{"id":1394,"date":"2008-05-01T00:38:58","date_gmt":"2008-05-01T04:38:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-06-25T20:58:02","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T00:58:02","slug":"interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/","title":{"rendered":"<font color=\"orange\">Interview:<\/font> Tom Kitts, <em>Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/notlikeeverybodyelse2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" \/><\/div>\n<p><em>I first met <strong>Tom Kitts<\/strong> at a meeting of the Popular Culture Association.  Tom and the late, great <strong>Mike Kraus<\/strong> used to host sessions where people presented papers on <strong>The Kinks<\/strong>, and I attended five of these sessions over the years, presenting and also listening to papers by Tom, Mike, and a rotating group of Kinks scholars.   It\u2019s more fun than it sounds like, and it\u2019s always great to be around other music fanatics.<\/p>\n<p>Tom has now published his magnum opus, a critical biography, <strong>Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else<\/strong> (Routledge, 2008).  Tom is a professor of English at St. John\u2019s University in New York City, and he took time out of his busy schedule for an interview about the book and more generally Ray Davies and the Kinks. If interested, click on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ray-Davies-Like-Everybody-Else\/dp\/041597769X\/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1209398713&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">this Amazon link<\/a> to get your copy of the book.  I\u2019m sure any Kinks fan will find it a great read.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In general how has the feedback on the book been?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While formal reviews are just now starting to appear, the feedback has been very positive.  Kinks fans seem to appreciate the focus on Davies&#8217; work &#8212; even if they don&#8217;t always agree with me.  I have done a series of readings and discussions and I have to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised by the positive response I have heard not only at the readings but also in emails from readers across the country and in Europe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Any reaction from anyone connected with Ray or the Kinks?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I did hear from <strong>Grenville Collins<\/strong> and <strong>Peter Quaife<\/strong>, who both liked it very much.  Both liked the emphasis on the art, which both were a part of and which both are very proud of.  I spoke to Ray briefly after his recent show in New York and he seems pleased by the publication.  We joked about how long it took for me to get it out.  He has a copy, but he said that he hadn&#8217;t had a chance to read it yet.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EUSvjMm9-JA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Although I don\u2019t think to book would be a difficult read for any reasonably educated Kinks fan, this is an academic book \u2013 20 pages of footnotes, 8-page bibliography, full index.  Was that your conception of the book all along? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes and no.  I wanted to write a book that would focus on the art of Ray Davies, with and apart from the Kinks.  While Ray has been called a genius for some forty years now, no one has attempted to conceptualize and analyze his total artistic output, which is staggering in its inventiveness and meaningfulness.  So I primarily wanted to do that.  I also wanted to give credit to those critics who inspired my own thoughts and theories and I wanted to let readers know where I got certain information and quotations from, so if they wanted to read further they could check out those sources &#8212; hence notes and bibliography.  However, I did disagree with my editor on format.  I did not want to use the raised number.  I thought that format would be too intrusive on the text.  I simply wanted to list sources under the relevant pages in the back of the book.  The editor won, which is fine.<\/p>\n<p><em>And how did you hook up with the publisher, Routledge?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My friend, <strong>Michael Lydon<\/strong> (a founding editor at <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> and author of several books on music), put me in touch with his editor at Routledge, who published his biography on <strong>Ray Charles<\/strong>.  The editor liked my proposal and I signed.  I am very pleased that Routledge published <em>Not Like Everybody Else<\/em>.  Not only are they prestigious, but they have been supportive and great to work with.<\/p>\n<p><em>The book is basically a biography, but you leave yourself a lot of space for examining the man\u2019s work too.  You ended up using the life to illuminate the work and also using the music as a way to understand Davies\u2019 life.  Was that a difficult balancing act?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You summarize very well what I wanted to do with the book.  I don&#8217;t know if I can say that it was a &#8220;difficult balancing act.&#8221;  What I did find difficult was keeping the book at 125,000 words or some 300 pages.  There are so many more songs that I could have discussed in more detail had I the space.  But this is the right length.  If it were too much longer, no one would want to read it.<\/p>\n<p><em>You go into a great deal of detail about Davies\u2019 youth in the first part of the book.  