still have no reservations whatsoever in recommending Ray’s book to anyone who wants to learn more about him, his life, his work and his experiences particularly with respect to his American days.
There’s lots to enjoy in this book, particularly if you are a fan of the music and songwriting of Ray Davies. Of course it’s highly unlikely you would’ve picked up this book if you didn’t already have that in mind. Because of the reliance of Davies on at least some nodding acquaintance with his work and that of The Kinks the reader won’t be given too much of an insight into their early years. In fact if there is one cohesive narrative strand in this book it is more about Ray and the band working through the period from approximately 1969 through to around 2010. There is quite the focus on how The Kinks and Ray made the effort to conquer America after they were effectively banned from touring the US in 1965. Through the story of the various gigs and concerts that the band performed at as well as life on the road and the commercial arrangements and musical landmarks along the way Davies recounts the second rise of the Kinks to popularity and success.
There is also a considerable amount of narrative energy spent on Davies discussing and analysing his own personal life and his experiences in the city of New Orleans. He spends quite a bit of energy talking about several lows and some highs in his domestic life, away from the band, the stage and the studio. He speaks to some familial and romantic relationships, his friends and other great musicians and perhaps most importantly his experiences related to his being shot in 2004. It is this aspect of his life that serves as a fulcrum for the book. This memoir is effectively an attempt to try and make sense of his life and what it all means as focused or warped by that specific event in that specific place at that specific time. Davies uses the shooting and New Orleans as the framing experience fir his personal narrative.
There’s lots to enjoy in this book and Ray is an engaging author. Has said earlier if one is a fan of him and the Kinks then it’s highly likely that he will enjoy what he has written. If not a fan you will hopefully get some pleasure and also learn a bit about the man and his art. Davies writes with plenty of clarity in his prose and he also includes plenty of his song lyrics, thus giving the book a poetic element. It’s hard to assess the veracity of the book because this is after all of personal narrative. This is Ray’s story, not The Kinks’ story. There is a curious mix of ego and humility in his story and the mood of ‘Americana..’ is strangely sad, even with the career triumphs that Ray maps along the way. This is perhaps no surprise because Ray is shown to be a very introspective man in this book. He is aware of the challenges, the ephemeral success his music offers and how this comes at a cost to his personal life. This book has a similar emotional resonance as found in his songs ‘Days’ and ‘Waterloo Sunset’. There is a wistfulness, a nostalgia, a sense of more loss than gain permeating Davies’ text.
In conclusion I enjoyed reading ‘Americana…’. It also reminded me of how great The Kinks were and encouraged me to listen to more of the music they created. The wandering narrative and a certain lack of coverage of The Kinks’ early success was a little frustrating, and the imposition of the song lyrics in the text became a little tedious. These are of course my own issues with the book; I still have no reservations whatsoever in recommending Ray’s book to anyone who wants to learn more about him, his life, his work and his experiences particularly with respect to his American days.
August 22, 2020
It took me a while to truly understand what this book was. Ray Davies and the Kinks, through their string of albums such as Muswell Hillbillies and the Village Green Preservation Society, were always the most British of all the classic rock bands who came to prominence in the 60s and 70s. So, why was his "autobiography" called "Americana"? The answer to that question is that this is not his autobiography, but instead his love letter to the USA, or rather, his coming to grips with a tenuous relationship that he has had with the country since his first trip there with the Kinks, when he says the band was banned for four subsequent years. The book begins and ends in New Orleans in 2004. Along the way he deals with many moments in his life when his early fascination with the myth of the American cowboy clashed with the reality of contemporary America. He describes the harrowing gun-shot incident and its aftermath, difficult both mentally and physically. He also writes of the effects that the time spent there had on his relationships with his wives and children over the years. Through much of it he had a guardian angel, who pops up in New Orleans at both the start and finish of a fascinating memoir.
