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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not your usual biography, January 11, 2007
X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Ray Davies is exactly what you would expect from the leader of the 60s band The Kinks. One only has to listen to a few of the songs he has authored - "Dandy," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," "Muswell Hillbillies" to name three - to know that Ray Davies wears his heart on his sleeve. Whether expressing jealousy at those more attractive than he (the first two listed songs - probably about brother David) or fear and scorn at those "nameless men in gray" (the third song about government-managed social experimentation), Davies has already been ready to address issues that are not often addressed in rock `n' roll, and to do so in the most convoluted manner possible.
In writing his autobiography through roughly the end of the 70s, Davies could have simply told the story. But, you have to know that this is way too easy and conventional. Instead, X-Ray is a story within a story. An unnamed minor clerk in a more-or-less unnamed department of the British government that maintains records about entertainment and entertainers is charged with "updating the file" on a certain Raymond Douglas Davies. In his effort to fulfill this objective, he meets with a reclusive, eccentric, almost Faginesque character who weaves a rambling story about himself, the band and the English music scene in general. Amidst the mass of narrative, the story of The Kinks unfolds with some remarkable clarity and candor about the band and its interaction with its management and record companies.
It is in these stretches of story-telling that the book nears conventionality. We learn of the early management team, Robert, Grenville and Larry, who got the band the contracts that made them successes but also virtually robbed them of the ownership of intellectual property; David was 16 when he signed. We learn of Ray's first wife: the result of "doing the right thing" upon learning of her pregnancy.
This conventional approach to autobiography is, however, pushed into the background by Davies' desire for political rhetoric. This is not the first time this has appeared in his work. One only has to think of the "Lola versus Powerman and the Money-go-round" for evidence of his distaste for the business side of things and his loathing thereof.
Like many Brits, Ray Davies has an internalized conflict between the desire for a quasi-socialist solution to major socio-economic issues and the distaste for the inevitable bureaucracy that must accompany it. This is the stage and background on which our hero - not Davies - is sent on a voyage of discovery through his relationship with Ray Davies. The end of the book is certainly not supposed to be the end of the story, although the last few pages see the apparent death of Davies and a notional redemption of the hero.
If you are interested in Ray Davies - not because of the Kinks, per se - because of a deep love and respect for who he is and his remarkable ability to be the most human of any major rock `n' roller and you have not read this book: DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! You won't be disappointed.
There has been talk for years that Ray Davies would return to this genre and bring it up to date. While possible, it becomes less likely as time passes. In fact, it would be my contention that the CDs "The Storyteller" and "Other Peoples' Lives" are the logical extensions of X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Add 2 stars if you're a Kinks fan, May 21, 1999
By A Customer
Kinks fans will love this. But I would have preferred to hear Ray's account of the Kinks' history without the Orwellian structure in which an older Ray recounts the tales to a younger Ray. Also, unlike Dave Davies's "Kink", this book stops short of telling the whole history . . . as though the Kinks ended sometime in the early 1970s. We never get to hear Ray's account of his relationship with Chrissie Hynde, his battles with Dave, and so much more. This book begs for a sequel which is more straightforward and tells the whole story rather than hiding behind a fictional framework.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved it, you may or may not., December 28, 2007
That was hands down the best autobiography I've read. So, what can I say about the book, well, going in I thought it would be fun and weird thanks to the off-beat style that it was chosen to be written in, then I realized pretty quickly, and was completely reaffirmed by the end, that the weird Citizen Kane meets 1984 3rd person thing was actually a fabulously well realized writing tool that enabled Mr. Davies to actually succeed at what all autobiographies attempt, but ultimately fail at. The way I figure it an autobiography, when done for the right reasons, is generally a way for someone to bare their soul and at the same time set the record straight about any misconceptions that the public may have had about them. For someone who wears their heart on their sleeve as much as Ray does, he doesn't seem to care too much about the latter, but instead has opted for a literary trick that allows him to express his introspection and the parts of his past and thoughts that wouldn't normally be able to be expressed fully outside of one's own mind and abandons the more straight memoirs approach that most autobiographers take. He goes as far as to keep the reader guessing at whether or not he's even telling the truth in his own autobiography. The interviewer calls him a liar in dialog and Ray gives alternate accounts of some situations and repeatedly reminds us that it's all about perception. I've gotten ahead of myself though. the basic premise of the book is that a giant media conglomerate known only as 'The Corporation' has pretty much taken over everything in the not so distant future. The government basically tries to keep the masses sedated and content, but they don't get too into this aside from Ray pointing out how things had been going toward this final destination since the sixties and that the whole rebellion thing of the time was an allowable annoyance; as while the kids preached free love and peace, the governments waged wars and carried on the same old crap they always had. Anyway, the Corporation sends one of their orphans who's been raised as a child of the Corporation to interview Davies in order to give them a full report on the Kinks lead singer, apparently with less than benevolent intentions. This 1984 backdrop is then thrown into a kind of Citizen Kane thing, accept the only interviewee is Ray Davies, rather than as in Citizen Kane, his acquaintances. Then again, Davies changes his persona repeatedly with the subject matter, even talking through a diary of his ex-wife's for awhile which then somehow becomes his own. The octogenarian Davies of the fiction world is written as an old somewhat unlikeable codger who's purposefully unrealistic at times, oddly magical, and an admitted liar. Not until the end of the novel/autobiography does he seem completely real and finally blend with his non-fiction counterpart. The most interesting moments occur when R.D. (as he likes to call him self in the fiction world) interacts in a personal manner with the interviewer; and the most insightful moments occur not when Ray retells interesting tidbits about the history of the Kinks, but when the interviewer learns about his own life, what to do with it, and his place in the world through Ray Davies. These moments offer a direct window into Ray Davies' thoughts, emotions, and motives. Basically, Ray is a naturally paranoid person and with that, as with all cases of paranoia, comes a hint of 'delusion of grandeur', but this is primarily a side effect to and completely inseperable from the paranoia. I'm not completely sure if Ray is incredibly sensitive, yet open, or just completely self-aware and obviously someone who's done a LOT of introspection. A few things are for sure, he's very insecure, very intelligent, and very capable of examining himself, but sometimes has trouble identifying with others, even though through his songs people seem to be able to identify with him quite well. Pretty much, without music he would probably have a great deal of difficulty really connecting with people (that's my own impression, not something the book really dwells on very much). The only thing I can really say against this book is that it is ultimately an autobiography, which is not my favorite genre, and in all honesty, some of the bits where the book is pretty much straight autobiography are a bit trying. It's good at these parts, but I find myself wanting him to intersperse more of the fiction, since in the beginning and ending of the book, this back and forth thing makes the whole story more interesting as you get a taste of the autobiography and then a fictitious part that helps explain the emotion, psyche, personal short-comings, etc. of the author. The other down note is that it only goes through to the Village Green Preservation Society album in great detail. After that the subsequent albums become more of a backdrop and nothing is mentioned after Preservation Act II. There is a good reason for this though, as by this point the whole revealing introspection and explaining the emotional and psychological journey of the Kinks front-man has been complete, so why spoil a perfectly good ending to the story by drudging up subsequent history? All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm not positive if others would enjoy it quite as much as I did.
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~ Ray Davies
by Thomas M. Kitts
~ The Kinks
