Recently, NPR’s Fresh Air program ran what, to me, was a wholly unsatisfying and slightly annoying interview with Ray Davies. I looked forward to listening to Terry Gross’ interview with the Kinks’ leader for all the wrong reasons:
Dec 082014
Nov 022012
WANTED: Bassist with good hair. No poseurs!
Some nerdboy with a thing for Pete Quaife‘s hairdo is bound to disagree, but driving into work this morning it occurred to me that The Kinks achieved a legendary body of work without having any particularly influential musician. Any musician with an ounce of taste will rave about songwriting and the songs, but beside Dave Davies‘ freakout solos on a couple of early singles, who ever thinks of any member of that band in a “Musicians’ Musician” type of way? Who’s ever posted an add seeking a musician with a description of the musical style of a member of The Kinks?
Sure, a case can be made for the influence of Ray Davies‘ fey vocal delivery, but has Ray ever made a “Top 100 Vocalists in Rock” list? Highly doubtful.
In no way do I mean to imply that there’s anything wrong with this thought, mind you, but I was wondering if any other legendary bands were composed of musicians who didn’t particularly influence future generations of musicians, you know, real musicians who practice, buy special gear, and shit like that.
Oct 282012
For some reason I was digging deep the other day and pulled out this relic from Dave Davies.
This little number wasn’t very popular back in the early ’80s, but I always thought it rocked pretty hard, compared to Kinks stuff of the same period.
Another bro sideman I like, is Warren Zanes, who was a teenager when he was in Del Fuegos with bro Dan. His Memory Girls album of a few years ago is not well known, but a real nice record. Evidently, Warren works at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, but there isn’t much on YouTube of his solo stuff, so this will have to do.
A buddy of mine is a strong supporter of David Knopfler, a “founder” of Dire Straits for all that got him: “Wild West End?”This low-rent video is somewhat amusing. I guess Mark figured he didn’t need a sound alike in the band.
So, who’s you favorite brother SIDEMAN?
Sep 172012
John, how many songs should George get?
I’m a 2per. So is George Harrison, and so is John Entwistle, and so is Dave Davies. That’s the term I’m slapping on a person in a band with a dominant songwriter who typically gets two of his songs included on each album among the principal songwriter’s songs. When I brought up the concept to E. Pluribus Gergley of RTH discussing who the best 2per is, he responded in his typically open-minded way that there’s nothing to discuss. It’s George Harrison. So I sat on the topic until I thought of a different angle on it.
Jul 142012
Greetings. At the urging of Chief RTH Labs Liaison Hrrundi V Bakshi, my dedicated staff set about attempting to determine once and for all which of the two classic Kinks tracks — “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All Of the Night” — is superior. This we attempted to do with the aid of some extremely sophisticated sound analysis machinery, decades of research notes and, of course, the patented, exclusive Stratomatic™ analysis and compositional software, to which only RTH Labs has access.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/01-You-Really-Got-Me-All-Of-the-Night1.mp3|titles=You Really Got Me All Of the Night]Through the use of all the technologies at our disposal, we were able to produce a new piece of music, weaving both songs into one contiguous piece, that proved once and for all that — scientifically speaking — the tunes have an identical quotient of every required Rock Element. In layman’s terms, they are equally “good.” As always, I invite you to listen for yourself. You will find that your notions of categorical and/or overall superiority for your preferred song are quite irrelevant.
Thank you for your time, and your ongoing interest in the rational, quantitative analysis of rock and roll.
Jul 122012
The Kinks x 2
Has there ever been a band who’s first two big, international singles sounded so much alike that they were like twins? If you just met and liked Bob, you’ll love his identical twin Rob! The Bob and Rob of the rock world would have to be those two British Invasion, proto-heavy metal doppelgangers “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.” These two sound so much the same the first 100 times you hear them. Same new (for the time) guitar distortion, similar sliding barre-chord riffs, same wild and un-schooled guitar solos, same dramatic endings.
But you mad scientists here in the Hall can put on your lab coats and really dissect the differences between this pair. Which is the better song and why?
You’ll have to get deep into the tiny details to do it right. I’ll post the audio files (no Youtube – I don’t care about look or stagecraft here) for your use and put my thoughts down in the comments later.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/You-Really-Got-Me1.mp3|titles=The Kinks: You Really Got Me] [audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/All-Day-and-All-of-the-Night.mp3|titles=The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night]May 302012
Bad blood.
Townsman Sethro passed along the following topic for discussion:
Are there any brother acts in rock history who actually got along? The Bee Gees seemed to get along better than most, but most of the time you hear about The Everly Brothers, Oasis, The Kinks, etc and their constant fighting.
Happy sister acts or mixed brother-sister acts are also welcome for discussion.
