Ray Davies: Back In The Front Room

Got back to the frontroom, Dave was plugged in to the green amplifier
Pete was on the bass, they sounded great
Dave had this great way of playing the guitar
The way Dave played was very individual
I'd been overwhelmed by all the culture
Art School prays the life I'd never really understand
I sat down and started to jam,
was astounded by the speed of Dave's hands
The way Dave played guitar was very similar to the way he spoke
Exactly
I thought to myself "This is the way it's gonna be.
I'm gonna join this band, leave college behind.
Forget culture, rock 'n' roll is where it's at"

And daytime was dawning
We were up all night, we were all yawning
But we were playing, raving
Sometimes so loud, to the early morning

Our friends keep knocking at the door
The neighbours shouted out "No more"
They even sent the police around to hear us play
And this is the way we played

We thought "If we could annoy all of the neighbours with the green amp
think of what we could do with a four piece band"
But there was no doubt Dave was the star,
a connoisseur of the old twelve bar
And even dad said "That boy is bloody marvelous"
As I said Pete was on the bass,
so the only way I could SLY my way into the band
was to become the rhythm guitar player
While we were bouncing up and down
the house was shaking to the sound
of the full distortion from the gramophone
We had stayed up playing all night long
ran out of other people's songs
so we started making music of our own

And dawn was breaking, my mind was calculating
This time there's no more waiting
I was awake, my mind was clear
I could see a way out of here

And then the cops knocked at the door
with letters from solicitors
We'd disturb the peace and woke up all the neighbours
But dad says "Forget the neighbours.
Keep playing, boys, keep playing"