News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ray Davies On World Cafe

Ray Davies' latest solo album is <em>Americana</em>.
Steve Gullick
/
Courtesy of the artist
Ray Davies' latest solo album is Americana.

In this session, we welcome the legendary frontman of The Kinks, Ray Davies, who is backed by The Jayhawks on his new solo album, Americana. One of the themes Davies writes about in this new batch of songs is his relationship with the United States. He says that when The Kinks first came to the U.S. as part of the British Invasion, they faced a backlash from some Americans. At one point they were banned from entering the country entirely. "One of the first things somebody said to me at the airport was, 'Are you a boy or a girl?'" Davies recalls. "And that was immigration. So we knew we were off to a bad start."

Hear the rest of that story and more in the player above.

Copyright 2017 XPN

David Dye is a longtime Philadelphia radio personality whose music enthusiasm has captivated listeners of World Cafe® since 1991. World Cafe is produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania.