Saturday, February 11, 2006

Ray Davies: The "Rolling Stone" Interview

Two highlights:

Where was the sloppiest Kinks show ever?

In Virginia, in the early Seventies. It was on a revolving stage, and during the first song I jumped in the air, fell on my head and knocked myself out, and was carried offstage. My brother [Dave] was drunk, so he had to sit down for the set [laughs]. The moment my brother could have taken over the band, he was too out of it! So Mike Cotton, our harmonica player, took over center stage and began doing "You Really Got Me." I had to fight the ambulance crew to let me back onstage, because they sounded terrible without me. I did the rest of the set with my head bandaged up.

Is it annoying to hear people ask all the time, "When are the Kinks going to reunite?"

I can play my whole album for someone, sit there and talk about my new music, and all they can say is, "When are the Kinks going to be recording?" But it's touching. I met them all again last week and we had dinner. I hadn't seen them all in ten years. And I realized there was a chemistry there. At the end of the day, bands can have fights, argue all the time, battle through mishaps, brawls and lawsuits, and still come out with a string of great albums. And I got the feeling that there was still something special there.
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Please note how the interviewer is cleverly asking the very question he characterizes as annoying. Those "Rolling Stone" folks sure are sharp!

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