Earlier this year, the news surfaced that Ray Davies was open to reforming the Kinks at some point in the future, but probably without his little brother and fellow Kinks legend Dave.
Now, however, there is a new twist with Dave Davies saying any possible reunion is ‘down to Ray’, this after Davies the younger has poured cold water on a reunion with his brother many times over the years.
In a long, long interview with the Independent, Dave Davies said, “For all his weirdness and abuse and the weird shit that he has got, I wouldn’t swap Ray for anything more balanced and polite… [He] will go down in history as a lyrical genius.”
He added, “I sometimes think that Ray was only happy for three-and-a-half years in his life. And those were the three-and-a-half years before I was born… [He] is a vain, egocentric, narcissistic arsehole. [But] I won’t have anybody call him that except me. Because I love him to death.”
Ray Davies is curating this Meltdown festival in London, opening up the possibility that one of the most famously feuding brothers in rock might put aside their differences for an evening, or even just a song.
The elder Davies had previously said he would regroup the Kinks “without him [Dave] if we have to. The music is the issue.” He went on to add “I’m a little more based on planet Earth than certain other members of my family.”
Dave Davies has been scathing of a reunion on many occasions, saying that such an idea would be like ‘a bad remake of Night of the Living Dead‘ or ‘karaoke Kinks’.
