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Waterloo Sunset: Stories
The creative force behind the '60s superband, The Kinks, offers his debut collection of short stories.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 4, 2018
A very entertaining read, but not as good as his memoir "Americana." On the other hand, these stories are inspired by his well-known songs, and the narratives serve as a mirror image to the music works. Still, I think of Ray Davies more of an observer, and I suspect that if he ever does a book of essays, it would be a knock-out. I feel 'fiction' restricts him, and his ability to observe the world around him.
January 28, 2016
Referred to on the flyleaf as "a concept album set on paper", that's a fair enough description of what follows as Kinks singer-songwriter Ray Davies revisits some of his songs in prose, creating some characters and vignettes behind the lyrics.
Considering the source, as you would expect the characters are primarily products of England's post-war class system and crumbling empire, dreaming of Bentleys and past glories, semi-detached houses and afternoon cups of tea.
A central character loosely pulls all the threads of the stories together, an aging rock star named Les Mulligan, looking for a comeback and a new record deal: "Huge in the sixties, wayward in the mid seventies, over to the states for a creative renaissance in the early eighties. Then, some time in 1984, everything had suddenly come to a halt."
Er, remind you of anyone Ray?
Les aside, however, like most concept albums only the core of an idea retains any consistency, with a few other stray links (an ex-girlfriend, a second-hand suit given away to a charity shop etc) woven in before some extra contrivances at the end.
That idea is the less than original one where a writer's creations take on a life of their own, such as in the story 'Return to Waterloo' where a commuter from Davies's most famous song sneers at his creator and lives a double life as a rapist:
"My will is stronger than his, my journey goes beyond his imagination. How surprised he would be if he had got the real story, followed me on my real journey..."
I wish Davies would have left that conceit in his notebook though as it's a nasty story, unsuccessfully blending some generic lyrics about social decay with some scenes of sex and violence on a train to Waterloo station.
However, in other stories Davies shows his talent as a natural story teller. Particularly impressive is 'Still Searching' in which a lecturer on dream therapy learns a life lesson amongst the misunderstandings and meanings lost in translation during a surreal trip to Tokyo. Very different in style from the rest of the pieces, this story contained some real mystery and emotion.
A screenplay born from one of Davies' best songs, 'Celluloid Heroes', is also very good. Elsewhere a couple of characters make more than one appearance such as Fox, an ex-con who has channelled his aggressive tendencies into painting scenes from Regent's Park and who acts as a linking character between the world of Les in America and the London stories.
It's no Village Green Preservation Society, but it's also no ... (fill in your own choice of terrible Kinks albums, it could be any of them from 1980 onwards if you are being polite, 1972 onwards if you want to be harsh) either.
I would say that it's Something Else by Ray Davies.
Erratic, yet mostly enjoyable.
Considering the source, as you would expect the characters are primarily products of England's post-war class system and crumbling empire, dreaming of Bentleys and past glories, semi-detached houses and afternoon cups of tea.
A central character loosely pulls all the threads of the stories together, an aging rock star named Les Mulligan, looking for a comeback and a new record deal: "Huge in the sixties, wayward in the mid seventies, over to the states for a creative renaissance in the early eighties. Then, some time in 1984, everything had suddenly come to a halt."
Er, remind you of anyone Ray?
Les aside, however, like most concept albums only the core of an idea retains any consistency, with a few other stray links (an ex-girlfriend, a second-hand suit given away to a charity shop etc) woven in before some extra contrivances at the end.
That idea is the less than original one where a writer's creations take on a life of their own, such as in the story 'Return to Waterloo' where a commuter from Davies's most famous song sneers at his creator and lives a double life as a rapist:
"My will is stronger than his, my journey goes beyond his imagination. How surprised he would be if he had got the real story, followed me on my real journey..."
I wish Davies would have left that conceit in his notebook though as it's a nasty story, unsuccessfully blending some generic lyrics about social decay with some scenes of sex and violence on a train to Waterloo station.
However, in other stories Davies shows his talent as a natural story teller. Particularly impressive is 'Still Searching' in which a lecturer on dream therapy learns a life lesson amongst the misunderstandings and meanings lost in translation during a surreal trip to Tokyo. Very different in style from the rest of the pieces, this story contained some real mystery and emotion.
A screenplay born from one of Davies' best songs, 'Celluloid Heroes', is also very good. Elsewhere a couple of characters make more than one appearance such as Fox, an ex-con who has channelled his aggressive tendencies into painting scenes from Regent's Park and who acts as a linking character between the world of Les in America and the London stories.
It's no Village Green Preservation Society, but it's also no ... (fill in your own choice of terrible Kinks albums, it could be any of them from 1980 onwards if you are being polite, 1972 onwards if you want to be harsh) either.
I would say that it's Something Else by Ray Davies.
Erratic, yet mostly enjoyable.
January 25, 2021
This collection of short stories written by the lead singer and songwriter of the Kinks, originally published in 1997, are often informed by the band’s songs while expanding upon their initial narrative to create whole new depth within these stories. Drawing on the same influences as the songs featured in many of these stories, such as nostalgia for a post-war Britain or the music industry after the Kinks’ creative peak, Davies breathes new life into many of his classic songs by exploring the inherent drama within them and breathing new life in them by crafting spectacularly written narratives that add bold new perspectives and complex layers. Compellingly written, Davies traverses periods and genres within these stories that are often elegant and poignant. A wonderful collection of stories for those both familiar and unfamiliar with music of the Kinks.
April 29, 2009
Most of this book follows the story of a down and out rock star, Les Mulligan, but the story that I really liked the best was one of the one-off stories in the second section, "Celluloid Heroes", which followed two characters, Rosa Diablo (who is mentioned in the first section as a former girlfriend of Les's) and her boyfriend English in L.A. and is written as a script. The two characters are living out their own screenplay in L.A. and I liked the way it was written so that they were at times glamorized versions of themselves and at other times the "real" Rosa and English, it somehow delineated nicely the reality of their lives and their Hollywood dreams.
November 2, 2012
The best book that I have ever read! Loved loved loved it and just had to re read so many of the short stories before I could finally put it down and 'finish'
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews