I was a Sr. in high school. Blasting down the interstate at 4:30 in the morning after all night bowling with some friends. This song came on and I got lost in it. I stopped at a pay phone and called the radio station to find out the name and who sang because I was afraid I'd never hear it again. Took forever to find it in the record shops but I finally did . Loved it then, love it now. I'm 60 years old and that feeling still comes back to me. Great to be alive.
Thank you for sharing Bobby,,love this Ray Davies penned classic,,I have it ranked in my Kinks top 3,,any way you slice it, the quartet have stood the test of time🇬🇧!!
i'm only in my late 40s but learned about this song from a jukebox at the bar where i liked to play pool. I would put this song on while I was playing pool and felt like i played better, but I"m sure i still lost games ha Later a friend played Village Green for me. Kinks are like every good human idea: ignored until it's too late
One of the most beautiful and evocative three minutes of English pop music ever. The Kinks were in a class of their own and Ray Davies was a master songsmith.
I often tell the younger people that the Kinks are one of the best bands they've never heard of. Then I start listing their songs which they then can recognize because they've been covered more recently by other bands. The Kinks also deserve special recognition for their longevity as well. Anyway this particular song is so Beatlesque, I could be confused if I didn't know it was the Kinks.
I remember walking down Carnaby Street in the hot lazy crazy days of the 60s with this blaring out of a shop ... absolutely fantastic to this day !! Timeless
Every time when I´m in London and have the time, I walk across Waterloo Bridge. One of the best views down the Thames. I still remember those years in the 60th and this beautiful song. I am 72 years now, Greetings from Germany.
Me too this song is so adorable it always brings tears to my eyes ,, neeless to say im drowned in my own tears im now 76 years old thats a lot of tears xx
@@oughtonoughton2634 there was a play about two old women living in London , sure it was called Waterloo sunset , beryl Reid was one of the actresses , can't remember the others name
Waterloo Sunset, one of the best songs ever written in the history of the music. Ray Davies, one of the greatest songwriters/singers ever. The Kinks, one of the greatest bands ever.
A few years ago I went to see the Kinks musical in Glasgow . An elderly lady who sat next to my wife and me rose to her feet and started singing along to practically every song . I turned and asked her if she had seen The Kinks back in the day - " Oh, yes , a few times , I loved them then and still do . " She then told me she was 78 years old . What a remarkable lady .
I went to a concert in Blackpool in October 1964 and top of the bill was The Beatles supported by The Kinks and now more than 55 years I still pinch myself at seeing these two bands on one bill. What's more is the tickets only cost the equivalent of 50 pence in today's money.
yeah, she probably still likes most of the thing she always has, like everyone, ever... how is that remarkable? I would say that was the definition of unremarkable. how many of milions of 75 year-olds still like the same music they did when they were young has to be in the high 90's, percentage wise.
@@reactorfallout What did you hope to accomplish by criticizing this perfectly benign comment? He didn't even say that her listening to the same music was remarkable, only that she was a remarkable lady. Your impact on the web must have inspired your screen name.
To Ray Davies: I was at the Kinks show in Detroit at Pine Knob in 1993. I sat in the front row,you gave me a beer and a guitar pick. I still have the pick. It was one of the great thrills of my life! Thank you for every note!
73 Year old here, and this was my favorite song when I was 17 years old. Still remember listening to this song on the radio lying on my bed after work in Adelaide. This song paints a picture that has stayed with me. A year earlier I was actually at Waterloo Station, London, waiting for the train to take me to Southampton, to sail to Australia. That picture of Waterloo Station also has never left me.
@@tracylincoln3092 Other great British songwriters include John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Andy Partridge & Colin Moulding (XTC) and Mike Scott (The Waterboys).
One of the most beautiful and evocative songs ever, paticularly for this old man from south London who walked over Waterloo Bridge more times than l can remember. The Kinks were criminally underated.
My dad used to play us kids the kinks, Beatles etc on roadtrips on the way to our summer holiday place. Really nostalgic for me. I'm nearly 32 now and this is bringing back some great memories for me. Ta
Something uniquely BRITISH about this song - still love it in 2024. I know EXACTLY what he means about Waterloo sunsets. A superb song. Thanks Sir Ray!
I agree , the simplicity of this melody speaks volumes , and yes i also agree that this band was so under rated ,& also they stayed true to their roots Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
This song bottles up a fleeting moment of heavenly detachment from reality and suffering. Ray Davies, after jumping off a 12 ft wall at age 6 "trying to fly" was seriously injured and spent quite a long time in a Waterloo hospital where he purportedly had a near-death experience following a botched tracheotomy. His sister bought him a guitar at age 13, then she dies of a heart defect. Young Davies in his hospital room, likely spent many many hours gazing out of his window, which overlooked Waterloo and the river, a rather beautiful spot with many people ("swarming like flies"). When he wrote the song at age 23, I'm sure he drew from those moments when he felt relief from his suffering upon viewing a sunset, and from the times he felt isolated and disconnected from the world buzzing by his window.
what a brilliant song Waterloo Sunset is Richard Smith.......and thanks for the information .....Ray Davies is one of the great songwriters ...not only in England ...but the whole world....wish he d come and put some magic to my songs ....cheers bill ...aka ...Dog Ruff...
