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Post by franklima on Oct 29, 2008 18:52:02 GMT -5
www.smarterinfo.net/electric-guitars-and-early-electric-amplifiers.htmlElectric Guitars And Early Electric Amplifiers October 28, 2008 | By admin | By Victor Epand An electric guitar can have any number of a range of extra features, accessories and gadgets used to adjust, distort and affect the sound that it produces. But one item is an absolute necessity: no electric guitar can be performed or make any decent sound without an amplifier. A good quality amplifier can make a massive difference, and if you’re looking to buy an electric guitar, or perhaps move on from a basic starter model, then a good quality and flexible amplifier unit to match the guitar will make all the difference. After all, it is the guitar which produces the signal, but the amplifier which makes the sound. It would be the same as considering a choir and the conductor. Both are important, but no matter how good the conductor, it is the choir which ultimately make the sound, and have the greatest impact on the eventual quality of sound heard. Amplifiers that were created specifically for an instrument were first developed as part of the electric guitar development, and it was these instruments which first benefitted from any kind of external amplification. These early units were developed in the 1930s, and it was the advent of more advanced electrics that enabled amplification units to be built that were both economic and of good quality. Of course, the amplification of guitars had been around for much longer, but simply for acoustic guitars, with microphones set up. The combination of electronic amplification units coupled to electric guitars gave rise to a whole new sound of music, originally popularised by the steel stung sound of the Hawaiian guitar. Early amplifiers were fairly basic, and even though they often had a range of controls, these did not provide a wide range of controls to improve sound quality. Generally the early amplifiers were very good at boosting the treble signal, but the bass notes were poor, and the response was slow. As these early models developed, extra features were included such as reverberation effects and tremolo units. In fact, Fender introduced an amplification unit which included a tremolo effect, although through an error of misunderstanding this was labeled as ‘vibrato’, with the lever included on the Stratocaster guitar which actually produced the vibrato effect labeled as ‘tremolo’. These incorrect labels stuck, however, and this day the most popular way of referring to the tremolo effect is through the word vibrato, and the vibrato effect is usually referred to as tremolo. This is why music written for electric guitar has these words used quite differently from music written for other instruments. Many of these earlier models of amplifier could be reasonably easily overloaded, and some guitarists took to deliberately achieving this effect, creating a range of distortion effects. Indeed, it was Dave Davies, guitarist with the Kinks who first introduced a distortion effect which involved him connecting the output from one of his amplifiers into the input section of a second amplifier. This distortion effect created a unique, wailing sound, and was one which, whilst the designers at the time could never have imagined, was later introduced by many other performers and amplifier designers. Distortion effects today are so prevalent that it nearly seems a requirement that a guitarist can produce such a sound within many genres of music. About The Author Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music, guitar tab, and home theater audio. You can find the ideal marketplace at these sites: www.4guitars.info , www.4sheetmusic.info , and www.theateraudio.info .
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Post by franklima on Nov 4, 2008 20:20:00 GMT -5
just in case you missed the Dave solo tours...( and there is more to come )
Dave Davies - Club Caprice - 10/8/98 - By John Lappen - Hollywood Reporter - October 12, 1998 Nothing like sibling rivalry to bring out the best in the Davies brothers. Younger bro Dave is busy proving that anything big brother Ray is doing these days he can do to. Write a book on what it's like to be a Kink? No problem. Ray has written a couple of volumes and Dave followed up with his own tome about life in this legendary Hall of Fame band.
A solo tour? Continuing right on the heels of Ray's "Storyteller" shows, Dave has decided to dust off his Fenders and rock clubland. And judging from his wildly received South Bay appearance, this is a very good idea.
Backed by a young, nerdy four-piece that obviously worships at the Kinks altar, an enthusiastic Dave Davies rocked through a nearly two-hour set that showed him to be in fine form. Always the Kinks' rock 'n' roll heart, Dave never met a big, loud chord he didn't like. And, to the surprise of many, he did not perform the two songs most associated with his monstrous riffing; namely "All Day and All of the Night" and, of course, "You Really Got Me."
A minor quibble, however. What really made this show special was the musical nuggets, many obscure and rarely played live, that Dave unearthed for the large contingent of Kinks fans in the house. As Davies exclaimed near show's end, "I'm playing you many of my favorite Kinks songs. I hope you like it ... but if you don't that's too bad." No problem Dave; we liked it.
Sprinkled liberally throughout the set were some serious Kinks rarities, particularly from the Kinks Katalog circa 1965-71. Heard "Picture Book" or "Young and Innocent Days" played lately? How about "Too Much on My Mind" or the yearning "Strangers"?