I think many Kinks fans are aware that Ray is a football fan, and they might even know that his favorite team is <strong>Arsenal<\/strong>, but not many people know that he was quite a good footballer himself, before injuries put an end to any idea of a career in the sport.  What connection, if any, do you see between rock music and sports?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a great question.  I think that depends a lot on the performer.  I think in many ways sports gave performers like Ray Davies a strategy or an approach to performing and creating.  What I mean is that not only did sports enhance Ray&#8217;s competitive fires and increase his confidence &#8212; sports showed him that he could succeed under difficult circumstances &#8212; but sports also gave Ray a way to focus on and attack a problem, whether it be to write a needed hit, get a record out, or conquer a less than enthusiastic audience.  Rock music is very competitive and at the very least a great rock performer, when working at his\/her best, requires the physical stamina and mental focus of a great athlete as well as the competitive heat &#8212; even if the artist is only competing with his past work.<\/p>\n<p><em>Music and sports are both performances too.  Being fiercely competitive might be an asset in building a career in the entertainment business, but it might be a negative influence in the area of band dynamics, especially if your little brother is in the band.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re absolutely right.  In fact, band conflicts are often driven by the competitiveness of the performers.  Just think of <strong>The Beatles<\/strong>, <strong>The Who<\/strong>, and many more.  Often the lead guitarist and the singer compete against one another &#8212; which just adds to the sibling rivalry of Ray and Dave.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Vj7BHwWLxQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>You mention that, during a period when drummer <strong>Mick Avory<\/strong> was on the outs with the band, demos were recorded with <strong>Mitch Mitchell<\/strong>.  Have you heard these demos? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>No, I haven&#8217;t.  I wonder if they still exist.  If I they do, I would love to hear them.  I have a feeling that Mitchell&#8217;s drumming might be very tame to what we heard when he played with Hendrix.  On the Hendrix records, he&#8217;s such a busy drummer, unlike Avory.  I think if he had ever joined the Kinks Ray might not have appreciated the drummer that Mitchell evolved into. <\/p>\n<p><em>The onstage fight between Dave and Mick in 1965 is legendary, and it\u2019s fully described in the book.  There seems to be some basic incompatibility between the two of them, despite the fact that they spent many years in the same band.  Dave\u2019s refusal to play with Mick was both the cause of <strong>Bob Henrit<\/strong> joining the Kinks in the late &#8217;80s, and it\u2019s also one of the bones of contention that thwarted recent attempts at reuniting the original four Kinks.  What\u2019s the problem there?  Is it personal or musical?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to say how much of the Dave-Avory dispute is musical or personal.  It&#8217;s some strange combination.  Dave prefers the bigger, hard-rocking drum sound of Henrit, the kind that plays better in arenas.  Avory was always more subtle.  But Dave always thought of Avory as Ray&#8217;s guy, Ray&#8217;s ally.  In band disputes, it seemed to Dave, Avory would just tacitly go along with Ray.  That irritated Dave to no end. <\/p>\n<p><em>In the 4th chapter you give some background on the <strong>legendary union problems<\/strong> that caused the Kinks to be banished from the US for several years in the late &#8217;60s.  It\u2019s not greatly detailed, but it\u2019s certainly more information than I\u2019ve ever read before about the matter.  Do you think you got to the bottom of the matter?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t know if we can ever get to the bottom of that issue.  The truth is that the Kinks caused a number of problems with promoters and producers on that tour.  There were several complaints against them.  In the letter rejecting their request for work visas, no specific details were given.  I do think that the union wanted to make an example of the Kinks.  The Beatles were too big and the Stones too cooperative.  The union didn&#8217;t like these English bands coming over to America and taking work away from their membership, especially if these visitors weren&#8217;t going to behave.  The English musicians union did something similar in the 1930s when they banned American jazz musicians from playing in England.  That ban was in effect until 1957.  The unions saw the bans as a way to protect their membership.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i0WPC-N3UYE?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>It is often said that the lack of access to American performing cost the Kinks career momentum, thus keeping them from achieving the success they deserved.  I wonder if it didn\u2019t turn out to be a blessing in disguise.  On the one hand, as you explain, it pushed Ray and the band to explore the Englishness beloved by fans of the period between &#8220;Sunny Afternoon&#8221; and <strong>Arthur<\/strong>, but it also may have kept them from burning out too soon, as other promising UK groups like <strong>The Hollies<\/strong> and <strong>The Zombies<\/strong> did.  Touring the U.S. was tough in those days.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I agree with you &#8212; at least, mostly.  Without question, being banned from the US encouraged Ray&#8217;s retreat into his Englishness.  