With this week’s Uborka Artist in Residence, Ray Davies.

Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night
People so busy, makes me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don’t need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine

Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don’t want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I don’t feel afraid
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine

Millions of people swarming like flies ’round Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And the don’t need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise

Waterloo sunset’s fine

Doctor Pockless: I would like to say that we are looking at poet Ray Davies’ Waterloo Sunset by popular demand, but it’s more a case of the gauntlet having been thrown down. It wasn’t on the curriculum for this week’s open forum with Mr. Davies, but we are nothing if not flexible (except, perhaps a little stiff*). It is, however, as Professor Vaughan Simons once noted in his highly-autobiographical study of popular music “not only the greatest Ray Davies song, but simply one of the greatest songs ever.” Like Dedicated Follower of Fashion, the subject of yesterday’s discussion, Waterloo Sunset is yet another of Davies’ rousing songs about great military strategy. Mr. Davies, sir, would you care to elaborate?
Ray Davies: The Battle of Waterloo was fought between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by Britain’s Duke of Wellington and Prussia’s General Blücher. With those Prussians on our side we couldn’t help but give them the thrashing they deserved following 23 years of argy-bargy which had all kicked off with the French Revolutionary wars of 1792.
Doctor Pockless: I haven’t previously given this poem the attention it deserves, but would I be right in thinking that the Terry and Julie of the final stanza are the Duke of Wellington and General Blücher?
Ray Davies: That’s right. The battling duo were popularly known as Terry Welly and General Julie. The river, in this case, was the English Channel, which as everyone knowns’ then stretched right round the southern tip of the African subcontinent. Global warming has, however, since evaporated much of the British empire.
Doctor Pockless: So, the British empire would be the paradise to which you refer in the opening stanza?
Ray Davies: That’s right. The “people so busy” represent foriegn trade, whilst the “taxi lights” are, of course, cannon fire.
Doctor Pockless: Ray, it’s simply genius. I’m glad we included this song in our discussion – it’s work like this that gives fuel to the argument that you should be Poet Laureate.
Ray Davies: Quite.
Doctor Pockless: “Millions of people swarming like flies ’round Waterloo underground” – I cannot think of a more fitting homage to the millions of dead strewn across the battlefields of Europe. In fact, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve come over a little tearful.
Ray Davies: You big girl’s blouse.

*Snort.