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Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; "Davies: Think of it as 'viz', v-i-z". born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the Rock music band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave Davies providing lead guitar and backing vocals, and both of them were the only consistent members during their existence. He has also acted in, directed and produced shows for theatre and television. Known for focusing his lyrics on rock bands, English culture, nostalgia and social satire, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Britpop", though he disputes this title. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Kinks in 1990. After the dissolution of the Kinks in 1996, he embarked on a solo career.
Frederick's father, Henry Kelly, was a greengrocer who married Amy Elizabeth Smith at St Luke's Church in Kentish Town in 1887, and they had two children, Charles Henry and Frederick George. However, the marriage failed and Amy moved in with Harry Davies, bringing her two small children and her mother.1911 England Census Harry Davies, born in Minsterley in 1878, was an Ostlers who had moved with his family from Shropshire to Islington.1911 England Census, 1901 England Census, 1891 England Census Frederick George had changed his surname to Davies by the time he married Annie Florence Willmore (1905–1987)England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 in Islington in 1924. Annie came from a "sprawling family". She had a sharp tongue and could be crude and forceful.Johnny Rogan, Ray Davies: a complicated life, Vintage Books, 2015, p. 7-8.
When Davies was still a small child, one of his older sisters became a star of the dance halls, and soon had a child out of wedlock by an African man, an unauthorized immigrant who subsequently disappeared from her life. The child, a daughter, was ultimately raised by Ray's mother.Johnny Rogan, Ray Davies : a complicated life, Vintage books, 2015, p. 15. Ray attended William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School in Muswell Hill along with Rod Stewart (now called Fortismere School). (1996). 9780751303933, Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 9780751303933 His first Spanish guitar was a birthday gift from his eldest sister Rene, who died at the age of 31 from a heart attack on the day before Ray's 13th birthday, while she was out dancing at the Lyceum Ballroom in the Strand, London in June 1957.
After the Kinks obtained a recording contract in early 1964, Davies emerged as the chief songwriter and de facto leader of the band, especially after the band's breakthrough success with his early composition "You Really Got Me", which was released as the band's third single in August of that year. Davies led the Kinks through a period of musical experimentation between 1966 and 1975, with notable artistic achievements and commercial success.
The Kinks' early recordings of 1964 ranged from covers of R&B standards like "Long Tall Sally" and "Slim Harpo" to the chiming, melodic beat music of Ray Davies's earliest original compositions for the band, "You Still Want Me" and "Kinda Kinks", to the more influential proto-metal, protopunk, power chord-based hard rock of the band's first two hit singles, "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night".
However, by 1965, this raucous, hard-driving early style had gradually given way to the softer and more introspective sound of "Tired of Waiting for You", "Kinda Kinks", "Set Me Free", "I Go to Sleep" and "Ring the Bells". With the eerie, droning "See My Friends"—inspired by the untimely death of the Davies brothers' older sister Rene in June 1957—the band began to show signs of expanding their musical palette even further. A rare foray into early psychedelic rock, "See My Friends" is credited by Jonathan Bellman as the first Western pop song to integrate Indian raga sounds—released six months before the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".Jonathan Bellman. The Exotic in Western Music. Lebanon, New Hampshire. 1998.
By late 1966, Davies was addressing the bleakness of life at the lower end of the social spectrum: released together as the complementary A-B sides of a single, "Dead End Street" and "Big Black Smoke" were powerful neo- sketches of urban poverty. Other songs like "Situation Vacant" (1967) and "Shangri-La" (1969) hinted at the helpless sense of insecurity and emptiness underlying the materialistic values adopted by the English working class. In a similar vein, "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" (1966) wittily satirized the consumerism and celebrity worship of Carnaby Street and 'Swinging London', while "David Watts" (1967) humorously expressed the wounded feelings of a plain schoolboy who envies the grace and privileges enjoyed by a charismatic upper class student.
The Kinks have been called "the most adamantly British of the Brit Invasion bands"Paul Evans The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Straight Arrow Publishers, 1992, p. 403 on account of Ray Davies's abiding fascination with British Empire and his tender, bittersweet evocations of "a vanishing, romanticized world of village greens, pubs and public schools". During the band's mid-period, he wrote many cheerfully eccentric—and often ironic—celebrations of English culture: "Village Green" (1966), "Afternoon Tea" and "Autumn Almanac" (both 1967), "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" (1968), "Victoria" (1969), "Have a Cuppa Tea" (1971) and "Cricket" (1973). In other songs, Davies revived the style of British music hall and trad jazz: "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon", "Dandy" and "Little Miss Queen of Darkness" (all 1966); "Mister Pleasant" and "End of the Season" (both 1967); "Sitting By the Riverside" and "All of My Friends Were There" (both 1968); "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina" (1969); "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" and "Alcohol" (both 1971); "Look a Little on the Sunny Side" (1972); and "Holiday Romance" (1975). Occasionally, he varied the group's sound with more disparate musical influences, such as raga ("Fancy", 1966), bossa nova ("No Return", 1967) and calypso music ("I'm on an Island", 1965; "Monica", 1968; "Apeman", 1970; "Supersonic Rocket Ship", 1972).