July 21, 2020
Disappointing. Davies's conceit here is that he has always been influenced by/searching for America, and the text juxtaposes an account of the Kinks from the 1970s through to their end with an account of the aftermath of Davies getting shot in New Orleans. It doesn't really work. Whatever connections Davies seems to want to make are not evident. Indeed, at times the books feels thrown-together (e.g. the chapter that is just excerpts from a tour diary). The book is also surprisingly reticent for an autobiography and surprisingly light on interesting information for an account of a recording/touring career--entire albums are passed by with barely a mention or discussion. there is the occasional tidbit about a particular song, but mostly, if you want insights into Ray Davies's life or creative process, you won't find a lot here, except perhaps a lot of evidence that he can be more than a bit of a dick--e.g. the general ignoring of the rest of "my" band, as he keeps calling it; the other Kinks are barely referenced--including, amazingly, Dave Davies. Of interest only to Ray Davies die-hards, I think.
November 25, 2021
I read X ray some years back and to be honest that was so long back I don't really recall my thoughts on it ..although I seem to recall it was an autobiography with fictional aspects..this ..despite labelled composite characters is more straight forward.
It's interesting in some ways recalling the Kinks being rediscovered in America at a time where their star was maybe waning at home and it is interesting to read of the varying projects Ray was involved with in these years ..however it's mainly a succession of tours..labels and records with none of the depth you get from Rays lyrics...though maybe that's fine..he gives of himself so much in that format why scrape to far into the psyche when writing of himself?
Anyhow from someone who doesn't mind the reading up of records and tours and personnel as this enables me to explore the CDs I didn't mind this...
I didn't really learn anything about the dynamics of the kinks not already out there but it was interesting to read bits that later formed part of Rays excellent Americana CD releases.
It's interesting in some ways recalling the Kinks being rediscovered in America at a time where their star was maybe waning at home and it is interesting to read of the varying projects Ray was involved with in these years ..however it's mainly a succession of tours..labels and records with none of the depth you get from Rays lyrics...though maybe that's fine..he gives of himself so much in that format why scrape to far into the psyche when writing of himself?
Anyhow from someone who doesn't mind the reading up of records and tours and personnel as this enables me to explore the CDs I didn't mind this...
I didn't really learn anything about the dynamics of the kinks not already out there but it was interesting to read bits that later formed part of Rays excellent Americana CD releases.
April 28, 2020
Kinks Founder's Memoir - Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story is compelling reading, and not just for fans!
Check out my FREE review on my Pop Culture blog that contains reviews of books, movies, TV shows, music, and miscellaneous cool stuff!
Please access the blog at http://deemsinfodata.wordpress.com under the Books icon- Please also click the "Follow Button" at the bottom of the cover page to get automatic posts and cool updates! THXS!
Ray Davies, the prolific English singer, songwriter, guitarist, author, actor, playwright, film producer, and Foundational and Co-Founding Member of the All-Mighty Kinks (the legendary British Invasion-era group that went on to morph and change into multiple forms of its creative self over the decades) is, by all accounts; a ROCK STAR of the highest order and a multi-talented British artiste of immense talents.
“Americana”, published in 2013, is an illuminating autobiography/memoir from one of THE British Rock ‘N’ Roll Lions who was born in 1944 and grew up in B&W post-war Britain amid crumbling ruins and an extended period of boring austerity...........................
Check out my FREE review on my Pop Culture blog that contains reviews of books, movies, TV shows, music, and miscellaneous cool stuff!
Please access the blog at http://deemsinfodata.wordpress.com under the Books icon- Please also click the "Follow Button" at the bottom of the cover page to get automatic posts and cool updates! THXS!
Ray Davies, the prolific English singer, songwriter, guitarist, author, actor, playwright, film producer, and Foundational and Co-Founding Member of the All-Mighty Kinks (the legendary British Invasion-era group that went on to morph and change into multiple forms of its creative self over the decades) is, by all accounts; a ROCK STAR of the highest order and a multi-talented British artiste of immense talents.
“Americana”, published in 2013, is an illuminating autobiography/memoir from one of THE British Rock ‘N’ Roll Lions who was born in 1944 and grew up in B&W post-war Britain amid crumbling ruins and an extended period of boring austerity...........................
January 18, 2018
I’m a fan of both The Kinks & Ray Davies solo music. This is the best written autobiography I’ve read. Like his lyrics Mr Davies has a way with words. I liked his approach of having lyrics of his songs highlighted to the events that inspired them. While I really felt his life & music are one in the same, I didn’t get any closer to him or have any empathy for him. There are parts of his life that are very public, but he really only alluded to the. In particular his relationship with his brother Dave & Chrissy Hynde. In some ways it was if he was writing as an observer on his life. His excellent album Americana compliments this book.
