10 Well known Rockstars and their lesser known musical brothers

1. Pete and Simon Townshend
2. Mick and Chris Jagger
3. Paul and Mike McCartney
4. Eddie and Paul Simon
5. Carmine and Vinny Appice
6. Steve and Muff Winwood
7. Ray and Dave Davies
8. Roy and Grady Lee Orbison
9. Paul and Joe Rodgers
10. David and Mark Knopfler

(Also, Frank, Maarten and Thijs van Leer and Jan and Cocky Akkerman)

10 Musical Godparents

1. Godfather of soul James Brown
2. Godfather of punk Iggy Pop (also Joey Ramone, Lou Reed and Pete Townsend)
3. Godmother of rock and roll Sister Rosetta Tharpe
4. Godfather of grunge Neil Young
5. Godfathers of French house Daft Punk
6. Godfather of shock rock (and Glam rock?) Alice Cooper
7. Godfather of Britpop Ray Davies
8. Godfather of heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne
9. Godfather of rap Gil Scott-Heron
10. Godfather of folk Ewan McColl (also Pete Seeger)

Lookalikes

Another interest of mine. My wife said that Ray Davies looks a bit like the Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, with which I agree (though it is hard to show). The Internet I notice goes more for Pryce and the current Pope.

I gotta move

Careful readers of this blog will have noticed that a minor obsession we have is spotting the rich and famous out and about.

I try to walk over to Highgate twice a week these days and having never seen Victoria Wood about I had almost given up spotting anyone, when who should walk into the coffee shop but the legendary Ray Davies of the Kinks, who has lived in the general area all his life.

These days it's a joy just to see celebrities in their seventies still alive, of course. Then you have to decide what to do and say. I didn't think an autograph was appropriate. I didn't even think of a selfie. I said "huge fan" but even as I said it I thought to myself "depends what you mean" (I heard someone once say I think rightly that having several Bob Dylan records doesn't make you a big fan). I've only ever bought a greatest hits collection and we had All of the day and all of the night at home in single form. What I meant was that the Kinks of been part of my life all my life. I remember getting hold of an A4 ledger book as  kid and writing down all the bands I liked. The Kinks was high on that list, even though I would have known little about them.

I decided to add "Heard Victoria on the radio for some reason this morning". Again, I suppose with DAB and so many golden oldie stations that's no big deal. What I meant was that I'd heard them using a bit of it on Radio 2 for some advert or trailer. Anyway, he was very pleasant and wished me a nice day.

The encounter gave me a warm feeling for a while after.

Ray Davies on The Sixties

I watched an old documentary on Ray Davies of the Kinks last night. On the sixties he said, quite astutely I think,

"The sixties to me were kind of not as fun politically, sometimes style and fashion and pop culture camouflages what's really happening ... the music culture was great, the fashion was great .... it was a liberating time, there's no doubt, but, but I think it was a facade, a cover up for a lot of nasty things that were happening in the world ..."