''X-Ray'' (1994) was Ray Davies' first major attempt to write prose outside his musical career as founding member of the

British rock British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by the Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the develop ...

band the Kinks. Robert Polito calls it an "experimental non-fiction" and describes Davies as "a

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

stylist of

Nabokovian Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born ...

ambition."

X-Ray

The book, subtitled as an "unauthorized autobiography," employs a nameless 19-year-old

first-person narrator A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...

hired by 'the Corporation' to seek out and interview a slightly demented geriatric version of Davies himself ten to twenty years after the time of the novel's publication. Thus, while technically an autobiography, the work has an

unreliable narrator An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unrel ...

. In many ways a work of fiction, it reveals many factual details concerning the Kinks and other important figures of the

swinging sixties The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, mus ...

, but tends to do so in a literary fashion. By employing this narrative device, Davies was able to shed some light on the life of the Kinks without resorting to the usual pedestrian 'he said/she said' mechanics often associated with memoirs of celebrities.

Basic storyline

The young narrator interviews the demented Davies, with the bulk of the story focusing on Davies' early apparent success juxtaposed against his feelings of failure and isolation as he finds himself married worrying about how he's going to make ends meet while the band's management and record company hoarded all of the profits from the Kinks' early successes. He also juxtaposes his life as a young married rock musician against that of his brother Dave Davies who was living the wild life of a hipster during that period. In addition to themes of isolation and spiritual longing, the book gives a great deal of insight into the Kinks' disintegrating relationship with Pye Records which ended around 1971 and resulted in the album: '' Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround'' (which is quite critical of Pye and mirrors many of the themes found in the book). The text also addresses, but ultimately does not really explain, the notorious episode in which the Kinks were banned from performing music in the United States for a period of approximately four years after a 1965 tour. Within the book the reader "experiences" the viewpoint of the young narrator who at times merges with the character of Ray Davies. One receives insights into Davies' impressions of other famous musicians of the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

, in particular, is portrayed as a bit of a bully. The story narrated in the text ends in 1973 on the eve of the recording of ''

Preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

'',Polito 2004, p. 127 so readers interested in such things as Davies' relationship with

Chrissie Hynde Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician. She is a founding member and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Pretenders, and one of the band's two remaining original members alon ...

or his current career as a solo singer-songwriter will have to look elsewhere.

Notes

References

* Anderson, Jason Book Review: X-Ray, ''Eye Weekly Magazine'', 7 December 1995 * * Mandl, David, "Review of ''X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Ray Davies''", originally in ''Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed'', date not specified, online on Mandl's own site on WFMU-FM. * Polito, Robert, "Bits of Me Scattered Everywhere: Ray Davies and the Kinks", p. 119–144 in

Eric Weisbard Eric Weisbard is an American music critic known for founding the Pop Conference, which is hosted annually by the Museum of Pop Culture (formerly known as the EMP Museum). He also organized the conference for many years. Career Weisbard serves a ...

, ed., ''This is Pop'', Harvard University Press, 2004. (cloth), (paper). {{The Kinks The Kinks Music autobiographies 1994 non-fiction books Viking Press books The Overlook Press books