First Listen - "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks (Hip Hop Fan Reacts)
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- Опубліковано 14 тра 2023
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The Davies brothers are from Muswell Hill in North London. Waterloo Sunset is about Waterloo Station and Waterloo tube station, with “Millions of people swarming like flies ‘round Waterloo Underground”, which keeps him from being lonely. Kinks records are full of unusual characters.
It's a beautiful song about the narrator's lack of ambition and passion who's idea about paradise is a subway (tube) station talking about others who are able to leave whilst he is stuck in his apartment.
Ray Davies is very much a Londoner, NOT a Liverpudlian.
Indeed, a true Muswell Hillbilly! 🙂
He later corrected himself
@@Jack-fe7rv But he still seemed a little bit confused, because later (if I understood him correctly) he seemed to be trying to link Waterloo Bridge/ Station to Liverpool Street/ Liverpool Street Station, which obviously aren't connected in any way, either geographically (other than both being in London) or in the song. There again I may have misunderstood what he was actually trying to say/ suggesting.
Muswell Hill Billy
He can't escape his Welsh language surname though 😮😊
Davies from "ap Dafydd"
Ray Davies literally wrote hundreds of great songs. Master at his craft
I've been a fan of the Kinks for 60 years. Gives my age away. They were always/ mostly different from any of the other bands at the time. Ray Davies' writing broke away from the boy meets girl, boy falls out with girl etc, but actually told a story. Sometimes it was like "On the dew soaked hedge lives a crawly caterpillar" (Autumn Almanac) which sort of wasn't in the current mood of the times. "Come dancing " was another great song. My sister went to see The Dave Clarke 5 I think in the Capitol in Cardiff around 1963, and I asked her the following day what it was like. She said one of the supporting bands called the Kinks was the best band by a country mile. They were relatively unknown at the time but it raised my awareness of them. As I said earlier, I've become a lifelong fan. I enjoy your videos.👍
Been a fan since 1964 dedicated in 1966 - I am 74 now - 700 in their catalog- new music coming from Ray called Folk-Rock Musical. GSTK around the dial
Of the big bands of the 60`s ( Beatles, Stones, The Who , The Kinks) I feel The Kinks are the most underrated of them all but I have to say that this song and Lazing On A Sunny Afternoon are amongst my all time favorites from that period, songs I listen to and enjoy listening to even now and I am 64 and grew up listening to them even though , in the 70`s, they were already considered oldies.
Don't forget Small Faces, Troggs, Zombies, Pretty Things, The Move.
The Kinks are such an incredibly creative band and Ray Davies a genius. Songs like You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon, All Day and All of the Night, Apeman, Shangri-la, Come Dancing, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Autumn Almanac and David Watts all amazing all so crative and different.
There are sooo many great Kinks songs. One that you should consider for your next dive into them is "Celluloid Heroes".
Yes love it!!
Ray Davies is first and foremost a great story teller. And like all great story tellers, he creates a visual tapestry and mind's eye imagery with his lyrics. He then warps just wonder singing, harmonic colors and rhythm around the whole experience. Waaaay ahead of their time the Kinks were.
Well put.
Great choice. Kind of a perfect song like a painting. You can feel the observer wistfully interpreting the actions of the people below while himself preferring to stay in and watch. More Kinks please. Maybe try “20th Century Man” or “Village Green Preservation Society”. Or “Autumn Almanac”. They have too many great songs to list even the best.
Man you nailed it again! Like a painting turned into a song, couldn’t put it better. This song always gave me vibes of sitting on a park bench, watching the world go by - not really feeling part of it but being really glad it’s there. And yeah, that melody is definitely getting stuck in your head.
The Kinks arrangements really are first class - the use of the background vocal harmonies, the rhythm acoustic guitar holding it all together and the surprisingly dirty lead guitar tone playing that great riff. Really stripped back and everything just where it needs to be, top notch.
Well said. A perfect song and so short too.
There is of course a famous painting of a sunset behind Waterloo Bridge by Clade Monet. It was a bit foggy then, though!
@@stevewest4994🎯
Ray Davies is amazing and this is one of my favorite tracks and albums. They have many great albums and they are fantastic live, so much fun!!!👌👍✌️
There’s a video on YT where Bowie, Weller, Costello etc talk about the genius of this track, Ray Davies is criminally underrated by a lot of people
No he wasn’t. He was and indeed is highly regarded by so many and indeed loved by so many.
David Gilmour has also said that this is one of his favourites.
Big time underrated
GOD BLESS THE KING AND GOD THE KINKS !
