Weird Coincidences: Brian Wilson and Ray Davies

I’ve always loved finding connections in classic rock where you wouldn’t expect them. Time for some Angie Lore! A big inspiration for this was a poster that was hanging up in the classroom where I went to Hebrew school. The synagogue I went to as a child didn’t have a physical building so they rented out some classrooms in the local middle school and held Hebrew school there (I know, weird!). The poster was an infographic chart of all of the weird coincidences between Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. I would space out in Hebrew school and stare at the poster and let it all sink in. For the uninitiated, I’ll list the similarities here, and only the factual ones:

• Lincoln and Kennedy each have seven letters
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy were elected to Congress in ’46 and elected to the presidency in ’60
• Both presidents were well known for civil rights: Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as we all know, he died before it passed) and he was president during a big part of the Civil Rights movement: MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech happened during Kennedy’s presidency.
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy got married in their 30s to women in their 20s: Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842, he was 33 and she was 23. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953, he was 36 and she was 24.
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated on a Friday.
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy were shot in the head
• Both assassins, Booth and Oswald, were killed before they could be tried.
• Both assassins went by three names and their names are made up of 15 letters: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Both assassins killed the president while they were at their workplaces. Booth was an actor at Ford’s Theatre and Oswald worked at the Texas School Book Depository.
• Both Ford’s Theatre and the Texas School Book Depository have become museums.
• Both Lincoln and Kennedy’s successors were President Johnson. Lincoln’s successor was Andrew Johnson and Kennedy’s successor was Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Both Johnsons were southerners born in ’08

I’ve always been really interested in history, it was my favourite subject in school. I really couldn’t get over all of the similarities, coincidences, and connections between the 16th and 35th presidents of the United States. My dad knew about it, being a big American history buff and can recite all of the presidents in chronological order, and quickly too if you’d like! That all came from him collecting these figurines of the presidents. Chicagoland grocery store Jewel ran this as a promotion in the 60s. It’s a marketing tactic, but an educational one.

Apophenia? I thought you said Quadrophenia!

So this Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences list is really an example of a phenomenon called apophenia, which is the tendency to perceive order and see patterns in random configurations. Pattern recognition is a sign of intelligence and is a big component of IQ tests (which are kinda BS).

Now let’s relate it to classic rock. Classic rockers often have a lot of things in common so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that if you pick any two rock stars, you’ll find a lot of things in common between them. But I couldn’t get over some of the crazy amounts of similarities between a few musicians I talk about in my book, Crime of the Century. Since this is the time of year where a lot of legendary rock stars were born, many of them among my all-time favourites: Paul McCartney, Ann Wilson, Nick Drake, Brian Wilson, and Ray Davies. One thing I couldn’t get over in doing my research for Crime of the Century is how many sibling groups mentioned in the book. Let’s count them in chronological order as they’re talked about in my book:

1. The Kinks: Ray & Dave Davies: Chapters 2 & 3 – John Wayne Gacy and Ronnie & Reggie Kray
2. Spandau Ballet: Gary & Martin Kemp: Chapter 3 – Ronnie & Reggie Kray
3. The Beach Boys: Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson: Chapter 5 – Charles Manson
4. Devo: Mark & Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald & Bob Casale: Chapter 12 – John Hinckley Jr.
5. The Honeycombs: John & Honey Lantree: Chapter 15 – Joe Meek
6. The Ronettes: Ronnie Spector & Estelle Bennett: Chapter 19 – Phil Spector
7. The Bay City Rollers: Alan & Derek Longmuir: Chapter 22 – Les McKeown

The Beach Boys and The Kinks are mentioned a lot in my book and I couldn’t get over how many similarities I could find between each band’s leaders and I’ve never seen anyone else talking about them so let’s count the ways in which Brian Wilson and Ray Davies are a lot alike. Think of this as a weird birthday post of sorts.