@@grahambuckenham1597 You are right. If you look at Wikipedia Liverpool Sunset might have been a working title initially, but the song changes to one about London and his childhood experiences in and around Waterloo. ' The song derives from the period 1965-73 when Ray Davies lived at 87 Fortis Green, the semi-detached suburban home where almost all his songs were written at this period. "I didn't think to make it about Waterloo, initially", Davies said in a 2010 interview, "but I realised the place was so very significant in my life. I was in St Thomas' Hospital when I was really ill [when he had a tracheotomy aged 13] and the nurses would wheel me out on the balcony to look at the river. It was also about being taken down to the 1951 Festival of Britain. It's about the two characters - and the aspirations of my sisters' generation who grew up during the Second World War. It's about the world I wanted them to have. That, and then walking by the Thames with my first wife and all the dreams that we had." '
What I've always loved about the Kinks is their beautiful way of painting a picture. They are one of the only bands I listen to that can do it so well. They aren't just evoking an emotion of anger or happiness, etc. They are painting a picture I could see myself in. They give me a sense of nostalgia for things I've never even experienced. Tell me exactly how they do this so well! I don't think any artists really have the same capability to create a scene the listener can just feel. It's definitely haunting.
My big bro introduced me to the Kinks, and this song brings me to tears everytime i hear it. My bro is gone and i miss him so. Thank you Kinks for all the decades of great beautiful music
Closest I’m gonna get to some bragging rights. Ma grew up in Muswell Hill. Cromwell Rd I think it was. Long before that psycho killer who may have put a blemish on the bourogh
@Chase Williams this isn't a controversial opinion haha. What's the best American rock band? Probably CCR, maybe the Doors? Even Hendrix had a Brit band. Even post 90s, Radiohead over Nirvana any day.
I love this song. I remember listening to it as a teenager and being genuinely happy and content with my lot in the world. I hope it always holds this special place for me.
+lee raeside I really like your your guys flag. Its really cool lookin'....My first bike was a 1964 BSA B-40 single cylinder. I was too stupid to keep it running back then though. After that I had lots of BSA motorcycles. I would love to have a BSA 500 single.
It was the same with my generation (I am 36), it makes me happy to hear that there are kids like me back then looking for music that connects with them regardless of when it was made. All the best to you, long and happy life.
Couldn’t agree more ， I've been listening to some 60s and 70s rock music like The Kinks ,The Doors and the others since I was 16，now im 19,and stills love them .i just like the feeling of nostalgia retro,old movies or old songs give me a lot of spiritual strength,make my soul can be told and more complete
At the end of 2019 when visiting the U.K. One of my main things to do was to see a 'Waterloo Sunset' . It was then, I knew exactly what this wonderful band was singing about. I know there were many great British bands of the 1960's but to me ,The Kinks were one of the very best who stayed so true to their roots (no matter how much they traveled & how famous they were they never ever forgot where they started from) . I feel they were not given enough Air Play for all their talent ... Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
From my very young teenage years - mid 60’s just loved them. They WERE & ARE, to me, the original documentary band of life & all its foibles. God bless you Ray , Dave & the Band - all us Mussie-Hiller’s are proud of you. JaneR
Just having watched the movie "The last word" (2016) I needed to listen to this song. It appears at the end of this lovely movie. I recommend watching it!
I had a friend called Mike Smith at my school when I lived in England. It was a great time to be living in England & I remember Mike talking a lot about the Kinks back then. He always comes to mind when I hear this song.
Paradise and illusions are lost. Almost no idyllic scenes for me anymore. But thank you, Kinks, for your heartwrenchingly simple and beautiful song. From hundreds of kilometers afar.
When I hear this song I think of walking around London with my wife, sitting on Primrose Hill with a beer and watching the sunset over the city skyline. Good times.
This reminds me of my dear friend Ron, first met him 1968 when he got back from Vietnam,we stayed friends until he sadly left us in 1991.i will never forget him♥️❤️❤️🌹
there's two types of people 1. Old people who grew up with this and liked it 2. Young people who stumbled into the rabbithole of old music and love it (Me, 16 years old) I'm new to the kinks. First song I'm listening, and I already love it
I lived in London for the past four months and this song will always remind of me of that wonderful experience. My favorite place in this world will forever be staring down the Thames at sunset, a true paradise. A god damn masterpiece.
