RAY, PETE, AND DAYS

Ray Davies, at the time I write this, has not yet come out with an official statement on the passing of Pete Quaife, the original bassist and founding member of the Kinks. Today, as scheduled, he performed at England's massive Glastonbury Festival as the sun shone, tens of thousands of concertgoers off to watch England in the World Cup. Thousands stayed to watch him.

In the first minute of "Days," he struggles in the first verse, visibly and audibly, acutely aware of the meaning of the song, and that it was one of the last Kinks songs Pete played on. From Ray's 1994 autobiography, X-Ray:

(Days) predicted the end of the group. Before we recorded the song I was convinced that Quaife had decided to leave the band forever. We had made the back track, I had recorded the vocals and Nicky Hopkins was putting on a keyboard part. Quaife walked over to me with the box that would contain the master tape and substituted the word "Days" with the word "Daze." I think the anger that I felt for him was really anger at myself. It was conceit on my part; my work had become too precious to me. The truth was that as proud as I was of the song, I was literally in an emotional daze about where I was, who I was and who I wanted to be with. Maybe Quaife was as well.

The professional in Ray gathers himself to finish the song, as expected, and also as expected he will write something soon about Pete that will be thoughtful, heartfelt, and intelligent. But after seeing this, well...it's all I need to know about how he feels.