Davies is often at his most affecting when he sings of giving up worldly ambition for the simple rewards of love and domesticity ("This is Where I Belong", 1966; "Two Sisters", 1967; "The Way Love Used to Be", 1971; "Sweet Lady Genevieve", 1973; "You Make It All Worthwhile", 1974), or when he extols the consolations of friendship and memory ("Waterloo Sunset", 1967; "Days", 1968; "Do You Remember Walter?", 1968; "Picture Book", 1968; "Young and Innocent Days", 1969; "Moments", 1971; "Schooldays", 1975). Yet another perennial Ray Davies theme is the championing of individualistic personalities and lifestyles ("I'm Not Like Everybody Else", 1966; "Johnny Thunder", 1968; "Monica", 1968; "Lola", 1970; "Celluloid Heroes", 1972; "Where Are They Now?", 1973; "Sitting in the Midday Sun", 1973). On his 1967 song "Waterloo Sunset", the singer finds a fleeting sense of contentment in the midst of urban drabness and solitude.
Davies's mid-period work for the Kinks also showed signs of an emerging social conscience. For example, "Holiday in Waikiki" (1966) deplored the commercialization of a once unspoiled indigenous culture. Similarly, "God's Children" and "Apeman" (both 1970), and the songs "20th Century Man", "Complicated Life" and "Here Come the People in Grey" from Muswell Hillbillies (1971), passionately decried industrialization and bureaucracy in favour of simple pastoral living. Perhaps most significantly, the band's acclaimed 1968 concept album The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society gave an affectionate embrace to "Merry England" nostalgia and advocated the preservation of traditional English country village and hamlet life.
A definitive testament to Davies's reputation as a songwriter of insight, empathy and wit can be heard on the Kinks' landmark 1969 album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). Originally conceived as the soundtrack to a television play that was never produced, the band's first rock opera affectionately chronicled the trials and tribulations of a working-class everyman and his family from the very end of the Victorian era through the First World War and Second World War, the postwar austerity years, and up to the 1960s. The overall theme of the record was partly inspired by the life of Ray and Dave Davies's brother-in-law, Arthur Anning, who had married their elder sister Rose—herself the subject of an earlier Kinks song, "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home" (1966)—and had emigrated to Australia after the war.Kitts, Thomas. Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else, p.131. Throughout a dozen evocative songs, Arthur fulfills its ambitious subtitle as Davies embellishes an intimate family chronicle with satirical observations about the shifting mores of the English working class in response to the declining fortunes of the British Empire.
The Kinks followed up Arthur with Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970), a satirical take on the travails of the recording industry. This album proved to be another critical achievement as well as a commercial hit, spawning "Lola", their first US Top Ten single since "Tired of Waiting for You" in 1965. Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One would also prove to be the band's final album before signing with RCA Records. This period on the RCA label (1971–75) produced Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody's in Show-Biz, Preservation Act 1 and Act 2, Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace.
By the early 1980s, the Kinks revived their commercial fortunes considerably by adopting a much more mainstream arena rock style; and the band's four remaining studio albums for Arista— Low Budget (1979), Give the People What They Want (1981), State of Confusion (1983) and Word of Mouth (1984)—showcased a decidedly canny and opportunism approach. On "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman", Davies vented his existential angst about the 1979 energy crisis over a thumping disco beat; on "A Gallon of Gas", he addressed the same concern over a traditional acoustic twelve-bar blues shuffle note. In contrast, "Better Things" (1981), "Come Dancing" (1982), "Don't Forget to Dance" (1983) and "Good Day" (1984) were sentimental songs of hope and nostalgia for the aging Air Raid Generation. However, with "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" (1979), "Destroyer" (1981), "Clichés of the World (B Movie)" (1983) and "Do It Again" (1984), the Davies brothers cranked out strident, heavy- hard rock that conveyed an attitude of bitter cynicism and Weltschmerz disillusionment.
In 1986, Davies contributed the track "Quiet Life" to the soundtrack of the Julien Temple film Absolute Beginners that is a musical film adapted from Colin MacInnes' book of the same name about life in late-1950s London. The song was released as a single. Davies appeared in the film, in which he also sang "Quiet Life".
In 1990, Davies was inducted, with the Kinks, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and, in 2005, into the UK Music Hall of Fame.
Davies published his "unauthorised autobiography", X-Ray, in 1994. In 1997, he published a book of short stories entitled Waterloo Sunset. He has made three films, Return to Waterloo in 1985, Weird Nightmare (a documentary about Charles Mingus) in 1991, and Americana.