The more you hear this song, the better it gets... An absolute masterpiece... up there with The Beatles' and Brian Wilson's best.
yessssssss
Better than eithers best.
@@MickBokulich-gg1ro Hard to say ANYTHING is better than "God Only Knows"... But it's got a case for being as good.
"Sunny Afternoon" is a great one, esp. for 1966. For that British wit you enjoy, you must try "Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion". And of course, "Apeman".
When he was in his early teens, Ray Davies spent some time as a patient in a psychiatric hospital. He remembered being wheeled out by a nurse to a patio area overlooking the Thames and Waterloo bridge and station, and observing the people below. Terry and Julie are references to actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. The high backing vocals on the track were sung by Rasa Davies, Ray's wife at the time. She sang on many Kinks tracks, sometimes to the annoyance of other band members, and she's especially prominent on the song Death Of A Clown (a Dave Davies track that was from this same period, 1967).
EDIT: apparently I mixed up his stay at a psychiatric hospital with the time he was in St. Thomas Hospital for a throat operation, which is when he was wheeled out for a view of the Thames.
I had heard of the Terence Stamp and Julie Christie reference, but is he describing a movie scene or actually observing them walking across the bridge?
Actually St Thomas Hospital is a teaching hospital (not psychiatric) where he had a throat operation as a thirteen year old.
@russallert It was a regular hospital (St Thomas' Hospital). He was there for a tracheotomy. Everything else you wrote is spot on, though.
@@johnsilva9139 I always (from when the record was released) imagined Terry and Julie as lower middle class office workers in the city. I think Terry and Julie were names very typical of the new lower middle class that emerged in the 50s and 60s--a time when there were fewer manual jobs but the growth of service industries, local government work and other low-level white collar work. Terry and Julie were typical of the names of people I was at school with in those years. I imagine Julie as a clerical assistant in an office in the city and Terry had an office job with a more technical company in the West End. In the song we're seeing a little vignette of their very ordinary lives but glorified by the sunset behind them as they cross Waterloo bridge. The difficulty I've always had with the song is that Terry and Julie ought to be meeting at Charing Cross or on the Embankment, then crossing over the river to the south, where they feel safe and sound, perhaps going home to Balham or Clapham. However, they seem to meet at Waterloo and cross over to Westminster. This doesn't seem to make a lot of sense as hardly anyone lives in Westminster and it's not the sort of cosy suburb where you go to feel safe and sound. Just my thoughts after 50-odd years of thinking about the song.
Not true according to a Ray Davies interview in 2010 the song was originally a
written about Liverpool and although he never grew up there he loved the Merseybeat sound and places like the Cavern, here the quote from the interview; "Liverpool is my favourite city, and the song was originally called Liverpool Sunset,” smiles its writer, Ray Davies. “I was inspired by Merseybeat. I'd fallen in love with Liverpool by that point. On every tour, that was the best reception. We played The Cavern, all those old places, and I couldn't get enough of it.
“I had a load of mates in bands up there, and that sound - not The Beatles but Merseybeat - that was unbelievable. It used to inspire me every time.
“So I wrote Liverpool Sunset. Later it got changed to Waterloo Sunset, but there's still that play on words with Waterloo.
“London was home, I'd grown up there, but I like to think I could be an adopted Scouser. My heart is definitely there.”
This song is very high on Rolling Stone's list of the most beautiful songs of all time and many famous musicians have said it's among their favorites.
You Really Got Me was intentionally very raw and gritty and literally changed modern music. It's the only Kinks song with a Grammy and none other than Leonard Bernstein called it fantastic, as did Ozzy Osborne.
They have a song about loss and saying goodbye titled "Days". Beautiful lyrics.
Ray davies is from North London.Waterloo Sunset is over the Thames on the bridge towards the station
You definitely would not regret listening to all the 60s Kinks albums on your channel. My favorites are the run of Village Green, Arthur, and Lola vs Powerman and the Money go round. Brilliant concept albums all!
This is probably my fave Kinks song - as you said, this melody is so catchy with a dreamy, languid quality.
Both singers are brothers and had a fued for decades now. I love their music, im old.
Definitely written about Waterloo. Sadly many people arrive in the city at the train station and get straight on the tube which runs under the river to Embankment, where they change underground and go on their way. If you come out of the train station and walk across the bridge it’s one of the best views in London, capturing everything, Big Ben, the parliament building and Westminster abbey are ahead of you, and if you look from the bridge, you can see all the way down the river to the city and St Paul’s - look back the other way and you see Battersea Power Station. In the daytime it’s cool, at sunset, it’s magical
You really got me was not just pop... it predates hard rock and punk but had a guitar sound like nothing before it.
