FILTER BOOKS
Some brothers do ’ave ’em
Second, more thoughtful autobiography from the younger Kink.
By Mat Snow.
All lined up: The Kinks (from left) Ray Davies, Mick Avory, John Dalton, Dave Davies.
Getty
Living On A Thin Line
★★★★ Dave Davies
HEADLINE. £20
IN JUNE 2004, aged 57, Dave Davies, Kinks guitarist and younger brother of the more famous Ray, collapsed with a stroke. “Lying
in hospital for all those weeks handed me a precious opportunity to reflect on my life for the first time since The Kinks became popular in 1964,” he writes.
For the first time? Really, Dave? Just seven years earlier in 1997 he’d published Kink, a hair-raising memoir of hell-raising days, now out of print. Then aged a mid-life crisis 50, he’s now a relatively serene 75, and in this shorter, more thoughtful autobiography he develops some interesting insights and connections as he evolves a personal philosophy that addresses not just who he is but the very meaning of life. Where Kink was a product of its era’s Lad Culture – all booze, pills, broken glass and hapless groupies puked up on –Living On A Thin Line reflects today’s unmoored, anxious flight to New Age modes of thought and feeling. Twenty five years ago, Dave was already tr ying to process extraordinar y experiences involving extra-terrestrials, spirit guides and psychic energy; now it all coheres more persuasively.
“I never thought Dedicated Follower would any where.”
DAVE DAVIES
Though not for the faint hearted and less smoothly written, Kink has the edge for the Kinks kronicle kompletist. However, where Dave drills deep, Thin Line is a distinct upgrade. For example, where the difficulties of nailing Dedicated Follower Of Fashion merit a cursor y summar y in Kink, we now get this recollection: “I never thought that song would lead anywhere when he lead brought it along – it sounded overly frivolous to me, and we went through hell tr ying to finish a take,” he writes. “Ray couldn’t find a way of realising the sound he had in his head, nor communicating what he wanted to the rest of us. We tried different combinations of guitars, and even a version with barrelhouse piano.