🎶 2022-08-19 00:07:37 – Paris/France.
Dave Davies of the Kinks, portrait, London, 1970. (Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
There may not have been a 1960s British Invasion band Suites Brits than the Kinks, with their story-songs that yearned intensely for the Merry Olde England of the Davies brothers' lost North London childhood. While the band first caused a stir in the United States with the raw, searing proto-punk punch of 1964's "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night," a year later they been mysteriously banned from touring the United States by the American Federation of Musicians. It was a brutal blow that isolated the Kinks from the world's biggest rock music market, ensuring that they would never achieve such global success as their peers the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. But it ironically helped the band forge its own indelible identity.
“Just because we couldn't go back to America, we had to dig deep and go back to our roots. And I think that's what helped us become 'more British,'” guitarist Dave Davies told Yahoo Entertainment. He still doesn't enough know the reason for the sanction; the Kinks only learned of the ban when they tried to book their second round of concerts in the United States in 1965. “I have my own ideas; I can't really point fingers at anything," he says with a shrug, although in his new autobiography, life on a thin line, he speculates that the group's unpredictable antics on the road simply angered too many powerful union representatives. (“We all screwed up,” he wrote.)
The Kinks, left to right, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife, Mick Avory and Ray Davies, performing at the BBC Television Center in 1965. (Photo: David Redfern/Redferns)
“I just think you can't play with the union; you can get blacklisted pretty easily,” Dave told Yahoo. “But we were lucky, because we managed to come back and start all over again. We worked really hard to get back to America and tour. And it was hard. »
The touring ban lasted until 1969, by which time a sea change had occurred in rock 'n' roll; as the hippie generation of Woodstock took over America, the Kinks' music became more introspective, more soulful, and definitely more Englishas evidenced by their Anglophile concept albums The Green Village Preservation Society et Arthur (or the decline and fall of the British Empire). However, in the early '70s, the Kinks found themselves in the US top 10 singles with "Lola."
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The song – which Dave claims was inspired by his brother/bandmate Ray Davies' dinner with Warhol muse Candy Darling, though Ray denied that claim – detailed a doomed brief romantic encounter between a confused man (presumably straight, cis) and the titular character (presumably a trans woman), whom he meets at a nightclub in Soho. The single was controversial at the time, with some radio stations dropping the track before Lola's gender identity was revealed, or even refusing to play the song. And "Lola" probably wouldn't fly today, with its "gotcha" twist ending played for comedic effect and its not exactly PC line about someone who "walks like a woman and talks like a man." However, the single's brawny sound served as a model for the Kinks' arena-rock resurgence of the 1970s, and Dave, who has always been open about his own sexuality, is proud of "Lola's" legacy. .
“Obviously there were a lot of people we knew who were transgender at the time, and we knew a lot of gay people, but you have to remember that when the Kinks started, homosexuality was illegal In England. So there were a lot of people who had issues with their display of their sexuality or the way they wanted to appear, and we were at the start of it all," Dave points out, adding with a chuckle, "At the time where we started touring again, Ray wrote this interesting song, to say the least — and a lot of people didn't really know what it was about! They just thought it was a "quirky Kinks song". But we had a lot of tough times, so it was really convenient that most people didn't know what the song was about. When this was revealed, people were very, very shocked. But actually, nowadays, it's really a very common topic, gender – talking about “girls will be boys and boys will be girls”. We are going through a big shift in attitude and feeling and 'what are we?' and 'why are we?' – so it's very topical now.
In life on a thin line and his previous memoirs, 1996 Twist, Dave wrote about his relationships with musician/actor Long John Baldry and music producer Michael Aldred, as well as a few other gay dates and a missed opportunity to have a threesome involving Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, which Dave had "always imaginary." Dave, who has been twice married to women and is currently in a serious relationship with writer/photographer Rebecca G. Wilson, told Yahoo Entertainment, "After a lot of soul-searching in those early years, it seemed quite obvious that I was not bisexual or homosexual. (Perhaps "fluid" or "pansexual," terms that didn't exist in the mainstream in the '60s or '70s, would better describe his sexuality.) But Dave speaks and writes with fondness of this "really fantastic time." of sexual and emotional relationships. waking up in his youth.