You’re lucky that the Thames is so clean these days ! I think they now have otters living there ! When we moved to London when I was 12 or 13, we lived in Beckenham as my father worked at the Ministry of Transport. In the mornings he walked to Clock House station where he caught the train to Blackfriars ! I HATED living in London, because I’d been forced to leave the place I loved best in the world - Abingdon and my friends in Oxford. To try to make it up to me, my dad would often take me ‘ up to town ‘ on a Friday evening to go to the opera or a late opening of an exhibition etc. We had to get off the train at Waterloo and cross over the river to get to our destinations. The sunsets were beautiful but nothing like the wonderful sunsets in the Thames valley which I missed like hell. We eventually escaped London ( after my father had a breakdown with stress and working in the ’ sick building ‘ with its dreadful noise, in which the Ministry of Transport was housed ), by my dad getting a job in - wait for it !!!! - Wolverhampton !!! Despite always trying to get away by going to Leicester University, then Southampton university where I met ( and subsequently married ) a bloke from Southampton there seems to have been some dreadful elastic line always dragging me back to bloody Wolverhampton. Before we got married my husband had awful trouble getting a job, and the only one he could find was in Wolverhampton where he and I had contacts! When we got married in October 1978 I thought I’d finally escaped as he got a job in Newbury and I got a transfer with MY job down there. I never asked to go to the Newbury office, thinking it far too small to have a vacancy, so had asked for a move to the Reading, Basingstoke or Southampton offices, but the day I handed in my resignation, having got a job in a different field in Reading, the Inland Revenue head office said they’d found me a vacancy in Newbury, despite having been telling me for more than 6 months that there were no commutable vacancies in the whole of the South East to move me to !! I should have stuck out and said I only wanted to go to Reading, as that would have opened up more possibilities as being more commutable for central London. Anyhow, as we were pretty hard up when we were getting married, I weighed up transport costs and decided it would be better to save money and be able to walk to work, as by this time my fiancé and I had bought a 2 bedroomed maisonette in Shaw, Newbury, a roughly 30 minute walk from my office. When I turned up at the Newbury tax office on the first morning, it was the usual Civil Service ‘ cock up ‘. Having heard that a woman called Knibb- Scarff was arriving from Wolverhampton, the idiots in the office had decided that with a name like that I must be ASIAN !! The office was full of Geordies and others from the north of England on what were then known as ‘ 2 year tickets ‘ as they just couldn’t get staff in the fairly expensive south East, because even then housing costs were much higher. I met the chap I was replacing and he was thanking God that I’d turned up !! He was a Liverpudlian on a 2 year ticket, who’d decided to stay, but with his new wife had bought a small house in Reading and been asking for a move to Reading to save on rail costs for MONTHS ! Yes, you’ll have guessed what he’d been told !! ‘ You can’t have a move to Reading, cos we can’t find anyone to fill your vacancy in the Newbury area ‘ !!! Things are even worse with the lack of technical knowledge and useless organisation of what is now called HM Revenue and Customs , so God help ANYONE trying to get any sense out of the morons there!! Think HMRC is actually now ‘ run ‘ by someone parachuted in from the FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY who knows f. k all about tax !!!! Thank God I retired a few years ago, though I’ve probably forgotten by now more than the cretins working there now ever knew !! Want any advise on tax avoidance or Tony Blair’s purchase of multi million pound London properties through the vehicle of offshore companies ? I’m your man !! Of course London is the money laundering capital of the world ! Anyone with an iota of intelligence can see that !! English football teams owned by Saudis or Russians etc etc. However the UK has its own dirty little not so secret SECRETS ! What are Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man still doing bobbing around off our shores packed out with their merely brass plate companies doing F all there, and most certainly NOT trading !! And why have we NEVER done anything to try to change the legal meaning of NON DOMICILE, which means that multi national crooks can keep billions offshore, safe in our secure banking system, but safe too in the knowledge that so long as they keep their dirty money offshore, we can never tax it unless they are stupid enough ( or get caught by us ! ) remitting the money to the UK !! Must scoot, double G&T required to calm me down !!! Christine Knibb Scarff
"Love, Simon" brought me here. The most underrated band! Just one of the best classic songs ever, they dont make them like this any more! What an era?????
My best friend in the 60s at school raved about the kinks.I was more mainstream, didn't get them, preferring the Beatles+ Stones .As I've become older+my musical tastes have matured how keyed in he truly was.A truly great band. And for me personally, Waterloo Sunset has to be up there as the finest Pop song of the 60s.Absolutely brilliant.I find myself returning to it again and again.
I am in my 30s and Czech, and I haven't heard of this song before Spotify threw it into my automatic playlist, and haven't heard of the Kinks before Spotify threw in Lola. It was such a great discovery, but even though my father was somewhat obsessed with Beatles in the past, so you would think I could share this with at least him, I don't feel I can. So I confess here, I really love this song.
This surely is one of the milestones in pop history. The genius of Ray Davies will stay with us forever. Dirty old river, must you keep rolling Flowing into the night? People so busy, make me feel dizzy Taxi light shines so bright But I don't need no friends As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset I am in paradise Every day, I look at the world from my window But chilly, chilly is the evening time Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine) Terry meets Julie Waterloo station Every Friday night But I am so lazy, don't want to wander I stay at home at night But I don't feel afraid As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset I am in paradise Every day, I look at the world from my window But chilly, chilly is the evening time Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine) Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground But Terry and Julie cross over the river Where they feel safe and sound And they don't need no friends As long as they gaze on Waterloo Sunset They are in paradise Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine) Waterloo sunset's fine
I agree with you so much .Not enough air play was given to all their wonderful songs that depicted their surrondings . The kinks also stayed true to their roots . Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
Such happy memories. Shit! Little did I know what 60 odd years would bring about. This has been long planned. Well. I had a good life. I’ll try to enjoy what’s left. Love to all you people who grasp reality. May your god be to you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
This song reminds me of the 70s, and getting a train from Dartford to Waterloo east, to go skateboard ing at the southbank. All day until the sun set on waterloo. Good times.
I just visited London and went to Waterloo Station because of this song. It's a major Tube hub and it made me feel even more connected to this masterpiece.
I was the tape operator, assistant on this gem .. Alan McKenzie the engineer, Pye studio 2. A beautiful record and song .... 1966... x
That’s brilliant, that’s a moment of music history that you were part of
I sometimes work for a Ray Lovegrove, remember the name? A roadie for the band at the time, recounts the story of being with Ray when he wrote this.
On the best song out of Britain in the 60s? A good day's work!
How lucky you are I didn't even exist even though I love this song since I've heard it
Good Job 👌👌
I was a Sr. in high school. Blasting down the interstate at 4:30 in the morning after all night bowling with some friends. This song came on and I got lost in it. I stopped at a pay phone and called the radio station to find out the name and who sang because I was afraid I'd never hear it again. Took forever to find it in the record shops but I finally did . Loved it then, love it now. I'm 60 years old and that feeling still comes back to me. Great to be alive.
