“Is about having no money.”Ray Davies (118)

“I originally had put in a line that said something like “Sunday parents with their kinds knowing they’re just alone” which made it, obvious that it was about someone who was divorced and only had his kid on a Sunday. So I left it out because I wanted to leave the song ambiguous. I think ambiguity is a good tool, a good weapon I used it in songs like ‘Waterloo Sunset’. And I think it just about works because it says “I’m not a flasher in a raincoat.” One of the reasons they’re not putting it out as a single in England is because the BBC has said there’s a flasher in a raincoat, but it says “I’m not a flasher.” So it does sound like a pervert to begin with, but I think it does work in the end and you realize what the song’s about.”Ray Davies (119)

“When I first had some notoriety in London, I was forced to have a party. I had a big fight with a famous fashion designer because she said my trousers weren’t the latest. Rather than get angry, I wrote ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’. I was thrilled when I heard that Noel Coward liked it.”Ray Davies (120)

“I tried to sing about issues of the time in ‘Dead End Street’. We were condemned a bit in England for putting that out, but it was a hit. The promo clip got banned. People didn’t think a rock band should make real commentaries.”Ray Davies (120)

“I Go to Sleep’ was written for Peggy Lee. I was just a kid when I wrote that, so it can be excused.”Ray Davies (120)

“We’d just returned from America and I’d been working non-stop, so they sent me for a holiday in Torquay, which is very comfortable, middle class. It was a wonderful old hotel, full of successful people. It was the first time – outside of touring with the band – that I had encountered that lifestyle. I felt completely out of place. People were asking me to play golf and stuff, so I wrote ‘A Well Respected Man’.”Ray Davies (120)