Talk:Ray Davies/Archive 1

Film appearances
Ray Davies played the lead role in a BBC "Play for Today" film called "The Long Distance Piano Player" in October 1970.

Irish descent?
Is Ray Davies really of significantly Irish descent? In X-Ray (his autobiography) he describes himself as having Welsh ancestry, which given his surname, is quite possible. He also says he is generally of 'mongrel' British extraction. To my knowledge he isn't Roman Catholic (though I'm not saying that always equates to being of Irish descent), so I was wondering where the Irish origin link came from? Is it from something his brother Dave said?

I've never heard Ray claim to be of Irish extraction, though he did marry an Irish ballet dancer at one point and lived in Ireland. I was thinking maybe his mother was of Irish descent and his father was of Welsh origin? That would explain why he doesn't have an Irish surname.Pandatronic


 * "Davies" is a common Welsh surname; it means "of Saint David", the patron saint of Wales. As for his religious upbringing, when I saw Ray perform his "Storyteller" show in 1997, he mentioned that he had attended an Anglican church as a boy.  I often wondered if he and his brother are related to Ivor Novello, whose birth name was in fact David Ivor Davies.  Perhaps Ray's younger brother, Dave Davies, was named for Novello.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.79.75.159 (talk) 03:59, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

For what it's worth, he claims in the song "Holiday in Waikiki" that his mother was Italian and his father is Greek...obviously that's of questionable credibility as a source, though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.17.59.125 (talk) 16:37, 23 April 2011 (UTC) lol, that is the girl in the song, not Davies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.138.214.106 (talk) 16:39, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Pronunciation?
Is it relevant to mention that his last name is pronounced "DAVIS"? Most people seem to get this wrong and I've always thought it was an interesting factoid, but maybe only because I'm american and it isn't otherwise obvious to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.162.5.11 (talk • contribs)

It is actually pronounced 'DaviEs'. But most people pronounce it 'Davis'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.137.51.165 (talk • contribs)

Sorry, listen to the man himself on the topic at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5319646 (John User:Jwy talk) 14:35, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

It seems Dave Davies pronounces it DaviEs however. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.124.236.243 (talk • contribs)


 * Ah, finally the root cause of their legendary fighting :) (John User:Jwy talk) 15:59, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Could really use work
If someone is looking for a project (I'm not right now, or at least not this one) you might take on major work here. At the moment, it is a lightweight trivia-filled article on someone who ought to be viewed reasonably seriously as a creative figure. I particularly recommend the Robert Polito paper I've added to the references; see, for example, our article on X-Ray, where I cited the Polito paper repeatedly. - Jmabel | Talk 06:45, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Photo
I didn't own a photo of Ray Davies, but what about this? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ray_Davies.JPG

Info Box - Associated Acts
Laura Warwick????? TheOneOnTheLeft (talk) 12:09, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

David Watts
I read in some sleeve notes that David Watts lampooned a music promoter The Kinks hated - so the interpretation in the article seems fanciful (unless they just borrowed the name David Watts for it rather than intending the song to refer to him). Ben Finn (talk) 18:35, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Sources don't belong in the External links section- they belong here
Unused sources for the article don't belong in External links. I have transferred them from the link farm there to this talk page, where they do belong. Careful, as I didn't have the time to see if all are appropriate for the article. Please place unused references here from now on. Thank you. --Leahtwosaints (talk) 11:48, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * See External links & Spam for details. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 16:25, 18 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Ray Davies at Facebook
 * Waterloo Sunset's Fine For Ray Davies, blog post about a performance Davies had with the Crouch End Festival Chorus near Waterloo Bridge for the release of his album The Kinks Choral Collection (includes pictures)