That must of been back when stations used to play differnt songs every day. Did the same to Billy Thorpes Children of the Sun.
Michael Caine's recent documentary, "My Generation," is a great look at London in the 60's. The opening song is "Waterloo Sunset."
G R A N D P A
Bravo Bobby! 👌
Thank you for sharing Bobby,,love this Ray Davies penned classic,,I have it ranked in my Kinks top 3,,any way you slice it, the quartet have stood the test of time🇬🇧!!
One Day on Netflix brought me here, this song is super magical i can't describe the feelings i get, it's just so surreal and immersive even ❤
😅me too
Same bro
The series has such beautiful visuals and good music choices throughout.
Me too ❤
Same here
Beautiful song
I'm 67 years old and never ever get sick of hearing this classic
i'm only in my late 40s but learned about this song from a jukebox at the bar where i liked to play pool.
I would put this song on while I was playing pool and felt like i played better, but I"m sure i still lost games ha
Later a friend played Village Green for me. Kinks are like every good human idea: ignored until it's too late
I’m 16 and I love this song to bits lol
Same
Class song 👌 happy Christmas 🎄 from Ireland 🍀🇮🇪
100 percent agree!!! Amazing song!!
One of the most beautiful and evocative three minutes of English pop music ever. The Kinks were in a class of their own and Ray Davies was a master songsmith.
I often tell the younger people that the Kinks are one of the best bands they've never heard of. Then I start listing their songs which they then can recognize because they've been covered more recently by other bands. The Kinks also deserve special recognition for their longevity as well. Anyway this particular song is so Beatlesque, I could be confused if I didn't know it was the Kinks.
I love them so much! ❤
100%
Genius songwriter
The Kinks and XTC are my two favourite bands...beautiful, clever, brilliant pop! Grew up with them as a Canadian who was a child of the 70s and 80s.
I remember walking down Carnaby Street in the hot lazy crazy days of the 60s with this blaring out of a shop ... absolutely fantastic to this day !! Timeless
You might like a band called The Doublejumps if you like The Kinks. Two of my favourite bands
Name a train station and girls name that was a kinks single
@@declanfarrell5251 Lola & Waterloo
60s coldest decade of the 20th century 😅hot hazy days were few and far between
Here we are in going into 2024 and this is still so freakin good. Love the Kinks.
From watching ONE DAY beautiful piece of music
Beautiful, comforting to know people were the same 60 years ago, the lyrics still stand...
Every time when I´m in London and have the time, I walk across Waterloo Bridge. One of the best views down the Thames. I still remember those years in the 60th and this beautiful song. I am 72 years now, Greetings from Germany.
I am 80...of god where has the years slipped by.. Waterloo Sunset is truly a musical masterpiece.. lan Gray
I am 81 in September and love this record, nostalgic for those days, between all are
If you leave this world richer than it was, then you have done a good job. Waterloo Sunset is a classic. Thanks ❤
I'm 75 years old and I still love the Kinks!!!
nós temos bom gosto, my brother!
Ricardo Rossi Gracias mi amigo!
My favourite song is Waterloo......it just moves me.....
Oasis don't belong in the same company.
I'm 18 years old and I love the kinks a lot!
as long as I listen to Waterloo Sunset, I am in paradise
Me too this song is so adorable it always brings tears to my eyes ,, neeless to say im drowned in my own tears im now 76 years old thats a lot of tears xx
@@oughtonoughton2634 there was a play about two old women living in London , sure it was called Waterloo sunset , beryl Reid was one of the actresses , can't remember the others name
I got a poster of it
My name is Terry my wife’s name is Julie . This is our song . We are both in our late sixties. Would like Waterloo Sunset on our gravestone.
❤❤
❤
I hope you’re living your best life love❤ you
Don't rush anything ! Stick around for a while
I was just watching a movie with the song in it the movie was the last words
Waterloo Sunset, one of the best songs ever written in the history of the music.
Ray Davies, one of the greatest songwriters/singers ever.
The Kinks, one of the greatest bands ever.
@Miguel Osvaldo Flores Dominguez
*The best band ever
Hotel? Trivago.
Ray was THE GREATEST not merely one of them !!
England has Ray Davies, We have Bob Dylan
Number 3 in my fav songs ever
A few years ago I went to see the Kinks musical in Glasgow . An elderly lady who sat next to my wife and me rose to her feet and started singing along to practically every song . I turned and asked her if she had seen The Kinks back in the day - " Oh, yes , a few times , I loved them then and still do . " She then told me she was 78 years old . What a remarkable lady .
I went to a concert in Blackpool in October 1964 and top of the bill was The Beatles supported by The Kinks and now more than 55 years I still pinch myself at seeing these two bands on one bill. What's more is the tickets only cost the equivalent of 50 pence in today's money.
@@draskill1 Lucky :( !!
yeah, she probably still likes most of the thing she always has, like everyone, ever... how is that remarkable? I would say that was the definition of unremarkable. how many of milions of 75 year-olds still like the same music they did when they were young has to be in the high 90's, percentage wise.
@@reactorfallout What did you hope to accomplish by criticizing this perfectly benign comment? He didn't even say that her listening to the same music was remarkable, only that she was a remarkable lady. Your impact on the web must have inspired your screen name.
