DAVIES

Rip It Up, Issue 36, 1 July 1980, Page 8

DAVIES

by Roy Colbert

Kink leader Ray Davies raced through Auckland earlier this year on a part-Low Budget promotion part-is-it-feasible-for-us-to-tour visit that lasted literally only hours. Media were rushed in and out of Davies' room while would-be Kinks tour promoters gobbled free food and drinks and watched concert video next door. Davies was alert, witty and friendly throughout the Rip It Up interview (he had been sleepy and vague only an hour before for Radio With Pictures) and not surprisingly there were still ticker-tapes of questions wound around the interviewer's head when his time was up. The Kinks have done quite a lot, after all. On the way back to the airport, I nearly cause the lady from EMI to drive her red mazda off the road by stating solemnly that the Kinks have never really done a great album. “But they've done more great songs" I add hastily as the Mazda rights its course “than just about anyone.” Lately Ray Davies has been paying more attention to songs, and less to rock theatre and concept albums. “The past really wasn't that good" he says, looking back over the 19705. “But I now feel as though I am in a very good phase.’’ The last three studio albums for Arista have all been strong, and Low Budget, and after fifteen years of half-trying and half not-being-allowed-to-try, finally broke the band hugely in America. The live double album, which Davies was mixing at the time of the Auckland interview, was scheduled as the home run. Davies is looking forward to a break after a hectic morning with newspapers and television, but there is no sign of impatience or weariness. He’s extremely friendly a little shy even and he gives the impression fifteen years of rock’n'roll are in front, not behind. The reported distance from interviewers is hardly evident, though he does tend to touch only part of a question. And he seems genuinely eager to please. After 35 minutes we bow to the handsignalling manager. Davies asks if it was alright, and points to the tape machine. “I’ve got one of those" he says. “An NP they’re good.” ■

They're not really, unless you’re on a low budget. At eighty New Zealand dollars, there’s nothing cheaper in fact. One seriously doubts whether American millions are going to change Ray Davies. Thank God. Tell us about the forthcoming live album. “It was done in the course of a tour of America. We recorded ten dates there, and two in Europe. The problem I’m having is trying not to make it sound too clean. I don’t want it to sound like session-men, I want it to sound like the Kinks, and we have rough edges. If the Kinks do a live album it’s got to have rough edges. I want to keep the mistakes in it’s a bit of a gamble really.” The old Live At Kelvin Hall album wasn't received too well at the time, but it has since picked up a degree of respectability and mystique.

"That was in the days when record companies had a lot of say. It was recorded badly, with four microphones, though in a sense it was a good representation of what was happening then. Certain people think it is one of the great documents of the 60s. It’s a good exciting album. This time I have more control, and I think that is reflected. Certainly the spirit is there. And the charm.” The Kinks’ reputation as a live band seems to have picked up a lot in the last few years. "What we’ve had to do is change our image in America from that of a singles band to an album-orientated group, and that has meant touring throughout the last three albums there, one place at a time. It's beginning to pay off now fortunately. Now we feel we’re ready to play in another country like New Zealand.” In the early days in America your name was largely kept afloat by a small band of hard-core Kinks fanatics and a few critics. Are these people still around people like Freaky Frank? "They used to be called Kinks freaks, but not now. They’ve come to be known as sort of rock historians. There are a lot of new listeners in rock’n'roll who have all this knowledge, like > who was the bass player on Chuck Berry records, and it’s important to know that. It's a step forward. Freaky Frank is out there, he's a long way down the river. But he's alright. He knows so much not just about us, but about everybne, the Yardbirds, the Knack...’”

There haven't been a lot of Kinks covers considering how long you’ve been around. What do you think of the more well-known ones the Jam, the Pretenders and even Bowie’s Pin Ups? "I think The Pretenders was good (“Stop Your Sobbing”) coz they've changed things a bit. There’s one in Australia which is quite good by Jimmy & The Boys. It’s a bit Saturday Night Fever, but it's alright. And I’ve heard The Knack have done “The Hard Way" on their new album.”

Would you like some of your songs to have been done by MOR interpreters, not so much for the job they’d do, but for the prestige it gives you as a writer? ’’Well, Sid Vicious isn’t around. "My Way" was one of the great records of the last five years. That was a great interpretation. But yes, I would like a few straight MOR singers to at least try some of my songs. I wish there was more crossover actually." A lot of my favourite Kinks songs of the 1970 s were ballads "Celluloid Heroes”, "Oklahoma U.S.A.” and" Little bit of Emotion” on the last one. How do you regard ballads? "I’m a bit careful when I sing ballads. I don’t like the out-and-out romance bit. If I have a date with somebody, I’m clumsy. I can’t write a sophisticated tune maybe for a certain artist, but not for myself.” If you made a solo record, would it sound like the Kinks?

