Arthur

Publisher:

Noma Music, Inc.
Sole Selling Agents: Hill and Range Songs, Inc., 241 West 72nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10023

Publishing Dates:

1969

ISBN:

(no ISBN number)

Misc. Stats:

9" x 12", 63 pages

Inside notes:

The Kinks

The Kinks, one of the world's most exciting, and definitely most enduring rock and roll groups, were part of what some observers have retrospectively named the first wave of the British musical invasion of the mid-1960's. the group, whose name was derived from the English hip-slang word for unusual, or far out, or freaky, originally came to us from a district of London called Muswell Hill. Early in their career, they distinguished themselves by playing gloriously loud, earthy and sexually aggressive Chuck Berry-and Little Richard-inspired rock and roll at posh debutante balle, and by dressing in Edwardian-style leather and velvet costumes of their own design.

Leader and writer, Ray Davies, apparently bored with the primitively raucous rock and roll for which the group was famous, began to experiment with lyrics. These experiments produced "DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION," in which the group began to abandon its characteristic format and concentrate almost exclusively on presenting, with few distractions, Davies' cryptic-satirical lyrics.

About this time, Dave Davies began to release occasional singles under his own name. One such record, "DEATH OF A CLOWN," was an enormous internation success.

This brings us to the latter-day Kinks, whose most recent album, "THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY," is characterized by Ray's incredibly brilliant songs (he's grown almost unbelievably adept at writing both words and melodies), and the group's softer approach.

Their latest LP is the Ray Davies-composed score for a Granada television dramatic presentation called "ARTHUR." The score, which took nearly a year to complete, is characterized by Ray's exuberant, drunken-Fats Domino type singing, a less abashed rock and roll flavor than has been evident in the Kinks' recent work, and the addition of all manner of supporting orchestration to the group's two guitars, bass and drums lineup.


Ray Davies, the group's spokesman, chief songwrite, rhythm guitarist and occasional pianist, began his musical career with the dream of one day becoming a Charlie Christian-style jazz guitarist. He quit art school in his late teens in hopes of finding a group through which he could express his love of American rock and roll, and rhythm and blues. Subsequently, he formed the Kinks because of his inability to find a group in London in 1962 who played anything but 12-bar (that is, straight and traditional) blues.

Dave Davies, Ray's younger brother, plays lead guitar and sings falsetto backgrounds. Not only has he played music with Ray since he was 11 years old, but he now composes some of the songs to be found on the Kinks' many records.

Drummer Mick Avory, like thousands of other English rock musicians, learned his trade during the skiffle craze. When skiffle died its ignobal death, Mick moved on to rock and roll, studying briefly in between with jazz drummers. He met Ray and Dave in a pub, where, after chatting amicably, they asked him to join their group.

Bassist John Dalton is the the [sic] only Kink who wasn't around in the beginning. When original bassman Peter Quaife was hurt in an automobile accident a couple of years ago, John, who was then playing with the Mark Four, was invited by Ray to fill in. This he happily did, only to find himself back on the street when Quaife recovered. Several months ago, Quaife departed again, this time apparently for keeps, and John was once again recruited.


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