Proverbial sidekick and second fiddle Dave Davies opens his live album Rock Bottom, released in 2000, with not one, but two Kinks numbers written by his brother Ray. Sounding every bit as much as a Kink can, Dave spearheads one rocker after another with reckless abandon. Instead of telling stories and making esoteric, misunderstood films, this Davies gets down to the business of playing the riffs that virtually defined the songs. The two Ray Davies tunes, “I Need You” and “She’s Got Everything,” underscore Davies’ surefire guitar work, and a voice as similar and limey-soaked as Brother Ray’s.
It’s not difficult to recognize that Dave Davies was, at the time, more representative of what made the Kinks great than his more prolific sibling. His shows paid heavy tribute to some of the edgiest tunes that ever sprang forth from the Kinks’ well of music. On Rock Bottom, he claims eight of the compositions while nine are from Ray — and eight covers. But let’s face it: “You Really Got Me” simply needs Brother Dave to play the riff — he invented the lick that Van Halen made a pot of gold with. And Brother Ray surely got a nice little kickback whenever that Gap commercial popped up.
Still, Dave can swing hooks all night and be no less than the man who created them. From “All Day And All Of The Night” to his own “Death Of A Clown” and “Living On A Thin Line,” Rock Bottom spotlights a career founded on not just the song, but the machinery and know-how to get it moving. The only thing that really drags this release through the mud is when Dave bellies up to the mike between numbers and attempts to be witty and brazen. He’s become much more animated on that front in recent years, though perhaps Brother Dave should stick to his guitar and be content to be the riffmeister that he is.
~ Shawn Perry
