I AM A MEDIA MAXI-PAD ABSORBING THE CONTINUAL FLOW OF POP CULTURE.

THIS JOURNAL DOCUMENTS MY INTAKE OF ONE BOOK, ZINE, CD OR DVD A DAY. RATINGS ARE: ***** = Godhead, **** = Great, *** = Good, ** = Fair, * = Why Bother?

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Americana - The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story

As a lifelong Kinks fan, but one who likes "real" bios (and not dramatic-fictional bios like "X-Ray"). I was looking forward to this, but it's really not all that. Ray Davies may be a genius, but he's a very guarded, non-intimate one, and that comes through in his writing. You get the feeling that his work ethic is unrivaled (he lives to write songs) but at the cost of ever having a truly meaningful relationship with anyone - be it family, brother Dave or the various women muses over the course of his life. I would, however, recommend reading this book in conjunction with listening to Ray's most recent solo effort, WORKING MAN'S CAFE, because a lot of the songs reference very people, places and events Ray describes during his New Orleans soujourn in AMERICANA.