THE KINKS - DAVIES: 'BEING BANNED FROM AMERICA INSPIRED ME'

DAVIES: 'BEING BANNED FROM AMERICA INSPIRED ME'

THE KINKS frontman RAY DAVIES once feared he would be banned from America forever, but he insists the snub inspired him to write classic English songs like WATERLOO SUNSET. The American Federation of Musicians banned The Kinks from entering the United States for four years in the 1960s because they objected to British bands including THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES dominating the American charts. Davies explains, "I remember they were concerned about a lot of English people coming over, making money in America. Of course, it was their culture and all of a sudden these Limeys came over and the charts were taken over by Brits. "I thought I'd never get back into America again. They said they wouldn't ever give me a visa again, and certainly not for work, so I withdrew into my own Englishness and songs like Waterloo Sunset came out. That's not such a bad thing."