The perfect pop song, according to Dave Davies
Modern music fans’ relationship to pop is a strange one. So many rock lovers would turn their nose up at the word, but back in the 1960s, the leaders of rock and roll all knew what they were making, just like Dave Davies did.
“While you’re on stage, you’re involved in the one thing that pop is really about, and everything suddenly seems simpler,” Ray Davies said to Intro Magazine in 1967. Together, the two Davies brothers came to dominate rock and roll, crafting so many of the most timelessly beloved songs of that era, from ‘Waterloo Sunset’ to the hyper-influential ‘All Day And All Of The Night’ and ‘You Really Got Me’, and from the moment songs like that came out, music was never the same again. Ever since, rock and pop have been reshaped in their image.
And their image is exactly that – pop music. Both Ray and Dave were utterly devoted to that idea and that world, wanting to make music that was approachable, catchy, hooky, and danceable. The Kinks wanted their crowds to move and to feel lighter and excited, so they wrote music for that purpose, so their gigs could have that energy.
Today, rock fans seem to have developed an odd repulsion towards even just the word ‘pop’. It’s all too often brushed off and depicted as cheap, meaningless, and vapid. But really, pop is just popular; music made for the masses to unite them. It’s music that has a certain infectious quality, built to bring everyone together with a beat you can’t help but at least tap your toes to. It’s music made to move everyone. For the Davies brothers, there really was no higher or greater purpose in their work.
So both were unapologetic pop lovers, and for Dave, one song always stood out as a track that had nailed the recipe they spent their careers trying to cook up just right.
‘Hello Mary Lou’ by Ricky Nelson is the song that Davies still hears today and thinks, ‘Yes, perfect.’ “If you listen to ‘Hello Mary Lou’, to me, it has every magical ingredient in it that you need for a pop record,” he said to Amoeba Records.
On the list of requirements for that perfect status, there has to be “great guitar, great little licks,” especially appreciating the work of James Burton on the track – a guitarist he deeply admires. But mostly, it all comes down to one mythical, undefinable element, as Davies said of the artist – “Ricky Nelson was cool looking!”
Maybe that’s part of how pop ends up tarnished by a vain brush, as there is no denying that looks and style contribute to an artist’s success in that field. But it’s not just appearances or aesthetics, the idea of ‘cool’ goes so far beyond that, as what Davies is drawn to is simply attitude, vibe, or even a mysterious kind of allure that’s impossible to really put into words.
To him, Ricky Nelson had it. But back in his own golden days, when The Kinks were the rulers of the pop and rock world, the Davies brothers had it too.