Throw in a couple of numbers from the "Arthur" album and the poignant English whimsy of "Village Green Preservation Society" and you get an idea of how deep into the Kinks vaults Davies tunneled.
Who knows when the Davies brothers will go out as the Kinks again? They probably don't even know. In the meantime, little brother is doing the family name proud all by his lonesome.
©1998 - The Hollywood Reporter
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Dave Davies - Scoring The Clubs - By Dan Epstein - LA Weekly - June 5-11, 1998 You don't need to be slightly off your nut to be a rock star, but it certainly helps. Take Kink, the recent autobiography of founding Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, for example. An impossible to put down tale of drinks, drugs and sexual experimentation, with cameo appearances by characters real, hallucinated and extraterrestrial, it's nothing less than you'd expect from the man who came up with the crazed guitar solo to "You Really Got Me." These days, "Dave the Rave" has calmed down, but his guitar playing remains just as ferocious. With the Kinks in limbo, Davies has spent the last year crisscrossing the country with a small backing combo (including local cats Jim Laspesa and Dave Jenkins), playing revved-up versions of classics like "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "Love Me Till The Sun Shines" and the inevitable "You Really Got Me" to delighted Kinks fans everywhere. his new stuff isn't bad, either (much better than, say, "Rock and Roll Cities"), and he seems to be having the time of his life onstage.
©1998 - LA Weekly
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Davies - Bottom Line - By Richard Skanse - Rolling Stone - June 5, 1998 In the last year, Rock & Roll Hall-of-Famer and Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has played New York's Bottom Line nearly half a dozen times. With little variation in material, he rips through two sets of klassic Kinks and obscure solo cuts to the same fanatical group of die-hard Kinkophiles -- the selfsame group who also return again and again to older brother Ray's own "Storyteller" show. Every one of them would no doubt sacrifice an appendage to see the infamously feuding brothers share the stage again for a legitimate Kinks gig, but brothers will be brothers, Kinks will be Kinks, and their fans have by now learned to accept their fix in half doses: a hit of Ray for sly wit and an enlightening, narrated look through the Kinks' back pages, followed by a bit of Dave the Rave to get your rocks off.
The last time Dave came to town, though, less than a month ago, he seemed to skimp a bit on his part of the bargain. Kultists no doubt went home satisfied - hell, he even dragged the Kinks' original bassist, Peter Quaife, on stage for the encore; but to the slightly less forgiving Kinks fan, the band's lazy performance and Davies' going through the motions guitar work hardly made for a memorable show. Surely this man, who revolutionized rock & roll as we know it with his frantic, distorted and brilliantly sloppy guitar solo on "You Really Got Me" thirty-four years ago had more left in him than *that*. Doesn't he?
Of course he does. Davies came out swinging tonight, leading his young, three-piece band through ecstatic, pummeling versions of "Till the End of the Day" and "I Need You." "She's Got Everything," kicked along with punkish tenacity by drummer Jim Laspesa's (The Muffs) staccato hammering, pushed the intensity level even higher. And Davies kept the excitement alive for nearly every minute of his seventeen-song set. That he did so without ever playing his best-known, self-penned Kinks hit, "Death of a Clown," was testimony that Davies not only still has the proverbial goods but the ornery, "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" attitude worthy of the Kinks' name.
Then again, no self-respecting Kinkophile would come to a Dave Davies show (or even a Kinks show, for that matter) to hear the hits. The more obscure, the better, and Davies never disappoints in that respect. Would there be room in a full-fledged Kinks show to allow Dave to indulge in the likes of "Creeping Jean," a dusty, clumsy and almost metallic in a Blue Oyster Cult sort-of-way stomper, or the achingly lovely "Hold My Hand," an early draft of his own "Strangers," or even a promising new anthem like "Unfinished Business"?
Most likely not. In lieu of "Death of a Clown," however, Ray would surely have to allow his kid brother time for either "Living on a Thin Line" or "Susannah's Still Alive," his moving paean to a childhood sweetheart. Give Dave his own stage, though, and he gives his own material free rein. Ray's compositions aren't forsaken, of course, even the snootiest Kinks fan needs to hear "You Really Got Me", but on a night like tonight, when everything is working, Dave makes them his own. The standing ovation that came after an extended, menacing and utterly convincing "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" was for the singer, not the song.
"This is the part of the show where I read excerpts from my book, Kink," quipped Davies in the quiet after the storm, gently mocking his brother's show (which is heavily based on Ray's "unauthorized autobiography," X-Ray). The joke always goes down well, although the Kinkophiles in the front rows have heard it verbatim at every one of Dave's shows. Out came the acoustic guitar, and with it a fine quartet of subtle gems: two of Ray's finest ("Picture Book" and "Young and Innocent Days") and two of Dave's (1970's "Strangers" and "Love Gets You" from his 1983 solo album, Chosen People) which were just as fine.