While he always had &#8212; and still does have &#8212; a fascination with America, he was bitter about the ban. He turned away from America and, to an extent, his American influences.  He began to think about his self and his musical roots in a different way, turning more to English folk traditions and the music hall.<\/p>\n<p>However, I don&#8217;t think Ray would have allowed the Kinks to burn out, even though touring America in those days was especially tough.  Ray&#8217;s competitive impulse and his resourceful imagination would not have burned out from the demands.<\/p>\n<p><em>In the chapter on the Waterloo Sunset, you propose a thesis that Davies is an exponent\/descendant of English literary Romanticism.  What led you to this line of inquiry, besides your background as a professor of English, which I assume would make you more sensitive to these influences?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to say what lead me there.  It seems that I have always thought of Davies as a Romantic &#8212; whether I knew the definition of Romanticism or not when I first started listening to him.  He has always defended the underdog; his work largely focuses on himself; he strives to break artistic boundaries, and while he can be overwhelmed by the world&#8217;s madness, he ultimately has great hope and faith in the individual.  Of course, as an English professor I&#8217;m probably a lot more sensitive to this side of Ray than most listeners.  But, remember too, rock and roll is largely a Romantic form.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kEL_YfIYAdw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>You append lists of your \u201cfavorite\u201d Kinks songs and albums.  By expressing it that way, are you avoiding passing judgment on which ones are the \u201cgreatest?\u201d  There\u2019s a difference, right?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m doing.  The problem is that the word best suggests objectiveness, which I&#8217;m not sure is always if ever true.  I wanted to make clear that this is a subjective list, a list of those songs and albums that have proven most meaningful to me through the years.  What was interesting in doing the list is that the first 10 songs came relatively easy.  The next 10 were difficult.  I had planned on only listing 20 songs but it was too difficult to keep at 20.  I found the list to be a fun way to contemplate the works and my relationship to them.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Preservation Act 2<\/strong> is number 4 on your list, and in your book you spend a lot of time on the concept album era.  I love Preservation 2 myself.  Do you think the albums of that era are underrated?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes and no.  I have always loved <em>Preservation Act 2<\/em>.  Not only are there some really good songs, some very overlooked songs, but there&#8217;s a rawness in the sound that mirrors the action and a nice dose of black humor throughout.  I think Preservation, both acts taken together, represent the high point of the Kinks foray into rock musicals.  While I liked the performance of it that the Kinks did, I realized just how well it works on stage when I saw it performed by the Boston Rock Opera about 10 years ago.  Without question, for me, Preservation is a major work of the Kinks, one too neglected.  I wish Ray would perform a few of the songs in his solo act.<\/p>\n<p>I like <em>Soap Opera<\/em> too, but not nearly as much, and I happen to think <em>Schoolboys in Disgrace<\/em> might be overrated.  It was the one rock musical that had a decent chart showing and some great moments (&#8220;Hard Way&#8221; and &#8220;No More Looking Back&#8221;), but I don&#8217;t find too many of the other tracks that inventive either in content or musically.<\/p>\n<p><em>I see you thank all of the other original Kinks in your acknowledgments except Ray.  I assume that you had no help from him but that you were not actively thwarted? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Exactly.  Obviously, I had wanted to interview Ray and he informally agreed, but we never actually sat down together. I don&#8217;t think he wanted to.  For one thing, he figured that I was already an admirer so that I would write a complimentary portrait of his work so why say anything to jeopardize my perspective.  And for another, the type of questions that I was going to ask him (and he saw a list) were more involved and more concerned with details about songwriting, production, and the songs themselves &#8212; the kinds of questions most artists are not comfortable with.  So I understand his reluctance for an interview.  With that said, he was supportive in a tacit way, once telling me after he saw my interview questions that I was on to something big. <\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Peter Quaife was extremely cooperative with all kinds of issues and Mick Avory gave me plenty of time.  Both were very open and, at times, very funny.  I spent a few hours with Dave after his solo performance at Marian College in Wisconsin in 1999.   We talked informally about a lot of things.  It was a thrill for me and <strong>Michael Kraus<\/strong> (my coeditor on <em>Living on a Thin Line: Crossing Aesthetic Borders with the Kinks<\/em>) to hang out with Dave.  We spent part of our time with him in a Chicago airport hoping that his plane would be delayed.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MzpShIhvrjU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Ray has a reputation as a very private man.  On the other hand, in recent years he seems to have spent a lot of time in autobiographical pursuits (in interviews, X-Ray, 20th Century Man\/Storytellers, etc.).  