How Ray Davies knew The Who would “rewrite the rules” in the late 1960s
The British invasion of the mid-1960s was so impactful that I sit here, six decades on, writing about its importance. Of course, when we think of this transitional moment in musical and pop cultural history, visions will flit invariably between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. However, these two hit-making machines were just the tip of the iceberg. On the second rung were London-based bands The Who and The Kinks.
In 1964, the year of The Beatles’ pivotal appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show across the pond, The Kinks entered the studio to record their first run of singles. After a cover of Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ and the underwhelming original ‘You Still Want Me’, the Davies brothers struck gold with their third single, ‘You Really Got Me’. “A love song for street kids,” the track struck number one in the UK and breached the top ten in the US.
A couple of months later, The Kinks perfected their successful power chord formula with ‘All Day and All of the Night’, a song that musicologists often regard as a milestone on the road to punk and heavy metal, thanks to Dave Davies’s accidental discovery of distortion. At the time, The Who was poised to make its first notch on the grimy bedpost of rock ‘n’ roll.
Led by Pete Townshend, The Who released their first single, ‘I Can’t Explain’, just before Christmas in 1964. Though the band had recorded under the name ‘The High Numbers’ previously, this new direction proved to be a breakthrough as their first work with the US label Decca and The Kinks’ producer Shel Talmy. The single entered the UK top ten and just about dipped into US consciousness, but a major breakthrough was yet to come.
In late 1965, The Who released their most famous hit, ‘My Generation’, and its successful namesake album. With robust mod and garage rock associations, the album is today regarded alongside The Kinks’ early material as a potent influence on the emergence of heavier rock genres. The energetic Talmy productions helped establish the two bands as serious rivals to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
To be noticed in the 1960s, a rock band had to capture the countercultural energy of the time while bringing something new to the table. The Kinks and The Who managed this early on, but both understood that they would need to evolve their approaches if they were to remain in the charts. The Kinks were fortunate enough to be fronted by the lyrical genius of Ray Davies, who imbued the band with a distinctly British identity with songs like ‘A Well Respected Man’ and ‘Sunny Afternoon’.
While The Kinks peeled off in one direction, The Who stuck with the heavier rock sound and established a solid identity in Pete Townshens’s knack for conceptual and often spiritual songwriting. Since The Kinks were The Eho’s formative rivals, both bands watched each other’s moves carefully and ensured they took different paths. “I obviously focussed on it,” Ray Davies once told Guitar World. “The Who’s first single was the first time we heard it. So when they brought stuff out after that, we were obviously interested in what they were doing.”
In 1966, The Who released A Quick One, which contained John Entwistle’s proto-metal classic ‘Boris the Spider’ and the following year, they dipped into psychedelia with The Who Sell Out. Davies was impressed but felt Townshend showed his full potential for the first time in the 1969 rock opera, Tommy. “It didn’t surprise me when they came out with Tommy because I’d met them briefly at gigs, and they were a bit more – I hate to say the word intelligent – but more focused than a lot of the other bands back then.”
Davies could see from the off that The Who were a little different. With a foundation in jazz music, Townshend and Entwistle brought compositional complexity to rock and roll. Furthermore, Townshend’s fascination with spirituality and strong narratives allowed The Who to distinguish themselves from bands with more limited visions. “Most of the bands The Kinks toured with were just in it for the fun: to make money and buy a nice car,” Davies concluded. “But with The Who, you got the feeling that they were out to rewrite the rules. Which attracted me because I was trying to do the same thing.”