January 12, 2019
Beautifully crafted memoir with shifting moods and grooves. I read it in just a few days, it was hard to put down and I did not — much. Interesting discussions of US v UK musical cultures and life. Lots of revelations about touring and recording, the business of personnel, mixing, contracts, and live performing, even equipment. The personalities who enter and exit the pageant of his life range from everyday life to celebrities, and he knew many of the latter before they were known (Bowie, Watts). This autobiography is as towering and impressive as its author and it, too, belongs to the ages.
May 18, 2020
Davies is a good writer and offers insights into life as a musician on the road and the difficulties the lifestyle imposes on family and relationships. The book is light on early Kinks history, but is quite informative on the RCA and Arista years (post '1975). I imagine his earlier book X-Ray covers the early years in more detail. He's not at all shy about revealing the personal conflicts in the band.
The last third of this book details his experience of being mugged and shot in New Orleans and his lengthy recovery. There are some very poignant moments regarding kind health care workers and friends he's lost. Well worth reading, although it could have been edited down a bit, imo.
The last third of this book details his experience of being mugged and shot in New Orleans and his lengthy recovery. There are some very poignant moments regarding kind health care workers and friends he's lost. Well worth reading, although it could have been edited down a bit, imo.
June 27, 2020
In this memoir Davies concentrates on the Kinks finally making it in America during the 70s & 80s, combined with his own more or less love affair with New Orleans as a solo performer during the 21st century, which includes his being shot during a mugging. It's quite engrossing & the author is self-aware enough to not simply devote his 300 pages to telling us how wonderful he is (like John Lydon & Graham Nash did in their auto-biogs). For me, the inclusion of many, many song lyrics lessened my enjoyment. While accompanied by music they may well have been brilliant, but exposed on the page they rarely inspired. Worth a look.
June 3, 2023
Overall I enjoyed the book. I wish he explained more about his relationship with his brother Dave. It felt like there was a lot left unsaid in that regard. Another issue was that I could not tell how many divorces he had. One last silly criticism - credit cards are easily replaced in a short period of time and it appeared to to take weeks before he got them resolved. And his brother/family/band did not visit him in the hospital? Something going on there too that was left unsaid. I did like to learn about the origin of songs and learning why the road was like when he toured. Recommend read for any true Kinks fan.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2023
A Brit On The Road in America
At the time - 1967-1974, I was in high school and college and playing in garage bands for fun. I listened to a lot of music, saw a lot of rock concerts yet The Kinks were barely on my radar. For whatever reason, I saw the band as quirky and comical.
This book by Kinks founder/chief songwriter Ray Davies certainly reveals a lot more than I thought was there.
Davies lives his life almost as though he is in search of lyrics but realizes that mode has cost him a lot of real life moments - wives, children and nearly his life.
For rock music fans of a certain age, this book is sad but fascinating.
At the time - 1967-1974, I was in high school and college and playing in garage bands for fun. I listened to a lot of music, saw a lot of rock concerts yet The Kinks were barely on my radar. For whatever reason, I saw the band as quirky and comical.
This book by Kinks founder/chief songwriter Ray Davies certainly reveals a lot more than I thought was there.
Davies lives his life almost as though he is in search of lyrics but realizes that mode has cost him a lot of real life moments - wives, children and nearly his life.
For rock music fans of a certain age, this book is sad but fascinating.
December 4, 2019
I like Ray Davies, I like the Kinks, I like their stories. Ray is a good writer. Hearing about his past and present escapades in America was interesting. But if just felt like there was something missing. I enjoyed it all the way through, but something personal was being held back. Hard to say if fans of rock music biographies, in general, would enjoy it, but I think Kinks fans would get a kick out of all the stories.
March 18, 2016
Fairly good autobiographical account of Kinks frontman Ray Davies' time in America over the course of 40 years. From rock and roll tours and record company musical chairs, to tortured relationships and being shot by a mugger in New Orleans in 2004, "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story" covers it all with a mixture of dull and highly engaging copy, as well as song lyrics-a-plenty.
Ray Davies is indeed one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, and it was a treat to gain some insight into the writing and recording of such Kinks classics as "Lola," "Celluloid Heroes," "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman," "Destroyer" and "Better Things." As a Kinks fan, I loved reading about the band's history in America: from its disastrous first U.S. visit in 1965, to their subsequent tours from 1969 to 2003, as well as their final U.S. performance ever in 1995.