Great analysis, Syed. It's like a Turner painting. A gorgeous song.
A very sweet love story
Someday, you have to go to the Thames, stand at the edge of Waterloo Bridge, at Sunset and sing this.
Ray and his bother Dave were from up in Muswell Hill, London, near Highgate Cemetery and the Alexandria Palace.
"Terry and Julie" were the actors, Terrance Stamp and Julie Christie, who were not a couple, but famous British actors in 1967.
I believe they were actually a couple in real life, for a while at least, before Jean Shrimpton..
Ray Davies grew up in London, not Liverpool
Ray's wife Raja and his brother Dave are doing the background vocals. Terry and Julie were Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, two British actors.
One of their best songs was 'Days', which you hardly see any reactions to, so far. But it was covered by a number of wide-ranging artists, including Mumford and Sons, Petula Clark and perhaps best known cover by the late Kirsty MacColl.
Ray Davies is from Muswell Hill, North London. I heard that he wrote this about the view from his hospital bed.
Their album “Muswell Hillbillies” is also a fine and fun listen
My funeral song!
In 2010 Ray Davies in an interview with the Liverpool echo said it was originally called Liverpool sunset. The dirty river was the mersey not the Thames. Its quite easily found the interview. So yes he was a Londoner but the song was about Liverpool.
Kinks "Destroyer" (1981) lyrically references earlier Kinks' songs, musically uses the riff from their 1964 hit "All Day and All of the Night". At the time it felt like Kinks meet punk, with Ray Davies rapping the verses.
A study in melancholy. The Davies boys are from Muswell Hill, North London. Their parents were Cockneys. Dave Davies and Ray's Lithuanian wife did the brilliant harmony vocals. This is considered by David Bowie and a slew of other Brit rock artists as the quintessential British track of all time.
Beautiful track.
Terry and Julie. He was thinking of two famous British movie stars of the Sixties, Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.
Brother/lead guitar Dave Davies' ethereal backing vocals are key to their sound, imo. 😊❤✨️🕊
There is an area of Liverpool called Waterloo by the way Also. I seem to remember someone saying that Terry & Julie refers to Terrence Stamp and Julie Christy
One of my favourite 1960s songs and, being a Londoner, I've grown more fond of it as time's gone on. The Kinks managed to pretty consistently evade the fame the Beatles, the Stones and others gained but not through want of trying. They are perhaps less immediately loveable but their best albums deserve more acclaim than they have. The Village Green Preservation Society album, which came directly after this, is brilliant.
I recently listened to a bunch of Kinks records.. I'd only ever heard their hits before. They're definitely a great band. My appreciation for them grew heaps. If you want another track to react to, "Sunday Afternoon"'s an obvious choice.
Oh, so many great songs by The Kinks - Apeman, Super Sonic Rocket Ship, Come Dancing, Can't Stop The Music, Celluloid Heroes, and my personal favorite, Ducks On The Wall.
Classic of the late British Invasion period. The outro has a bit of psychedelic Rock to it - similar to "Strawberry Fields" and "Are You Experienced?"
Terry and Julie are two archetypal 1960s names. Possibly inspired here by actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.
Ahh, near the City of London..interesting mysterious, area! ..was in London in 1972, still in the glow of the British Wave & of coarse, The Beatles...Saw the Queen, Stonehenge..Liverpool & beyond. I was on a magical carpet ride that summer in Europe.
Waterloo is next to London.
Ray was an amazing songwriter. I've never loved this song as much as everyone else, but Ray has dozens and dozens of fabulous songs and lyrics. He is unique.
I think Ray Davies is maybe an introvert at heart. I think he takes solace from watching the chaos of a busy London scene from a far; watching from the comfort of his room, probably at the height of his fame. Giving people he doesn't know and will never meet names, but seeing them do the same things each day, such as "Terry and Julie", living out their lives, blissfully unaware that they are the subject of a man writing a song about them. You can be the loneliness person in a busy room or fulfilled in your own company, watching the world go on around you - just having people "there" like "Terry and Julie" in love is enough.
For rocking Kinks,you’ll have to go back to the mid 60’s and have a listen to You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night where they pre-empted punk by about 11years.
Tired of Waiting is also a banger.
I grew up with this music. A great band! 🎶🎶🎶👍
This LP was released AFTER "The Beatles" "Revolver" and "Sgt. Peppers" and "The "Kinks'" "Face to Face".
Terry and Julie are Terrence Stamp and Julie Christie from the movie 'Far from the madding crowd', just a random romantic couple. This was supposedly when the writer was confined to a hospital as a kid, with no contact with the outside world except for what he could watch on the street below.