He capped the unplugged segment with what is usually (barring tonight's "I'm Not Like Everybody Else") the standout of his show: a new, unrecorded mini-epic called "Fortis Green." For years Dave enthusiasts have pointed to Dave songs ("Death of a Clown," "Strangers") which were "nearly on par with Ray's." "Fortis Green" d**n near beats them all. An incestuous marriage of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" crashed by the Kinks' "Autumn Almanac," this whimsical nostalgia trip through Dave's childhood could have been a standout track on 1968's Village Green Preservation Society, which is to say, it could have been a classic. Here's hoping Davies just gets around to recording it someday soon ... with or without Ray.
©1998 - Rolling Stone
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Dave Davies Follows Ray Onto The Road - By Jim Sullivan - Boston Globe - June 6, 1998 MAYNARD - You're Dave Davies - lead guitarist, but second banana, in the Kinks - and your big brother and group leader Ray has effectively put the band on hiatus while he keeps touring small clubs with his "Storyteller'' show, playing music and reading bits from his ''unauthorized autobiography'' ''X-Ray.'' This has been going on for three years. What do you do?
Wait.
But, finally, you decide to get off your duff and hit the road with a band. Here's maybe what you say to the crowd, mid set at a packed club, after some full-bore rocking on ''Wicked Annabella'': ''OK, I'm gonna change the mood. This is where I usually read a few extracts from my autobiography `Kink.' It's a bit serious. This is a sophisticated and intellectual audience, so I'm gonna read the whole book in its entirety. (Pause) I think this is a small reprieve - 'cause I've forgotten to bring the book.''
Davies delivered this spiel Thursday at the Sit 'n Bull Pub, packed to its 160 capacity. It was a small jab at Ray, a love tap, really, given the Davies brothers' reign as the Gallagher (Oasis) brothers of their time. Paraphrasing one of the gorgeous songs Dave played early, ''Susannah's Still Alive,'' what he was there to do was prove that, yes, he's still alive and that he represents a slice of the Kinks, as writer and singer, that is none too shabby.
Sit 'n Bull co-owner/MC/Kinks nut Peter Bochner was in heaven, calling it ''my proudest moment as a club owner.'' When Dave Davies gets his chance during Kinks shows, he'll often opt for the metallic screamers. During this 80-minute set - backed by bassist Dave Jenkins, keyboardist-guitarist Dave Nolte, and drummer Jim Lapesa - the high-voiced Davies presented a much more balanced Kink. There was the self-depreciating ache of ''Love Me Till the Sun Shines '' - ''You don't have to sleep with me,'' etc. - and the nostalgic wince of ''Picture Book,'' a flip through a photo album of old or dead folks who once loved one another, and a time when ''you were a baby, when you were happy ... a long time ago.''
Davies started off with three sure-fire '60s gems, ''Till the End of the Day,'' ''I Need You,'' and ''She's Got Everything,'' where three chords and naive hopes rule. Life and love got more complex as the set went on with ''Tired of Waiting for You,'' ''Strangers,'' ''This Man, He Weeps Tonight, '' and ''Livin' on a Thin Line.'' This last is one of Dave's '80s standouts with its sizzling guitar line, elegiac sweep, and the futile anger of being a pawn of the powerful: ''Does it matter much? Does it ever really matter?''
The spine-tingling highlight was ''I'm Not Like Everybody Else,'' where Davies unleashed his most stinging guitar leads and, arguably, vocals. It's a stirring longtime Kinks-and-fans communal bonding ritual - the Kinks aren't like the Stones, say, and their fans aren't sheep. Yes, there's irony in a roomful of people proclaiming their individuality in unison, but everyone's in on that part of the joke, too.
Davies showcased a couple of new songs - he has a new stuff/best-of disc called ''Unfinished Business'' out on Vel-Vel in late August - and the best of these was ''Fortis Green,'' a pensive, acoustic-based musing played after a rave-up encore of ''All Day and All of the Night.'' In ''Fortis Green,'' Davies wandered down his hometown memory lane - his mum screaming at his drunk dad, but dad taking him fishing; spying on his sisters making out with boyfriends; observing that during the London Blitz there were swinging parties held while the bombs dropped. ''I wish it could be like it was in the old days,'' Davies sang, softly, bombs or not.
Boston's Slide opened with a tasty set of off-kilter, roots-derived rock and was welcomed by the Kinks crowd.
