Kinks – Strangers

It’s great to be back with everyone today. I know I know…we just finished up with the Kinks a few weeks ago but I wrote this one for the Kinksathon but decided to use another post. This was like uncovering a gem. This is not a Ray Davies song but his brother Dave wrote and put some heartfelt vocals into this. His voice and the sound of his voice sound great…I love the slapback echo they added.

Dave wrote this song about a friend he had named George Harris. Him and George were going to form a band and they were really tight but George got hooked on drugs bad. This was all before the Kinks formed. Dave Davies said: “We were dear friends, actually, George and I were going to start a band, but he got too heavily into drugs and it kind of pulled us apart. The drug thing was like a three-way affair. He died of a methamphetamine overdose. They found him departed … he was young. I always felt it was going to be me and him. I didn’t think at that age that it was going to be me and Ray. So I really kind of wrote it to him; ‘Strangers on this road we are on, we are not two we are one.’ It was like, what might of been if he hadn’t died so tragically.”

The singer of this song mentions a friend who seems to have separated from him. What emerges is not just a portrait of his lost pal but also of the person who’s searching for him. A Hank Williams line “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” influenced Dave in this song as well…with is line if I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die. 

The song came off the album Lola vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part 1 which had the massive hit Lola. Maybe that is the reason this song got overlooked. Many Kinks fans love this song but the radio doesn’t hardly play it. The album peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100 and #33 in Canada in 1970. Unfortunately, there was never a part 2.

The song was used in the 2007 film The Darjelling Limited. 

Dave Davies: “I was going through a lot of change, personally – spiritual stuff and getting into different philosophy, I was 15 at the time when we first started. And we had success, we were touring, and it doesn’t really give you a chance to grow up.”

Ray Davies on the part 1 album: Lola Versus Powerman… was good versus evil, obviously, and in Volume Two, I sketched out how you become your worst nightmare, how the good man goes so far he becomes the evil person he always fought against. But we had to do another tour, we had the RCA deal, and we had other recording projects that we had to work towards, and it got lost, unfortunately.

Here is Dave in 2017 doing it acoustically.

Strangers

Where are you going, I don’t mind
I’ve killed my world and I’ve killed my time
So where do I go? What will I see?
I see many people coming after me
So where are you going to, I don’t mind
If I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die
So I will follow you wherever you go
If your offered hand is still open to me

Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one

So you’ve been where I’ve just come
From the land that brings losers on
So we will share this road we walk
And mind our mouths and beware our talk
‘Til peace we find, tell you what I’ll do
All the things I own I will share with you
And, if I feel tomorrow like I feel today
We’ll take what we want and give the rest away

Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one

Holy man and holy priest
This love of life makes me weak at my knees
And when we get there, make your play
‘Cause soon I fear you’re gonna carry us away
And a promised lie you made us believe
For many men there is so much grief
And my mind is proud but it aches with rage
And, if I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die

Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

31 thoughts on “Kinks – Strangers”

  2. Welcome back to the forum! Hope your rest time was good for you!
    Pretty good song I probably wouldn’t have guessed as being the Kinks though it does have that distinctive 1970ish sound. I like that echo too. Your series on the Kinks showed that while Ray was the man, he wasn’t the only songwriter in the band with some talent

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    1. Dave wrote some good songs…yea I love that echo and as soon as I heard this one…I liked it. I wish he would have written more in the Kinks.

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  5. I remember this from The Darjeeling Limited, and it fits so well on the most excellent soundtrack from a good movie. Dave has written solid gold tunes. I could see this song being about him and Ray also. Wonderful find on the acoustic video. I’m surprised its not on The Kink Kronicles. It is on Best of 1964-1971.

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    1. It really impressed me…I didn’t know this one at all. Some of his songs challenges his brothers…they are that good.
      Yea it should have been on there.

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    1. Thank you Lisa! It’s so great to be back! I’m really enjoying this and will this weekend! I’ve really missed this on the weekends.

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  7. Welcome back, weary armed and paint-spattered Max! The Kinks are always worth a second or third or more hearing/s. They often have layers that are worth prying into.

    Sad story behind it, but not unfamiliar; certainly a sad lesson handed down from the sometimes not so fun and freewheeling 60’s. It wasn’t all sparking, up goofing off and giggly good times. Some fell down laughing and didn’t get up.

    Sorry. Let me put on my smily face for your return!😃!

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    1. Thank you Obbverse! It’s great to be back. I did paint alot but have some more to do but I bought myself some breathing room.

      Yea I tend to glorify that period but some could not handle what was thrown at them.
      Good to see the smile!

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    1. Thank you so much! It’s great to be back! I’m ready for the weekend!
      Yea I liked this song a lot Christian…I love that slap back echo.

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      2. Oh I haven’t posted since a couple of weekends ago…and before that two weeks…I basically took a month off…but I love being back though.

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