Ray Davies Meltdown

06/13/2011
. (Gibson) Prepping for London's Meltdown festival this past weekend, Ray Davies had special reason to look back on his years with The Kinks. Much of that looking back, in fact, was essential preparation for his performance, which included a run through The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society in its entirety, backed by the London Philharmonic and a local chorus. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Davies copped to some last-minute cribbing for the event.

"I'm doing the Village Green in its entirety," he said. "It's the first time I've played most of the songs since they were recorded. I had to read the liner notes to the original record to remember why I made it."

Davies also discussed some of his early hits, often marked by a sense of weariness in his vocal performance. "I recorded "You Really Got Me" when I was 19 and I was weary. Maybe I watched too much Perry Como. I remember watching when I was a kid. He said, 'The reason I'm so relaxed is I'm so tired all the time.' There were elements of that maybe. A 19-year-old world-weary person." more on this story

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