How do you explain the contradiction?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As I say in the book, the thing with Ray is that he conceals as he reveals.  In <em>X-Ray<\/em>, for instance, he uses three different voices which I find really effective but which has frustrated many readers who just wanted a straightforward statement of facts.  Additionally, he ends the book in the early 1970s with really no promise of a second volume.  Dave&#8217;s <em>Kink<\/em> is much more straightforward and typical of autobiographies.<\/p>\n<p>As I also say in the book, Ray&#8217;s favorite subject is himself.  He is forever searching and trying to figure out who he is.  I think that he both fascinates and confuses himself.  He also enjoys keeping his audience off balance, so he&#8217;ll only reveal so much.  The song &#8220;Imaginary Man&#8221; on the new album is key to this idea.  He tells the audience that he is imaginary since we project so much on to him, so much that isn&#8217;t really there.  But he also sings of self-confusion and being imaginary even to himself:  &#8220;I knew the face but could not tell \/ Why I couldn&#8217;t recognize myself.&#8221;  He did the song as part of his encore at a couple of recent shows and I found it very effective.<\/p>\n<p><em>Of course, most of the autobiography he\u2019s talking about is long ago, pre-1970.  He\u2019s not talking about divorces or other sensitive matters.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s true.  Ray will only discuss what he wants.<\/p>\n<p><em>Although you allude at various points in the book to songs on <strong>UK Jive<\/strong> and <strong>Phobia<\/strong>, when you get to the end of the book you hardly mention their release.  Were you just out of space, or do you think it\u2019s best that even Kinks fans just ignore those two?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First, I don&#8217;t think Kinks fans &#8212; by which I mean those of us who take the band&#8217;s work, all of the band&#8217;s work, very seriously &#8212; should ignore anything they&#8217;ve done.  One thing about Ray and the Kinks that I say repeatedly is that even when not at their best, they are at the very least interesting.  With that said, I don&#8217;t consider <em>UK Jive<\/em> one of their better efforts.  In fact, it might be my least favorite Kinks album.  On the other hand, I happen to like <em>Phobia<\/em>.  There are a number of really good songs, &#8220;Wall of Fire,&#8221; &#8220;Drift Away,&#8221; &#8220;Still Searching,&#8221; &#8220;Don&#8217;t Look Down,&#8221; and &#8220;Scattered,&#8221; among them.  The album suffers probably in the production and its length.  It&#8217;s too long. &#8230; Rather than say I ran out of space, I would say that I chose to use the space differently.  The contract stipulated a 125,000 word limit.  If I remember correctly I came within 20 words of that number. <\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5bi9ScRxqac?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p><em>The book stops before the release of <strong>Working Man\u2019s Caf\u00e9<\/strong>.  I think it\u2019s even better than Ray\u2019s first solo album, <strong>Other People\u2019s Lives<\/strong>.  What do you think?  Is he on a roll?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I think both albums are very good, but at this point I prefer <em>Other People&#8217;s Lives<\/em>.  I think it&#8217;s a more unified album.  But I have spent more time with that album, so that might account for my preference.  By the way, I think &#8220;Over My Head&#8221; is a great Davies song.  I like <em>Working Man\u2019s Caf\u00e9<\/em> and it continues to grow on me, so I could change my preference in time. In his recent tour I thought Ray performed some of the songs from WMC really well.  &#8220;Imaginary Man&#8221; was an especially moving consideration of the artist-fans relationship.  He performed most of the album but I was a little surprised that he omitted two really strong numbers, &#8220;You&#8217;re Asking Me&#8221; and &#8220;Morphine Song.&#8221;  I saw two of the performances, Philadelphia and New York, and I would say that these were two of his finest shows in recent years.  Very Kinks like.  There were plenty of &#8220;Wey-O&#8217;s,&#8221; paper plates, and even a spray of beer.  To answer your question very directly: I think Ray is definitely on a roll.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you think the on-again\/off-again Kinks reunion will ever happen?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know why, but I think it will eventually happen.  I&#8217;m not sure that it will be the original line-up, but it might.  Ray wants it to happen and I think Dave will come around, presuming he&#8217;s healthy enough.  Ray said that he wants the band to record new music and then tour.  I think the opposite might work better.  That is, a few gigs and then go into the studio.  They did that just prior to recording <em>Think Visual<\/em>.  They had a creative block and they were afraid that they were through.  They did a two-week tour of Spain and were re-energized.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/TomKitts.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" \/><\/div>\n<p><em>Are you ready now to move on to other areas of research, or do you still have more work to do on the Kinks?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure that there is much more I can say about the Kinks.  So I&#8217;ll reluctantly have to move on.  I&#8217;m working on an article now about the Romantic impulse in 1960s rock for a collection of essays.  