©1998 - Boston Globe
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A Perfect Day for Second Bananas: Dave Davies's Sidekick Syndrome
by George Kalogerakis - New York Magazine - December 15, 1997
Pity the second banana. Names like Art Garfunkel, Ed McMahon, and Dr. Watson conjure up nothing so much as other names, those of their better-known, more accomplished partners. ("Andrew Ridgeley" conjures up nothing at all. Some bananas are more second than others.) Talented sidekicks have it worse - their relationships are unequal and competitive - and a blood tie really complicates things. So the long-suffering vice-Kink Dave is doubly whammied. (Wham! That's why Ridgeley sounded familiar.)
"Dave is a one-off," Ray Davies once told me genially, discussing the recording-studio habits of his guitarist brother. "He'll get it the first time." Pause; smirk. "Eventually."
That's how it's always gone with the Davies boys-Ray, charming frontman and brilliant songwriter, and Dave, his comparatively underachieving kid sib. They've been at it professionally since 1963, personally a lot longer. A few years ago, they put the Kinks on hiatus.
Ray wrote an ambitious, well-received autobiography and toured, to acclaim, with a disarmingly intimate songs-and-readings act. Dave wrote a memoir disclosing his interest in UFOs.
So even loyalists approached the lesser Kink's Thanksgiving gigs at the Bottom Line - his first New York solo concerts after 30 years as a pop star - with a mixture of affection and dread. Put Dave in front of a band, give him an open mike and plug him in, and anything is possible, not all of it pretty.
But how wrong the skeptics - the older brothers among us - were. Out from under Ray's thumb, Dave played winning, freewheeling, deftly chosen sets. He ignored his middling solo albums, performing instead the best of the stuff he wrote or sang for the Kinks, even dipping generously into brother Ray's catalogue. He was, unaccountably, terrific. The irony: Between Ray's solo shows and now Dave's, Kinks fans get what they craved. No single to hype or album to flog. No smoke, lasers, or "Lola" sing-alongs. Just great songs, dozens of them. The Kinks are dead; long live the Davies brothers.
And long live second bananas. Some delicate equilibrium is upset, some tacit understanding betrayed, when these upstarts have the temerity to step forward. But the experiences can be liberating. Just wait till Beavis starts to feel his oats.
©1997 - New York Magazine
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Dave Davies Stirs Kinks Controversy
By John Swenson - United Press International - Wednesday, December 3, 1997
The Kinks, one of the most prolific and influential groups in rock history, are the product of a rich but troubled creative exchange between two musically gifted brothers, Ray and Dave Davies. Ray, the older of the two, has fronted the band over the years with a combination of his outgoing showmanship and brilliant wit. Dave was always content to stand to the side of the stage, running the band's sound with his outstanding guitar work, and taking the spotlight to sing an occasional song.
The tension between the two brothers has been a source of creative energy over the years, but it has also been an impediment to the group's success.
The Kinks appeared to go on hiatus when Ray Davies wrote a revealing autobiography, "X-Ray," in 1995, then went on a solo tour where he mixed acoustic performances of some of his songs with readings from the book.
Dave countered with his own book, "Kink," in 1997, a lurid and excruciatingly self-revelatory history laced with bitterness about the way the band's affairs were handled. In the book, Dave accuses Ray of stealing songwriting credit to many songs he contributed to and thus robbing him of royalty payments.
In this rancorous atmosphere it appears unlikely that the Kinks will be making a comeback any time soon, but fans of the group in New York were heartened by a recent performance at the Bottom Line by Dave Davies and a hard rocking backing quartet.
Dave can offer no better proof of his claims to authorship of the Kinks sound than his own extraordinary renditions of the classics from the group's extensive catalog.
The Bottom Line stage was outfitted with a dozen guitars before the show, a dead giveaway that Dave intended on rocking out. When the band opened with the crunching riff rock of "I Need You," from the early Kinks release "Kinkdom," followed by the first track on the first Kinks album, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Beautiful Delilah," Dave's assertion of ownership of the Kinks sound was undisputable.
"Before we even had a band, me and Ray used to play together," explained Dave. "Ray was very much the instrumentalist and I was the rhythm guitarist, but when we formed a band it changed. My playing was more aggressive, and it seemed to fit better when we had drums in the band."
Dave recalled that the creative tensions with his older brother beganearly.
"Ray and I have a special relationship; it's been terrible at times, and yet we are still trying for something. We have the same goal but different methods of getting there. We're both fighting against each other and with each other. It's a fusion of tension that makes something real. Ray is an intellectual person, whereas I'm not, and I've gotten into a lot of emotionan difficulties with people because of that. He's stimulated my intellectual part and I've stimulated his feeling part."
