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Throughout the 70's I made various attempts at making a solo album. I always wrote
songs at home and recorded them in demo form, but whenever I went into a full blown
studio situation ... It just never worked some reason. Working with session musicians
I found difficult as it was hard to communicate my ideas generally.
Shortly after putting Konk Studios together with Ray and Mick, I was the only one
of the three of us that really knew how to work the equipment properly. I experimented
on a few tracks ... 'Midnight Sun', 'How can I love you' ... which I still have really
rough versions of somewhere, among many others. At one point around 1974 (Konk Records
period) I decided to go into the studios with producer/engineer Phil McDonald. Phil
had worked on some Beatles material and I booked studio time at Apple Studios. Although
the Apple organization was dismantling, the studios were still operating in Saville
Row. The session seemed okay. I used a drummer who was a really sweet guy who had
worked with a band John Gosling (Baptist) and I were producing at Konk called 'Cafe
Society'. They were a talented singing trio who wrote some good songs.
We worked on two songs that day ... 'You've Got It Made' ... I recently found
a rough instrument demo of this. The other title was a song I had been working on
for some time called 'Long Lonely Road'. It was quite a heavy rock piece in three
parts ... maybe one day I will put out the ruff mix of it in some form.
There were many other demos and stuff I had put together before Ray and I found ourselves
with a Kinks album to make and virtually no band to make it with. Gosling and Pyle
had left and Mick was disheartened . This had left us in a bit of a vacuum. This
could of been the end of the Kinks. But as usually despite our up and down relationship,
Ray and I pulled together and eventually after a long slog made the 'Misfits' album.
Just prior to the recording of Misfits, I had done some recording with a great 'feel'
drummer ... Nick Trevisick. He was also a songwriter and I got on really well with
him. I wrote a song during some sessions we did called 'Trust Your Heart'. Other
songs from that session were 'Islands' and 'Give You All My Love'. They were recorded
as a three piece with Pyle on Bass. I always liked working with a three piece. For
some reason the sounds seem 'bigger'.
Ray had started writing this beautiful song called 'Rock 'n Roll Fantasy'. I suggested
that Nick played drums on it as I realized that he had the right sensitivity for
the song. In the end I think it worked just great. After working with Nick Trevisick
on some other recordings and with a bass player who I had used on the 'Andy Desmond'
album which I had produced earlier on the Konk Label with Gosling, I finally felt
that 'now' I had material I could really get my teeth into.
I recorded some music with them that was to form the basis of the 'AFL' album ...
Move Over, Wild Man, See The Beast, Where Do you Come From, Run and two still unreleased
recordings ... 'Heartbreaker' and 'Within Each Day'. Other songs just didn't work.
They just didn't feel 'internal' enough. So I decided in the end to play all of the
instruments myself like I would on a home demo. This felt so much better as I could
kind of gently let the songs out of myself this way. I finished the album with the
help of a great engineer John Rollo and finally I had an album I was happy with!
'In You I Believe' is still one of my favorite tracks from that period. I felt exhilarated.
It was a great experience. © Dave Davies 1998
RCA executives salute Mr. AFL1-3603
GLAMOUR
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