Davies was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, by Queen Elizabeth II, in the 2004 New Year Honours.
In 2005, Davies released The Tourist, a four-song Extended Play, in the UK; and Thanksgiving Day, a five-song EP, in the US.
A choral album, The Kinks Choral Collection, on which Davies had been collaborating with the Crouch End Festival Chorus since 2007, was released in the UK in June 2009 and in the US in November 2009. The album was re-released as a special extended edition including Davies's charity Christmas single "Postcard From London" featuring Davies's former girlfriend and leader of the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde. The video for the single was directed by Julien Temple and features London landmarks including Waterloo Bridge, Carnaby Street, the statue of Eros steps and the Charlie Chaplin statue in Leicester Square. The duet was originally recorded with Kate Nash. His first choice had been Dame Vera Lynn.
In October 2009, Davies performed "All Day and All of the Night" with Metallica at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert.
Davies was a judge for the 3rd (in 2004) and 7th (in 2008) annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
Davies played at Glastonbury Festival in 2010, where he dedicated several songs to the Kinks' bassist Pete Quaife, who died a few days before the festival.
A collaborations album, See My Friends, was released in November 2010 with a US release to follow in early 2011.
2011 also marked Davies's return to New Orleans, Louisiana, to play the Voodoo Experience Music festival. His setlist included material by the Kinks and solo material. That autumn, he toured with the 88 as his backing band. In August 2012, Davies performed "Waterloo Sunset" as part of the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, watched by over 24 million viewers in the UK; the song was subsequently cut by NBC from the US broadcast, in favour of a preview of its upcoming show Animal Practice.
On 18 December 2015, Ray joined his brother Dave for an encore at London's Islington Assembly Hall. The two performed "You Really Got Me", marking the first time in nearly 20 years that the brothers had appeared and performed together.
In April 2017, Davies released the album Americana. Based on his experiences in the US it follows on from the short DVD Americana — a work in progress (found on the deluxe CD Working Man's Cafe from 2007), and his biographical book Americana from 2013. A second volume Our Country: Americana Act II was released in June 2018. For his backing band on Americana Davies chose The Jayhawks, an alt-country/country-rock band from Minnesota.
He was Knight Bachelor in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts.
Davies wrote songs for a musical version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days; the show, 80 Days, had a book by playwright Snoo Wilson. It was directed by Des McAnuff and ran at the La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre in San Diego from 23 August to 9 October 1988. The musical received mixed responses from the critics. Davies's multi-faceted music, McAnuff's directing, and the acting, however, were well received, with the show winning the "Best Musical" award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle.
Davies's musical Come Dancing, based partly on his 1983 hit single with 20 new songs, ran at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London in September–November 2008.
Sunny Afternoon, a musical based on Ray Davies's early life and featuring Kinks songs, opened to critical acclaim at Hampstead Theatre. The musical moved to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in October 2014. The musical won four awards at the 2015 Olivier Awards, including one for Ray Davies: the Autograph Sound Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music . Sunny Afternoon; retrieved 27 October 2014. Sunny Afternoon made its North American debut in March 2025 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
In 1964, he married Rasa Didzpetris. The couple had two daughters, Louisa and Victoria.
He changed his legal name by deed poll to Raymond Douglas for five years, which allowed him anonymity for his second marriage in 1974 to Yvonne Gunner. The couple had no children and divorced in 1981.
In the 1980s, Davies had a relationship with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. The couple had a daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde.
His third marriage was to Irish ballet dancer Patricia Crosbie, with whom he had a daughter named Eva.
In January 2004, Davies was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who had snatched his companion's purse as they walked through the French Quarter of New Orleans." Kinks star shot in New Orleans", CNN, 5 January 2004 A man was arrested, but the charges were dropped because Davies had already returned to London and did not come back to New Orleans for the trial.
In June 2011, Davies' doctor ordered him to stay at home and rest for six months after Thrombus were discovered in his lungs.
| 1965 | "This Strange Effect" | Dave Berry | 37 | ||
| "Something Better Beginning" | The Honeycombs | 39 | |||
| 1966 | "A House in the Country" | The Pretty Things | 50 | ||
| "Dandy" | Herman's Hermits | 1 | 5 | ||
| 1978 | "You Really Got Me" | Van Halen | 49 | 36 | |
| "David Watts" | The Jam | 25 | |||
| 1979 | "Stop Your Sobbing" | The Pretenders | 34 | 65 | |
| 1981 | "I Go To Sleep" | The Pretenders | 7 | ||
| 1988 | "All Day and All of the Night" | The Stranglers | 7 | ||
| "Victoria" | The Fall | 35 | |||
| 1989 | "Days" | Kirsty MacColl | 12 | ||
| 1997 | "Waterloo Sunset" | Cathy Dennis | 11 | ||
| 2007 | "The Village Green Preservation Society" | Kate Rusby | 102 |
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