“Waterloo Sunset”

THE KINKS

WRITTEN BY: RAY DAVIES

RECORDED: PYE RECORDS STUDIO,
LONDON, MARCH 1967

PRODUCED BY: SHEL TALMY AND
RAY DAVIES

RAY DAVIES: VOCALS, ACOUSTIC GUITAR

DAVE DAVIES: ELECTRIC GUITAR,
BACKING VOCALS

PETE QUAIFE: BASS, BACKING VOCALS

MICK AVORY: DRUMS

NICKY HOPKINS: PIANO, HARPSICHORD

RASA DAVIES: BACKING VOCALS

DAVID WHITAKER: STRINGS

FROM THE ALBUM: SOMETHING ELSE (1967)

One morning in February 1967, Ray Davies rolled out of bed and there was a song waiting for him. “‘Waterloo Sunset’ came to me in a dream,” Davies says. “I woke up and it was there.”

But the song that turned into one of the Kinks’ signature hits and an enduring anthem of London began as a love letter to a different city. “Originally, I wanted to call it ‘Liverpool Sunset,’” Davies reveals. “I loved Liverpool and Merseybeat. But you know what they always say as advice for writers—write what you know. I knew London better than I knew Liverpool, so I changed it. “Waterloo was a pivotal place in my life,” he continues. “I’d seen Waterloo sunsets. I was in St. Thomas’ Hospital when I was really ill as a child. Later, I used to go past the station on my way to art college. And I met my first girlfriend—who became my first wife—along the embankment at Waterloo.”

Appropriate for a song born in a dream, the lyric had a dappled, impressionistic feel that’s more about mood than linear storytelling. As Davies free-associated on memories of his youth, two names spilled out unexpectedly. “As soon as I sang ‘Terry and Julie,’” he says, “it seemed that they didn’t need description. I like to let the listener do some work and conjure up some images in their own way.”

On March 12th, the band gathered in the tiny basement studio at Pye Records to tackle the backing track for Ray’s new song. It was recorded live to four-track. But exactly who produced the session has long been subject of debate. During the making of Something Else,
the Kinks and Shel Talmy ended their partnership. Davies has said that he wasn’t happy with early takes of “Waterloo Sunset,” so he produced it himself. Talmy disagrees: “All the records in which I was listed as the producer, I produced.”

Wherever the truth lies, there’s no disputing that the band’s performance was magical. After Davies added his lead vocal, he overdubbed a cascading choral arrangement of “oohs” that featured his brother, bassist Pete Quaife and Ray’s wife Rasa. But there was still one final touch needed. “We messed around with various guitar ideas before we finally put the guitar part through a tape delay,” recalls Ray’s younger brother, Dave Davies. “It was almost like a ’50s-type triplet delay—and it worked like a dream.”

In a springtime ripe with such dream-like classics as A Whiter Shade of Pale and Strawberry Fields Forever, the Kinks’ single was perfectly in sync, climbing to
No. 2 on the U.K. charts. For Davies, one early memory about the song’s first chart run stands out. “I remember a moment with Jimi Hendrix when we were on Top of the Pops
together,” he says. “We met in the corridor, and he said, ‘Man, I love your tune.’ And he played ‘Waterloo Sunset’ with that wonderful Hendrix feel.”

Hendrix wasn’t the only one taken by the tune. Pete Townshend called it “divine,” while Paul Weller and Blur’s Damon Albarn have declared it’s their favorite song. Critic Robert Christgrau called it “the most beautiful song in the English language.” Rolling Stone tagged it number 42 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” It has since been covered by artists ranging from David Bowie to Peter Gabriel. In 2010, Davies revisited the song for his See All My Friends album with duet partner Jackson Browne.

While Davies enjoys different cover versions of his signature song, he admits, “Nothing can recapture the original Kinks record. When my brother’s guitar comes in, something magical happens.”

–Bill DeMain