Kinked Again. Revisiting the Phenomenon of the Kinks

And so, just like that, I’m back in 2011, the year I finally discovered the Kinks, the flame rekindled, courtesy of a BBC strand on the band. What does it this time is a documentary called I’m Not Like Everybody Else, which has interviews with both Ray and Dave Davies, and Mick Avory and Pete Quaife and music clips. End up singing Shangri-La for days. Oh, that particular gift that Ray has with major and minor, minutiae and melancholy, every tiny triumph pricked by irony, a herald to defeat, every loss resigned to, ‘every everything’ as my friend the late and great Grant Hart might say. It’s all there in the writing and the delivery. And that intelligence, that he plays down a lot. Of course, you’re a poet, Ray, but so much more than that.

And Dave. And Dave. What can I say? The cheekiness of the ten-year-old has never left him. Disarmingly honest, I fall victim to his charisma once more. His artless manner allows him to call his brother a ‘manipulative arsehole’ and get away with it.

So, the first Kinks song I remember hearing, and loving, was Celluloid Heroes (released in 1979) (probably the first time I'd heard the word 'celluloid'), because it was played a lot on Radio Caroline. It is such a tour de force and a typical Kinks song, in that it was atypical and unlike the rest of the music of the time. Full of melodrama and bathos, it told a story, it had a message – the power and the transience of fame ('Success walks hand in hand with failure along Hollywood Boulevard') and the price you might pay for it, how the glamour is merely an illusion. I presume I did hear the 60s and early 70s tracks on the Golden Oldies shows at the time but I never really connected any of them with the band who made Celluloid Heroes.

I feel as if Ray Davies is an old soul. That, even as a young man, he could understand and imagine what it might be like to be a middle-aged man, or an old man. And then capture it in a character in a song, who, even if slightly ridiculed, is ridiculed with affection and compassion (Mr Pleasant, A Well-Respected Man). He moves on, innovates, changes tack but he will still be looking at the scene in the rearview mirror, then encapsulating it in song – such as Come Dancing, Working Man’s Café (Ray solo). I’m like Ray. I was nostalgic by the age of 11. Dave says ‘If something good happens, Ray will construct a situation to make it go wrong.’ The thing is Dave just accepts something good has happened – its face value – but Ray is already looking the gift horse in the mouth or maybe even remembering the Trojan horse.

And Dave Davies is a new soul. He seems to regenerate, be able to leave and leave behind without rancour or regret. And maybe he doesn't even register the fact that he has left anything behind. He's moved on. His moment is everything. It’s as if he lived the life a CBT counsellor advised me to, carpe diem, without ever pausing to consider the past or the future but ready to connect right here, right now. It would probably be uncool of me to quote a John Denver song at this point but, if you have ever read any of my blogs, you’ll know that being thought uncool does not give me sleepless nights: ‘I can’t be contented with yesterday’s story/I can’t live on promises, winter to spring/Today is my moment, and now is my story/Who cares what tomorrow will bring?’ (Today – John Denver) 

I think I used the phrase ‘emotional intelligence’ to convey Dave’s writing and performing, perhaps in my blog comparing Dave’s role in the Kinks to George Harrison’s in the Beatles, and Dave’s solo career to George Harrison’s. Dave's music is transparent, immediate, accessible and stirring but, if you started to analyse the lyrics, you would find they don’t make total sense – it’s more a tide of feeling that carries you along (Strangers). Sometimes it’s like magic (Flowers in the Rain – Dave solo). Don’t get me wrong (to gratuitously quote Different Drum – Stone Poneys, written by Mike Nesmith), Ray has that emotional intelligence too and can create a song that’s sublime, subtle, simple, beautiful, of its time and of all time (to paraphrase the late, beloved Glenn Frey, speaking of the Eagles), like the incomparable Waterloo Sunset, but he’s also a consummate craftsman. When he paints a portrait or a landscape, any detail can be extracted and enlarged, and reveal more about the scene. Or say, if it were a character in a movie, there would be a backstory complete enough to satisfy Dustin Hoffman. The tune will be as contagious as Covid. Dave is more of an Impressionist. He paints in broad brush strokes.

It's not that Ray isn't optimistic. He's a realist. Listen to Real World. How else to explain it? Ray sees the wood and the trees within them. Dave sees the trees. And guess, what, I'm back to Different Drum.

