ONE OF THE MOST DISTINCTIVE GUITAR SOUNDS AND SOLOS IN ALL OF POP MUSIC COME FROM THE GUITAR OF DAVE DAVIES OF THE KINKS. HIS GUITAR WORK ON TWO OF THEIR EARLY HITS “YOU REALLY GOT ME” AND “ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT” HAVE INFLUENCED SIX STRINGERS RANGING FROM PUNK ROCKERS TO GRUNGERS TO HEAVY METAL ARTISTS.
BUT DAVIES HAS ALSO BEEN INFLUENTIAL IN HIS MORE REFLECTIVE MOMENTS, WITH SOLOS ON PIECES LIKE “WATERLOO SUNSET’ THE DEFINITION OF UNDERSTATED TASTE.
RECENTLY THERE HAVE BEEN A SURFEIT OF REISSUES FROM THE KINKS’ CATALOGUE, SO IT SEEMED A PROPER TIME TO CATCH UP ON THE ROCK PIONEER.
WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT TO RELEASE THESE RETROSPECTIVES OF YOUR ALBUMS FROM 50 YEARS AGO AT THIS STAGE IN TIME?
A lot of the Kinks music has been ignored. Everybody knows about the songs like “You Really Got Me” and “To The End of the Bay”, but we wanted to expand peoples’ vision of our music. There’s so much stuff that the public doesn’t know about.
LOOKING BACK, WHAT PLEASES YOU MOST ABOUT YOUR CATALOGUE?
The most enjoyable thing is that I’m listening to it all over again. Some of it I hadn’t heard in years. It still stands out as a good piece of work.
BACK THEN, THE KINKS CAME UP WITH THE UNIQUE IDEA, ONE THAT WILL NEVER BE DONE IN TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT OF MP3 STREAMING, OF CONCEPT ALBUMS. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THAT SERIES OF ALBUMS?
It started at a time when we were doing three minute singles. Ray came up with “Dedicated to the Follower of Fashion”, and thought it would be a good idea to write a play about it. The amount of work that it took to put the ideas together might be like a mini-play. We thought that the Kinks songs deserved more exposure, and we were looking for ways to do that.
A three minute song can be only about one idea, but we all thought it would be better put our ideas to work together to make albums like Arthur and Preservation Society.
HOW DOES A BAND THAT STAYS TOGETHER FOR SO MANY DECADES KEEP FROM GETTING INTO THE DOLDRUMS? WHAT KEPT YOU INSPIRED ALL THOSE YEARS?
Ray and I were surrounded by music as kids. We would compete with each other musically
We used to listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Leadbelly. We’d make shows to the music. We had a big family and everyone would sing something different. We all loved to dance, so we’d all go to the theater to see things. Ray and I loved the song structure of show music. Oklahoma is a great piece of music, and we loved listening to that.
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“We used to listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Leadbelly. We’d make shows to the music. We had a big family and everyone would sing something different”
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YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST “ROCK” GUITARISTS IN ENGLAND. DID YOU HAVE A TEMPLATE OR A MODEL FOR YOUR INITIAL GUITAR PLAYING?
It was a mixture of things, really.
I was a big fan of The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes. My future brother in law played for me a lot of Tal Farlow and Barney Kessel, all of these great musicians. Jazz always had these riffs happening, so we just changed the riffs a little bit.
ARE YOU SURPRISED AS TO HOW INFLUENTIAL YOUR EARLY GUITAR SOLOS HAVE BECOME?
It’s nice that people think kindly of my playing, because back then I really didn’t know what I was doing! I was just glad that it all mixed together all right; some of it was a bit manic.
YOUR GUITAR PLAYING EVOLVED DURING THE YEARS OF YOUR CONCEPT ALBUM. YOUR SOLOS GOT MUCH MORE LINEAR
I learned early to do different styles of music, to go with the flow with the mood of the song. I followed the pulse that was going.
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“It’s nice that people think kindly of my playing, because back then I really didn’t know what I was doing! I was just glad that it all mixed together all right; some of it was a bit manic”
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WHEN IT’S YOUR TURN TO SOLO, WERE YOU GIVEN SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS, OR ARE YOU FREELY IMPROVISING?
Everything was a group effort. Ray would suggest something, then I would suggest something. A lot of it was collaboration. The concept album songs had more defined themes, and I’d improvise off of those. That’s how you learn music.
WHEN YOU’RE IN A BAND LIKE THE KINKS, IS THERE MORE PRESSURE ON YOU MUSICALLY OR COMMERCIALLY? IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN YOU ARE IN THE STUDIO, ARE THERE CONSIDERATIONS MORE FOR THE ART, OR FOR GETTING A “HIT”?
It does make a difference to have a hit record. It’s also more fun for a guitar player when you have a popular song, but music is supposed to be creative!
I don’t think people realize how important dancing was in our family.
We had sisters, and there would be a party in the house, with guitars and banjos. We’d play Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. We danced to all kinds of influences.
