Customer Reviews

Unfinished Business: Dave Davies Kronikles 1963-1998

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As Dave himself as often stated: "It wasn't called Heavy Metal when I invented it".
Brash,Loud and In Your Face, Dave Davies is the Pure Definition of Rock N' Roll. With his Wild Spirit and that BIG Guitar he was the Obnoxious younger Brother of a certain Raymond Davies who wrote songs and sang them in the Fab, Fave KINKS. That is not to say that Dave couid or would live in the shadow of his elder brother. His Mark of Greatness is stamped right onto the Kinks third single release, "You Really Got Me" when after those famous opening chords he goes APE$#!% during that outta-control solo midway through this classic. This one Song Defines it all, and all this is because of Dave.

That said Dave Davies Deserves his own Box Set (OF AT LEAST 4 CD'S) But in this World that might never happen so this Two-Disk Collection will have to stand in for that.

With Disk One containing 15 Tracks and Disk Two adding another 16, I will agree with the other Reviewers that is Version PAILS in comparison to the European Edition that adds 13 more selections into this Collection.

This Edition of "Unfinished Business" is a fair sampler of Dave Davies. But you will want and you NEED more of this Music.. Go for the EUROPEAN copy of this Classic

Dave's a genius and this collection will finally prove it. The thing that always amazes me about the Brothers D. is that they're never pretentious. Listen to the title track 'Unfinished Business' and you will see what I mean. For a man who's been around for over 30 years, he sure knows how to "keep it real." God save the Kinks.

The unappreciated younger brother. As long time Kinks fans can tell you, Dave could be the band's secret weapon. His guitar playing helped create the hard rock sound associated with heavy metal. Although not as prolific (nor as gifted) as brother Ray in terms of songwriting, Dave developed a singular voice that, at its best, could be the equal of Ray's.

Unfinished Business collects many of The Kinks key album tracks that Dave contributed to musically (either as a songwriter and/or instrumentalist-vocalist) and from his brief solo career. It's nice to see that Dave is returning to creating his own music and not just living in Ray's shadow.

The Kinks material includes re-recorded versions of songs he wrote and sang in the band (due to legal reasons, the original recordings couldn't be used). The re-recordings work well and compare to the original classics. In some cases, Dave takes an unplugged approach with these tracks brining out new nuances.

Also collected are the best tracks from Dave's three solo studio albums from the 80's. Chosen People, Dave's weakest album, is represented by a re-recording of the best song from that disc. While his first solo record is woefully under represented.

This gets 4 stars instead of five because the US release has 14 less tracks than the UK and European counterpart. It should be mentioned, however, that this disc does have tracks that don't appear on the UK version as well.

For over 35 years Dave Davies has stood in his brothers shadow. While Ray has lived his musical fantasys on stage, brother Dave had to be content to stand off to the side of the stage and play flawless lead guitar. On this seminal collection, Dave shows us he could have easily led The Kinks himself. Drawing on his early work with The Kinks, such as "You Really Got Me," the acclaimed Kinks cover of "Milk Cow Blues", and "Beautiful Delilah", and his overlooked solo work, this collection proves Dave to have had an outstanding track record. Check out "Imagination's Real" from his 1980 self-titled Lp, probabaly his best solo performance. Ray is not the only Davies boy who can write great songs. Not having sold as many records as some recording artists, Dave Davies has been overlooked by many. But the final songs on this collection prove Dave to be a fine band frontman, as he delights his fans at a show in NYC. We wonder why it took Dave so long to take his solo show on the road. "Lincoln County", a rare Dave solo single from the 60's is played live to finish his joyride, a pure delight. It should be noted that "Death of a Clown", Dave's theme-song, is presented here in a new stripped down version from 1998. Like everything else here it is performed with style and class; kind of like Dave Davies himself.

Due to legal matters, this double is both shorter and less authoritative than the European Anthology compilation (it includes no Kinks-era recordings from 1966-70). Being as how little of Dave's output outside of this classic time-frame is really up to much ("Imagination's Real" and "Living On A Thin Line" apart - and these both feature on the Anthology) I can't really recommend this for anyone apart from the kompletists.