Dedicated to John Gosling, 1948 - 2023. Rest in Peace.

 

Flowers in the Rain – Dave Davies

 

Like a perfect spider's web

Almost unbearably pretty, delicate, like a perfect, intricate cobweb spun across your path on a summer’s day, ephemeral, evanescent, something that cannot last, that a casual hand or gentle breeze might accidentally sunder. An evocation of another era, the innocence of all our childhoods. Suffused with sadness, regret, longing, tenderness, but also the understanding, forgiveness and acceptance that accompanies the passage of time. It reminds me in a way of Fleetwood Mac's Say Goodbye, written by Lindsey Buckingham.

A wistful but philosophical meditation on young love, from the vantage of the present, with Dave’s voice even more affecting as it breaks slightly reaching for a note, as if what he feels can't be restrained by his physical ability, that it transcends something so corporeal. A melancholy refrain gives way to a chorus that gently takes flight, never soaring but remaining in harmony with the simple restraint of the song. It refuses to aggrandise the sentiment into something it’s not.

More Artful Dodger than Oliver
in Dead End Street, wicked boy

The video of this on YouTube was my first sighting of a grown-up Dave. I only started liking the Kinks, as you can tell from these blogs, in 2011. And the fact that he was so much older than the wicked boy I had seen in Kinks videos, physically almost frail (post-stroke), increased the song’s poignancy, as a reflection on a youth that was over and the exuberance, purity and intensity of first love.

Pretty boy

Every time I heard this song I used to cry, particularly if I were watching Dave sing it live at those unforgettable Satsang events, detailed in Dave Davies Breaks My Heart (Again): Satsang I and Dave Davies: Satsang II: April 2012: You Only Live Twice. It’s like a snippet from someone’s diary, personal, intimate, authentic. I’m not sure that Ray could write a song like this because he has too much self-awareness. Dave has an emotional intelligence that, put into song, can transcend some of Ray’s writing. And here there’s something unadulterated, a truth, something that Ray perhaps can't access as easily (or chooses not to access) because his intelligence, his craft, get in the way, advising an ironic distance; he has too many options, too many personae, too many angles and ideas. He sees each side. And Ray rarely opens his heart like this. He keeps his heart under wraps, keeps it safe. Here Dave shares an experience, private and precious, at once individual and universal, lets his guard down, exposes his vulnerability. It was this song that made me like Dave. I went on to love the dis-ingenu Dave of the early Kinks, always more Artful Dodger than Oliver, the wicked boy.

Today as I'm sifting through these photographs of you/Never thought I'd feel this way/All these memories keep calling me to you/How I wish they'd go away/All these visions just remind me of better days/And I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain/I see you laughing as we run across the fields/Through the thunder and the rain/Finding shelter in each other's arms that day/All the things I didn't say/All these words keep going round and round in my brain/And I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain/Wish I could do something about it/Life can be cruel, no doubt about it/In life's many mysteries/It just wasn't meant to be, oh no/I miss you most of all/When I see Flowers in the Rain.

Another pretty boy

Ray’s style is more masterful, more knowing, more constructed, an artifice, in words and music. There’s truth and power but it’s one step removed. His songs make you think as well as feel. But when they’re simple and seem heartfelt, you know it’s a decision, the reflection of a thought, that this is how he meant them to sound although early Kinks songs had a similar immediate charm. I would say that Ray is probably a deeper thinker than Dave generally (and I'm sure that Dave would take issue with that), that Dave doesn't always consider before he acts, is more impetuous in life. And the result is songs that don't always make sense lyrically, don't necessarily follow any standard template but seem to arise organically and have an added impact because of that, for instance, This Man He Weeps Tonight and Mindless Child of Motherhood. I'm not going to say Ray's work is not emotionally affecting because I'm moved by so much of it, from the super successful (Waterloo Sunset - unbelievably, this seems to be the first time I've mentioned this fantastic song in any of my Kinks blogs, as if I didn't appreciate its consummate artistry) to the, to non-Kinks fans, relatively obscure (Get Back in the Line), not to mention the incredibly rousing I'm Not Like Everybody Else (this live version is particularly amazing). But he will never let his guard down (in his work at least). Dave is unguarded. There is an honesty and directness in this and many other Dave songs. It’s as if the song were born, rather than carefully crafted, although I know it wasn’t. There's something  uncomplicated, unostentatious, sincere, instinctual that we react to instinctively.

