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(Credits: Far Out \/ Bent Rej \/ Bradford Timeline)<\/p>\n
Mon 15 September 2025 6:00, UK <\/p>\n
Out there, somewhere, there is an alternate universe working on an alternative timeline where all the \u2018almosts\u2019 of our reality happened. In that world, The Kinks<\/a>\u2019 \u2018Waterloo Sunset\u2019 isn\u2019t about London.<\/p>\n \u201cTerry meets Julie \/ Waterloo station \/ Every Friday night,\u201d Ray Davies sings on one of his band\u2019s most iconic tracks. It\u2019s partly iconic for its instantly recognisable guitar line.<\/a> But also, it\u2019s earned a place in history as one of the most beloved tracks ever written about the UK\u2019s bustling capital city, as the song looks at it through the eyes of a lone narrator wandering the streets, taking in the sights.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, that wasn\u2019t originally the plan. When talking about the origin of the track, Davies said that he\u2019d actually had \u201cthe actual melody line in my head for two or three years.\u201d It had been lingering for a long time, but originally, for some reason, he wanted it to be a song about Liverpool.\u00a0<\/p>\n As he was crafting the song in his mind, it was originally going to be about a whole other city. \u201cOriginally, I was going to call it \u2018Liverpool Sunset\u2019,\u201d he told NME, at first planning for it to be an ode to Liverpool and the Merseybeat scene that had been so influential to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Davies isn\u2019t from Liverpool. The man was born and raised in North London with no personal connection to the scousers beyond a love for the music they made that influenced him in his youth and as he started the Kinks and started making his own music.\u00a0<\/p>\n Originally, he wanted to honour that by writing about the city that felt like a spiritual home. But then The Beatles got in their first, writing \u2018Penny Lane\u2019 about their literal, actual home.<\/a> \u201cThe Beatles came up with \u2018Penny Lane\u2019, and so that was the end of that. It happens quite a lot with my numbers. I work on a theme only to find, as it nears completion, someone else has come up with exactly the same melodic or lyrical idea,\u201d the frontman said as the Fab Four beat him to it. <\/p>\n Honestly though, rightfully so. What The Beatles made was a personal ode to the city that made them and the people that raised them. It\u2019s a deeply tender track because it\u2019s real and remains a special song today as it felt like a gift the band gave back to their hometown. Had Davies made \u2018Liverpool Sunset\u2019, with no real personal connection, it certainly wouldn\u2019t have come close. <\/p>\n