| "Do You Remember Walter?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 B-side of 1969 US single | ||||
| Song bythe Kinks | ||||
| from the albumThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society | ||||
| Released | 22 November 1968 (1968-11-22) | |||
| Recorded | July 1968 | |||
| Studio | Pye, London | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 2:23 | |||
| Label | Pye | |||
| Songwriter | Ray Davies | |||
| Producer | Ray Davies | |||
| The Kinks US chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "Do You Remember Walter" onYouTube | ||||
"Do You Remember Walter?" (also spelled "Do You Remember Walter")[a] is a song by the Englishrock bandthe Kinks from their sixth studio album,The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968). Written and sung byRay Davies, the song was recorded in July 1968. The song's narrator recalls experiences with a childhood friend and speculates on an imagined reunion with him in adulthood, only to suspect that the two would no longer have anything to talk about. The song was directly inspired by a similar experience of Davies. As one of several character studies to appear onVillage Green, the song is often characterised by commentators as central to the album's themes ofnostalgia and loss. Retrospective commentators have described it as one of Davies's best compositions.
Walter was a friend of mine, we used to playfootball together every Saturday. Then I met him again recently after about five years and we found we just didn't have anything to talk about.[5]
Ray Davies was inspired to compose "Do You Remember Walter" after running into an old friend and finding they didn't have anything to talk about. The friend directly inspired the song's character Walter.[6] The song's narrator recalls his various exploits with Walter, such as playing cricket in the rain and smoking cigarettes together,[7] and remembers a childhood promise they made to one another that they would sail away to sea.[8] In the second half of the song, the singer's idealised memory of his friend is broken when he sees him as fat, married and what band biographerJohnny Rogan terms "irredeemably grown up".[7] The singer mocks the older friend's early bedtime, while Walter is uninterested in his reminiscing of the past.[8]
"Do You Remember Walter" is one of the songs thematically central tothe Kinks' 1968 albumThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society;[9] Miller considers it the album's "lyrical heart",[10] and Rogan writes it centres on the album's themes ofnostalgia and loss.[11] Due to its examination of Walter, the song is one of several character studies which appear onVillage Green.[12] Rogan considers the song a departure from some of Davies's earlier compositions where he created idealised figures, focusing in particular on the 1967 song "David Watts". Rogan adds that while "David Watts" hero-worships in the present tense, the narrator of "Do You Remember Walter" instead contrasts the past and the present,[11] conveying "a loss of almost tragic proportions" where the Walter character is "demythologised in adulthood".[13] Academic Ken Rayes writes the song evokes the album's themes of Englishpastoral poetry, suggesting it is a variation on a convention in the genre in which a reader is addressed as an acquaintance and told about "a dead 'Golden Age' hero".[14] In his November 1968 interview withMelody Maker, Davies stated the song's closing line, "People often change but memories of people can remain", served to sum up the song's message.[15]
"Do You Remember Walter" is apop song with a subdued production, allowing for attention to remain on the lyrics.[16] After opening with what Rogan terms "machine gun drumming",[7] the song is defined by a dominant piano and bass guitar, alongside snarerolls,[17] elements which English professor Thomas M. Kitts thinks represent the narrator's "assault" on the adult Walter and the present.[18] The song employs a vertical melody which band biographerAndy Miller compares to a piano exercise.[19]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 "Do You Remember Walter?" (Backing Track) | |
| "Do You Remember Walter?" (European Stereo Mix Without Tambourine) |
The Kinks recorded "Do You Remember Walter" in July 1968 in Pye Studio 2,[20] one of two basement studios atPye Records' London offices.[21] Davies is credited as the song's producer,[22] while Pye's in-houseengineer Brian Humphries operated thefour-trackmixing console.[23] Davies's lead vocals are occasionallydouble tracked,[17] and he sings in a tone of longing and regret.[7] The recording employs aMellotron[17] – atape-loop-based keyboard instrument[24] – which mimics the sound of ahorn section. The Mellotron follows the melody low in the mix,[25] something Miller thinks contributes a rousing and melancholic effect.[17] Daviesmixed the recording quickly in August 1968, but remixed it in late October after the release ofVillage Green was delayed by two months.[20][b]
Davies included "Do You Remember Walter" as the second track on his original twelve-track edition ofThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, between "The Village Green Preservation Society" and "Picture Book". When he delayed the album's release by two months to expand it to fifteen tracks, "Do You Remember Walter" retained its sequence as second on the album.[27] Pye released the fifteen-track edition ofVillage Green in the UK on 22 November 1968.[28] In a contemporary review of the album for British music magazineDisc and Music Echo, the reviewer counted it as one of the most memorable songs on the album, adding that it "almost makes you want to cry, it's so sad!"[29]
Reprise Records issued "The Village Green Preservation Society" backed with "Do You Remember Walter?" as an American single in July or August 1969.[c] The release coincided withWarner Bros. Records' "God Save the Kinks" promotional campaign, which sought to reestablish the band's status in America after their informal four-year performance ban was lifted in the country.[33] The Kinks never added "Do You Remember Walter" to their concertset list. They performed two studio takes of the song atKonk recording studios on 11 April 1994.[34] The sessions were played in anunplugged style and filmed for aBBC documentary.[35] When the Kinks' 1994 albumTo the Bone was re-released in 1996 with a CD of extra material, the 1994 recording of "Do You Remember Walter" was among the songs added.[36]
In a retrospective assessment, Morgan Enos ofBillboard magazine characterised the song as a "Kinks classic", writing it "deftly captures how old friendships change".[37] Among band biographers, Andy Miller counts it as one of Davies's best compositions,[10] and Johnny Rogan thinks it is "one of his greatest songs of the era".[7] English rock bandElectric Light Orchestra later repurposed the song's drum and piano intro for their 1978 single "Mr. Blue Sky",[38] andGraham Coxon of the English rock bandBlur named it as sometimes his "favourite song ever".[39]
If I said it could be, like, "[Do You Remember] Walter" by the Kinks, that'd be a pretty weird choice, but sometimes that is my favourite song ever.