Imported Americana: Ray Davies' Transatlantic Quandry

It's been ages since I've even bothered to post anything to this blog. I don't know if I will entirely resurrect it, but having just speedily gobbled down my hero Ray Davies' latest literary work, a second memoir, I feel inclined to share my thoughts in review form.  

WARNING: Spoiler alert, if you can call the details of someone's otherwise publicized life spoilers.

Davies' latest autobiography, Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story, picks up where his last memoir, 1994's X-Ray: The Unofficial Autobiography, left off. Americana offers a look at Davies' determined reconquest of the American music market after the Kinks had experienced a four-year ban in the late '60s, perhaps the height of the band's career in some critics' eyes. Parallel to this narrative is a later experience in New Orleans, leading up to his most harrowing life event: a shooting by a mugger in 2004.

The structure of Davies' book is effective. He jumps through several periods of his life, but with an amazing flow that doesn't give the reader a sense of disjointed storytelling. He only vaguely retells the details of the exploits discussed in X-Ray for the sake of clarity and continuity without completely rehashing such tales and without boring dedicated fans who are (I'm sure like myself) very well acquainted with his first book. I particularly enjoyed a chapter in which we are painstakingly show the daily touring diary of 1977, which to some readers might seem daunting to read through, only to have it then retold in more minute detail in the second half the the chapter. It's a bit of brilliantly placed exhaustion and anxiety that allows the reader to feel as if they too experienced the tiring journey of touring that Davies' and the Kinks carried on with year after year in an attempt to avoid slipping away into rock 'n' roll limbo as some had predicted they would in the 1960s.

Unlike X-Ray, this book, in some ways, deals less with Davies' personal life. In the former memoir, for example, he shares enormous detail of his relationship with his first wife, Rasa; in Americana, he makes vague references to his second and third marriages and only a few more direct mentions of his infamous relationship with the Pretenders' Chrissy Hynde. Ray Davies has always been a relatively private figure, and unlike others in the general music or celebrity realm, he has maintained much us his privacy, staying out of tabloid papers and speaking cryptically or not at all concerning certain details of his past. You have to applaud him for that, especially now in the extreme age of celebrity gossip, all the more intrusive in the Internet age.

Within the book, the reader also finds a number of song lyrics used to complement whatever anecdote he is offering. Some are familiar favorites and hits, while others are unknown. The reader is left wondering if these songs are old or new, and if they will ever see the light of day.  Perhaps more than any other songwriter of the 20th and 21st century, Davies' catalogue is almost obscenely extensive and he admits in Americana, as well as many previous interviews, that songwriting is a natural drive for him. As fans, we can only hope that more of his songs will reach our ears in the years to come.

I was unsurprised at the conclusion of Americana, as it again mirrored much of X-Ray. He ends this book at his return from New Orleans after the shooting to London, taking this book as far as the year 2004 and no further. Similarly, X-Ray focused almost entirely on the Kinks' story in the '60s and only briefly touched, in vague passing, to later events. Americana mentions the production of his first solo album Other People's Lives, but only mentions a few songs from his second, Working Man's Café, and discusses none of his more recent accomplishments, including stints at Glastonbury, his role as curator for the 2011 Meltdown festival, or his performance at the 2012 London Olympic games. There isn't even a nod to his brother Dave's own life-threatening experience later in 2004 when he had a stroke.

With recently revived rumors of a Kinks reunion spreading through all corners of the media following the press surrounding this book as well as Dave's return to public performance this year, I wonder if Ray has deliberately delayed writing about events beyond 2004 in the hope that he'll have even more exciting stories to tell if these 50th Anniversary whispers culminate in something real. As a fan, I do hope that he has another book in him, as he has always had a number of projects keeping him busy. In other decade I'd love one more memoir to bring finality to Davies' story.


Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story is now available in the UK and US as of October 1st.

Ray Davies will appear at NYC's Union Square Barnes and Noble on October 25th at 7pm. You know I'll be there.