# Why do I find, "Celluloid Heroes," so moving? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, music\ **Created:** [December 6, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475 "2025-12-06T22:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/21 "2025-12-07T23:29:48Z")
Ray Davies suffered badly from the “You need to put out another hit by tomorrow” attitude of record companies. He had severe mental and physical problems all his life, and like other artists, mined his tormented life for empathetical art. “Waterloo Sunset” emerged from a hospitalization as a child. So did much of his other music, the rage at first, the need for people later. Underrated? Definitely. Also unique. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/22 "2025-12-08T01:15:10Z")
We’re listening to 20th Century Man on One for the Road. All time album. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/23 "2025-12-08T01:23:29Z")
Hot take: the Kinks’ finest decade was the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/24 "2025-12-08T01:31:32Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > The story behind _Come Dancing_ is sadder than the Palais being torn down. On one of those nights when Ray’s sister went out dancing she didn’t come home. She had a heart attack and died due to having rheumatic fever as a child. Yeah, that’s a tragic and traumatic part of Ray’s adolescence. He had a special bond with his older sister, she gave him his first guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/25 "2025-12-08T01:43:49Z")
Got to love an album espousing trans sex and masturbation! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/26 "2025-12-08T02:04:29Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Hot take: the Kinks’ finest decade was the 1980s. It’s hard to agree with that, but some days “Do it Again” is my favorite Kinks song. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LeQSjbCYOX4/maxresdefault.jpg "The Kinks - Do It Again (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeQSjbCYOX4) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/27 "2025-12-08T02:17:09Z")
“Do It Again” also happens to be the title of [Geoff Edgers’ independent film](https://vimeo.com/362194881?fl=pl&fe=sh#t=1m5s) documenting his attempt to get the band back together…something we fans have long wished for. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/28 "2025-12-08T03:20:32Z")
I’ve never seen/heard that song but the video is hilarious. It looks like so much fun. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/29 "2025-12-08T04:44:45Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > “Do It Again” also happens to be the title of [Geoff Edgers’ independent film](https://vimeo.com/362194881?fl=pl&fe=sh#t=1m5s) documenting his attempt to get the band back together…something we fans have long wished for. Wow, he took on a sisyphean job there. Ray and Dave do _not_ like each other. I haven’t seen it, but will have to now. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’ve never seen/heard that song but the video is hilarious. It looks like so much fun. Hehe, I remember seeing that video on MTV tons of times during my youth. I probably didn’t appreciate it enough at the time, but it really is a gem of a video. But the lyrics were what stuck in my head. The theme of “this is life, you do it again” really is just about everyone’s story. As Ray said: > [@](#): > > I think it applies to everybody who gets up in the morning and has to go out and do their job. Sometimes it’s not great being on tour. It’s a cliché now, but everyone knows what happens on the road. You have very little sleep, I usually go to sleep about four or five o’clock, then I have to get up at eight or nine o’clock, get a plane and go somewhere else and play. When the knock comes on the door, I know I have got to get up. It’s not just in my job, people who are electricians and work in [Woolworth’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworths_(United_Kingdom)) have to do it. Which ties into the idea that even though he was a star, he still understood the working class’ position wasn’t that different. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/30 "2025-12-08T19:26:23Z")
The host of a music podcast I listen to once said, if someone asks who’s better, the Beatles or the Stones, your reply should be the Kinks! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/31 "2025-12-09T00:27:48Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > if someone asks who’s better, the Beatles or the Stones, your reply should be the Kinks! Those are the four great British Invasion bands. I don’t know whether the Kinks were better than the Beatles, but the Beatles had some advantages that the Kinks didn’t have, like bigger recording budgets and a legendary producer. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/32 "2025-12-09T00:46:39Z")
The Kinks had a huge handicap when it came to “making it” in the US in the last half of the 60s. Band infighting, conflicts with promoters and unions all added up to them being banned from performing in the States from late '65 until 1969. Those were prime years for rock concerts when many acts made a name for themselves and their fan bases grew…while the Kinks were effectively relegated to the sidelines. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/33 "2025-12-09T04:45:42Z")
Likely the most bizarrely perfect uses of a Kinks song ever was having the dancers at the Bada Bing dancing to “Living On A Thin Line” in an episode of The Sopranos. That is the antithesis of a sexxay song and yet…it works. It really really works. The older I get the more I appreciate The Kinks and I’m having the great joy of introducing my musically inclined teenaged grandchild to the genius of the Bros Davies. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/34 "2025-12-09T14:04:28Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Wow, he took on a sisyphean job there. Ray and Dave do _not_ like each other. I haven’t seen it, but will have to now. I read an interview with Dave last week (no cite, sorry) and he was very gracious towards Ray. I was surprised to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/35 "2025-12-09T15:44:58Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > I love the Kinks’ music as well. I think Ray does an amazing job of using emotion in his vocals to make songs resonate. That must be why [“God’s Children”](https://youtu.be/G10yAmbCiq0?si=jypwQ0X6tVo9yB_B) gets to me. I’m by no means a “believer.” ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/36 "2025-12-09T16:35:19Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Labdad](#): > > > > if someone asks who’s better, the Beatles or the Stones, your reply should be the Kinks! > > Those are the four great British Invasion bands. ISWYDT ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475/37 "2025-12-10T00:34:01Z")
> [@Tride](#): > > I read an interview with Dave last week (no cite, sorry) and he was very gracious towards Ray. I was surprised to say the least. Form Dave’s relatively recent autobiography (worth reading), _Living on a Thin Line_: > [@](#): > > I have said this many times, but it’s worth repeating here, especially given all the bullshit I read on the internet about us – Ray is my brother and I love him. I’ve always felt protective towards him and have tried to support his work to the best of my ability – and sometimes that has meant telling him when I thought he was going wrong. I want this book partly to stand as a tribute to Ray and to The Kinks – and especially to Ray’s writing. There is really nobody else like him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-find-celluloid-heroes-so-moving/1025475.md?page=1)