Today is Thanksgiving, and I received a Christmas present a whole month early: This morning I tuned into KPIG, and what do I hear? Thanksgiving Day, a BRAND NEW RAY DAVIES SONG.
Well, it’s a big deal for me.
Everyone has their big epiphany album. Mine was The Kinks’ Low Budget. I always knew their hit “Lola”, but “Wish I Could Fly Like Superman”, “A Gallon of Gas”, and “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” from the Low Budget album were completely different from what I was used to hearing back then (circa late ’70s, a time of ACDC, Van Halen, and Pat Travers).
I ate it up and rapidly educated myself on The Kinks’ back catalogue. I then discovered liner notes and this guy Ray Davies. That’s when I learned what a songwriter was. The Kinks were a band, but brother Ray (his sibling Dave created that distinct guitar sound) was the guy who thought up all these stories and wrote the songs.
I’ve still love story songs. I can’t write a ballad to save my life. But every now and then, I find (or make up) a story that needs telling. I’ve considered Davies the key inspiration to all this.
Davies’ web site promises a CD sometime in the new year. For now, Thanksgiving Day is available on an EP.
That mythical Kinks reunion might never happen, but ya know, ya gots to tour with a new CD. Let’s hope that Mr. Davies hits the states in 2006.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.