Makin' tracks dave davies

FOR KINKS GUITARIST Dave Davies, revisiting the seminal British band’s 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies and 1972’s Everybody’s in Show-Biz with his brother — vocalist/guitarist Ray Davies — for a recently released pair of box sets was a tiring yet eye-opening endeavor. “I’ve never subjected myself to so much Kinks music in such a short space of time,” he says. “It made me realize how hard we worked. I couldn’t do it like that now. Touring schedules are really hard work.”

The process also gave him a chance to revisit the start of the band’s most experimental era of music making. In the early Seventies, the Kinks were going on months-long stretches of touring the globe and enjoying immense popularity off hits such as “You Really Got Me,” “Lola,” “Apeman” and “Sunny Afternoon.” That time on the road inspired the band to look into new genres of music, and when it came time to record Muswell Hillbillies, they decided to draw from their American influences, mainly country and blues. “A lot of the guitar playing was based on what I’d learned from American country music,” he says.

Up next was the much more experimental Everybody’s in Show-Biz, a double album that marked a true transition for the band. The Kinks had been friendly with U.K. jazz musician Mike Cotton — and several other jazz players — since the early Sixties, and they felt it was time to tap into some of that influence and experiment with “a bit of Dixieland and a bit of New Orleans jazz,” Davies says. “I think it was a step in that direction. Whether it was the right one or wrong one, you don’t know until you do it, but I think it helped us a lot. Sometimes expanding new ideas helps you as a musician; I think Ray wanted to experiment more than I did. The guys in the brass section were funny. They were bright and clever, but they were funny. Humor can sometimes provide different layers to tracks, and you can create a lot of humor in tonal qualities in certain instruments like the tuba.”

Despite the changes — and yes, there are tubas present on Everybody’s in Show-Biz — guitar remained a vital part of the Kinks’ sound. The band’s core remained the basic rock setup of guitar, bass and drums. “Then you got embellishments with the keyboards and a brass section that helped implement different ar