• Same middle name: Brian Douglas Wilson and Raymond Douglas Davies.
• Both of their surnames have six letters in them.
• Almost the same birthday: Brian Wilson 20 June 1942 and Ray Davies 21 June 1944.
• Both grew up working class and had family members who liked to sing. Brian’s father Murry wrote songs. Ray’s older sisters liked to sing and play piano in the living room.
• Both were student athletes: Brian Wilson played American football in secondary school, Ray Davies did track and field, boxing, and played football.
• Both were in sibling groups: The Beach Boys and The Kinks.
• Both were the oldest siblings in their bands: Dennis Wilson was born in 1944 and Carl Wilson was born in 1946. Dave Davies was born in 1947.
• Both of them had younger siblings considered “the cute one” in the band: Dennis Wilson was considered the cute one and Dave Davies was considered the cute one.
• Both were the leaders of their bands.
• Both were the primary songwriters of their bands.
• Both produced albums for their band.
• Both founded record labels with their family members: Brian Wilson founded Brother Records with his brothers and his cousin Mike Love. Ray and Dave Davies founded Konk Records.
• Both are considered among the best songwriters in rock and roll.
• Their younger siblings got famous as teenagers. Dennis Wilson was 17 and Carl Wilson was 15 when “Surfin Safari” came out. Dave Davies was 17 when “You Really Got Me” topped the charts.
• Both got their first hit at 20 years old: For Brian Wilson it was “Surfin’ Safari” and for Ray Davies it was “You Really Got Me”.
• Both wrote songs heavily inspired by Black American R&B songs: “Surfin’ USA” was based on Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Last of the Steam Powered Trains” was based on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”.
• Both struggled with their mental health. Brian Wilson was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as an adult. Ray Davies had depression since he was a child and apparently he was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
• Both got married in 1964. Brian Wilson married Marilyn Rovell and Ray Davies married Rasa Didzpetris.
• Both of their first wives sang: Marilyn was a member of The Honeys and while Rasa was not a member of a band, she contributed backing vocals on some Kinks songs.
• Both had two daughters with their first wives. Brian and Marilyn’s daughters are Carnie and Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips. Ray and Rasa’s daughters are Louisa and Victoria (Tor).
• Both had mental breakdowns at the age of 22.
• Both wrote songs that became hits for other bands: Brian Wilson wrote Jan & Dean’s “Surf City”, “Drag City”, and “Dead Man’s Curve” and Ray Davies wrote “Dandy” for Herman’s Hermits, “This Strange Effect” for Dave Berry, and “I Go To Sleep” was a hit for The Pretenders.
• Both released their masterpiece albums at around the same age: Brian Wilson was almost 24 when Pet Sounds was released. Ray Davies was 24 when The Village Green Preservation Society was released. Both were concept albums of sorts.
• Both of those albums were considered commercial flops and departures from their past material, which had a similar sound. Early Beach Boys music was surf rock with a lot of songs about cars and girls. Early Kinks music was garage rock with fuzz guitar.
• Both of those albums got cult followings and recognition after the fact and are considered some of the best albums of the 60s.
• Both bands had a flop era in the 70s.
• Both had true crime connections/encounters: Brian Wilson met Charles Manson. Ray Davies met John Wayne Gacy. As well, the Kray twins wanted to manage The Kinks, Reggie and Ronnie Kray said the Davies brothers were their first choice to play them in a biopic, and Ray Davies wrote a song mentioning the Kray twins.

Well that’s a lot of things in common, but how can we explain this? Well, there are quite a few sibling groups like I’ve talked about earlier and oftentimes the oldest sibling is the leader of the group and the leader of the group is usually, but not always, the main songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and sometimes they produce albums too. Many songwriters don’t just write songs for their band and if it’s a good song, other bands will cover it! A lot of classic rockers were quite young when they got famous so it’s not surprising that if you compare careers that a lot of them reached milestones at the same age. When they are around the same age, some things will happen more or less at the same time. A lot of creative people struggle with their mental health. I’ve also noticed a lot of patterns as far as career trajectories and story arcs go in series like VH1’s Behind the Music. There’s almost always this rise and fall and then getting recognised as a legendary rock band. With them all being classic rockers, they’re going to have similar influences.

But what is the likelihood that there’d be this many similarities? I have no idea. If you really want an even crazier list of coincidences and similarities, look at Joe Meek and Phil Spector! I talk all about them in my book and an important date is referenced on the cover, 3 February. See if you can figure out what I’m alluding to when you read the book! I might even write a little teaser blog post about it. Keep your eyes peeled!

Anyway, hope everyone has a happy summer 2024!

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