“On par with Dylan”: The artist Dave Davies called “the key to everything”
From the defiant opening bars of ‘You Really Got Me’, The Kinks established themselves as the sound of the swinging sixties. Armed with an arsenal of guitar distortion, social realism, and a strong image, the band captured the zeitgeist of the era, reflecting the attitudes and feelings of Britain’s rebellious post-war youth. It takes a special kind of artist to reflect a time period so distinctly, but The Kinks pulled it off with effortless grace, putting them in league with the era’s other legendary artists, such as Bob Dylan.
Emerging from the depths of New York’s folk scene during the early part of the 1960s, Dylan immediately set himself apart from the crowd as a once-in-a-generation songwriter. Not only did his work pay faithful homage to the age-old traditions of folk music, but his unparalleled songwriting talent expertly reflected the turbulent political period of the 1960s. Drawing upon influences of blues, rock, country, and everything in between, his music garnered something of a universal appeal by the end of the decade.
In particular, Dylan found a colossal audience in the United Kingdom, thanks to various high-profile tours – including the 1965 tour immortalised in the film Don’t Look Back – alongside the support given to Dylan by the UK’s brightest musical stars. In addition to The Beatles, Donovan, and Brian Jones, Dylan also found favour with the nation’s rebel rock pioneers, The Kinks.
In fact, Dylan proved so influential on Ray Davies and the gang that his album Bringing It All Back Home became an unavoidable influence when crafting their legendary anthem, ‘Sunny Afternoon’. As you might expect, Dave Davies has always remained a staunch advocate of Dylan’s music and songwriting. However, there is only one other figure who, according to the guitarist, could rival the otherworldly nature of Bob Dylan.
“I probably would never have picked up a guitar if it hadn’t been for Eddie Cochran, but Chuck Berry was the key to everything that happened in the ’60s,” Davies recently told Classic Rock. Berry had been one of the architects of the rock ‘n’ roll boom of the 1950s, and his awe-inspiring guitar playing had laid the foundation for virtually all rock guitarists who came after him. Although the rock sounds of the 1950s did not stay in fashion forever, their influence on the following decade was utterly unavoidable.
The Kinks drew from the pool of inspiration provided by Chuck Berry on multiple occasions. Not only did the band perform of stunning proto-punk cover of Berry’s 1958 track ‘Beautiful Delilah’, but they also attempted to emulate his sound on ‘So Mystifying’, reflecting the extent of their adoration for the rock guitar pioneer. However, Davies was also keen to highlight an aspect of Berry’s work which often goes underappreciated.
“His lyrics were on a par with Dylan and my brother,” the guitarist claimed, comparing Berry’s songwriting to two of the most prolific and profound songwriters of the 20th century. This is quite a bold claim, particularly given the apparent simplicity of many of Berry’s tracks. In many cases, his lyrics seemed to be an afterthought implemented to break up the captivating guitar riffs and blues-centric progressions.
Nevertheless, Davies and the band clearly found something to hang onto within Berry’s writing, using the guitarist’s discography as a continued source of inspiration throughout the 1960s and beyond. The Kinks and Bob Dylan might have left a colossal mark on the landscape of popular music, but they might never have found the inspiration without the pioneering efforts of Chuck Berry.
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