Magazine:
Mojo

No. 148, maart 2006

15 tracks, 51:23

Mojo

"I was a very quiet kid but I knew what I wanted to do," said Ray Davies, recalling his childhood. "I knew what I was good at. I was good at making up stories, drawing pictures and running. I could invent situations. I lived in an absolute dream world."
Born in Muswell Hill, north London, on June 21, 1944, by the mid-'60s the taciturn Davies emerged from his teenage reveries to become the most astute chronicler of Britain's move from mono-channel, post-War drudgery into the possibilities suggested by the dawn of the Rediffusion Age.
And yet, in detailing this transition, Davies continued to create his own imagined world, removing himself from his songs and, in so doing, hiding from the cruelty and uncertainty he saw in place of the colourised myth of Swinging London. lt is Ray's anger at the world around him juxtaposed with a quest for hope, and married to a remarkable ear for melody that has defined the music of The Kinks for the last four decades. In that time they have been deseribed as the originators of heavy metal, rock opera pioneers, the forerunners of skinny-tied new wave and godfathers of Britpop. In truth, The Kinks are unique, powered by a singular vision that continues to question, rail and evolve. Ray Davies' newalbum, Other People'sLives, is proof of that. Meanwhile, this 15-track MOJO tribute is testament to the evergreen nature of both Ray's songs and the ongoing influence and power of The Kinks.

Phil Alexander
Editor-in-Chief, MOJO Magazine
London, England
January 2006

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