Waterloo Sunset

Sep 15

It’s 53 years today since The Kinks released Something Else. It’s one of my favourite albums. Packed with hidden Kinks gems – Harry Ragg, Lazy Old Sun and Dave Davies’s Love Me Til The Sun Shines among them.

And there’s the trifling matter of Waterloo Sunset.

I think it’s the finest of all pop songs from any era.

It’s on my mind today for two reasons. I listened again to the excellent BBC Radio 4 show Soul Music this morning – which looks at music and its impact on our lives. The Waterloo Sunset episode, of course.

You can listen to the show here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

And if you follow the link, you can listen to, and download all the other episodes too. You’ll find insightful, moving and inspirational listening on a fabulously diverse range of music. Among my favourites episodes are those on Lilly Marlene, Brothers In Arms, Gresford (The Miners’ Hymn), Myfanwy, Nimrod, Mr Blue Sky, Sukiyaki and Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor.

I was recommending Soul Music to a friend just last night and I closed the email with the following line:

“Such a varied programme but be warned: some of them will have you in tears!”

Heed the warning: Soul Music is a highly addictive programme and often very moving. The episode on Waterloo Sunset is no exception.

The other reason that the song was on my mind this morning is that I will be performing it during the live music section of this Sunday’s Kinks walking tour at 10.45.

Here’s how the tour looked last time out in these socially distanced times…