After being banned for four years during their 1960's heyday, Ray Davies made it his mission to have the Kinks conquer America. Starting from scratch in 1969 with smaller venues like New York's Fillmore East and the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, The Kinks relentlessly toured America every year in big and small towns alike. Every year the band seemed to get bigger and bigger, culminating in a triumphant 1981 concert headlining New York's Madison Square Garden, and performing to thousands upon thousands the following year at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium as well as the US Festival in California.
The road stories were fun to read, as were the tales involving the jump from one record company to another, as well the revolving door of managers, security men, and road managers, and band members. The Kinks never had strong management, which is one of the reasons the band was bogged down with bad tours and bad record deals. Reading Davies' account of the The Kinks' time at Reprise, RCA, Arista, MCA, and CBS is fascinating reading...illustrating the harmony and sad disharmony felt between artist and label.
Ray Davies is a brilliant musical artist, but as "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story," makes clear, a very flawed man. His strong, relentless work ethic had its price, crippling every relationship he ever had, including wives, girlfriends, children, and brothers. Ray Davies troubled relationship-partnership with his younger brother (and fellow Kink) Dave Davies is never addressed in great detail. It's mentioned several times but never more than that...which is a shame.
After "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story," one does not so much admire Ray Davies but pity him. The author's life does not offer a pretty picture, but rather a sad portrait of musical genius spread out between two continents, never content enough to stay in one place for very long, and rarely allowing himself to enjoy anything. Years of recording and being on the road with the Kinks seems to have seriously damaged him. Ray Davies mostly sees the world through musical notes, and people as characters for his song lyrics.
Though I appreciated the reading the song lyrics from the many Kinks songs Ray Davies has written, I was none too pleased by the predominance of printed song lyrics from Davies' solo work. Sure, I would have possibly enjoyed the lyrics if I knew his solo material. That said, as much as I understood and respected why the author felt he had to include the song lyrics in tandem with the time, people, places, events that inspired them, it was just a chore to read through without the music to go with it, and valuable page-spaces were wasted (in my opinion).
I also didn't care for much for the author's tale of his time in New Orleans during the early 2000's . The book is structured so that the timeline jumps back and forth between the Kinks' America story from 1965-1995, and Ray Davies' personal, lost 2003 New Orleans days leading up to his mugging, shooting, and recovery in 2004. When Davies wrote about his touring and recording years with The Kinks, the book was an engaging, entertaining, page-turner. However when the book switched to New Orleans, the story seemed to slow down to a crawl (even with Box Tops-Big Star singer Alex Chilton making appearances here and there, as well as David Bowie and Trent Reznor towards the very end of the book).
Ray Davies being mugged and shot in New Orleans in indeed a harrowing tale, and the author goes into much detail into the circumstances and nightmarish aftermath involved with the shooting. There he was, international rock star Ray Davies, stuck in a New Orleans hospital with no wallet, no insurance identification, no cash, no nothing but a bullet hole in his leg and severe heart problems. Yet sadly even these unfortunate circumstances did not provide for compelling reading.
"Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story" is certainly a worthwhile read for a Kinks fan like myself. All things Ray Davies are worthwhile, especially given the opportunity to get inside the thoughts and actions and life of such an accomplished singer, musician, songwriter. That said, I didn't enjoy "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story" the way I would have liked to, the way I have continued to enjoy the music of Ray Davies and The Kinks for so many years now.
Ray Davies is indeed one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, and it was a treat to gain some insight into the writing and recording of such Kinks classics as "Lola," "Celluloid Heroes," "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman," "Destroyer" and "Better Things." As a Kinks fan, I loved reading about the band's history in America: from its disastrous first U.S. visit in 1965, to their subsequent tours from 1969 to 2003, as well as their final U.S. performance ever in 1995.
After being banned for four years during their 1960's heyday, Ray Davies made it his mission to have the Kinks conquer America. Starting from scratch in 1969 with smaller venues like New York's Fillmore East and the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, The Kinks relentlessly toured America every year in big and small towns alike. Every year the band seemed to get bigger and bigger, culminating in a triumphant 1981 concert headlining New York's Madison Square Garden, and performing to thousands upon thousands the following year at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium as well as the US Festival in California.
