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Credit: Far Out \/ Ray Davies<\/p>\n
Sat 5 September 2026 15:30, UK <\/p>\n
Something that Ray Davies<\/a> was perfect for was ensuring that he was championing the idea behind a song, rather than just his own individual performance. <\/p>\n Davies knew that while he was a good guitar player, he had more to offer when it came to vocals and lyric writing. As such, while he continued to play his part in the band, occasionally producers and engineers would bring in external help so that the very best could be brought out of every single facet of the guitar. <\/p>\n \u201cPete Quaife was an excellent bass player, Dave was one of the great underrated guitarists of the rock era, and Ray was an adequate, though not great, guitarist, mainly on rhythm,\u201d said producer Shel Tamy, \u201cThat\u2019s why, when we finally got to record an LP after \u2018You Really Got Me\u2019 became a hit, I hired Jimmy Page to play rhythm guitar. Ray didn\u2019t want to play; he just wanted to concentrate on singing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Granted, in that instance referenced above, Davies denies that Page was much of a help when it came to laying down rhythm guitar. However, that didn\u2019t mean that he wasn\u2019t aware of his limitations as a guitarist. He was always willing to admit when someone he heard or played with was better than him, and one six-string aficionado he was adamant was out of his league was Pete Townshend. <\/p>\n Davies had played with The Who when they were The High Numbers, and even back then, before they had truly made a name for themselves, it was clear to Davies how special the entire band, but specifically Townshend, were. He acknowledges that while both bands went down very different paths, so much so that it\u2019s hard to compare the two, Townshend was on another level when it came to playing guitar. <\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t in the same league [laughs],\u201d said Davies, \u201cThe High Numbers opened for The Kinks, on several occasions. I always knew they\u2019d be outstanding someday. When I say \u2018a different league\u2019 to The Who, I mean we were playing a totally different game. The Kinks were always in their own little world, while The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi, all went off on that very American journey, very corporate. Pete and I are friends, but we don\u2019t push it. We respect each other, and part of that is respecting each other\u2019s privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the things that Davies appreciated the most about Townshend was the fact that he, too, wasn\u2019t a selfish musician<\/a>. He was a great guitar player, sure, but he was always willing to set aside playing a solid solo or forcing a killer riff into a song if he didn\u2019t think the track as a whole would benefit from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n The entire band was good for this. You had a great bassist, guitarist, vocalist and drummer, all of whom were capable of going off on mad musical tangents that could rival any soloist on the planet; however, The Who wanted to write good songs. They were willing to set ego aside in a bid to get the best out of a piece of music as a whole. The connection between this mindset and that put forward by Davies is pretty evident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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