“No, I don't think it would. I rely on that heavy Kinks guitar sound from Dave. I play a

strange guitar. It’s more broken up. A solo

album would probably be a reggae album then I like reggae.” The change from RCA to Arista? “I wanted the feedback from a managing director who was interested in the music and not in holding down his job. Clive Davis has good ears and bis heart is in the right place. He’d tried to sign us a few times before actually.” There has also been a change from concept albums to song albums. “The concepts were great live, but they didn’t really come off on record. I realise I’m part of a unit now. I’m happier now, more relaxed. I might do things in the future outside the band The new wave? “I don’t think it’s changed my writing, as' much as my attitude. I felt released by the new wave. It rekindled the spirit that had died in the 705.” The new wave have accepted very few of the old guard, but you’re one. ”1 don’t know why. I don’t pretend to know. I just do what I do and get on with it.” I’m interested in what you consider to be your best writing conditions. You’ve said at various times that you work best under pressure, that you like to be insecure and fighting, and that you can’t write in a place like Los Angeles with all its comfort. And yet “Celluloid Heroes” was written there. ” "Celluloid Heroes” will go down professionally in history as not a bad song with quite a good lyric, and it said some nice things about a certain place. But it ruined my private life totally not so much that song, but what happened to me at the time. So the whole story is never told. Different situations produce different songs, but I like to think I’ve got the same approach to writing, and will reject the same amount anywhere. America brings a lot of pressure, but it helps me. I wouldn’t have finished Low Budget in time without that pressure, and I’m going back to New York this afternoon. More pressure. But I’m in a good phase now, I can’t wait to write again I haven't written for eight months, but I’ve got lots of notes.” Do you work quickly in the studio?

"With the Kinks, sure. The track "Low Budget" was done in one take, "Pressure” was one take, the best take of "Catch Me Now I’m Falling" was the third take. Then again they get good when we go on the road. There's a take of “You Really Got Me" on the live album that’s a killer, and we've been playing that for years.” Three of the four original Kinks are still in the group. You’ve had fights over the years, but you're still together. Are there lessons theretor other bands?

"I think it’s because I’m mad. People say how do you keep on going. I really am certain I should be certified. At this moment Mick is playing golf, though Dave, to his credit, is in the studio working on his album. But I’m over here.

I’m mad. But I want the Kinks to be seen overseas." Dave has been playing some fine guitar on recent Kinks albums. It’s good he’s finally doing a solo album after promising one constantly back in the days of "Death Of A Clown” and "Susannah's Still Alive”. "He’s stuck to the Kinks, and made a lot of sacrifices. It's so good he’s got it together. I haven't heard it, I only want to hear it when it's completely finished. He's played a lot of the instruments he’s a really good drummer." Favourite songs over the years? "I think "All Day And All Of The Night" was a killer. I remember it so well. It was done in mono. Volume is hard to get on record. I played rhythm guitar, and there were other rhythm guitars there too, because we couldn't overdub. And two pianos. We did it irl two hours again the best things are done quickly. Like the beginning to "Low Budget", which I started with a signal to the engineer. The other guys thought it was a demo. It's so sloppy it's fabulous." You said in Dark Star magazine last year you thought of NME as The Enemy. You said it wasn't a fan magazine any more. What should the function of a music paper be to present facts, please fans or educate readers? "I'm a bit of a punter on the quiet, you know. I like to read and find out details about guitar sounds. I'm a bit innocent when it comes to things like that. Obviously these papers, have got editorial opinions, but rock'n’roll is stronger than the printed word. It used to be just kids in bedrooms with records, but it's much bigger than that now. It's more than what's said in the papers. The best rock magazine I know is done by a kid in Rochester called Future. He has no bosses and there are scathing reviews. But it's his paper. The people at the NME have to worry about editors and owners. They’ve got a little more loose in the last couple of years coz it's fashionable.” Any regrets from the concept album period?

“Preservation still sticks with me. It’s so right, it’s whats happening now with Iran. If I don’t get the finance to do it I’m going to go out on the streets of New York and do it. As long as it’s made in some form I’ll be happy.” There's talk of a tour. “A lot of talk. We’re trying to set one up. I’d say eighty per cent of the people here don’t know us, which is perfect for the Kinks. It's like what we struggled with in America. People will either like us or not like us. They won’t say, ‘I like them, but not as much as "Waterloo Sunset” ’.” Do you think the success in America will allow you to continue writing such fiendishly British and brilliant songs like “You Make It All Worthwhile"? "I think that song has got a West Coast feel to it actually. I can imagine Neil Young singing it (sings a bad imitation of Neil Young). But when we toured America, we changed the line about shepherds pie to corn beef hash. We do consider things like that. I’d like to have done a serious version of that song, I had great fun making it.” You’ve done only a little production work Claire Hamill, the Turtles, Tom Robinson and Cafe Society. Who would you like to work with ideally? "A lot of people. Sid Vicious the greatest! The Rolling Stones interest me. I’d just like to do a couple of tracks with them. I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it.” Rock historians will look back on the 60s and 70s and assume you and the Stones were together every day. Do you actually see anything of them at all? "When I write my memoirs I will say we were together all the time! But no, the last time I saw Mick was when Keith was in prison. They’re very close those two. Mick was concerned as a friend, not because it might break up the Stones. The Stones’ image is they don’t give a shit, but they do. There’s a kind of feeling there I have the same thing with say Jimmy Destri of Blondie. We might see each other at an airport or something. There’s a language. Like I can make a gesture here and you know what I mean though we’ve just met. I can’t communicate with, say, Gerry & The Pacemakers, but I'm sure I could communicate with Dolly Parton. I couldn’t communicate at art school,

but I learnt how through rock.” On the way back in the plane, we struck some rather vicious turbulence. The air hostess told everyone to fasten up firmly and said there would not be any light refreshments. For a millisecond, I felt like those people who are Terrified Of Flying, but then I was lulled back into the cassette recorder and The Golden Hour (and a half) of The Kinks. Thank-you for the days Those endless days of sacred days you gave me. The perils of flying disappeared instantly. There really is nothing finer than a great Kinks song.

Roy Colbert