The road stories were fun to read, as were the tales involving the jump from one record company to another, as well the revolving door of managers, security men, and road managers, and band members. The Kinks never had strong management, which is one of the reasons the band was bogged down with bad tours and bad record deals. Reading Davies' account of the The Kinks' time at Reprise, RCA, Arista, MCA, and CBS is fascinating reading...illustrating the harmony and sad disharmony felt between artist and label.
Ray Davies is a brilliant musical artist, but as "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story," makes clear, a very flawed man. His strong, relentless work ethic had its price, crippling every relationship he ever had, including wives, girlfriends, children, and brothers. Ray Davies troubled relationship-partnership with his younger brother (and fellow Kink) Dave Davies is never addressed in great detail. It's mentioned several times but never more than that...which is a shame.
After "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story," one does not so much admire Ray Davies but pity him. The author's life does not offer a pretty picture, but rather a sad portrait of musical genius spread out between two continents, never content enough to stay in one place for very long, and rarely allowing himself to enjoy anything. Years of recording and being on the road with the Kinks seems to have seriously damaged him. Ray Davies mostly sees the world through musical notes, and people as characters for his song lyrics.
Though I appreciated the reading the song lyrics from the many Kinks songs Ray Davies has written, I was none too pleased by the predominance of printed song lyrics from Davies' solo work. Sure, I would have possibly enjoyed the lyrics if I knew his solo material. That said, as much as I understood and respected why the author felt he had to include the song lyrics in tandem with the time, people, places, events that inspired them, it was just a chore to read through without the music to go with it, and valuable page-spaces were wasted (in my opinion).
I also didn't care for much for the author's tale of his time in New Orleans during the early 2000's . The book is structured so that the timeline jumps back and forth between the Kinks' America story from 1965-1995, and Ray Davies' personal, lost 2003 New Orleans days leading up to his mugging, shooting, and recovery in 2004. When Davies wrote about his touring and recording years with The Kinks, the book was an engaging, entertaining, page-turner. However when the book switched to New Orleans, the story seemed to slow down to a crawl (even with Box Tops-Big Star singer Alex Chilton making appearances here and there, as well as David Bowie and Trent Reznor towards the very end of the book).
Ray Davies being mugged and shot in New Orleans in indeed a harrowing tale, and the author goes into much detail into the circumstances and nightmarish aftermath involved with the shooting. There he was, international rock star Ray Davies, stuck in a New Orleans hospital with no wallet, no insurance identification, no cash, no nothing but a bullet hole in his leg and severe heart problems. Yet sadly even these unfortunate circumstances did not provide for compelling reading.
"Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story" is certainly a worthwhile read for a Kinks fan like myself. All things Ray Davies are worthwhile, especially given the opportunity to get inside the thoughts and actions and life of such an accomplished singer, musician, songwriter. That said, I didn't enjoy "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story" the way I would have liked to, the way I have continued to enjoy the music of Ray Davies and The Kinks for so many years now.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2018
Ray Davies is the most literary of British Invaders writing about their lives and music. As good as Life was, Keith Richards had help. Pete Townshend wrote his own, but he says Davies should be England's Poet Laureate. This is, perhaps, his most revealing book yet. Anyone who appreciates Ray Davies will enjoy this book.
November 22, 2019
This not so much an autobiography of his life, but its more of Ray Davies telling and sharing his experiences of traveling on the road, and of course his years of being in the Kinks. It's not in chronological order, but it works as Davies goes from one experience to another. Definitely for Kinks fans, and for music fans from one of the greatest songwriters of the last 50 years.
January 24, 2023
To my disappointment there wasn't much about Rays group The Kinks. Compelling at first and then eventually it became a bore. My actual favorite part of the book was the chapter with the diary of their 1977 tour. I wish there was more of that and a lot less of his boring droning on. I've always loved the majority of The Kinks music, but I would recommend that you take a pass on this biography.
October 15, 2023
This really was a 2.5* read at most - I loved the Kinks when they burst onto the music scene in 1965 and I had looked forward to reading this one. But I wasn't expecting a re-hash of the Kinks entire history interspersed with snapshots from his life pre and post Kinks. But I made it through with some skimming, to be honest.
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