Raymond Douglas Davies (born June 21, 1944 in Muswell Hill, London) is a British rock musician, best known as lead singer and main songwriter for The Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave. He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theater and television.
Ray Davies' compositions over his forty year career have been an astonishing study in contrasts, from the influential proto-heavy metal powerchord rock and roll of the early Kinks hits in 1964-1966 (most prominently " You Really Got Me") followed only a few years later by more sensitive, compassionate songs (" Waterloo Sunset", "Shangri-La", "Big Sky"), and still later by anthems (" Lola"), true musical theater (the Preservation albums), and commercial rock which combines elements of all of these ("Come Dancing").
Davies' songwriting has often been acclaimed as more mature, sophisticated, and subtle than that of many of his peers among American and British rock musicians and has been called the "greatest humanist in rock". While his lyrics were often deceptively simple, focused on time-honored rock themes such as love, sexual attraction and partying, they often contained elements of satire, examples including "A Well-Respected Man" (which ridiculed conservative suburban values), and "Dandy" (which mocked the superficiality of the Mod lifestyle.) In addition, his later work showed signs of social conscience, examples being "God's Children" and songs on the album Muswell Hillbillies, which denounced commercialism in favor of living simply, and "Dead End Street", which portrayed the stagnant British economy of the late 1960's. Davies' songs on the 1968 Kinks album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society embraced nostalgia and preservation as themes long before they became fashionable. Many of his best songs focus on the small-scale, poigniant dramas of everyday people (" Waterloo Sunset", "Two Sisters", "Till Death Do Us Part"), commonly told as wistful mini-stories. His work has an idiosyncratic quality that has appealed greatly to the Kinks' large cult following over the years. Throughout his career, he has also been considered the most singularly "British" of all major songwriters of his generation.