Ray Davies and Carl Wilson

[Sandy Baby]

Yes, "Schoolboys in Disgrace" --  "No More Looking Back":   http://youtu.be/5oteuNaL-4Q
And "Sleepwalker" --  "Life Goes On":   http://youtu.be/z7eg30GvV9E
"State of Confusion" -- "Heart of Gold":   http://youtu.be/wSyDnXTONC4
"Word of Mouth" -- "Living On a Thin Line":   http://youtu.be/Uorxycx4UD0
"Think Visual" -- "Lost and Found":   http://youtu.be/kB9WgnETXyo

Really, just pick up whatever you can!   

[Lonely Summer]

Yes, "Schoolboys in Disgrace" --  "No More Looking Back":   http://youtu.be/5oteuNaL-4Q
And "Sleepwalker" --  "Life Goes On":   http://youtu.be/z7eg30GvV9E
"State of Confusion" -- "Heart of Gold":   http://youtu.be/wSyDnXTONC4
"Word of Mouth" -- "Living On a Thin Line":   http://youtu.be/Uorxycx4UD0
"Think Visual" -- "Lost and Found":   http://youtu.be/kB9WgnETXyo

Really, just pick up whatever you can!   

Many songwriters would kill for a song as good as "Lost and Found", and yet this is thought to be one of Ray's lesser works!  Really, I love everything those guys did, right up to the end.

[SenorPotatoHead]

How's Waterloo Sunset as a collection?  Anyone heard it?  The track listing looks pretty good.  The album cover is similar to A Hard Days Night.

*and just because it's there, this has always struck me as Kinks-like: https://youtu.be/kb5rwG9e838?list=PLpIgVl7bfQHlgymAwfZ0vrKkMdOjPPG1W

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Although, I haven't dug deep into the Kinks, I really like the stuff I've heard. The early stuff has a raw punk sound, then Water Loo Sunset and Sunny Afternoon are great, and Layla is interesting. The song posted above 'Australia' makes me want to dig deeper. Also seems very unBeach Boys to be rude to another band like that. Good to see that Ray got to hang with Carl. Though, not at Carl's best period, maybe not Ray's either?

By the way, are the Davies brothers twins? I saw a documentary a while back and have a hard time telling them apart. But I think Ray does the solo acts and is a bit more a serious personality and Dave is quirkier. Does that sound right?

[Mike's Beard]

Ray is 4 years older than Dave, as a result Dave has had to endure 'baby brother syndrome' all his life. Believe it or not, The Kinks were way more dysfunctional then The Beach Boys.

[AndrewHickey]

Although, I haven't dug deep into the Kinks, I really like the stuff I've heard. The early stuff has a raw punk sound, then Water Loo Sunset and Sunny Afternoon are great, and Layla is interesting. The song posted above 'Australia' makes me want to dig deeper. Also seems very unBeach Boys to be rude to another band like that. Good to see that Ray got to hang with Carl. Though, not at Carl's best period, maybe not Ray's either?

By the way, are the Davies brothers twins? I saw a documentary a while back and have a hard time telling them apart. But I think Ray does the solo acts and is a bit more a serious personality and Dave is quirkier. Does that sound right?

Ray Davies at his best was as great a songwriter as Brian at his best, and the run of albums from 1966 through 1969 (Face To Face, Something Else By The Kinks, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall of the British Empire) is as good as any four-album run out there.

The Davies brothers did look very similar in their youth, but they weren't twins -- Dave was the younger brother (they had six elder sisters, too). They've both toured and recorded solo for the past twenty or so years, but Dave's illness (he had a stroke and had to relearn the guitar) means that Ray has done far more. People above compared Dave to Dennis Wilson, and that's very true -- he's a rawer talent than Ray, more violent, slept around more, was the sex symbol of the group, had a rougher voice, and blossomed as a songwriter later.

(Another Beach Boys parallel -- Ray's wife Rasa, like Marilyn, often added backing vocals on their records).

As for multi-disc collections, which someone asked about earlier, there are three options depending on what you want. The two-CD "Ultimate Collection" mentioned earlier is pretty decent if you just want the hits and important tracks.

The Anthology 1964-1971, a five-CD-plus-vinyl-single box released last year and compiled by Andrew Sandoval, contains *almost* everything you could ever reasonably want from them. I say *almost* because it covers the period from the first single up to their departure from Pye, when they stopped having hits and had already released their last great album. But Muswell Hillbillies, the first album after that period, was still very good -- not great, but definitely worth a listen -- and there were a handful of good tracks scattered through the next few albums. Imagine a Beach Boys box set covering Surfin' Safari through Surf's Up and you'll have the idea. It has a lot of rarities, and has the very best sound quality of any Kinks release.

Picture Book is a 6-CD box from about ten years ago. That covers the band's whole career, which means it doesn't cover the 60s material in as much depth as The Anthology, but it does have the few essential tracks that The Anthology doesn't. But on the other hand the last couple of discs of it are the rather dull stadium rock that the band spent much of the last fifteen to twenty years of their career doing.

[RangeRoverA1]

Also seems very unBeach Boys to be rude to another band like that.

That's how Ray/Dave read it. Thing is, the Boys could be in a rush, nervous & stressing over their performance. I don't believe one bit any of them were rude.

[Lonely Summer]

Dave Davies has actually been much more prolific than his older brother since they split up in the mid 90's. Ray has released 2 studio albums, Other Peoples Lives and Working Man's Café. He also has a hit musical about the band called Sunny Afternoon and has written a couple of books. Dave also wrote a book, and has released several studio albums - Bug, Fractured Mindz, I Will Be Me, and Ripping Up Time. He's also done a couple cd's of experimental music with one his sons, released a documentary dvd about his spiritual and paranormal experiences, and has a couple discs of demos for sale on his website.

[Mike's Beard]

Also seems very unBeach Boys to be rude to another band like that.

That's how Ray/Dave read it. Thing is, the Boys could be in a rush, nervous & stressing over their performance. I don't believe one bit any of them were rude.

It was mentioned in Ray's book X-Ray. I have not read it in many years but from what I remember Ray caught Mike staring rather intensely at him, he then came over and kind of made a brief hello gesture at Ray before walking off.

[RangeRoverA1]

It was mentioned in Ray's book X-Ray. I have not read it in many years but from what I remember Ray caught Mike staring rather intensely at him, he then came over and kind of made a brief hello gesture at Ray before walking off.

Well, he might be a little arrogant but I wouldn't classify it as "rude".