The Kinks

The Kinks - Kinks / Kinda Kinks / Kinks Kontroversy - Email this interview Printable version
The Kinks are one of the bands that shaped the British music scene in the early and mid-sixties and their career delivered some of the greatest songs that have ever been written � the world would be a lot poorer for the lack of songs such as �Waterloo Sunset� or �Days� or �Lola� and these came out of a bands whose origins were in an unfashionable area of North London. Fortis Green.
Their first three albums have been re-issued with a host of extra tracks and I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Dave Davies, founder member of the group with his brother Ray, bassist Pete Quaife (sadly now deceased) and drummer Mick Avory.


MN: Dave, the first album has an incredible energy and immediacy about it, how did the recording come about and what was the set up in the band at the time?
DD: We were only about 15 or 16 years old when that first album was made. Ray and I started the band and we had lots of enthusiasm and excitement about recording the album. We had very little time to record the album, everything had to be right first time and if the song lasted five minutes we recorded it in 5 minutes. We were so young that the creativity needed that spontaneity.

MN: How much did Shel Talmy (their producer) have to do with the sound of the band?
DD: Originally the band had a really rocky relationship with Shel. He was American and he had done all this work in Chicago. The band hated his sound, all echoes and no guitars but once he understood that what the band wanted was simplicity he modified his approach and it was really good to have his input on the sound.

MN: On numbers like �You Really Got Me� you developed a really harsh and raucous edge to your guitar sound. How did all that come about?
DD: All the guitar sounds early on were very clean but I was looking for a lot more grit and aggression. Next door to the studio there was a radio spares shop and they had this little amp and speaker combo, a green �Elpico� in the window. I plugged the Elpico into the inputs of my AC30 using the Elpico as a sort of pre-amp and it sounded great but I still wasn�t satisfied. The speaker was in an open frame and I took a razor blade and slashed the speaker cone and now it gave me a distorted and jagged sound I started using that in the live shows that I performed with the band and that was the sound we used on �You Really Got me�. That sound was really important to us as it opened the door for many other forms and allowed us to experiment more. It was also a big part of my personal expression on guitar, that gritty and rough sound.

MN: The first album includes a lot of classics as well as some, now classic, Kinks originals. Was it a conscious decision to mix it up or did you not have enough original material for the album?
DD: Our set list was built up from playing classics like �Milk Cow Blues� so it was natural to do those songs on the album This developed the band sound and the new songs developed from there with my guitar sound and Ray�s writing. I was a big fan of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and there is a lot of that influence.

MN: What were your musical influences at the time?
DD: I grew up in a big family, I had 6 elder sisters and there was always music around the house. A friend used to bring records from the US and Canada � Elvis, Hank Williams, Doris Day, that sort of thing and it was all music to draw on. As I said before I loved Johnny Kidd & The Pirates as well so that was in there too and I have always loved to listen to a three piece band � it seems more focused and more powerful.

MN: The Kinks are often described as the first �Rock� band. Did you actively set out to create a new sound or did it develop through the first three albums?
DD: We were really growing in confidence between the first three albums. Learning what we could do and what we wanted to sound like and the sound developed from that. The guitar sound was a conscious thing but the band sound was something that grew as we learned our trade.

MN: The package tours of the time were a proving ground for a lot of the bands � how were your experiences? Were there any of the other band that you were particularly close to?
DD: We were good friends with the Hollies. They had been around for about a year longer than us and took us under their wing in the early package tours. Graham Nash was a big help and a really big inspiration on me. The Yardbirds were also great guys and I was particularly friendly with Jeff Beck � a very different sound.

MN: What is your relationship like with Ray (Dave�s brother Ray Davies) and Mick (Avory) these days? Any chance of a Kinks reunion?
DD: I don�t see much of Mick these days but I see Ray from time to time. There are no definite plans but nothing is definitely ruled out .


The first album �Kinks� is a classic piece of British Blues/pop from the time. Short and punchy songs with lots of Americanisms and not too much that sounds like the band that they developed into but with a real charm and zest about the music that really grabs your attention. Dave�s guitar sound first comes to the fore on the Kinks classic �You Really Got Me� and the vocal on that song has become one of the most recognisable sounds in British rock but the album also features some fine playing on numbers like �Beautiful Delilah� which has a sound that is absolutely a precursor to punk. They were one of the few London bands of the time who had no history with the Alexis Korner/Graham Bond/Cyril Davies Blues outfits and the sound on �Kinks� has a lot more immediacy and less of a debt to American Blues than many of the other bands of the era. Mick Avory had, in fact, had trials for the Rolling Stones before their first gigs at the Marquee and had a jazz drumming background that gave the Kinks a different sound to most of their contemporaries.
Dave�s guitar on �Long Tall Shorty� almost seems to presage the early psychedelic sounds from the West Coast bands and numbers like �I�m A Lover Not A Fighter� really have the punch that early Stones and Americans like the Blues Magoos or Paul Revere featured.
The Kinks version of their original �Stop Your Sobbing� has more authority than the Pretenders version and their �Louie Louie� is sloppy, raucous and completely believable.

�Kinda Kinks� sees the band gaining in confidence and beginning to make their own sound. More influences creeping in and the band growing as a combo. �Nothin� In The World Can Stop Me� is a huge step forward for the band with much of the harshness eased and Ray�s voice showing that he could really cope with a song that puts over emotion and sublety. �Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight� really bounces with a piano track leading the song and their version of �Dancing In The Streets� shows that they could purloin Motown as well as anyone. The classic �Tired Of Waiting For You� still sounds as fresh as it did back in 1965 and with �Well Respected Man� you get the first of the satirical numbers that teh Kinks did so much better than anyone else while �So Long� has a lovely folky lilt to it that fits the time perfectly.

�The Kink Kontroversy� is the Kinks at their early best. Rocking like demons and complete as a combo, they were beginning to make a name for themselves as a live act and the album sounds like they had really built their persona. �Till The End Of The Day� and �Dedicated Follower Of Fashion� almost show the two sides of the band but the quality of their playing had developed and there seem to be ideas flying in from all over. Ray�s voice is getting more distinct and as an album this one is the best developed and most coherent.

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