Dave then

This song is almost like when you pick a scab off a cut to reveal fresh skin underneath. It’s still tender but it’s healed, it's new. Love is lost; love is found; we lament, but scars fade and life goes on. Dave moves on, often burning his bridges behind him.

So, how can I fall out of love with Dave, when songs like this still touch me? And that’s not nothing. It’s something: to be moved by a tune, a lyric, a delivery, all of which are in their way, Dave’s way, immaculate here. Flowers in the Rain is a direct call from Dave's heart to our hearts to which our hearts cannot help but respond.

Dave in 2017

For more on Dave Davies's songwriting, see Dave Davies and George Harrison: Parallel Lives Part I and Dave Davies and George Harrison: Parallel Lives Part II.

Rise Like a Phoenix – Conchita Wurst: The Best Bond Theme That Never Was

Dignified and defiant

Song composers: Charley Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski, Julian Maas, Robin Grubert

Singer: Conchita Wurst
[Conchita Wurst is the female alter ego of Tom Neuwirth.]

[Quick Kinks connection. Another contender would be Ray Davies’s ‘Oh, What a Day It’s Going to Be’, performed here by Mo and Steve (whoever they might be). I think this is the closest Ray ever got to the Bond oeuvre, for overblown passion, bordering on the histrionic.]

Conchita: 'I'm just a singer in a fabulous dress, with great hair and a beard.'

Conchita: 'It's just art.''

I didn’t encounter the phenomenon that is Conchita until this year, not being a huge Eurovision fan, when I caught the Eurovision’s Greatest Hits programme. In 2014, Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria, with ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’, her victory a testament to tolerance and a tribute to her inordinately disarming personality and incredible charisma as much as her voice and the song (and to persistence as it looks like this was her second attempt at Eurovision; in 2012, she narrowly missed out on representing Austria with 'That's What I Am' and specialises in delivering inspirational, life-affirming songs, such as 'Unbreakable' and 'You Are Unstoppable', with total conviction, although ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ is the only one that sounds like it should be played over Bond credits).

I think there’s a real case for ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ to be the theme for the next film in the Bond franchise. I’m by no means the first person to think so – just search on YouTube for ‘Rise Like a Phoenix 007’ and you’ll see what I mean. You could even call the movie Phoenix, in the tradition of the one-word title. Ok, there’s no tradition yet but who says there can't be? We had Skyfall and now Spectre. It even sounds like a Bond title, making reference to a fantastic, mythical creature (much like Conchita herself) rising from the flame (you only live twice and all that). Oh, I'm so annoyed. Someone's just released a film called Phoenix.

Golden Lady I

This song seems to have been written with Bond in mind, with all the requisite elements – the lush soundscape and accomplished arrangement of an archetypal Bond theme.  Reminiscent of those glorious John Barry anthems, immortalised by Dame Shirley Bassey, ‘Goldfinger’ (lyrics: Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley; coincidentally this and another Bassey classic, 'This Is My Life' (Bruno Canfora/Antonio Amurri/Norman Newell) were sung by Tom Neuwirth on a talent show – there's evidently an affinity over and above their fashion sense; Shirley's version rocks) and ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ (lyrics: Don Black; here's The X Factor's Aiden Grimshaw’s more electronic take), with all the heightened melodrama and emotion of the thwarted diva destined to rise resplendent. I gather that Barry used to ‘Bondify’ (my term) the other artists' songs so that they fitted his aural vision for the Bond canon. All the themes have a particular feel, an elusive essence that is as hard to define as it is easy to recognise. It’s as if ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ has already undergone this process; it's already perfect.

[John Barry composed many unforgettable movie themes – the incredibly touching ‘Born Free’ which I never hear without shedding a tear, the gorgeously romantic and evocative ‘Out of Africa’.]