"Obviously I experimented with my sexuality, being a curious young man," Dave said evenly. “I wanted to know what was going on when I was young, and I still do; I am always very curious about world events and novelties. And sometimes we have to find out about these things, and sometimes we don't even know know first. This period of the 60s was a great opportunity to discover things, to experiment with sound, with painting, with films – with sex! It's like all these opportunities suddenly arise. You have to remember that there were some really rigid concepts in place at the time, and that was a little worrying. There were a lot of people who didn't like “camp,” a flamboyant way to experiment with your sexuality or who you want to be. But in my case, I experimented. I had male friends - whom I stayed friends with – with whom I had affairs between men.
In life on a thin lineDave confesses that he finally realized that it was "dishonest" to lead male lovers who “considered themselves gay” and “wanted to engage beyond sex,” but he also writes, “The most important thing I learned was sensitivity. Men have feelings too and no one should ever make fun of people's emotions. I was flamboyant and arrogant, and fucking with a lovely guy was fun. Maybe he kissed me good and I enjoyed the way he touched me. … My father had grown up at the end of that time when a man had to be “a man”, but I hadn't necessarily learned. My dad ended up growing flowers, and I grew sounds and feelings. Men can be nurturers without having to sleep with each other.
Dave was the youngest of eight Davies children, with six older sisters, and he says being “very heavily influenced by women” also helped him get in touch with that sensitive side – a side sadly suppressed in so many. boys at the time, including his older brother Ray. “I consider myself very lucky to grow up in this environment,” says the self-proclaimed “baby” of the Davies clan, fondly remembering singing show tunes with his sisters in the family living room and dressing up. “I liked to dress up when I was little, like wearing my sisters' clothes and stuff, just for fun. But outside, there were very strict behavioral constraints. A lot of my friends in school growing up, they decided long before they left school that they were going to be accountants. And U.S needs to get accountants, of course! But it was a more rigid state of mind. I was always encouraged to dance and sing and have a good time.
The Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies filmed in Los Angeles when discussing a reunion. (Photo: Aaron Rapoport/Corbis via Getty Images)
Ray and Dave have always been “distinctly different from each other,” says Dave: “Sometimes the people you're closest to are the least like you. It's strange. This, of course, has led to friction between the two throughout the Kinks' famous history — a situation not unlike Oasis' feuding brothers, the Black Crowes or the Jesus and Mary chain. “I remember, it was funny when I spoke to Oasis, the Gallaghers, and realized how different they were from each other. I had to laugh to myself how different they were – and it was so me and Ray, in a way,” Dave reflects. “Ray was like a news librarian, and I was so wild, experimental with music and my sexuality. The Kinks released their last studio album in 1993 and played their last official concert in 1996, but speculation of a reunion has been growing virtually ever since.
The Kinks seemed set to reunite in 2003, but in 2004 Dave suffered a stroke, putting all musical endeavors on hold as he relearned to walk, talk, sing and play guitar. Around 2015, there seemed to be new momentum when the Davies brothers began working with director Julien Temple on a script for a biopic titled you really got me, but this project has not yet seen the light of day. ("Once in a while there's a rewrite, then we have a discussion, then there's another rewrite, and right now it's being rewritten again," says Dave, saying he didn't spoken with Temple for "a few years".) Also in 2015, Ray and Dave performed together for the first time in nearly two decades, performing "You Really Got Me" at Dave's concert in London. Now, with this year marking the Kinks' 60th anniversary as a band, the demand for some sort of reunion is greater than ever.
But Dave — understandably worried that "so much media" will twist his words if he says too much — simply tells Yahoo Entertainment, "Ray and I often talk about [reuniting], with humor, and so, well, that might be -be well. Never say never! It is possible that we can do something. … You know, him and I get along well. After all is said and done, we are family. We love our family very much, and we appreciate and understand how instrumental they have been in our upbringing and our way of life.
Ray Davies (L) and Dave Davies, winners of Q Classic Album at the 2018 Q Awards. (Photo: Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images)
In the meantime, on September 9, the Kinks will release deluxe 50th anniversary reissues of two classic albums, Muswell Hillbillies and the double LP Everyone is in Show-Biz – Everyone is a star, both recorded during this post-"Lola" period of renewed American appreciation for the band. 1971 Muswell Hillbillies was the Kinks' own kind of Americana record, uniquely blending American and British roots music, while 1972's Everyone is on Show-Biz – Everyone is a star was a sardonic document of the Kinks' lives on the American touring circuit. Dave admittedly struggled with the band's newfound success around this time and actually had a nervous breakdown in August 1972 while on tour in the United States (he was seriously considering jumping out of a bedroom window). hotel in New York before being interrupted by a surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend, which he took as a sign). But now, as those albums get the reissue treatment, he looks back on that era…
SOURCE: Reviews News
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