X-Ray

“Like his songs, Davies’s book is alternately poignant, funny, and bawdy . . . indispensable for Kinks fans and recommended for anyone interested in 1960s pop music.” —Library Journal

This subversively brilliant, one-of-a-kind rock autobiography is ingeniously styled as a biography, written by a nameless, faceless writer hired by an Orwellian entity called “the Corporation” to capture the essence of Ray Davies, lead singer and songwriter of the Kinks and one of the greatest rock and rollers of all time. The Kinks frontman reveals his life and times to the young writer, often seemingly passing his stories directly into the writer’s consciousness. Carnaby Street, Top of the Pops, the Cavern Club, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and other fixtures of the times fade in and out of this compelling narrative. Part autobiography, part social history, part psychological thriller, this elusive and daring book exposes rock stardom as the heaven, hell, and purgatory it is.

“In an age when everybody’s in show business and writes a lousy book about it, Ray Davies is to be honored for not doing the usual thing. We would expect no less of him.” —Rolling Stone

“A major addition to pop-culture literature.” —Booklist