Ray and Sebastian

I toddled into a record store (a record store!) the other day and vaguely recognized the music they were playing. Or rather, I recognized the sound but not the actual song. It was a dead ringer for Belle and Sebastian so I figured it must have been off of their recently released BBC Sessions, something I had not gotten to yet. So I held aloft the new B&S disk - confident in my knowledge of all things twee and Scottish - and asked of the staff, from across the store, if what they were playing was from that album. “Ah, no, it’s The Kinks” came the reply from the disaffected record chickie. To make matters worse I couldn’t hear her and had to ask that she shout out once again that I was, indeed, an idiot.

Turns out “Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks is a rather popular track in the history of music. I downloaded it recently and can honestly say that I have never heard it before. Just like every single song by Bob Dylan (save for Subterranean Homesick Blues), Iron Maiden, Pavement and The Tragically Hip, this music had somehow escaped my ears all these years. A massive blow to my ego but, in my defence, it so happens that B&S did once cover “Waterloo Sunset” live. Take that, history!

For the first time ever, anywhere*, here are The Kinks** playing that obviously-never-before-released tune, Waterloo Sunset:

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks


*not really
**check out them glasses!

a band highly influenced by the 60’s: le pastie de la bourgeoisie by Belle and Sebastian