Golden Lady II

With the subjects of metamorphosis, transformation, self-realisation and adversity overcome as well as the promise of retribution, it could fit any movie script but is perhaps particularly apposite to a Bond narrative. Like other Bond numbers, it can be appreciated and understood on a personal and a universal level as a hymn to resilience, resurgence and self-empowerment. Bold, fearless and unrepentant. Hearing and looking at Conchita, you can't help but be reminded of Gloria Gaynor’s paean to individuality ‘I Am What I Am’ a little, in particular, the line ‘I am my own special creation’.

The lavish orchestration and Conchita’s perfect vocal delivery emulate and almost exceed those Shirley Bassey numbers but the lyrics and Conchita’s unique image (although there are some parallels with Dame Shirley here too, as can be seen in the pictures) – magnificent, figure-hugging floor-length gowns, the old-school glamour of the night-club siren, combined with full make-up (her make-up video on YouTube has had three million views; Shirley didn’t shirk on make-up either) and beard – help to reinvent and revitalise this tried and tested template for a new era. A daring blend of the familiar and the innovative that challenges the norms, just as any movie franchise should after fifty-odd years.

Make-up tutorial

'Waking in the rubble/Walking over glass/Neighbours say we're trouble/Well that time has passed/Peering from the mirror/No, that isn't me/Stranger getting nearer/Who can this person be?/You wouldn't know me at all today/From the fading light I fly'

A sweeping string intro before a muted piano accompaniment to Conchita’s at first deliberately portentous and subdued vocal, building excitement and the sense that something is about to happen. Cue the chorus.

Not one to shirk the make-up

'Rise like a phoenix/Out of the ashes/Seeking rather than vengeance/Retribution/You were warned/Once I'm transformed/Once I'm reborn/You know I will rise like a phoenix/But you're my flame'

Conchita exudes mystery and sex appeal as well as an engaging blend of strength and vulnerability. Her utterly commanding interpretation makes the most of the majestic chord change for the obligatory soaring and triumphant crescendo of the chorus: proud, fierce, conveyed with defiant dignity. Or even dignified defiance.

‘Go about your business/Act as if you're free/No one could have witnessed/What you did to me’

The suspenseful strings here could easily be lifted and used as build-up to a thrilling Bond set piece.

The next Bond villain?

'I rise up to the sky/You threw me down but/I'm gonna fly'

The finale is suitably grandiose and simply glorious. Conchita's control is absolute.

When asked if she would like to play a Bond girl, Conchita  replied:

'No, that would mean nothing to me. But I would love to play a Bond villain, who fights to the very end.'

To be continued I hope.

A Radio Times poll has Conchita as an overwhelming favourite to sing the next Bond number. She scores nearly 82 percent, with her nearest rival on about 2 percent. That’s a pretty convincing win.

Tom Neuwirth

Here's a poem that captures the Conchita effect.

[I’m a bit confused about my reaction to Conchita. I’m a straight woman (though sometimes wish I wasn't) but I find the Conchita persona completely captivating even though she’s a man (yes pronouns don’t really work with Conchita), dressed and made up like a woman (hyper feminine and always elegant) with a beard. Of course, Conchita is really a gay man in drag (Tom Neuwirth) but still I wonder, is it just me? Or do some people’s charms simply override usual gender preferences? I sort of fancy Conchita but I don’t fancy Tom.] 

Never less than ravishing

Adventures in the Kinkdom

Here’s a brief précis of my Kinks blogs so far.

I become enchanted

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/birth-of-obsession-kinks.html

and bewitched

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/kinks-progress-of-obsession-part-ii.html

Dave Davies Satsang Experience

First time around

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/dave-davies-breaks-my-heart-again.html

Setlist and band members

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/dave-davies-satsang-weekend-setlist.html

You Only Live Twice

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/dave-davies-satsang-ii-april-2012-you.html

Muswell Hillbillies, Kinks locales

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/this-is-my-street-and-im-never-gonna.html

X-Raying X-Ray

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/x-raying-x-ray-by-ray-davies-part-one.html

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/x-raying-x-ray-by-ray-davies-part-two.html

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/x-raying-x-ray-part-3-lost-between.html

Uncovering Kink

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/reflections-on-kink-by-dave-davies.html

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/dave-davies-kink-man-behaving-badly.html

Kink vs X-Ray

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/brothers-beyond-kink-dave-daviesx-ray.html

Movie Stars

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/who-should-play-ray-and-dave-davies-in.html

