Ray Davies: America has finally accepted The Kinks

Ray Davies says he is delighted to be in the Songwriters' Hall of Fame as he tells the Hay Festival of his tempestuous times with The Kinks and how they were banned in America – and Wales

Ray Davies of The Kinks at the 2014 Hay Festival
Ray Davies of The Kinks at the 2014 Hay Festival Credit: Photo: Clara Molden

Ray Davies will be inducted in the American Songwriters' Hall of Fame on June 12 and the celebrated singer-songwriter told the Hay Festival audience that it was "a big deal because it means that America has finally accepted the Kinks".

For tortured contractual reasons and following a sequence of bust-ups, the Kinks were banned from performing in the United States for nearly five years before being allowed back into the country in 1969. "We were dangerous and America felt threatened," Davies said. "America felt safe until all the Brit bands like us and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones came along in the Sixties. But we helped change America, too. When we returned after the end of our ban the culture had been liberalised. Bands such as the Doors, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention had grabbed back their culture."

It took a lot of hard work by Ray Davies and his brother Dave to gain popularity, in arduous tours that Davies said were planned like a "military exercise". The motivation was "vengeance" he said, with a half-smile.

Davies is a droll and engaging anecdotalist. It's not only America that has banned the Kinks, incidentally. Asked about his memories of playing in Wales, Davies said he is still banned from Neath. "We had mistreated a dressing room and the promoter, who was wearing a bow tie, rushed out and shouted after me: 'You're finished in Neath, Davies!'"

The American ban turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise, Davies, who will be 70 next month, now believes, because it allowed him to focus on creating his own English songs of identity. In this golden period, classics such as Village Green Preservation Society, Waterloo Sunset, Days, Dead End Street, Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Sunny Afternoon were written.

The most intimate moments of his talk were his memories of that period of songwriting. As a teenager he had been an art student and he said that mixing Waterloo Sunset by hand "was the nearest I got to painting in my music life". The song was written for every young man and woman who falls in love, he explained. He also said that Sunny Afternoon, written for his father, was recorded when he had a cold. "It's a bit nasal sounding but I'm still waiting for the record company to ask me back to re-record it."

America has had a profound influence on his life and his new book, Americana: The Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff captures the excitement he felt as a teenager in Fifties Britain, when it was America's rock, jazz, blues, country, Cajun and Dixieland music that "liberated" him and "gave me an identity." He was especially fulsome about the influence of the great blues singer and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy.

He was asked whether the US influence had been the same for Keith Richards and quipped: "I can't speak for Keith Richards . . . somebody should."

America gave Davies so much, not least the cowboy films and their tales of "real heroes with guns" yet it was in that country, of course, that he suffered the trauma of being shot..

Davies was shot in 2004 in New Orleans when he attempted to confront a robber while living in the dangerous Tremé area. "I got angry and chased a robber. That worked against me," he said. Songwriters find inspiration in many places and the experience of facing America's health system prompted him to write compositions such as The Morphine Song about his time in hospital.

The-Kinks

The Kinks in 1966. Ray and Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Mick Avory. PHOTO: REX FEATURES

He still loves New Orleans but believes it is a city with "a different kind of darkness", adding that his near-fatal shooting had helped his journey of self-discovery and changed his view about living in England. "I'm no longer afraid when I walk in Finsbury Park," he added.

Davies was happy to talk about the tempestuous times of the Kinks and he repeated the tale of how the band got their name. Dressed in fancy dress stage gear (whips and clubs were involved), they caught the attention of a drunk on a pub bar-stool, who yelled out: "You look very kinky." The band name that resulted was always something of a curse, Davies said.

Fans in the audience asked whether there would be a reunion. "Ah, we were always tempestuous," he said, recalling the time that drummer Mick Avory "tried to kill my brother on stage in Cardiff". The altercation ended with Dave unconscious and hospital treatment for a wound requiring 16 stitches. Ray Davies said a reunion would require new music, adding with a wry smile: "In any case, my brother still has an issue with the drummer. If they resolve their issues, I might be there."

After the Kinks finally split up in 1984, Davies has had his own fascinating solo career. He's worked with Bruce Springsteen (he did a wonderfully affection impression of the Boss contributing his part of a call-and-response duet they recorded) and said at the age of 69 he has finally grown up enough to like William Shakespeare and Benjamin Britten. Exploring English folk music is his latest passion, he said. "We have a heritage of great folk and our language is being altered every year by bad TV."

There was one final and touching treat. Davies was handed an acoustic guitar and sang what he described as a work in progress. "Hey all, it's the final call, of the last-chance saloon," he sang. This is a man who deserves his place in the Hall of Fame.