Free Republic

[Snip] Yes, we've lost some already. On top of the icons who died horribly young decades ago — Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon — there's the litany of legends felled by illness, drugs, and just plain old age in more recent years: George Harrison, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty. Those losses have been painful. But it's nothing compared with the tidal wave of obituaries to come. The grief and nostalgia will wash over us all. Yes, the Boomers left alive will take it...

Well deserved methinks . Sir Raymond Davies !

Saturday is Ray Davies' 70th birthday, but I'm not writing this as an offering or a note of congratulations.. Having bought 53 pieces of vinyl or CD plastic by the Kinks, both of his books, his two solo albums of new songs and 30-odd concert tickets, I think I've already thanked and celebrated him in the way he can most appreciate. I hope what I’ve paid him has given him a fraction of the enjoyment I’ve had in return.

Kink's singer says the queen swore By United Press International Friday, January 20, 2006 Kinks frontman Ray Davies says he was shocked when Britain's Queen Elizabeth told him, "I hope they catch the (expletive) who shot you." "I could hardly believe what I'd heard. I had to wash my ears out afterwards," Davies, 61, told the Mirror.

[Away from the partying it was obvious to a dedicated follower of the city that disaster was around the corner] I SPENT the early part of last year in New Orleans recovering from gunshot wounds received as I was being robbed. It happened in the early evening as I walked down a quiet street with my girlfriend. There was a football game in town and the streets near the French Quarter were empty. The police presence was elsewhere. The incident itself was over in a flash but it plays over and over in my head and perhaps one day it...

NEW ORLEANS - Singer-songwriter Ray Davies (news) of the celebrated British rock band the Kinks was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who snatched a purse from a woman he was with, police said Monday. He was not seriously injured. Police said Davies, 59, and the woman were walking near the edge of the French Quarter when the shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Davies was treated and released at a hospital, said Capt. Marlon Defillo, a police spokesman. One suspect was captured within hours and another person was being sought. The woman was not hurt. Police would not...

A local politician in Wales was today accused of gross anti-Semitism after comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. Labour party councillor Ray Davies condemned Israel's "apartheid regime" and likened it to Hitler's occupation of Europe. The councillor, from Caerphilly, south Wales, said: "Hitler's Nazi regime occupied Europe for four years only. Palestine and the West Bank have been occupied for 40 years." His comments provoked outrage from the Israeli community. Jean Evans, the director of the Israel information centre for Wales and the west of England, said: "This is a gross insult to Jews. "It is anti-Semitic to compare Israel to...