Dave Davies's guitar parts in Sunny Afternoon

[rich23]

Hi,

Can anyone help me with this. What parts did Dave play over Rays acoustic bits on the track, live or in the studio.

thanks,
rich

[hofner]

as far as I know Dave plays the chromatic Introline which is repeated in the chorus. It`s the same line as the bass plays, you could say the basspart is doubled by Dave`s electric guitar.
In the pre-chorus "save me, save me..." Dave plays the chords with a little bit of distortioneffects. The chords are played in a very massive but short beat and they are very quick interrupted. This gives the song the special beat and drive. In live versions Dave does also very short pentatonic scales and bendings in the part "Save me, save me..."
I hope my English is good enought that you know what I mean.

[HollyH]

Excellent analysis, hofner. It's clear to me!

[Smiley]

It's easy to understand and also that you play guitar when you speak of "pentatonic scales !"
;D

[hofner]

thank you for confirming that you have understood. That`s right I play guitar (and of course lots of Kinks stuff!) By the way "Sunny Afternoon" I had a conversation with Ray when we talked about Sunny A. I asked him how it came that he uses chromatic lines in many songs. He answered very cool to me: "Not I didn`t, Bach did it!"
You see Ray was influenced by one of the greatest songwriter at all!
If you have any further questions concerning the composition-works of Ray ask me again and I will do my very best!

[HollyH]

Thanks, Hofner! I've noticed that John Lennon used a lot of chromatic lines as well. I always thought that was because he was writing for his own limitations as a singer, whereas Paul McCartney had a better ear for intervals due to his wide vocal range.

[uncleson]

Hofner, I really enjoy your analysis of Ray's songs.

Ive always liked No Return and End Of The Season.

What do you think of these two, and how they were constructed?

Jeff

[hofner]

Hi Jeff,

"No Return" is a typical Ray song in which he shows his passion for jazz-harmonies as far as you can consider Bossa Nova as a kind of jazz. But in a time when Bossa became a developement of pop- or rockmusic just to show that pop/rock was now ready and matured to bring new rhythm and new harmonies in this music (remember Astrud Gilberto) Ray couldn`t hesitate in presenting this new style. And as I mentioned in my postings before Ray couldn`t deny his roots to jazzharmonies. Indeed he worked out great sounding chords for this song. I would say No Return is a masterpiece in combining melody, emotions and harmonies to this excellently performed song. To write such a song it needs to be very crafted and very capable in musik-knowledges.

End Of The Season is also a very emotional song and it is one of the most authentic Ray-songs. You know Ray is always searchin for tricky parts. In this song he jumps in a very spectacular way to an unusual chord before the word"season" is sung in the chorus. This is a very unusual way as far as I remember (sorry I haven`t any piano here so I cannot play this part to explain what Ray does exactly do) But I guess he goes from a G chord in the Part "end of the" to a C sharp on the word "season" and he comes back again to G. And this (leaving the original key only for the short part of the word "season") makes an impact in this song. You feel there is something moving in this tranqualizing song. The bass - I think it is a conrabass - is played in a very jazzy style.
Both songs show how Ray is always on the way finding out extraordinary things to make his music more interesting than other songwriters can do. Again I have to admit Ray has got fantastic skills in making songs. And compared to You Really Got Me it sounds like a different band and a different writer. That is what Ray wants to do and achieve sometimes.

[HollyH]

So true! Ray is a musical chameleon in many ways -- he's always experimenting in different styles. I've often wondered if that hasn't worked against him with the mass public, who only want to hear more of the same predictable sounds.

[uncleson]

Thank you hofner. Very excellent analysis. No Return and End Of The Season are two of my favorites! Its a joy to read your analysis' of these songs.

Sitting By The Riverside?

Monica?