"Your impact on the web must have inspired your screen name." God i would feel dumb just typing that.
I'm 70 years old and this is my favourite record of all time.
It's my second favourite, after 'Snooker Loopy'.
this was my parents favourite song, lost both of them when I was small I always come back to this song.
It’s amazing how certain songs brings you right back in time, this is an absolutely wonderful song, I hope it helped heal your sorrow over time,
🥺I’m sorry to hear that, I hope it brings you happy memories of your parents ♥️
God bless you x
You lovely soul
❤
The fact that people still love this song after over 50 years speaks volumes.
That's... hardly unique to this song.
Poor comment and fishing !
@@ThisBirdHasFlown You're right. About, oh, .00001 percent of all the songs written around that time can make the same claim.
Im glad I just found this
It gives me hope I’ll always find something from this era I didn’t know existed
I don't get it but thats why its great to have more than one band, but the Beatles music will outlive
most of the music of the 20th century.
To Ray Davies: I was at the Kinks show in Detroit at Pine Knob in 1993. I sat in the front row,you gave me a beer and a guitar pick. I still have the pick. It was one of the great thrills of my life! Thank you for every note!
18 year old here just to say that this band is fantastic and this is honestly one of my favourite songs of recent memory.
I'm 73 saw them live in Coventry yrs and yrs ago xx
you have a good taste for music, great band !! have many other songs you may want to listen to
@@brendadrumm9451 god bless
Way to go kid!!! 🎸
73 Year old here, and this was my favorite song when I was 17 years old. Still remember listening to this song on the radio lying on my bed after work in Adelaide. This song paints a picture that has stayed with me. A year earlier I was actually at Waterloo Station, London, waiting for the train to take me to Southampton, to sail to Australia. That picture of Waterloo Station also has never left me.
An absolute masterpiece by The Kinks. One of the very, very best ever British songs and it still sounds amazing now.
The Kinks just were so perfect and never really got their due… this is so beautiful
Thank god Ray is still with us today. Anyone else think that this is a masterpiece ? Ax
I think! Agree with you!! 👍🏴
I think Ray is a masterpiece. No one has ever made me want to be English as much as Ray has. I must return to the motherland!
So many of the best ( Bowie, castello, Weller, and the list goes on) songwriters praise
Waterloo as an amazing beautiful song.
Yes! Greetings from the Netherlands!
@@tracylincoln3092 Other great British songwriters include John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Andy Partridge & Colin Moulding (XTC) and Mike Scott (The Waterboys).
Genius lyrics, genius harmonies - where are the when we need them so badly now?
One of the most beautiful and evocative songs ever, paticularly for this old man from south London who walked over Waterloo Bridge more times than l can remember. The Kinks were criminally underated.
No, they aren't. They are multi-millionaires. How are they criminally underrated?
The humor & wit in their songs is unmatched.
My dad used to play us kids the kinks, Beatles etc on roadtrips on the way to our summer holiday place. Really nostalgic for me. I'm nearly 32 now and this is bringing back some great memories for me. Ta
Something uniquely BRITISH about this song - still love it in 2024. I know EXACTLY what he means about Waterloo sunsets. A superb song. Thanks Sir Ray!
This song is enormously underrated. Such a beatiful melody.
well, it's rated in the top 100 all time greatest songs by Rolling Stone, so...
I agree , the simplicity of this melody speaks volumes , and yes i also agree that this band was so under rated ,& also they stayed true to their roots Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
@@psalmer5690 well I guess in the end it’s all opinions but I can Think of 100 Beatles songs that are better than this song!
Nope , not underrated at all....maybe only underrated in your world...certainly not mine
@@fourthtunz Yes , and that is your opinion
This song bottles up a fleeting moment of heavenly detachment from reality and suffering. Ray Davies, after jumping off a 12 ft wall at age 6 "trying to fly" was seriously injured and spent quite a long time in a Waterloo hospital where he purportedly had a near-death experience following a botched tracheotomy. His sister bought him a guitar at age 13, then she dies of a heart defect. Young Davies in his hospital room, likely spent many many hours gazing out of his window, which overlooked Waterloo and the river, a rather beautiful spot with many people ("swarming like flies"). When he wrote the song at age 23, I'm sure he drew from those moments when he felt relief from his suffering upon viewing a sunset, and from the times he felt isolated and disconnected from the world buzzing by his window.
what a brilliant song Waterloo Sunset is Richard Smith.......and thanks for the information .....Ray Davies is one of the great songwriters ...not only in England ...but the whole world....wish he d come and put some magic to my songs ....cheers bill ...aka ...Dog Ruff...
Loved him but always appeared fragile
@Lovely Monsters Correct. Original title was " Liverpool Sunset "
@@grahambuckenham1597 You are right. If you look at Wikipedia Liverpool Sunset might have been a working title initially, but the song changes to one about London and his childhood experiences in and around Waterloo.
' The song derives from the period 1965-73 when Ray Davies lived at 87 Fortis Green, the semi-detached suburban home where almost all his songs were written at this period. "I didn't think to make it about Waterloo, initially", Davies said in a 2010 interview, "but I realised the place was so very significant in my life. I was in St Thomas' Hospital when I was really ill [when he had a tracheotomy aged 13] and the nurses would wheel me out on the balcony to look at the river. It was also about being taken down to the 1951 Festival of Britain. It's about the two characters - and the aspirations of my sisters' generation who grew up during the Second World War. It's about the world I wanted them to have. That, and then walking by the Thames with my first wife and all the dreams that we had." '
@richard smith. I just had to start the tube again after reading your comment, gave it way more meaning :)
Happy 80th birthday Ray Davies!!!
