Dave Davies on why Chuck Berry was “the key to” rock and roll
Back in the 1960s, when the streets of London were at their most swinging and rock and roll was at its most anarchic, it was the revolutionary sounds of The Kinks who set the standard for a bold new generation of post-war rock rebels, with Dave Davies’ arsenal of riffs at the core of their existence.
Looking back, it is easy to render the mini skirts and mods of the swinging sixties in a perpetual rose-tint – it was, after all, an era which defined Britain’s cultural sensibilities for the rest of the 20th century, producing a wealth of incredible artists, musicians, and fashion trends which never really went out of style. In the grand scheme of things, though, that scene was unsuspectingly small back in its day, and it was only thanks to the efforts of groups like The Kinks that the mainstream was alerted to the cultural shift occurring in England’s capital.
Through generation-defining anthems like ‘You Really Got Me’ and even the underrated masterpiece of The Village Green Preservation Society, The Kinks blazed a trail that virtually every future alternative rock and punk outfit would follow. Despite that constant air of originality, though, The Kinks themselves were always indebted to their own pool of influences, which invariably arose from the first era of rock ‘n’ roll back in the 1950s.
Providing an essential sense of hope to the young Davies brothers as they gazed out on the perpetually grey, smog-filled surroundings of 1950s London, the explosion of artists like Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry over the airwaves were essential in establishing the roots of The Kinks. Even when the group landed their own success story, the members themselves retained a kind of hero worship for that first wave of rockers, particularly – in the case of Dave Davies – for Chuck Berry.
“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 once told Classic Rock. Although Berry spent much of the early 1960s imprisoned on kidnapping and rape charges, his impact on the prevailing sounds of that era was undeniable.
Everybody from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones owed their sound to his otherworldly guitar playing and, as Davies pointed out, his songwriting wasn’t bad either: “His lyrics were on a par with Dylan and my brother,” the guitarist shared, in a particularly egregious moment of adoration.
At one point on his rock and roll journey, Davies actually came face to face with his rock and roll hero. “I eventually met him at an airport in Atlanta,” he recalled. “He had these great shoes – white and brown brogues, but kind of 50s style. I looked at him and was speechless.” He continued, giving an insight into Berry’s famously unpredictable temperament. “Then he started swearing at some flight attendant who’d put him in the wrong seat. I was thinking, ‘Wow, I wish I could swear like that.’”
Verbal abuse of underpaid airport staff aside, the interaction did little to alter Davies’ hero worship of Chuck Berry, the man who had, in many ways, set him on a path to being one of the most important rock guitarists in British history.
“I was just completely in awe of him, while I think he just thought I was some cocky kid,” the guitarist affirmed. “He had incredible presence.”