Village Green

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/village-green-preservation-society.html

Come Dancing

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/come-dancing-with-ray-davies-2012.html

Ray Davies Live

At Canterbury

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/ray-davies-canterbury-tale.html

At the Hop Farm

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ray-davies-rocks-hop-farm-festival-2012.html

On tour with Ray

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ray-davies-its-really-been-quite-trip.html

Dave Davies Guitar Hero

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dave-davies-unsung-guitar-hero.html

Dave Davies & George Harrison Paralle1 Lives 1

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/dave-davies-and-george-harrison.html

Dave Davies & George Harrison Paralle1 Lives 2

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/dave-davies-and-george-harrison.html

Dave Davies: Flowers in the Rain
http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/flowers-in-rain-dave-davies.html

Ray Davies at the BBC

http://sshh-sshh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ray-davies-mastertapes-bbc-maida-vale.html

Bashful Badger also summarised her Kinks blogs so far in a digest.

Opinion8: Songs about School

No need for a preamble – the title says it: my 8 favourite songs about school. As usual, links are in the song titles.

1 Adult Education – Hall and Oates (1984)

It’s easy to forget how vital, how exciting, how stirring some of those old Hall and Oates songs were. This grabs you immediately, has a great hook, a driving beat and interesting lyrics. Soul cum funk cum pop, just a perfect song. And you know what a sucker I am for the syncopated handclap.

It’s afternoon in the home room and they're about to let you go/And the lockers slam on the plan you had tonight/You’ve been messing around with a boyfriend maybe better left alone/There's a wise guy that you know could put you right/ … /And the long halls and the gray walls are gonna split apart/Believe it or not there's life after high school.

2 I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats (1979)

You forget how dramatic the Rats could be (like the brilliant Rat Trap) but this is a great reminder.

Bob Geldof wrote the song after reading a telex report on the shooting spree of sixteen-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on 29 January 1979. Spencer’s explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day". Geldof:  I was thinking about it on the way back to the hotel and I just said 'Silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload'. I wrote that down. And the journalist interviewing her said, 'Tell me why?'

The silicon chip inside her head/Gets switched to overload/And nobody’s gonna go to school today/She’s gonna make them stay at home/And daddy doesn’t understand it/He always said she was good as gold/And he can see no reasons/'Cos there are no reasons/What reason do you need to be show-ow-ow-ow-own?

3 What I Go to School For – Busted (2002)

Joyful, irresistible, effervescent pop. A British group that sound American, Replacements-lite, ass not arse and so on. I forgot how much fun they were. So much energy.
Her voice is echoed in my mind/I count the days till she is mine/Can’t tell my friends cos they will laugh/I love a member of the staff/I fight my way to front of class/To get the best view of her ass/I drop a pencil on the floor/She bends down and shows me more …/That’s what I go to school for ...

[The Kinks have to feature because of the concept album, Schoolboys in Disgrace, which looks back at the Davies boys’ schooldays and Dave’s misdemeanours. The front cover was illustrated by Mickey Finn of T. Rex, later appearing on NME's list of the '50 worst covers of all time'. Ray Davies's take is typically conflicted. He hated his schooldays but they were happy days. I don't think Dave’s memory would be as rose-tinted.]

4 Headmaster – the Kinks

Gentle piano introduction accompanies Ray’s confessional verse to the headmaster before the guitar breaks through as he becomes more impassioned and somehow more distant-sounding in the chorus (as if he were singing loudly but holding the mike away from him). Dave says ‘The chorus after the guitar solo is pure magic’.

Of course, as mentioned in another blog, Ray’s usually typecast as the evil headmaster.

Headmaster don't beat me I beg you/I know that I've let you down/Headmaster please spare me I beg you/Don't make me take my trousers down.

Methinks he doth protest too much.

5 Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus (2000)

Revenge of the nerds in a song. Catchy chorus, identifiable characters, clever words and it tells a story even if it does have the requisite happy ending of a romcom.

Her boyfriend's a dick/He brings a gun to school/He'd simply kick my ass if he knew the truth/He lives on my block/And he drives an I-ROC/But he doesn't know who I am/And he doesn't give a damn about me.