My daughter has an apartment overlooking Waterloo Bridge on Southbank. Just sit there admiring the view and playing this tune.
The Kinks = a very special band. A great band . 1 of the greatest groups of all time.
It still gives me chills...no matter how many times I hear it.
Exactly. A spine chilling experience - every time.
This song evoces the GOOD kind of nostalgia - making you a bit misty eyed, but not sad
What I've always loved about the Kinks is their beautiful way of painting a picture. They are one of the only bands I listen to that can do it so well. They aren't just evoking an emotion of anger or happiness, etc. They are painting a picture I could see myself in. They give me a sense of nostalgia for things I've never even experienced. Tell me exactly how they do this so well! I don't think any artists really have the same capability to create a scene the listener can just feel. It's definitely haunting.
Ray is the best at expressing the socio-economic and the human condition.
Beautiful comment!💓
That's Ray, not the band
Totally agree with you!
Ray Davies is a songwriting genius. Not sure anyone has ever matched him.
A song that evokes a heartfelt story of solitude and living vicariously through the eyes of lovers. This will always bring a tear of happiness ❤️🥲
My big bro introduced me to the Kinks, and this song brings me to tears everytime i hear it. My bro is gone and i miss him so. Thank you Kinks for all the decades of great beautiful music
For real Londoners...one of the greatest songs ever written.
Or for real Brusselers
Closest I’m gonna get to some bragging rights. Ma grew up in Muswell Hill. Cromwell Rd I think it was. Long before that psycho killer who may have put a blemish on the bourogh
This was my grandmothers funeral song. It was one of her favourites, and whenever I hear it, I feel so sad and yet at peace
What a masterpiece! Sheer perfection!
England has no shortage of great bands, but none has ever been so uncomprimisingly English as the Kinks, and I love them for that
Ray Davies has a Welsh name
@@wmarkdyer and he's not. Your point?
@Chase Williams this isn't a controversial opinion haha. What's the best American rock band? Probably CCR, maybe the Doors? Even Hendrix had a Brit band. Even post 90s, Radiohead over Nirvana any day.
@@beastmry shut up nerd they both suck
@@beastmry I like Jane by Jefferson starship...hope you do too
Heard this song for the first time today. Can already tell I’m going to love this song for the rest of my life
One of my biggest loves of the amazing 60’s
A number 2 hit in the U.K. for The Kinks.
How can you not adore this song. Just a breath of fresh air. Simply beautiful
Sunny Afternoon and Waterloo are some of the most beautiful songs ever.🎶🎵👍Thanks Ray, Dave, Pete & Mick
My eternal thanks to you and the band for creating this tune.
Waterloo Sunset always makes me feel better no matter the circumstance.
Hey if you like Kinks you should listen to a band called The Doublejumps. Similar styles of songwriting and harmonies
A very happy 80th birthday, Ray, and many more
I love this song. I remember listening to it as a teenager and being genuinely happy and content with my lot in the world. I hope it always holds this special place for me.
+lee raeside I really like your your guys flag. Its really cool lookin'....My first bike was a 1964 BSA B-40 single cylinder. I was too stupid to keep it running back then though. After that I had lots of BSA motorcycles. I would love to have a BSA 500 single.
The Kinks don't get too much credit in my generation. I am 14, and I am enjoying this awesome music regardless of how old I am. Love The Kinks!!!!!!
You win,
I’m 16 mate and I totally agree they need more recognition
It was the same with my generation (I am 36), it makes me happy to hear that there are kids like me back then looking for music that connects with them regardless of when it was made.
All the best to you, long and happy life.
I’m 67 Years Old and been listening to the Kinks since I was 9-10 years old welcome 🙏 to our Generation of Fine Music 🎼
Couldn’t agree more ， I've been listening to some 60s and 70s rock music like The Kinks ,The Doors and the others since I was 16，now im 19,and stills love them .i just like the feeling of nostalgia retro,old movies or old songs give me a lot of spiritual strength,make my soul can be told and more complete
OMG it just never gets old, one of the most beautiful songs ever created
Their lyrics are phenomenal what a great band. They don't make music like this anymore waring down the reel to reel what an era ❤️❤️
The Kinks - so many quality songs so underrated. I feel sorry for anyone not touched by their music. Ray Davies what a hero!
He should be Britain's poet laureate.
***** gosh damn bleedin youth mumble grumble
***** You kids get off my lawn!!!
Don't feel sorry for me, sweetheart.
Would you like to buy a photograph of a fat man pissing on a cabbage?
At the end of 2019 when visiting the U.K. One of my main things to do was to see a 'Waterloo Sunset' . It was then, I knew exactly what this wonderful band was singing about. I know there were many great British bands of the 1960's but to me ,The Kinks were one of the very best who stayed so true to their roots (no matter how much they traveled
& how famous they were they never ever forgot where they started from) . I feel they were not given enough Air Play for all their talent ... Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
One of the bands with the best lyrics… such storytellers. No wonder they made a musical from their songs
What’s it called?
From my very young teenage years - mid 60’s just loved them. They WERE & ARE, to me, the original documentary band of life & all its foibles.
God bless you Ray , Dave & the Band - all us Mussie-Hiller’s are proud of you.
JaneR
september 24th 2023, who's still listening to classics like this. say hi, from mark in devon, UK
Hi from Linda just up the road in Dorset.