One sang by Dave Davies, as opposed to Ray, is "Death of a Clown". Very interesting lyrics.
When I managed a jazz club in NYC in the early aughts, Ray Davies was a regular on Monday nights when Les Paul did two sets each week, and would usually sit in to prove his jazz chops. Nice guy. And Chrissy Hines had his baby, which is tres cool
Waterloo Station is one of the most prominent entry points to London. It sits on the Thames River, across from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
I'm an American, but I was an adolescent in London in the 60s. At the time, Waterloo Underground was on both the Northern line and the Bakerloo line. I'm not sure if it's any different today.
Ray Davies grew up in Muswell Hill London. A lot of his music is inspired by it. I believe he still lives there. Good to see the lyrics. I used to think 'and they don't need no friends' was 'and they don't feel afraid'. Van Go is the American pronunciation of Van Gogh. The English pronunciation is more like Van Goff and the Dutch pronunciation (where Van Gogh came from) is more like Van Hoch (with the och as in the Scottish word loch. You'd have to be in a pretty tall building to see Waterloo Station from Liverpool St.
I remember the melody here being played a lot in one form or another - another one of those catchy ones.
The Davies Brothers, and the entire band, are all Londoners - Muswell Hill(billies), to be more exact. "Waterloo Sunset" was never meant to be called "Liverpool Sunset:" he's looking at Waterloo Station, London, over the Thames.
And nowhere near Liverpool Street/ Liverpool Street Station either! Syed is getting it all confused. 😀
Love this! Keep the videos coming!
Terry & Julie is possibly a reference to Terence Stamp & Julie Christie, who were in a relationship at that time. Both very glamorous people.
"Something Else By The Kinks" is my favorite Kinks album.
I love the broad sweep of knowledge and intelligence your nuanced analyses, Syed.
Just saying. 👉👍
Ray Davies was in hospital when he wrote this. "Waterloo Station" of the underground.
And he grew up in Muswell Hill, LONDON, not Liverpool.
Same era British singles in the same vein..... “Days”, “Autumn Almanac”, “Sunny Afternoon”, “House In The Country”
A love song to London 💙
Davies is a storyteller, don't try to 'fact-check' it. It's not the point. This is a great story. I saw The Kinks during the 'Soap Opera' tour. He is trying to convince the audience that he's a rock star and not an ordinary guy living in a fantasy. "You remember me? I wrote this song" and the audience played along and we said "NO, you're not" and then he launched into 'Waterloo Sunset' and the audience lost it including me. I was there. Akron Civic Theater in Ohio if I remember correctly. Wonderful moment. We had seats in the orchestra pit because the sound board was in our original seats and they let us down there. Memorable to the max!
Oh yes it must be "Lazy Sunday Afternoon" next, a Hippy favourite.
You mentioned Van Gogh's "Starry Night," which reminded me of Don McClean's "Vincent," to which I don't think you have yet reacted. Also, from Don McClean is "Empty Chairs," which is really poetic and beautiful. By the way, since you are a hip-hop fan, I believe that Tupac once said that "Vincent" was his favorite song.
The observer watches the couple, or imagines them, but will not get involved. He is detached, isolated, but maybe this is just what he prefers? Anonymity in the big city, just relating to the city itself, not the people. Davies could tell many stories with sparse words. And, yes, just like the impressionist painter creating a picture with a few brush strokes.
And the song still portrays a hint of paranoia from the observer.
@@Hartlor_Tayley Elements of some real disorder is a very possible interpretation. Davies himself did struggle with illness, he was hospitalised a period and is diagnosed as bipolar. This happened some years later, I myself don‘t know if there are any real clues to his own health issues in these earlier songs. Only Ray Davies can tell. A very fine, very original writer and a a composer of some timeless classics!
@@janhanchenmichelsen2627 oh my I had heard something like that but I never pay attention to that kind of stuff. It’s sad if he suffered from that. I can sort of hear something in his songs. Great artist, genius walks hand in hand with madness.
I like the def leppard cover to " waterloo sunset ". Also. I like the lyrics. Great video 🌻
The kinks are from Muswel Hill north London
Ray & Dave Davies are from North London not Liverpool.
A great social consciousness Kinks song is "Shangri-La". (Also as an Australian, I am partial to "Australia" lol)
Speaking about 'Starry Night' by van Gogh. The song 'Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)' by Don McLean is the song with that painting as subject.
Play their ENTIRE LPs of "Face to Face" and "Something Else". "Village Green" and "Arthur" are also great LPs.
Ray Davies was the only one writing social commentary.
?
