Kinks Guitarist Dave Davies Has 'Unfinished Business'

02/22/1999 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(2/22/99, 1 a.m. PST) - While the title "father of heavy metal" would satisfy some guitarists, it has always hung uneasily on the Kinks' Dave Davies. His compositions, which belie his hard-rocking reputation, are continually overshadowed by those of his older brother, Ray. Nonetheless, ever since the Kinks' inception, Dave has taken every opportunity to record his songs.

The new double-CD Unfinished Business, released on Jan. 12 by Velvel, brings together many of his works, recorded both with the Kinks and solo. During the New York City stop on his just-completed solo tour, he discussed that and some "unfinished business" of his own.

The title track of Unfinished Business is a new composition inspired by John Lennon, whose death, Davies observes, cheated the world of his future achievements. "This is one of the key reasons why I wanted this album out," Davies explained. "My life and my work and my creativity are unfulfilled. I've had great moments where I've been able to fulfill a lot of my creative ideas, but the 'unfinished business' is that there's so much more I want to do.

"The whole concept of the anthology," he continued, "is that I feel comfortable with my past now and I'm very proud of it...As far as I'm concerned, it ties in very neatly with where I feel I am at the moment."

Davies has become increasingly vocal about his spiritual beliefs, which seem to be part New Age and part X-Files. However, although he claims closeness with humanity, relations with his brother have yet to thaw. "Ray has had great difficulty coming to terms with my spiritual ideas," he admitted. "But we come from quite a psychic family. Ray's very psychic. I mean, if he was sitting here now, he would not like me saying that, but I know that he's really, really psychic, and I know that he's been helped a lot, in similar ways to what I have. I always felt that he was a bit scared of psychic stuff, for someone who's really psychic."

He added, as straightforwardly as though Ray were in the next room, "He can probably hear us talking about him."

Click here to read a full Dave Davies feature.

-- Dawn Eden, New York

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