Hi from Phil in Pembrokeshire
Listening to this in January 2024
Live in Salisbury
Hi from Wales. This was my first "our song." Age 12, boyfriend called Terry, his mates screeching "Terry meets Lesley..." after us down the road!😁
What a tune, absolute masterpiece.
It's May 2024. Anyone else listening to this masterpiece? I'm just addicted to it!
Me, parents got me addicted too
Why do you ask?
Just having watched the movie "The last word" (2016) I needed to listen to this song. It appears at the end of this lovely movie. I recommend watching it!
Yo!
We just love this song…. 😎😎
I had a friend called Mike Smith at my school when I lived in England. It was a great time to be living in England & I remember Mike talking a lot about the Kinks back then. He always comes to mind when I hear this song.
Ray is one of our greatest songwriters. Fantatic.
I am 7 and love the Kinks.
I am 12 and love the kinks, gotta keep the ball rolling...
Great!
You're 8 now! 🎉
I am Kinks Fan since I was 13 years old❤ I love the Kinks, my favorite Band ever.
I'm 70, and I do, too
here after watching one day that show rly had me thinking for a few days
My favorite song of all time. Just love Dave's guitar!
Paradise and illusions are lost. Almost no idyllic scenes for me anymore. But thank you, Kinks, for your heartwrenchingly simple and beautiful song. From hundreds of kilometers afar.
For me this is the ultimate 'London' song. It's perfect!
Thanks for this, so beautiful and very story like, so well done guys, still a great sound in 2023!
Will forever love London! Golden memories growing up in Knightsbridge 1968 to 1972!!! Going to the Hampshire School! Ennismore Gardens 😇🙏🚸🏫❤️💕❤️
When I hear this song I think of walking around London with my wife, sitting on Primrose Hill with a beer and watching the sunset over the city skyline. Good times.
When I first heard this classic Kinks song it was March 1967 and I still love it today 53 years on!
This is what you call a perfect piece of music.
This reminds me of my dear friend Ron, first met him 1968 when he got back from Vietnam,we stayed friends until he sadly left us in 1991.i will never forget him♥️❤️❤️🌹
From the great days when music was music with proper instruments. Fab. A gem.
This song is flooring me ! It remind me of the good time when music was fantastic ! What an incredible beutiful song !
My big brother got me in to kinks I was 7years old 53 later I still love there music brilliant
Anvenger endgamme introduce me of the song kink i am 15 year old i am prett sure i am gonna sing this song wen i gonna be old if i am old one day
I’m two months old & I never tire of this tune!!! My generation doesn’t know good music LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just one of the best classic songs ever, they dont make them like this any more! What an era?????
They still do in indonesia
Gibran Ramadhan hahahahahahahaha
Pink Floyd is the Best Band of All Time. the kinks is much better than pink floyd
eve
@@leot6167 wut
if you’re here, we’ve got great taste in music
Yes I agree.
Well, I already knew that
Glad we can agree on this! The Kinks are an awesome band, I only wish i was 60 years younger so I could have been a teenager in the 60s.
Ritesh Das that’s very good!
Valeria Talavera, are you related to Art Vanderlay? If not,you should be...
One of the best pop songs ever written.
This beautiful song still drives me wild ,,, ive adored this bunch of genius guys since their beginning ,, until eterrnity i say lol x
I'm 72 and I remember this song as a "side B" that I just couldn't forget. So happy that no one else has forgotten it either!
there's two types of people
1. Old people who grew up with this and liked it
2. Young people who stumbled into the rabbithole of old music and love it (Me, 16 years old)
I'm new to the kinks. First song I'm listening, and I already love it
Embrace it
@@060154kit - I agree and I will. I am, and I don't regret it
Listen to Lola , you won't regret it.
@@hibazd1589 - I actually already did
I’m an old guy, 69. Been here since you really got me.
My favorite album hands down of The Kinks. Love Waterloo Sunset ❤️
I lived in London for the past four months and this song will always remind of me of that wonderful experience. My favorite place in this world will forever be staring down the Thames at sunset, a true paradise. A god damn masterpiece.
You’re lucky that the Thames is so clean these days !
I think they now have otters living there !
When we moved to London when I was 12 or 13, we lived in Beckenham as my father worked at the Ministry of Transport.
In the mornings he walked to Clock House station where he caught the train to Blackfriars !
I HATED living in London, because I’d been forced to leave the place I loved best in the world - Abingdon and my friends in Oxford.
To try to make it up to me, my dad would often take me ‘ up to town ‘ on a Friday evening to go to the opera or a late opening of an exhibition etc.
We had to get off the train at Waterloo and cross over the river to get to our destinations.
The sunsets were beautiful but nothing like the wonderful sunsets in the Thames valley which I missed like hell.
We eventually escaped London ( after my father had a breakdown with stress and working in the ’ sick building ‘ with its dreadful noise, in which the Ministry of Transport was housed ), by my dad getting a job in - wait for it !!!! - Wolverhampton !!!
Despite always trying to get away by going to Leicester University, then Southampton university where I met ( and subsequently married ) a bloke from Southampton there seems to have been some dreadful elastic line always dragging me back to bloody Wolverhampton.
Before we got married my husband had awful trouble getting a job, and the only one he could find was in Wolverhampton where he and I had contacts!
When we got married in October 1978 I thought I’d finally escaped as he got a job in Newbury and I got a transfer with MY job down there.