@@bobguitarlearner8007 What's your question? I grew up during the era. Ray Davies was the only songwriter (except for the obscure until 1968 Randy Newman) writing social commentary.
You can listen to 3 songs written and recorded by The Kinks, and the only thing that tell you it's The Kinks, is Ray Davies voice. Love this Band from the mid 1960s through the 1980s.
They are surely one of the Bands you have to mention when you talk about the "Classic Rock" era.
Thanks
I enjoyed learning about Ray Davies recently in the doc, “Imaginary Man”. The single by that name is also really good, from his solo album “ Workingman’s Cafe”. His songwriting was still strong in his 60’s, like the track “You’re Asking Me”, which sounds a lot like a Kinks song.
I loved his solo album Other Peoples Lives. Saw him in concert right after that record came out. Phenomenal.
@@lawrencesmith6536 Thanks for the tip - I’ll be checking it out !
Btw, you nailed the pronunciation of his last name (Sounds like Davis - that’s how he says it). But most people (maybe just here in the USA) say Day-veez. He doesn’t bother correcting people, so that’s how you hear it pronounced most often.
Love this song.
He grew up in North London,it was about Waterloo station from his hospital room window.
Nothing to do with Liverpool.
Great choice for a review. Honestly though I'd love you to review this whole album. It's INCREDIBLY varied in style.
When you actually stand, even now, on Waterloo Bridge, I don’t know what it was like then, but I do know what it looks like now and still, I think you can have a song about it.
2:18 whaaaaaaaaaa? Ray and Dave Davies grew up in Muswell Hill!
Some 30 Years after their last record and I still listen to this band
Listen to the live version of Celluloid Heroes from One More From the Road. It’s amazing…with an epic guitar solo at the beginning.
If you want to hear them rock hard, go for "Destroyer"!🤘
I'm not sure where you got this Liverpool connection with Ray Davies from but he grew up in the Muswell Hill area of North London. So his affinity would be would be with The Thames.
That aside this is another great example of his song writing. You should also listen to Come Dancing. Great and clever lyrics.
You will love "drivin'" by the Kinks.
Other great songs by the Kinks - check out This Time Tomorrow, Strangers, and Powerman.
Ray Davies is from a North London, muswell hill I believe
Dude, the Davies were born in North London and lived in Muswell (see their album Muswell Hillbillies). This is about Waterloo, Waterloo Station, London. London, paradise, no way.
Their best very early single, before this era, was Tired Of Waiting, in my opinion, of course.
London, not Liverpool. Most Londoners will be familiar with the scene of River Thames at Waterloo during sunset
May I reccomend listenting to A Quick One While hes away by the Who live at the Rolling Stones circus. Its a rock opera done in one song with loads of different parts and it's such an awesome song. But most of all is their incredible performamce. Everyone agrees that the Who totally stole the show from the Rolling Stones who it was meant for!!!
ua-cam.com/video/RJv2-_--EY4/v-deo.html this is the video
I bought into The Who gatecrashed the Stones' party until I got the dvd and watched it more carefully than clips on tv. The Who blast away like they're in a concert or town hall gig with no reference to the audience. Daltrey or Townshend have said how Jagger related with the audience and camera in a way they had never imagined.
Brian Jones was out of it. Rest of group were carrying him and having to compensate for him not playing lead guitar (he did a bit of strumming). The film was withheld for a long time out of respect for Brian, who looks dreadful. He would be sacked and dead in a few weeks
You also paint a picture with your reviews Syed! Ray Davies grew up In London; East Finchley. The pub where they played their first gig, The Clissold Arms has a plaque on it celebrating the fact. Lola is about Soho. The Robert Elms show on BBC Radio London spent a long time establishing the listeners best song about London and Waterloo Sunset was voted that song. Ray Davies had a beef with The Beatles in 1966 and publically dissed Revolver when asked about it by melody Maker in Cherry Tree Woods (next to East Finchley Underground Station). I think he was annoyed that his annus mirabilis 1966 (the biggest hit single and a great album) were being overlooked by the music media. He is often a deliberately unreliable witness and even his own autobiography X-Ray is written as "unauthorised" in the 3rd person by a 19 year-old... Keep up the great reviews mate ;)
This is in direct reaction to the Beach Boys. If you haven't listened to Pet Sounds, you should.
Every song from the Kinks “Something Else” album is great.
very kinkiness
It's London Waterloo station.
Another beautiful song from Ray. The Kinks were a North London band and had no connections to Liverpool, which is 200 miles away. I notice you didn’t mention that one of the harmony voices on the very first la la la’s is slightly out of tune but is corrected for the repeats.