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Ray Davies and the Kinks - 1965 See My friends
Identifier
028301
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Gone gone gone to the other side
"On June 20, the day before Ray’s 13th birthday, the boy was thrilled to receive the perfect present from his 30-year-old sister Rene – a Spanish guitar. Rene had a serious heart condition, but nothing could quell her love of dance halls, and the prospect of an evening at the Lyceum Ballroom off the Strand proved irresistible. That evening, Ray watched her from the window as she sashayed down the road.
‘We’d played a few songs together. Then she got a bus down to the West End.’
He would never see her again. At the Lyceum, Rene suffered heart failure. She was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital but nothing could be done to save her. ‘She died in the arms of a stranger on the dance floor,’ Ray remembered. Rene’s death shocked Ray into silence. He returned to school, seemingly broken by the tragedy.
‘Clearly, I couldn’t cope,’ he acknowledges. How long the great silence lasted is a matter of conjecture. Ray has variously described it as months, an entire year, or even longer.
A description of the experience
See My Friends [official]
See my friends,
See my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
See my friends,
See my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
She is gone,
She is gone and now there's no one left
'Cept my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
She just went,
She just went,
Went across the river.
Now she's gone,
Now she's gone,
Wish that I'd gone with her.
She is gone,
She is gone and now there's no one left
'Cept my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
She is gone and now there's no one else to take her place
She is gone and now there's no one else to love
'Cept my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
See my friends,
See my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river,
See my friends,
See my friends,
Layin' 'cross the river
Songwriters: Ray Davies