See My Friend
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"See My Friends" is a song by The Kinks, written by the group's singer and guitarist, Ray Davies. Released in 1965, it reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart. A rare foray into psychedelic rock for the group, it is sometimes credited as the first Western rock song to integrate Indian raga sounds.

The song is sometimes mistitled "See My Friend", because this is how the song was identified on the initial UK single pressing. However, the website of Kassner Music,^[1] which owns the publishing rights to the song, specifies the title as "See My Friends",^[2] which are also the words Davies clearly sings throughout the track. Most subsequent issues of the song have borne the more familiar "See My Friends" title.

Richard Thompson has recorded the song in his album 1000 Years of Popular Music.

Ray Davies has been heard to say the song is about the loss of his sister, who lived for a time in Ontario, Canada. Upon her return to England she developed a sickness and died while dancing at a night club. Just before she died he says she gave him his first guitar for his 13th birthday. He wrote the song while traveling in India years later when he heard about the significance of the Ganges river in the Indian death ritual. Two years later he again used the metaphor of crossing a river in his masterpiece Waterloo Sunset.

References

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