The Kinks at the Hollwood Palladium on April 11, 1973

As roadies set up equipment and tuned guitars, moving all around the semi-illuminated stage, they opened cans of beer, taking a single sip from each before setting the mostly-full cans down wherever they happened to be.  Over the course of a half hour, they must have opened several cases of beer, taking only one sip from each.

"What's going on?" I wondered with a laugh as I sat on the floor at the Hollywood Palladium on April 11, 1973, awaiting the headlining band.  By the way, if you're wondering how I can be so specific about the date, check out the hotlink for the date.  In fact, you should check out that link anyway, because then you can hear the set list I heard that night.  Playing the first song will trigger the whole set list to play.

The Kinks were one of my favorite bands of the early 1970s, most famous for their controversial song "Lola" but most loved by me for their all-time best album, "Muswell Hillbillies," which was chalk full of fantastic songs that were humorous and poignant.

They hit the stage running with their classic "Victoria," and it was nothing but musical high points throughout the evening, whether songs from their newer concept albums or early international best-sellers like "All Day and All of the Night."

The Kinks had fun on stage, hamming it up but also proving themselves virtuosos of their instruments, with no one more at home on stage than singer Ray Davies.

If you go back and listen to their earliest albums, you actually realize that even when they were early pop stars, primary songwriter Ray Davies had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.  "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and "Sunny Afternoon" always make me smile.

In looking back at the set list, I'm surprised that they didn't play what I consider their all-time best song, "20th Century Man," which, incidentally, some young band should re-do with small modifications as "21st Century Man."  Perhaps more suprising to others would be the ommission of their hillarious back-to-nature anthem from the "Lola Versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round" album, "Apeman."

Oh, and what were the roadies doing with that beer?

Apparently Ray Davies and the other band members wanted to be sure that wherever they happened to be on stage, there would be a cold beer to cool their throats.

At one point deep into the concert...and after many swallows of beer...Ray staggered to the edge of the stage and fell off.

I doubt he actually had drunk himself blotto.  More likely it was part of his act.

Always extremely theatrical, Ray left most of us with the impression that he was gay, as the song "Lola" or the album cover for their album "Everybody's In Show Biz" would suggest.  For what it's worth, Ray was actually heterosexually married three times and has five daughters, one of whom was the product of his non-married relationship with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.  I wonder what kind of musical genius that child is?

It turns out he was sort of the opposite of Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner.   In those pre-historic days of my youth, my friends and I just accepted people as they were and appreciated their talent for its own sake, but I guess admitting to that now could be considered a form of microaggression.

I only learned about Ray Davies's personal life yesterday, when I started reading a biographical article online.  It turns out he was raised in North London's suburb Muswell Hill, which certainly makes sense because all great art is at least semi-autobiographical. 

This morning I listened to the last studio album by the Kinks, released in 1993, for the first time.  It is fantastic!  I need to go back and listen to the rest of their albums released between the mid-seventies and this final rock gem by the Kinks.

Yes, I admit this is a bit of a stretch from travel, but as my daughter Amy said in a recent interview, "Travel is everything that happens when you step outside of your home, everything beyond that inside world.  Travel is about exploring the environs and the people that are unfamiliar---and that's intoxicating."