Ray Davies, the leader of The Kinks, will be turning 82 this Sunday, so I’m going to play a whole bunch of Kinks songs plus a few from Ray’s solo career this weekend on Fine Tuning. You’ll hear some hits (“Sunny Afternoon,” “A Well Respected Man,” “Waterloo Sunset”), but for this birthday tribute to Ray I’ll dig deeper than usual into the Kinks catalogue. On tap will be Ray’s rare demo of “I Go to Sleep” (later made famous by the Pretenders), the scathing “Mr. Reporter” (recorded in 1966, but not released until decades later), the gorgeous “The Way Love Used to Be” (from a Kinks album never released in the USA) and much more. I revere Ray Davies’ songwriting and can’t wait to pay tribute to him on his 82nd birthday! Below is a pic of the Michigan Theater’s marquee that I shot on the way to see him perform on March 11, 2010, his most recent local appearance. Fine Tuning: Sundays from 4 to 6 p.m. on ann arbor’s 107one.
