The ’60s produced numerous songwriters who would go on to affect popular culture, but very few would go on to have hits in three decades and produce a sound that is still vital. To a short list that includes Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards and even Bacharach/David would have to be added Ray Davies of The Kinks.
Although his name is not quite as well known as his peers, conversely Davies’ work remains among some of the best known of the rock era. Currently on a solo tour which stops at Symphony Hall on July 15, Davies is the architect of what might be called pop punk. His volatile power chord-driven sound, first heard in 1964 on such hits as “All Day & All of the Night,” and “You Really Got Me,” still reverberates today, from The Ramones to Green Day. Indeed, much of the music heard on radio today owes a debt of gratitude to Davies and his band.
During the ’60s he seemed to pull songs from an endless well, writing dozens of classics in just the span of a few years. “A Well Respected Man,” “Sunny Afternoon” and “‘Til The End of the Day” are just a few of the classics that charted during that time frame. Later, the ’70s saw a reduction in hits, but the group still managed to produce numerous classic albums as well as such radio perennials as “Lola,” “Sleepwalker” and “(I Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman.” Crucially for Davies, the ’70s saw an explosion of hit covers with Van Halen striking gold with their rendition of “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” The Pretenders tackling “Stop Your Sobbing,” and The Romantics scoring with “She’s Got Everything,” to name just a few. These versions of his songs gave the originals a new lease on life and saw the band transformed into a stadium act for the first time in their career.
With other artists having hits with his material, one would think that the pressure would be off for Davies, but instead he rose to the occasion and scored a third run at the charts during the ’80s, starting with one of the biggest hits of his career, “Come Dancing.” The nostalgic song about his youth became an MTV favorite on release, giving Davies a span of hits that stretched more than two decades.
The ensuing years have not seen Davies trouble the charts, though he has released albums with the band and also his first solo works. Inter-band squabbles have kept The Kinks off the road, as well as a highly publicized run-in with a mugger in pre-Katrina New Orleans that saw Davies hospitalized with a gunshot wound, but post recovery he has toured with his own group. The latest efforts from his pen, “Other People’s Lives,” emerged earlier this year, and while not quite up to his earlier works, it shows that Davies has no intention of slowing down, at least in the studio. Live, however, his appearances have become as rare as hen’s teeth, all of which makes his show July 15 such an important event for music fans. The show is a warm-up to a taping of PBS TV show Austin City Limits later in the month, but whether you go to hear the hits or to check out what new tunes this master tunesmith has crafted, Davies’ appearance is one that promises to be memorable. Sadly, as time marches on, we lose more and more of our musical legends. An opportunity to spend a few hours with Ray Davies, one of the most important songwriters of the rock era, is one that should not be passed up.
Ray Davies at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, July 15. For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com.