6 School of Hard Knocks – Christian Kane (1997)*

This is from some teen show, Fame LA, that I’d never heard of. Only discovered it existed through my love of Christian Kane’s music. This wasn’t written by him (as far as I know) but it makes no difference as even in 19whatever, he sings it with total conviction. I just love the spirit with which he approaches things – if he does anything, he gives it his all. I love his voice and it doesn’t hurt that he’s cute. Great lyrics.

Well, the last one hurt like hell/Knocked the wind right out of my sail/and I'll heal up someday/But it's gonna leave a beauty of a scar/ … I'm tryin' to get myself an education/Cry one more tear towards graduation/'Cause every Sunday punch I've thrown/Has come back around to clean my clock/The bell is ringin' down at the school of hard knocks/They're gonna inscribe my name/At the bridge-burnin' hall of fame/As a fool who never learned/That there ain't no future in it … 

*For more on Christian Kane, see: ‘Country music has always been first and foremost in my heart’.

7 School’s Out – Alice Cooper (1972)

Cooper was inspired to write the song when answering the question, ‘What's the greatest three minutes of your life?’ His reply: ‘There's two times during the year. One is Christmas morning, when you're just getting ready to open the presents. … The next one is the last three minutes of the last day of school when you're sitting there and it's like a slow fuse burning. I said, “If we can catch that three minutes in a song, it's going to be so big”.’ And he did and it was.

School's out for summer school's out forever school's been blown to pieces/No more pencils no more books no more teacher's dirty looks yeah/Well we got no class and we got no principals …

8 Don’t Stand So Close to Me – the Police (1982)

Love the ominous-sounding beginning. This won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In the UK, it was the biggest selling single of the year. Rhyming cough with Nabokov is surely worthy of Ray Davies himself.

Loose talk in the classroom/To hurt they try and try/Strong words in the staffroom/The accusations fly/It's no use, he sees her/He starts to shake and cough/Just like the old man in/That book by Nabokov ...

Bubbling under

I’m in Disgrace – the Kinks

Schooldays – the Kinks

Beauty School Dropout – Frankie Avalon

Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd
To Sir, with Love – Lulu

Kiss Off – Violent Femmes
Thirteen – Big Star (can't believe I forgot this till now)

Dave Davies and George Harrison: Parallel Lives Part II

[If you missed Part I, you can find it here.]

Connections

Both were the youngest members of the band and the lead guitarists. They may even have played the same guitar.

Dave says:

‘Somebody had loaned me a custom-built Guild guitar that had once been owned by George Harrison. In those days we carried our own instruments and when we arrived at the airport in LA all the bags arrived except for that guitar.’ Dave went on to buy a Gibson Futurist, aka the Flying Vee, for $200. I think the moral of this tale is ‘Don’t lend Dave your guitar.’

And they loved their guitars:

In Kink, Dave writes of a girlfriend:

‘She was terribly jealous of that guitar, the way I held it, the way I cared for it. She always thought I loved it more than I did her.’

George told Beatles Monthly:

‘I believe I love my guitar more than the others love theirs. For John and Paul, songwriting is pretty important and guitar playing is a means to an end. While they're making up new tunes I can thoroughly enjoy myself just doodling around with a guitar for a whole evening. I'm fascinated by new sounds I can get from different instruments I try out. I'm not sure that makes me particularly musical. Just call me a guitar fanatic instead, and I'll be satisfied.’

Collaboration

It seems that Dave and George had similar attitudes when working with others to create a song. The result was more important than who did what.

Two quotes from Dave illustrate this:

‘Lola was written in a similar way to You Really Got Me. We got together in Ray's front room, and Ray had the basic idea of the song, the skeleton idea … and I just started playing E in the bottom position, moved it up to A, leaving the E string open and in the chord. Ray said, 'Ah, that's great. Let's put that in as well.' [As a songwriter] Ray has a very firm idea about what he wants to do, and I try to accommodate him as best I can, but I think in certain areas, on certain songs, there's a lot more collaboration than people realise. Although Ray and I don't get on particularly well, there's a lot of empathy and unspoken energy that goes toward the finished product.’

'I think a rock 'n' roll record should start off being a song and should end up being a song. I think that everything around it should be complementary to it, or help it to evolve, rather than get in its way. I've always tried to keep that in mind as a guitar player. Rather than say, 'Let's start with the guitar and a 16 bar solo.' It's the song that's important, and the individual parts add to it.'

Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described George Harrison as:

‘a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song.’

‘George Harrison and I were once in a car and the Beatles song You Can't Do That came on, with that great riff in the beginning on the 12-string. He goes, "I came up with that.” … He said, “I was just standing there and thought, I've got to do something!” That pretty much sums him up. He just had a way of getting right to the business, of finding the right thing to play. That was part of that Beatles magic – they all seemed to find the right thing to play.’

This is true of the Kinks too. Ray knew that he could rely on Dave to play something apposite and in tune with the spirit of the song. To me, it seems that although George and Dave weren’t writing as prolifically, they used their energy and creativity to contribute to the compositions. They understood what Aristotle meant by ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ For some reason, I’ve always had that quotation backwards, that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Recognition

I’m sure they experienced similar frustrations when their songs did not make the final album cut, with both only allowed a couple of songs per LP. In the case of the Beatles, this was instrumental in the decision to split.

In 1969, McCartney told Lennon:

‘Until this year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours.’

Thanks, guys.

This is certainly a situation that Dave could relate to. In Kink, he tells of occasions when a song of his would be slated to appear on an album, then mysteriously disappear at the last minute. Thanks, bro. Whether this was the result of Ray’s insecurity or a real belief (as with Lennon and McCartney) that his songs were better, we’ll never know.

Now I’m thinking that one reason Dave’s songs didn’t get released might be that he was reluctant to fight his corner. I know it seems unlikely given his reputation as a battler but perhaps Dave lacked confidence in his own ability. I say this because the three songs I want to consider here in relation to George’s aren’t even indexed in Kink although he mentions She’s My Girl, another song recorded but not released. Or did Dave fail in advocacy of his songs because they were products of his pain at the time and too personal?

By the late 60s/early 70s, both George and Dave have reached a pinnacle of sorts. I’ve chosen to highlight three of their songs from this time to try to showcase what’s so special about their writing. It actually makes me angry that Dave’s songs get so little recognition from a wider public (or even from Dave) when so many less deserving talents reap so many rewards. Was it ever thus? I’ve already trashed most modern music in my first blog and don’t want to come across as reactionary but everything seems so generic and formulaic these days – the same beats, the same rap interlude (I really enjoy getting aggressively harangued by a sexist man), the same inane lyrical content, the same tiny scrap of a melody, repeated endlessly. I know there are exceptions but even today’s modern-day ‘rock’ bands all seem to be one-trick ponies recycling soundalike riffs from yesteryear in a completely pedestrian manner (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, the Kaiser Chiefs, etc.). Ok, enough with the rant already.

This Man He Weeps Tonight (1969) 

Immediate, fresh, beautifully heartfelt, Dave’s strange pronunciation of the double rs in sorrow and tomorrow adds to the poignancy of his vocal, which is wistful, yearning, the verse resigned:

I wish that you'd have known/ Of all the plans I had in store for us/ Laughing, dancing, travelling the world on our own

the chorus raging:

And this man, he weeps tonight/And his head is bowed with sorrow/But what can you do, sitting there/And you let him cry tomorrow/Yes, you'll let him cry tomorrow/Yes, you'll let him cry tomorrow

Both this and Mindless Child of Motherhood were B-sides, the former paired with Drivin’, the latter with Shangri-la. I’m not debating that both A-sides are great but I actually think the B-sides are better. At least one deserved to be an A.

George’s songs suffered a similar fate. 

Are You Ready? (1969)

Plaintive, mournful, Dave sounds like he might actually weep singing this. Simple and effective, imbued with pain and hope, this was only available on acetate until the 2011 Hidden Treasures album.

Cause you're living with a man/Who will find no understanding/Do you mind if I laid down and cried?/Do you ever know the way/That I feel for you each day?/So are you ready girl?/Are you ready?

Asked whether he can feel the frustration in the songs on Hidden Treasures, Dave replies:

‘In a way, but after all these years it has a charm because of that. I couldn’t stand listening to it at the time. Is Are You Ready? on it? I love that song. I hated it for years. It’s about Sue again.’