I never asked to go to the Newbury office, thinking it far too small to have a vacancy, so had asked for a move to the Reading, Basingstoke or Southampton offices, but the day I handed in my resignation, having got a job in a different field in Reading, the Inland Revenue head office said they’d found me a vacancy in Newbury, despite having been telling me for more than 6 months that there were no commutable vacancies in the whole of the South East to move me to !!
I should have stuck out and said I only wanted to go to Reading, as that would have opened up more possibilities as being more commutable for central London. Anyhow, as we were pretty hard up when we were getting married, I weighed up transport costs and decided it would be better to save money and be able to walk to work, as by this time my fiancé and I had bought a 2 bedroomed maisonette in Shaw, Newbury, a roughly 30 minute walk from my office.
When I turned up at the Newbury tax office on the first morning, it was the usual Civil Service ‘ cock up ‘. Having heard that a woman called Knibb- Scarff was arriving from Wolverhampton, the idiots in the office had decided that with a name like that I must be ASIAN !!
The office was full of Geordies and others from the north of England on what were then known as ‘ 2 year tickets ‘ as they just couldn’t get staff in the fairly expensive south East, because even then housing costs were much higher.
I met the chap I was replacing and he was thanking God that I’d turned up !!
He was a Liverpudlian on a 2 year ticket, who’d decided to stay, but with his new wife had bought a small house in Reading and been asking for a move to Reading to save on rail costs for MONTHS !
Yes, you’ll have guessed what he’d been told !!
‘ You can’t have a move to Reading, cos we can’t find anyone to fill your vacancy in the Newbury area ‘ !!!
Things are even worse with the lack of technical knowledge and useless organisation of what is now called HM Revenue and Customs , so God help ANYONE trying to get any sense out of the morons there!!
Think HMRC is actually now ‘ run ‘ by someone parachuted in from the FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY who knows f. k all about tax !!!!
Thank God I retired a few years ago, though I’ve probably forgotten by now more than the cretins working there now ever knew !!
Want any advise on tax avoidance or Tony Blair’s purchase of multi million pound London properties through the vehicle of offshore companies ? I’m your man !!
Of course London is the money laundering capital of the world ! Anyone with an iota of intelligence can see that !!
English football teams owned by Saudis or Russians etc etc.
However the UK has its own dirty little not so secret SECRETS !
What are Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man still doing bobbing around off our shores packed out with their merely brass plate companies doing F all there, and most certainly NOT trading !!
And why have we NEVER done anything to try to change the legal meaning of NON DOMICILE, which means that multi national crooks can keep billions offshore, safe in our secure banking system, but safe too in the knowledge that so long as they keep their dirty money offshore, we can never tax it unless they are stupid enough ( or get caught by us ! ) remitting the money to the UK !!
Must scoot, double G&T required to calm me down !!!
Christine Knibb Scarff
These songs are so beautiful and they are all so different
"Love, Simon" brought me here.
The most underrated band!
Just one of the best classic songs ever, they dont make them like this any more! What an era?????
My best friend in the 60s at school raved about the kinks.I was more mainstream, didn't get them, preferring the Beatles+ Stones .As I've become older+my musical tastes have matured how keyed in he truly was.A truly great band. And for me personally, Waterloo Sunset has to be up there as the finest Pop song of the 60s.Absolutely brilliant.I find myself returning to it again and again.
I am in my 30s and Czech, and I haven't heard of this song before Spotify threw it into my automatic playlist, and haven't heard of the Kinks before Spotify threw in Lola. It was such a great discovery, but even though my father was somewhat obsessed with Beatles in the past, so you would think I could share this with at least him, I don't feel I can. So I confess here, I really love this song.
71 here. Born in North London but emigrated to Los Angeles at 5 years of age. Loved the Kinks for 35 years now.
Genuinely one of the greatest songs of the 60's. It's up there with anything the Beatles did
Its better than anything the Beatles did
@@williamberry2351 Are you serious???
It's a great song, very Beatles like
@@simonsherratt1484 i don’t hear the beatles comparison
Why compare? Both bands made wonderful music.
Huge fan , I adore where this song takes me
This surely is one of the milestones in pop history. The genius of Ray Davies will stay with us forever.
Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night?
People so busy, make me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don't need no friends
As long as I gaze on
Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day, I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine)
Terry meets Julie
Waterloo station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don't want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I don't feel afraid
As long as I gaze on
Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day, I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine)
Millions of people swarming like flies 'round
Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And they don't need no friends
As long as they gaze on
Waterloo Sunset
They are in paradise
Waterloo sunset's fine (Waterloo sunset's fine)
Waterloo sunset's fine
I agree with you so much .Not enough air play was given to all their wonderful songs that depicted their surrondings . The kinks also stayed true to their roots . Peggy Wood (Aotearoa)
Awesome music, i was fortunate that my partner played some classics for me to appreciate and this was one of the songs he played
Such happy memories. Shit! Little did I know what 60 odd years would bring about. This has been long planned. Well. I had a good life. I’ll try to enjoy what’s left. Love to all you people who grasp reality. May your god be to you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
This song reminds me of the 70s, and getting a train from Dartford to Waterloo east, to go skateboard ing at the southbank. All day until the sun set on waterloo. Good times.
Great Music. Classic
Wow 🇬🇧 there's only 1 Thames 👍💕
It is a gem indeed.
I just visited London and went to Waterloo Station because of this song. It's a major Tube hub and it made me feel even more connected to this masterpiece.