Dave arrived at his distinctive instrumental voice during jam sessions in the family sitting room. He had a little green 10-watt Elpico amplifier whose tinny sound the brothers hated.
He ran the Elpico amplifier's speaker output leads through a Vox AC30 speaker, then slashed the speaker cone of the Elpico to produce the buzzing, distorted sound of "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night," the two hits that launched the band's career. The sound evolved into what became known as heavy metal and kicked off a catalog that is one of the deepest, quirkiest and most-covered in rock & roll history.
Dave mined a number of the band's most esoteric early recordings during the Bottom Line show, including the rare singles "She's Got Everything" and "Susannah's Still Alive," anthologized on "The Kink Kronikles," "Wicked Annabella" and "Picture Book" from "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society," and several of his best- known compositions for the band "Death of a Clown," from "Something Else," the opening track on "Lola Vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround," "Strangers," and "Livin' On a Thin Line" from "Word Of Mouth."
"I chose Kinks songs that were favorites of mine," Dave told the appreciative crowd, which also knew the even more obscure pieces from Dave's solo albums, including "Imagination's Real" and the title track from his latest release, "Unfinished Business."
Dave took time out during the show to mock his older brother, turning "Lola" into a mishmash of a medley with "The Girl From Ipanema," "Waterloo Sunset," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Apeman," then brandishing "Kink" and making as if he was going to read from the book. "It's not as long as some books," he quipped. Or as the relationship between a pair of gifted brothers whose work has done much to make rock & roll what it is today.
© 1997 - United Press International
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Like His Brother, but Much Grittier - By Jon Pareles - The New York Times 1997
A squawk of feedback was the first sound Dave Davies made in his early set on Saturday night at the Bottom Line. It was deliberate; Mr. Davies was letting listeners know that he was still the noise-loving guitarist who made the Kinks' early-1960's hits the precursors of hard rock to come, with blasts of power chords and careening lead lines.
Mr. Davies's brother Ray is the Kinks' main songwriter and lead singer, while Dave Davies has placed a handful of his own songs on Kinks albums and sporadically released his own albums. Ray Davies published an autobiography, "X-Ray," in 1995 and toured by himself; Dave Davies has his own autobiography, "Kink" (1997), and is now touring with his own band. His shows at the Bottom Line, on Wednesday and Saturday, were his first appearances as a leader in New York City.
While Ray Davies's solo tour has as much talk as music, Dave Davies just plugged in and played: recent songs, 1960's songs, even a few of his brother's songs that he admires. Dave Davies has a lot in common with his brother. His early songs were about desperate lust and frustration, with their hormonal furies echoed in power chords and wrenching solos. But Mr. Davies also cherishes the bounce of English music-hall songs, and like his brother he has a nostalgic streak. Compared with his brother's songs, however, Dave Davies's tend to go to extremes: angrier, sadder, grittier.
As he has aged, Dave Davies's songwriting has moved from youthful aggression to middle-aged wistfulness. He sang Ray Davies's "Young and Innocent Days" and "Picture Book," both about looking back. A song about his own harsher memories -- among them his mother screaming at his drunken father -- but still confesses, "I wish that it could be like it was in the old days."
The club was full of Kinks cultists, and they roared with pleasure to hear decades-old songs like "Susannah's Still Alive," "Funny Face" and "Death of a Clown." Mr. Davies was an inexperienced front man, but an enthusiastic and endearing one: the longtime second banana who had finally seized his moment.
© 1997 - The New York Times
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David Davies Delights Kinks Fans At Toad's
By Roger Catlin - Hartford Courant - December 4, 1997
Ray Davies has received so much credit as both the chief songwriter of the Kinks - both with the band and on his two-year solo tour - that one wondered whether his guitar-playing brother and frequent foil, Dave Davies, could muster much of a tour of his own.
The pleasant surprise of Dave Davies' first-ever solo tour, which stopped at Toad's Place in New Haven Tuesday night, is that it actually may deliver more Kinks thrills than his big brother's. Besides being the groundbreaking guitarist who brought forth the first fearsome power chords of "You really Got Me," helping give birth to hard rock, Dave Davies is the consummate Kinks fan as well.
He'd like nothing more than to be in the studio or on tour with the great surviving British band. But in it's place, he's obviously having a splendid time honoring the band in a tour named Kinks Kronikles. Like the 1972 album of the same name, the tour sticks largely to obscure, melodic tunes from the band's late 60's period, when it was banned from performing in the United States because of a union dispute.
