walking upstream…
The Kinks
The Kinks formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 when brothers Ray and Dave Davies channeled American blues and rock and roll into a snarling, two-chord riff on "You Really Got Me" — a sound so raw it's credited with helping invent hard rock's whole power-chord vocabulary. Ray Davies quickly outgrew that blueprint, turning his songwriting toward wry, miniaturist portraits of English class, nostalgia, and suburban life on albums like The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur, while Dave's guitar kept one foot in the gutter. Commercially undervalued next to their British Invasion peers for years, they became one of rock's most quietly influential bands anyway, cited by everyone from punk to Britpop as the sound of a very particular, very English kind of rock and roll.
the sound in question
1964
You Really Got MeThe Kinks
walk the tributaries ↓
Chuck Berry1950s · Rock and roll / Rhythm and blues
Dave Davies has repeatedly named Chuck Berry as the single biggest influence on his playing, calling him "the key to everything that happened in the '60s" — Berry's chugging, riff-based rock and roll was the raw material Davies fed into his fuzzed-out guitar sound to invent The Kinks' whole vocabulary of power chords.
listen: upstream & heresource: Far Out Magazine — Why Chuck Berry was "the key to everything" for Dave Davies ↗
1958
Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
1964
All Day and All of the NightThe Kinks
listen forBerry's 'Johnny B. Goode' turns a boogie-woogie bassline into a guitar riff you can sing along to — line it up against 'All Day and All of the Night' and hear the same riff-first logic reduced to two brutal, distorted chords: Berry gave rock and roll a melody built out of guitar, and Dave Davies just cranked the amp until it snarled.
Eddie Cochran1950s · Rock and Roll / Rockabilly
Dave Davies has said it was Eddie Cochran who "really brought to life the guitar hero thing" in him, describing Cochran's technique as ahead of its time and its swagger as distinct from Elvis Presley or Gene Vincent — Cochran's rebel attitude and guitar-forward records gave the teenage Davies his first model of what a rock and roll guitarist could be.
listen: upstream & heresource: Far Out Magazine — The artist (Eddie Cochran) who turned Dave Davies into a guitar hero ↗
1958
Summertime BluesEddie Cochran
1965
Till the End of the DayThe Kinks
listen forCochran's 'Summertime Blues' struts on a tight, percussive riff and a sneering vocal aimed squarely at adult authority — 'Till the End of the Day' runs the same playbook, riff first and attitude second, with Dave Davies chasing the same restless, rebellious swagger Cochran modeled for him.
Big Bill Broonzy1930s-40s · Chicago blues / Country blues / Folk blues
Ray Davies has said he wrote 'You Really Got Me' as a tribute to the blues singers he loved most, naming Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy specifically — Broonzy's records, which Ray first encountered via a British TV documentary and then through his brother-in-law's collection, gave the teenage Davies brothers their model for turning a simple, circling chord vamp into something that could hold a room.
listen: upstream & heresource: American Songwriter — Ray Davies's 1998 quote on writing "You Really Got Me" as a tribute to Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy ↗
1941
Key to the HighwayBig Bill Broonzy
1964
You Really Got MeThe Kinks
listen forPut on Broonzy's 'Key to the Highway' and listen to how the whole song rides one insistent, circling guitar figure under a plainspoken vocal — then cue 'You Really Got Me' and hear the same trick blown up to rock and roll scale: a short chord figure repeated with just enough menace that the song barely needs a melody at all.