Working out the Kinks?
SO ARE THE KINKS back together or did the Davies brothers, hanging out before a gig, bash their way through a song together because, well, what the heck, maybe it'd be fun?
SO ARE THE KINKS back together or did the Davies brothers, hanging out before a gig, bash their way through a song together because, well, what the heck, maybe it'd be fun?
Poor guys. For years, nearly any interview they do has to inevitably wind up to the big question. Have you talked to Ray? Is Dave willing to play with the drummer? A tour? A new record? A film?
Then here comes Ray, showing up Friday night at younger brother Dave's show at Islington Assembly Hall in London and proceeding to sing the song that may have invented punk rock, 1964's "You Really Got Me."
Kinks fans naturally went nuts.
Sitting in the States, watching the performance on YouTube, I couldn't figure out what to think.
Part of me wishes the guys could just get on with it. Is it really that hard to play a short tour together, give the people what they want, and then you can spend the next eight years in peace?
I am biased, of course, having attempted making an independent documentary, "Do It Again," driven by the foolish notion I might be able to drive the Davies brothers to get back together. In the end Ray decided to pretend we'd never met. He blocked our film from a commercial release.
So now they've done a song together on stage, the first Davies brother duet since a final Kinks gig in 1996. The performance will not make things easier. There will surely be more discussions, more debates and more hope.
Whatever the boys decide to do, I'm not going to get too excited. They don't owe any of us anything. And anytime I want to argue otherwise, I simply walk over to my Dual 1219, place side one of "Something Else" on the platter and wait for "David Watts" to kick in.