Backed by a talented young band, the show resulted in the kinds of things fans have been waiting 30 years to hear, performed live by a Kink, including "Susannah's Still Alive," "Love Me Till the Sun Shines," "She's Got Everything" and "Funny Face." "Over the years, there's been so many neglected Kinks songs," the youthful 50 year-old said before embarking on the moving "Young and Innocent Days."
Kicking off the show with a rocking "I Need You," it seemed at first Davies would be singing every song an octave higher than his brother. But he came to terms with most of the songs, his sweetly melodic voice sounding just right on most.
Davies good-naturedly skewered his brother's tour by pulling out a copy of his own black-bound biography and a pair of broken reading glasses, vowing to read every word of the book, exclaiming, "Enough rock 'n' roll!" It was just a joke, though, and he pulled on an acoustic guitar for a exquisite acoustic portion of the show that began with "Picture Book" and included a beautiful version of the 1970 "Strangers" and a heady "Too Much on My Mind."
"Fortis Green," the one song he wrote after finishing his biography, "Kink," is a fine addition to his impressive catalog. Though he sold a new collection of his solo work, "Unfinished Business," Davies sang nearly nothing from it, happy to stay with the classic Kinks material that's influenced generations of British bands.
One band that would be inconceivable without the Kinks was the opener - the Botswanas, a band from New York and New Haven that produce marvelous, hooky songs based on '60's simplicity and '70's New Wave style. Its members seemed as excited about the headliner as the audience.
©1997 - Hartford Courant
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Post by franklima on Nov 5, 2008 20:08:40 GMT -5
Rock Legend Rocks Common Grounds By Ben Soman The Sabre - October 12, 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You don't mind if I tune my guitar while we do this?" Of course not, you're a rock legend. Former Kinks guitarist Dave Davies was good enough to grant an interview to our editor Chris and me after his private sound check on Wednesday afternoon at the Todd Wehr Alumni Center. Sound check was closed to the public. Only a few technicians and workers were allowed to be inside Common Grounds while Davies tuned his guitars and checked the microphones. In all, the sound check lasted about 45 minutes while Chris and I were left to wait outside on the brisk fall afternoon. Dozens of people tried to enter but were turned away by people watching the door. When it was finally over, we got to meet the legend. Mike Kraus introduced us to Davies in his impromptu dressing room, where we sat down for the interview. My first question was one that I think everyone was wondering: Why was this quirky English rocker performing at Marian? Davies went on to explain that Kraus has been a Kinks fan for decades and they had casually met at concerts a few times about ten or fifteen years ago. They gradually began to develop a friendship, and a few years ago came up with the idea of playing in Fond du Lac. There were plans for a concert over last summer, but they fell through because of Davies's touring schedule with his band, Dave Davies and his Kinks Kronikles. They then concocted the idea for a solo concert at the coffeehouse. Davies said that Common Grounds was a perfect place to try playing as a solo artist with acoustic and electric guitars and let him talk about music and his life. I asked the Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer what some of his early influences were, and he began to list names faster than I could write. Eddie Cochran was the biggest. Of course, Elvis, Perry Como, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry, Frank Sinatra and Buddy Holly and the Crickets, to name a few. Duane Eddy was a big influence as an instrumental guitar player, also. Davies still listens to new music today, saying that he enjoys everything from Sugar Ray to Pearl Jam to the Smashing Pumpkins. He said that he "really likes Radiohead" and noted some of their influences. He also said that he likes the way that bands like Korn meld metal and rap together in a powerful way. He went on to say, "Good rock music always tends to be around." Davies also said during the concert that he has gotten into classical music, too. The concert was supposed to start at nine, but like all great performers, Davies made the crowd wait for a few minutes to build the anticipation. When Mike Kraus took the stage to introduce him, Davies quietly slipped in and began walking through the many college students who got there too late to get a seat. No one thought anything of it, and most people probably thought he was just another fan who had come to see him. He took the stage and went into the only song from his playlist that I knew, "You Really Got Me." It was a little lacking because it was only played with one guitar, but just the sight of him playing was exciting. I mean, this guy invented the power chord, which transformed rock music into what it is today. After "You Really Got Me," the easy-going Davies picked up his acoustic guitar and started to tell stories and recollect his life. Even though I had never heard them and he only played a couple handfuls of songs, I had to admit I liked the acoustic songs more than the electric. Some were pretty funny, while others were fairly dark, but overall, it was entertaining. The Brit read from his autobiography in between songs, sometimes mumbling and using words that an American college student wouldn't understand. Every once and a while the stories dragged on a bit too long, but then he would lose his train of thought or his place in the book and he would make a joke about himself. And that's what the whole show was about. Dave Davies wanted to try something experimental that he had never done before, and he did it. His die-hard fans cheered him on almost religiously, while some college kids gained a better understanding of life in the sixties, fame and rock-and-roll. Davies splits his time between his homes in London and Los Angeles. He has studios in both cities where he and other artists record. He spends much of his time with some of his eight children and has been working on projects with three of his sons. Davies also has a new CD coming out, which is only available on his web page, www.davedavies.com. He and his band will be touring the West Coast and "out east" later this year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ben Soman - The Sabre, October 12, 1999
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Post by franklima on Nov 9, 2008 21:34:12 GMT -5
All DAVE AND ALL OF THE DAVE ;D
ROCK BANDS COME, ROCK BANDS GO BUT ROCK & ROLL IS GONNA GO ON FOREVER...YOU CANT STOP THE MUSIC or THE KINKS !
