As I was sitting in my hotel, looking down at the House of Blues on Sunset, the phone
rang. It would be months before I would discover that it was an internal hotel call,
placed by another guest. Dave Davies, founding member of the Kinks, was on the line.
Dave had learned that I had arranged label backing for an anthology of Dave's work
- a project that would ultimately be called "Unfinished Business." But
Dave, having just completed writing the autobiographical "Kink,"
was way ahead of me, it seems. Tired of waiting for the next Kinks session or tour,
Dave was planning to create his own live showcase. For the first time ever, Dave
would hit the road as a solo act, performing his own songs, as well as some of his
personal favorites from his brother's songbook.
The Kinks first attracted attention for Dave's wild teen energy, back in the days
when brother Ray was off at art college and only aspired to be a songwriter. Playing
mostly tunes by American blues and r&b legends like Chuck Berry and Sleepy John
Estes, this original version of the Kinks was a showcase for Dave's raving guitars
and lead vocals. Upon joining the band, Ray came into his own as the Kinks' primary
vocalist and songwriter. But as captured in "The Kinks Live At Kelvin Hall,"
Dave's explosive guitars and harmonies remained central to the band's unique sound
and considerable success.
The Kinks' Low Budget album and tour in 1979/80 marked the beginning of the band's
"second coming" as a flat-out rock touring band. Stripping away the 70's
theatricality and the expanded cast of Kinks, Low Budget proved to be a bold re-imagining
of the band. The buzz spread quickly through the rock world, leading to sellout halls
filled with the kind of guitar fanatics that had virtually ignored the Kinks for
the past decade. To be sure, Ray emerged from that tour as a master showman of arena
rock. But it was Dave's go-for-broke guitars that blew the game wide open. "One
For The Road," recorded on the Low Budget tour, remains one
Photos by Paul Undersinger
of rock's most compelling live albums. By the time of "To The Bone", partly
recorded during the bandís 1994 European tour, Dave is playing with his trademark
mix of power and abandon.
Yet despite his solo singles hits in the 60s and a series of stunning solo
albums in the 80s, AFL1-3603,
Glamour and Chosen
People, Dave had never stepped out with his own live act. As plans for the CD
continued, news of Dave's plans to mount a club tour began to circulate. At first,
there were many skeptics among fans, friends and family.
Rock Bottom
As work on Dave's Anthology project continued, it became clear that The Kinks' fabulously
complicated contractual history would prevent release of many key tracks in the USA.
The only way out was to produce new recordings of the missing tracks. Ultimately,
it was decided to record all four of Dave's first-ever NYC dates to complete the
Anthology project. Released in
early 1999 to glowing reviews, that album featured three tracks from these sessions.
Strangers, Lincoln County, and - especially - A Gallon of Gas/You're Looking Fine
provided a tantalizing taste of what was to come. Joined by Kristian Hoffman (keyboards),
Dave Jenkins (bass), Jim Laspesa (drums) and Andrew Sandoval (rhythm guitar), in
these shows Dave "convincingly asserted his claim to authorship of the Kinks's
sound." (The New York Times).
With four shows to sift through, the choices were daunting - not just because the
multitrack digital recordings turned out to be of stunning quality. It seems that
when you put Dave Davies in front of a crowd, and hit the record button, magic happens.
This particular Thanksgiving weekend in New York proved no exception. Dave roared
through a mixture of his own compositions (Imaginations Real, Living On A Thin Line,
Look Through Any Doorway) and Kinks hits (All Day And All Of The Night, Strangers,
Tired of Waiting, Your Really Got Me). To the delight of all of us in the crowd for
those shows during the course of his shows Dave also exploded with high voltage reworkings
of many of the hidden gems of the Kinks catalog (Wicked Annabella, She's Got Everything
, I'm Not Like Everybody Else). In the kwiet moments, Dave brought gasps from the
audience for his vocal performances of Love Gets You, Strangers and There's Too Much
On My Mind). The common thread throughout? A legacy of favorite songs, played with
all of the immediacy, energy and high spirits that are the eternal force of great
rock.
