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Davies Channels English Evolution

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By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2008

Ray Davies' songs have been interpreted by performers such as The Pretenders, The Jam and Van Halen, to name just a few. All in English, it should be noted.

"There's a really bad Dutch cover of 'Lola,'" Davies says when asked about his least favorite remakes of his songs. "There's also a German version of 'Celluloid Heroes,'" he says with a laugh. "It's not the most musical language."

Then again, Davies is surprised that his songs are covered in their native tongue.

"It astounds me and amazes me," Davies says. "I'm naïve enough to think they're too personal, that no one will understand them."

Sometimes the personal nature of a song is what provokes a response in listeners.

"That's true," Davies says. "Again, there's that naïvete from when I first started writing songs. My subconscious is smarter than I am."

Fronting The Kinks, Davies forged the template for punk and metal with the snarling vocals and buzz-saw riffs of 1964 singles "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night." Later hits, such as "A Well-Respected Man" and "Sunny Afternoon," established him as one of the sharpest-eyed writers in rock.

The Kinks, with Davies' younger brother Dave as the only other original member, called it quits in 1996. Ray began his solo career in earnest with 2006's "Other People's Lives." The follow-up, "Working Man's Cafe," was released in the U.K. in 2007, and in the United States this year.

Davies also has written a musical that has been staged in London, "Come Dancing," which expands on the story line of the Kinks' 1983 hit of the same name.

"It's a musical about my sister going to the dances with the other girls, all hoping to meet the man of their dreams," Davies says, adding that the plot also concerns "the change between the old music and early rock 'n' roll."

Change, and what it means for his English homeland, has been a recurring theme in Davies' songs, and the encroaching "Eurofication," as he calls it, of England is a current concern.

"I believe each country should have its own identity," Davies says. "The Blair government tried to make London the capital of Europe. London doesn't have the infrastructure or the capacity to be the capital of Europe. It makes a fine capital of England."

"Come Dancing" celebrates working-class Cockney London, a culture for which he sees the end looming with the 2012 Olympics.

"I think the Olympics will be the absolute end of the east London docklands, where all the immigrants came in," Davies says.

"The people who are celebrating the Olympics coming to London, I wonder if they'll be able to afford to live in east London afterward," Davies says. "It will become Euro London, which I find to be a terrifying prospect."

ON TOUR

Ray Davies

WITH: Locksley

WHEN: 8 tonight

WHERE: Tampa Theatre, 711 Franklin St.; (813) 274-8286

COST: $38.50 and $48.50

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

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