article_snippet: Just a few weeks ago, I was one of hundreds of mostly middle-aged punters, and resolved as I left to learn more about the singular life of Ray Davies, the band’s brilliant but melancholic frontman, who wrote such timelessly wonderful hits as Waterloo Sunset
article_snippet: Gloriously rousing though it is, the stage show hardly does justice to Davies.
article_snippet: Mercurial, introspective, sometimes cruel and spectacularly, almost sociopathically, mean with money, but also sensitive, principled and capable of great kindness, Davies is above all one of the creative geniuses of our age.
article_snippet: Davies was born in 1944 in Muswell Hill, North London, on the night of an air raid.
article_snippet: But it reached number one and made Dave Davies a star.
article_snippet: Ray Davies (far left) wrote timelessly wonderful hits such as Waterloo Sunset
article_snippet: Ray Davies (far left)  voice might not be what it was, but his was the perfect choice, and it was the perfect song, to close the London Olympics three years ago.
article_snippet: Ray Davies (far left)  stayed in or near Muswell Hill and Ray Davies (far left) ’s still there now, with wispier hair but the same familiar, gap-toothed smile, which we might never have known had Ray Davies (far left)  had Ray Davies (far left)  
article_snippet: Ray Davies (far left)  was actually sitting in the dentist’s chair, the drill whirring, when Ray Davies (far left)  leapt up and left the room.
article_snippet: If Ray Davies (far left)  was going to make it, Ray Davies (far left)  told Ray Davies (far left) , it would be through Ray Davies (far left)  songwriting, not Ray Davies (far left)  looks.
article_snippet: It was a firm statement of artistic intent and still ‘the most important decision I’ve ever made’, insists the man who, happily for us, has never been a dedicated follower of anyone’s fashion but Ray Davies (far left)  own.
highlights_snippet: Ray Davies wrote hits such as  Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me and Lola .
  
highlights_snippet: Ray Davies has been heralded as one of the creative geniuses of our age .