Tag: See My Friends

This is a song that should have been a bigger hit. Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney were fans of this song. Dave Davies remembered Paul jokingly telling him “You bastards! How dare you! I should have made that record!”

This song is about the loss of Ray’s sister, who lived for a time in Ontario, Canada. Upon her return to England she developed a sickness and died while dancing at a night club. Just before she died she gave Ray his first guitar for his 13th birthday.

He wrote the song while traveling in India years later when he heard about the significance of the Ganges river in the Indian death ritual. Two years later he again used the metaphor of crossing a river in his beautiful song Waterloo Sunset.

The song peaked at #10 on the UK Charts in 1965.

Ray Davies: “A bit more care should have been taken with it. I think (producer) Shel Talmy went too far in trying to keep in the rough edges. Some of the double tracking on that is appalling. It had better songs on it than the first album, but it wasn’t executed in the right way. It was just far too rushed.”

Ray Davies: “It’s more about you’ve lost the female love of your life, therefore you only have your friends left. That little interchange – ‘She is gone’ – is the sound of someone who is completely distraught. It’s more about camaraderie than homosexuality. But then it borders on that. You go out for a pint with the blokes and then it gets to that moment… (whispery laughter) and they’re singing to one another pissed, and they hug one another.”

See My Friends

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,

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