I would also like to do something on the <strong>New York Dolls<\/strong> and <strong>David Johansen<\/strong>, but I&#8217;m not sure what form that would take.  Johansen has had a fascinating career.  I might also try another long focused study on another songwriter, someone like <strong>John Fogerty<\/strong> or <strong>Brian Wilson<\/strong>.  We&#8217;ll see what develops.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3d8moA2Iksg?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p><em>As usual we end our interview by throwing high and inside, firing snap judgments, unreasonable dilemmas, and idle speculations at our fellow music nerd designated hitter.  Here we present a special <strong>Kompletely Kinks<\/strong> version of <strong>Dugout Chatter<\/strong>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><ins><em><strong>NEXT: Tom Kitts Plays Dugout Chatter!<\/strong><\/em><\/ins><br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div><object type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/dugout400x400.swf\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/dugout400x400.swf\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>What\u2019s your least favorite Kinks song?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s see. &#8220;Aggravation,&#8221; &#8220;Repetition,&#8221; &#8220;Live Life,&#8221; &#8220;Jack the Idiot Dunce,&#8221; &#8220;Moving Pictures.&#8221;  I&#8217;ll go with &#8220;Aggravation&#8221; off UK Jive. <\/p>\n<p><em>Pete Quaife or John  Dalton?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like them both, but Quaife.<\/p>\n<p><em>Name a better songwriter than Ray Davies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Easy.  Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n<p><em>If you could sing one song live onstage with the Kinks, what would it be?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s hard.  I might change my mind in a second but &#8220;Victoria.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Mick Avory or Bob Henrit?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Either is fine, but Avory.<\/p>\n<p><em>What\u2019s the best Dave Davies guitar solo?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First thing that comes to mind is &#8220;Not Like Everybody Else&#8221; on <em>To the Bone<\/em> or &#8220;Celluloid Heroes&#8221; live.  I like &#8220;Hard Way,&#8221; &#8220;Victoria,&#8221; and I&#8217;m probably forgetting something obvious.<\/p>\n<p><em>You Really Got Me or All Day and All of the Night?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All Day and All of the Night.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Your favorite Kinks supplemental instrument \u2013 harpsichord, mellotron, trombone, synth, [other]?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Harpsichord or trombone.  I&#8217;ll go with trombone in a close call.<\/p>\n<p><em>Is the Kinks\u2019 body of work as great as the Beatles\u2019?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Who\u2019s?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Name a city in which you would be willing to pursue a mugger who stole your female companion\u2019s purse.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>New York, only because it&#8217;s my hometown and I would have a better sense of when to end the pursuit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Which of the original four Kinks (ok, let\u2019s throw in Dalton and Gosling too) would you rather have a one-on-one dinner with?  No research involved, just who do you think would make the most enjoyable dinner guest?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ray.<\/p>\n<p><em>If you owned the rights to the Banana Boat Song, would you refuse permission to Ray or the Kinks to perform snatches of it onstage?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No.  I would let them use the song for free.<\/p>\n<p><em>You get to play God and decide which of the following two scenarios takes place: a) The young Ray Davies stays in art school, subdues his demons, settles down with a nice south London girl, get s a job in advertising, achieves financial success but does work of no real distinction, and is currently happily retired, tending the garden despite his poor rheumatic back, doting on his adoring children and grandchildren.  b) The story you wrote, with all the family turmoil, bitter former band members, divorces and broken relationships, near death experiences, and general unhappiness, but also the body of work we know and love.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>B. I&#8217;m selfish.<\/p>\n<p><em>I knew you were going to say that.  Thanks, Tom, for playing our game.  You will receive the home version of Dugout Chatter.  And thanks for the interview.<\/em><\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/5\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">5<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/6\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">6<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/7\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">7<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first met Tom Kitts at a meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Tom and the late, great Mike Kraus used to host sessions where people presented papers on The Kinks, and I attended five of these sessions over the years, presenting and also listening to papers by Tom, Mike, and a rotating group of <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/interview-tom-kitts-ray-davies-not-like\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342,667],"tags":[167,67,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}