Since the 1980s, Ray Davies has intermittently led a seminar for aspiring songwriters through England's Arvon Foundation — a side hustle he landed, of course, as a result of the dozens of classic tunes he penned as frontman of the Kinks, including "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting for You," "Stop Your Sobbing," "Sunny Afternoon," "Waterloo Sunset," "Lola" and "Come Dancing," among many others.
Yet ask Davies, 78, which of these was the first to make him feel like he was a real songwriter, and he'll tell you he's not sure he's one even now.
"What I usually say to the students before I start the course is, 'I can't teach you anything,'" he says, chuckling dryly, over Zoom from his home in the U.K. "'Real songwriter' gives me an image of a guy from Tin Pan Alley or the Brill Building — like Neil Sedaka. I think I'm still trying to find out if I'm that good."
