Posts Tagged ‘dave davies’

Amidst speculation that brother Ray could be ready to reform The Kinks without him, Dave Davies has refused to rule out joining his estranged sibling on stage, despite being quoted last year as saying a Kinks reunion is out of the question because ‘you don’t need to see silly old men in wheelchairs singing ‘You Really Got Me”.

In today’s Soundbites, our weekly look at news, reviews, mp3s, tabloid gossip and more, there’s some disappointing news for Coldplay fans, Slash explains his current favourite rock n roll torch-bearer, and Noah & The Whale’s recent single is featured. There’s also a couple of free mp3s from Jon Fratelli and Kyla La Grange, a classic Kinks video, and news from Dave Grohl and the MTV VMAs.

Former Kinks guitarist Dave Davies looks to have put any lingering hopes of a reunion with his brother Ray to bed, after discussing the ongoing animosity between the brothers which has been well documented for over forty years.

The Kinks released their breakthrough single ‘You Really Got Me‘.

Formed by brothers Ray and Dave Davies, along with bassist Pete Quaife in the early 60s, The Kinks had been through an unsettled period in their early years. Several lead singers had been tried out, most notably Rod Stewart, who played on at least one occasion with the band, and they had played with a couple of different drummers before Mick Avory eventually joined shortly before they signed their first record deal. They got their break when a demo tape found it’s way to producer Shel Talmy, which led to them being signed by Pye Records. However by the summer of 1964, the band were under pressure from their record company after their first two singles, a cover of ‘Long Tall Sally’ and ‘You Still Want Me’, failed to chart. The band needed their third single to be a hit.

‘You Really Got Me’ was written by Ray Davies, who’s efforts on this track would establish him as the group’s chief writer, however it was brother Dave who had significant influence on the track’s sound once they entered the studio. After recording the song once, the band were unsatisfied and decided to record it again. It was then that Dave Davies achieved the song’s distinctive raw sound, virtually unique at the time, by slicing one of his guitar amps in half with a razor blade. He also recorded the song’s memorable guitar solo. The famous myth that future Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page, who was employed at the time as a session musician, recorded the solo is denied by the Davies brothers and Page himself.

Upon it’s release, any early pressures on the band due to their previous flops quickly disappeared as the song became an instant hit in the UK, as well as finding them success in America, peaking at #7 on the Billboard chart and thus seeing them become a part of the so called ‘British Invasion’ in the US.

The song has since been cited as one of the most influential of all time, often called the first ‘heavy metal’ track, while the ‘clumsy’ playing style of Dave Davies has been seen as a strong influence on the punk rock movement which would appear over a decade later.

The track laid the foundation for a successful career for the band. Ray Davies would go on to pen further classic tracks throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, with songs such as ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Dedicated Follower Of Fashion’ and ‘Lola’ confirming them as one of the greatest bands to emerge in the 1960s.

The band continued to record and tour for many years, before eventually playing their last gig in 1996.