MOST YOUNG PEOPLE DON’T DANCE AS COUPLES ANY MORE, AND THAT TAKES SOMETHING OUT OF POPULAR MUSIC
Dancing is a fundamental aspect to music. We’re human, and music is helpful for young people getting together and dancing. You also learn timing.
That’s one of the reasons that I loved music, it’s a way for humans to show who they are.
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“I learned early to do different styles of music, to go with the flow with the mood of the song. I followed the pulse that was going”
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WHEN YOU WERE ON STAGE, DID YOU FEEL LIKEYOU HAD TO PLAY EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORD, OR WERE YOU FREE TO EXPERIMENT A LITTLE BIT?
We’d keep it much like the record, but when I’d get a chance, I’d try to improvise.
WHEN YOU’RE IN A BAND THAT LONG A TIME, CAN YOU TELL IF YOU’RE IN A FUNK, OR DOES SOMEONE HAVE TO TELL YOU?
That’s interesting, because Ray is so prolific as a solo writer.
There were always opportunities to try something new. He would use different and new words to stimulate us musically. He would write about different feelings to create new musical ideas.
Arthur, for example, was based on a WWII theme, and it had stories of family members that had certain experiences in the War. Lots of those songs gave me room to experiment and improvise
AND THE ALBUM LOLA VERSUS THE POWERMAN WAS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AS YOUR LIVES AS MUSICAL ARTISTS
We covered many aspects on that album, like what people expected of us and the labels betraying us.
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“It does make a difference to have a hit record. It’s also more fun for a guitar player when you have a popular song, but music is supposed to be creative!”
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WHICH BRINGS UP THE QUESTION TO ONE OF THE LINES IN THAT ALBUM. IS LIFE EASY WHEN YOUR RECORD IS HOT?
That’s a good title for a song! (laughs)
It’s easier to be stimulated by new ideas, and that is easier when people want to buy your records. People want to hear what new thing you’re playing, so that keeps you enjoying what you’re doing.
DO YOU STILL TAKE TIME TO PLAY THESE DAYS?
Of course!
One or two shows, I’ll do a mixture of my own material and the Kinks. It’s a mixed bag of the lot.
WHAT GIVES YOU THE MOST JOY IN LIFE?
I love listening to music. I used to listen to a lot of Duane Eddy as a kid. He was so influential to rock and roll. We even named one of our early bands after one of his tracks, the Ramrods.
I don’t know how I could live without music.
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“Play what makes you feel good. The feel is everything when you play. If you don’t have a feeling, you can’t play anything”
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YOU ALSO REHABILITATED YOURSELF AFTER A STROKE. HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
It’s all about will power, really. If you want something enough, you’ll go after it.
It wasn’t easy. I had to get my chops back. It was tiring! The memory of your fingers took a long time. And the timing-it took work to stop being “slightly off” ! You have to be determined.
The first week out of the hospital, I put the guitar in my bed. The brain picks up all these things, so I held the guitar while in sleeping in bed. My brain needed reminding.
At one point I thought, “Why bother ? I’ll never get it back” but I finally learned all the little tricks. I just had to remind myself over and over and over until I finally got it.
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“There were always opportunities to try something new. (Ray Davies) would use different and new words to stimulate us musically. He would write about different feelings to create new musical ideas”
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IF SOMEONE WERE TO START A BAND NOW, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE HIM OR HER?
It depends on how much you love music. I can’t imagine not having music in my life. Do you love it that much?
**Play what makes you feel good. The feel is everything when you play. If you don’t have a feeling, you can’t play anything.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE GOALS?
I still want to make albums in a recording studio. I’d like to play something new and wonderful, but that’s what we all want to do
IS THERE ANY BOOK OR PHILOSOPHY THAT HAS INSPIRED YOU?
Everything inspires me. The birds singing, Little Richard’s music. Music is what inspires me.
Railroad tracks inspire me. The rhythm of the trains, It’s all musical
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I can’t imagine not having music in my life. Do you love it that much?”
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DID YOU EVER FEEL THAT YOU ARRIVED AS AN ARTIST?
If you ever come to the place where you feel that you have arrived, you then realize that it’s a never ending story. You never arrive.
There’s always something else around the corner.
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO SAY AT YOUR MEMORIAL SERVICE?
“The music didn’t die”
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“If you ever come to the place where you feel that you have arrived, you then realize that it’s a never ending story. You never arrive”
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FOR A MAN WHO DEFINED ROCK GUITAR IN THE 1960S, DAVE DAVIES SOUNDS LIKE A MAN WHO LOOKS MORE TO THE FUTURE THAN THE PAST. HOWEVER, IT IS HIS LONG LASTING VALUES OF FAMILY THAT CREATED THE ENVIRONMENT FOR HIS ARTISTIC DESIRES. HIS ALLEGIANCE TO MUSIC AS AN ARTIST CONTINUES TO INSPIRE AND INFLUENCE, AS, WE MAY SAY, “HE ALWAYS WANTS TO BE BY OUR SIDE”