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The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night released - TIMH

+2 HS
John Cooper's lucky pig's picture
December 9, 2015 at 9:00am
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The Kinks released their fourth single, “All Day and All of the Night”, today in 1964. While the band was part of the British Invasion, they had an entirely different sound and image than their peers like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or the Dave Clark Five. The Kinks had a dangerous edge to their music that early Beatles or Stones were lacking and even the band’s name let us know that they weren’t like the rest.

The Kinks were formed by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in England in 1963. They started out much like the other bands in the British Invasion as they were heavily influenced by American blues and R&B. Their first single was a cover of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” and their second single was an original song called “You Still Want Me”. Neither song made the singles charts in either the UK or the US and the Kinks were in danger of losing their recording contract.

The band needed a hit and they found one by just being themselves and not trying to sound like all the other popular music of the day. They took inspiration from The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie", and The Kinks' third single, “You Really Got Me”, had a much heavier and distorted guitar sound. It was released in August of 1964 and was the breakthrough the band needed, reaching #7 on the US singles chart. The Kinks had found their sound and followed that success with the release of “All Day and All of the Night” a few months later.

You can never quite tell the real story when you listen to Ray and Dave Davies, but legend has it that The Kinks’ raw guitar sound on those songs was achieved when guitarist Dave cut the speaker cone on his amplifier with a razor blade. Contradictions are part of the legacy of The Kinks and the two brothers created the blueprint for dysfunctional rock and roll brothers like the Robinsons from The Black Crowes and the Gallaghers from Oasis to follow.

The Kinks also laid the foundation for future punk, metal and garage bands. They were not great musicians when the band started but that didn’t stop them from making music history. The trouble between the brothers spilled over onstage and led to some memorable performances that eventually got them blacklisted in the US and prevented them from touring the States in mid-1964 and 1965.

The Kinks’ sound evolved quickly from the proto-punk/metal sound and they ended up influencing a wide variety of bands, including the Small Faces, the Who, the Ramones, The Clash, Oasis, The Vines and Van Halen. The Doors even ripped off “All Day and All of the Night” for their song “Hello, I Love You”.

 

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