30 Years In The Making, Dave Davies Gets the Kinks Out For First Tour
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are many important turning points in the history of rock and roll: Bob Dylan goes electric. The Beatles release "Sgt. Pepper." Jimi Hendrix plays the Monterey Pop Festival. But before any of that happened, a 16-year-old English boy named Dave Davies was sitting in the front room of his parents' house in Muswell Hill in 1963, frustrated at the tinny sound coming from his small, 10-watt green amplifier.
Desperate for a new sound, he slashed the speaker cone with a razor blade, shredding the material. After that crude motivation, the little amp sounded fuzzy, distorted, nasty. It sounded like what it was; an amp was falling apart. That little sonic experiment might have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, but Davies' older brother, Ray, had written a catchy little song called "You Really Got Me" on the family piano. Dave played the riff through his little green amp. The brothers formed a band called The Kinks and recorded their song.
And the world was never the same. Engineers in music companies began trying to duplicate the sound from "You Really Got Me" by adding distortion to amps and designing effect boxes. Electric guitars would no longer sound clean. Heavy metal would be born, and then punk and then grunge. Meanwhile, Dave Davies would stay in the background for the next 34 years, always the lead guitarist in The Kinks but never the star.
Until now. Last Monday, one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time performed his first solo concert, choosing a small West Hollywood club to play crowd-pleasing Kinks hits, samples from his solo work and some new songs. His second show will be April 29 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. "I really don't know what to say about that," Davies laughs, replying to a question about why he has never done a solo tour. "It's peculiar when you think of it. I've always enjoyed playing in the Kinks, although we've always had our ups and downs, obviously."
At times the Kinks have appeared to be their own worst enemy, seemingly always out of step with the times and plagued by poor career decisions. In typical Kinks fashion, Davies' tour is off to an stumbling start, with advertisements for his Belly Up show first indicating he was either opening for the Smithereens or playing with them as his backup when actually the Smithereens are not even appearing that night.
Despite 30 years to plan for his first solo tour, the snafu with the Smithereens may be an indication to just how unprepared Davies is for the venture. With no advance publicity for his Southern California shows, Davies had to be tracked down for this interview at a friend's house in Los Angeles, and he seemed genuinely surprised that he was getting any press attention at all.
While Davies launches his solo tour on the west coast, his brother is continuing his own "Storyteller" tour in which he speaks, performs scaled-down Kinks songs and reads from his autobiography, "X Ray." "I've read the book and I thought some of it was really very interesting," Davies said about "X Ray." "But I suggested to him that he should have called it 'Y Ray.' He didn't think it was funny."
Rows between the Davies brothers are among the most legendary in rock and roll folklore, and at 50 years old, the younger Davies seems forgiving, if not close, to his older brother. "I've seen some video of it," Davies said about his brother's "Storyteller" show. "But he hasn't invited me, and I'm not going to buy a ticket. "I might invite him to my show, but I don't think I'd let him on stage," he said. "But maybe. What could I get him to do? He could play the triangle. He could play maracas. Or he could play the harmonica on 'Susannah's Still Alive.'" That Dave Davies-composed Kinks song has long been absent from any Kinks concert, but it was one of the songs performed last Monday, according to reports posted on the Kinks' web site. Davies himself wants to keep the set list a secret to surprise his fans.