Mindless Child of Motherhood (1972)

When Dave sings, it doesn’t sound like a typical Kinks record at all. His voice is instantly recognisable and his songs have a totally different feel. I think that’s a good thing, much as I love Ray, because it adds to their appeal. This reminds me of the Byrds. Dave’s compositions seem to spring from raw emotion, which he can no longer contain, and so releases in a burst of cathartic song. I wish I had the know-how to describe the musical phrasing, time signatures and everything in this amazing song. There’s a very good high-quality version on YouTube in which you can hear all the things I can't express. Dave is angry and despairing:

How long must I travel on/To be just where you are?/Mindless child of motherhood/You have lost the thing that's good

I love it even though I have no idea what the phrase ‘mindless child of motherhood’ means. It doesn’t matter.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (1968)

Delicate intro, then each time George sings the title, the guitar lets loose with a cry of its own, a strangled sob if you like, each slightly different to the last, before a sustained solo and final burst of wailing. Eric Clapton played lead guitar on this although he wasn’t credited on the album.

Wiki facts: 136 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, 7 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time and 10 in the Beatles 100 Greatest Songs. A Guitar World poll in February 2012 elected it the best of Harrison's Beatles-era songs.

But still not deemed good enough to be released as a single.

George explains the genesis of the song:

‘I wrote While My Guitar Gently Weeps at my mother's house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes... . The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there's no such thing as coincidence - every little item that's going down has a purpose. While My Guitar Gently Weeps was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book - as it would be relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw 'gently weeps', then laid the book down again and started the song.’

I look at the world and I notice it's turning/While my guitar gently weeps/With every mistake we must surely be learning/Still my guitar gently weeps

Here Comes the Sun (1969)

Follows a similar pattern to While My Guitar – a pretty guitar introduction, matched by the more insistent, louder guitar refrain that follows. This song is really optimistic and open, the tone reminscent of Dave’s song Wait till the Summer Comes Along. Dave’s supposedly down but still looking on the bright side. George says:

‘Here Comes the Sun was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: 'Sign this' and 'Sign that'. Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off [bunk off] Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton's house. The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote Here Comes The Sun.’

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter/Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here/Here comes the sun/Here comes the sun, and I say/It's all right

Something (1969)

Finally George scores an A-side but having said that, the song was still originally handed to Joe Cocker, who released it first.

There’s a build of momentum, a gradual ascent, the guitar parts adding colour and texture before the peak of the bridge, which arrives like a tiger bursting through a paper hoop.

Wiki facts: The Beatles version topped the US Billboard charts and went top five in the UK. Covers by over 150 artists (including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett and Eric Clapton) make it the second-most covered Beatles song after Yesterday. Harrison’s favourite take on the song was apparently James Brown's, which he put on his personal jukebox.

The song's lyrics were taken from the title of a song by fellow Apple artist James Taylor, Something in the Way She Moves, and used as filler while the melody was being developed. The song's second line, ‘Attracts me like no other lover’ was the last to be written; during early recording sessions for Something, Harrison alternated between two placeholder lyrics: ‘Attracts me like a cauliflower’ and ‘Attracts me like a pomegranate’.

George's delivery is impassioned:

You're asking me will my love grow/I don't know, I don't know/You stick around and it may show/I don't know, I don't know/Something in the way she knows/And all I have to do is think of her/Something in the things she shows me/I don't want to leave her now/You know I believe and how

George tends to consider the bigger picture; Dave considers the actual picture; Ray is examining a flaw in the frame but more of Ray's delectable talent in a later blog.

Philosophy and religion

Dave and George both embraced yoga, became vegetarian and developed a mutual interest in Hinduism, Indian deities (My Sweet Lord was written in praise of Krishna but the singing of Allelujah allowed it to appeal to Christians) and Eastern religions and philosophy in general but, as usual, this blog is already too long. At the Satsang weekends, Dave emphasises inclusivity and although his beliefs might be based on Eastern concepts, he also calls on ‘Master Jesus’ and sings a version of Hare Krishna, in which everyone participates. George says:

‘All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call.’

I don't think it could be put any better than that and it seems a good line to end on.

[Dave covers Give me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), which has been released on the tribute album Songs from the Material World: George Harrison.]

[Another blogger also considers some of these similarities.]

[Thanks to KindaKinks site and Wikipedia.]