David Watts (song)

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"David Watts" is a song written by Ray Davies that originally appeared on the Kinks' 1967 album Something Else by the Kinks.^[1] It was also the American and Continental Europe B-side to "Autumn Almanac". It has been included on several compilation albums, including The Kink Kronikles (1972).

Background[]

The song is about the singer's great admiration of fellow schoolboy David Watts, who appears to have a "charmed life". There is an undercurrent of either deep envy or, as AllMusic put it, "a schoolboy crush". It is also, as Jon Savage has written, one of Ray Davies' "sharpest homoerotic songs". As Ray Davies confirmed in The Kinks: The Official Biography by Savage, "David Watts is a real person. He was a concert promoter in Rutland." Ray goes on to relate how the real Watts was gay and demonstrated an obvious romantic interest in brother Dave. In this light, lines such as "he is so gay and fancy free" and "all the girls in the neighbourhood try to go out with David Watts... but can't succeed" provide a second level of interpretation based on this ironic in-joke.^[2] The band members were invited back to the home of David Watts for a drink one night after a concert. Ray Davies recalled to Q magazine in a 2016 interview: "My brother, Dave, was in a flamboyant mood and I could see that David Watts had a crush on him. So I tried to persuade Dave to marry David Watts because he was connected with Rutland brewery. See, that's how stupid my brain was." (Chuckles silently) "I thought: if I can get Dave fixed up with this Watts guy, I'll be set up for life and get all the ale I want. But the song's really about complete envy. It was based on someone else entirely - the head boy at my school. He was captain of the team, all those things, but I can't tell you his real name as I only spoke to him a few months ago."

The Jam version[]

The song was later covered by The Jam, who released it on 18 August 1978 as a single, then included it on their third studio album, All Mod Cons (with different mixes used for the single and album versions). This version, which reached No. 25 in the UK Singles Chart, featured bassist Bruce Foxton on lead vocals rather than Paul Weller, as it was not in the right key for the Jam frontman.^[3] The track was released as a double A-side along with ""A" Bomb in Wardour Street", of which a distinct, slightly shorter version was used for the single release and which would also appear later that year on All Mod Cons^{[clarification needed]}.

References[]

External links[]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

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