The younger Davies recently released his own autobiography, "Kink," and his brother comes off both a musical genius and a manipulative megalomaniac in the book. Davies suggests he got off lightly. "I think he has read it," he said about Ray. "I know he said he hasn't. But there's been a distinct difference in his manner. I sensed he had read the book." That difference in his manner was relief, Davies said, as Ray probably had assumed he would look much worse in the book. "I think both books demonstrate how totally different our personalities are," Davies said. "You could be locked in the same room with somebody all your life and hardly have anything in common with them." The most striking difference about the two books is how Ray Davies continues to reveal so little about himself while Dave Davies shares everything from his most exhilarating moments in his career to his most painful personal tragedies. Along the way he also shares his views on philosophy, vegetarianism, drugs, spirituality and even UFOs, which he says he's seen on several occasions.
Looking forward to his San Diego visit, his interest in UFOs naturally led to a discussion about Heaven's Gate. "I was deeply saddened by the whole thing," he said. "It really affected me. I don't know why they didn't understand things like karma. "I believe in extraterrestrial beings, but apart from that whole angle, my point of view is we've got our own great heaven's gate on earth. This could be our heaven."
Davies expects to release "Unfinished Business," an anthology of his work, in mid-June, and he said the Kinks probably will be back in the studio themselves soon enough, and then back on the road as a full band. The Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and both Davies brothers agree Dave's little green amp should be on exhibit there. But in their typical style, they still find something to disagree about. Asked earlier this month about the amp, Ray said it is in a family member's possession. Dave says it's been missing for years. Ray says the amp's cones were shredded with their mother's knitting needles. Dave says he used a razor, then adds, "Who are you going to believe?" "It's difficult working with family," Davies say. Ironically, one of the most tumultuous relationships in music also is among the most stable. Along with the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and the Ventures, the Kinks remain one of the few bands of their era that has remained together in some form since inception, and they did it largely while being unaccepted in the music industry, Davies said. "It helped give us a little special place in rock and roll," he said. "We're not like everybody else."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Warth, San Diego North County Times
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Post by franklima on Feb 8, 2011 14:14:13 GMT -5
www.smarterinfo.net/electric-guitars-and-early-electric-amplifiers.htmlElectric Guitars And Early Electric Amplifiers October 28, 2008 | By admin | By Victor Epand An electric guitar can have any number of a range of extra features, accessories and gadgets used to adjust, distort and affect the sound that it produces. But one item is an absolute necessity: no electric guitar can be performed or make any decent sound without an amplifier. A good quality amplifier can make a massive difference, and if you’re looking to buy an electric guitar, or perhaps move on from a basic starter model, then a good quality and flexible amplifier unit to match the guitar will make all the difference. After all, it is the guitar which produces the signal, but the amplifier which makes the sound. It would be the same as considering a choir and the conductor. Both are important, but no matter how good the conductor, it is the choir which ultimately make the sound, and have the greatest impact on the eventual quality of sound heard. Amplifiers that were created specifically for an instrument were first developed as part of the electric guitar development, and it was these instruments which first benefitted from any kind of external amplification. These early units were developed in the 1930s, and it was the advent of more advanced electrics that enabled amplification units to be built that were both economic and of good quality. Of course, the amplification of guitars had been around for much longer, but simply for acoustic guitars, with microphones set up. The combination of electronic amplification units coupled to electric guitars gave rise to a whole new sound of music, originally popularised by the steel stung sound of the Hawaiian guitar. Early amplifiers were fairly basic, and even though they often had a range of controls, these did not provide a wide range of controls to improve sound quality. Generally the early amplifiers were very good at boosting the treble signal, but the bass notes were poor, and the response was slow. As these early models developed, extra features were included such as reverberation effects and tremolo units. In fact, Fender introduced an amplification unit which included a tremolo effect, although through an error of misunderstanding this was labeled as ‘vibrato’, with the lever included on the Stratocaster guitar which actually produced the vibrato effect labeled as ‘tremolo’. These incorrect labels stuck, however, and this day the most popular way of referring to the tremolo effect is through the word vibrato, and the vibrato effect is usually referred to as tremolo. This is why music written for electric guitar has these words used quite differently from music written for other instruments. Many of these earlier models of amplifier could be reasonably easily overloaded, and some guitarists took to deliberately achieving this effect, creating a range of distortion effects. Indeed, it was Dave Davies, guitarist with the Kinks who first introduced a distortion effect which involved him connecting the output from one of his amplifiers into the input section of a second amplifier. This distortion effect created a unique, wailing sound, and was one which, whilst the designers at the time could never have imagined, was later introduced by many other performers and amplifier designers. Distortion effects today are so prevalent that it nearly seems a requirement that a guitarist can produce such a sound within many genres of music. About The Author Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music, guitar tab, and home theater audio. You can find the ideal marketplace at these sites: www.4guitars.info , www.4sheetmusic.info , and www.theateraudio.info . DAVE'S INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF ROCK AND ROLL HISTORY ;D
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