The Kinks song that made Ray Davies call Jimmy Page “an as*hole”
When The Beatles and The Rolling Stones first broke America, they left ajar a crack that countless British blues bands would try to squeeze through. Artists such as The Animals and Cream may have made some headway, but it was down to supreme Londoners, The Kinks to kick open the floodgates. The band, led by the Davies brothers Ray and Dave, would produce British-centric tunes that the whole world could enjoy. Except, apparently, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
Inter-band issues are nothing new. One only needs to glance back at the history of music to see plenty of warring factions go toe-to-toe. While The Beatles and The Rolling Stones’ feud was largely in the papers and not when they met face-to-face, Nirvana and Guns N’ Roses were seemingly at loggerheads, Oasis and Blur would rarely share a backstage cubicle, the less said about The Cure’s disdain for Duran Duran the better, and it’s unlikely John Lydon has ever liked any band he’s laid eyes on.
However, there is something a little strange about the issues that surfaced between The Kinks and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Let us go back to London in the swinging 1960s — the kind of place we always like to imagine. Amid a swirl of creativity and the promise of pop music pounds flooding in, rock bands across the capital set themselves a task of cashing in. The Kinks were no different, and they set their sights on gaining the same fame and fortune that was befalling the Liverpudlian foursome. While other bands relied heavily on covers during this time, Ray Davies was already determined to write his music, giving the world some of the foremost youth anthems of the day, including ‘All Day and All of the Night’.
One of The Kinks’ undoubted classics, ‘All Day and All of the Night’, was a signifier to Britain’s youth that The Kinks were hip. The band made not-so-subtle references to sexual encounters with their girlfriends, which not only made the kids go wild and hinted at their rebellious nature in the face of strict decency practices but also provided a searing pop song. We’re not going to sit here and proclaim that this is necessarily some of Davies’ most poignant or purposeful work. However, to ignore the potency of his lyrics as well as the subversive subtext is not only to forget the time and place in which they were written but how simply universal they were.
The song was reasonably derivative of their first hit, ‘You Really Got Me’, something instigated by the record company’s need for more and more records that were liable to sell in the thousands and compete with the big boys. Ray Davies later described the track as a “neurotic song – youthful, obsessive and sexually possessive”. It certainly fits the bill for a youthful anthem. Despite being initially rejected by the label for being “too blue-collar, too working class”, the track’s powerhouse delivery and cunning connotations made it a hit.
The dancefloors of Britain were all too often scattered with debris following the playing of a tune by The Kinks. But the song has another outside of the dancefloor joy it brought to millions.
Not only is ‘All Day and All of the Night’ often thought of as a reference point for The Doors song ‘Hello, I love You’—so much so that The Kinks’ publisher wanted to sue the Los Angeles band and only didn’t because Davies refused to take action—but, depending on who you believe, it also featured a young Jimmy Page on guitar.
A seasoned session musician at the time, the young pre-Yardbirds Jimmy Page was a contributor to a lot of records around this time. The guitarist was as talented as ever and more than happy to fulfil the role of studio tech and sometimes axeman whenever he was called upon to do so. Much of his work during that time is well-regarded and not disputed, but this inclusion certainly is. The focus of the argument is the searing guitar solo in the middle of ‘All Day and All of the Night’.
Many, including Jimmy Page, have suggested that he was on guitar during that recording and that Ray Davies was nowhere near the solo. When listening to the track with this knowledge, it is easy to hear Page’s signature style. But, it is a notion that is hotly disputed by Ray Davies, who spoke to Creem magazine in 1981 and not only refuted Page’s claims but dished out his own sentiment too: “I remember Page coming to one of our sessions when we were recording ‘All Day And All Of The Night.’
“We had to record that song at 10 o’clock in the morning,” Davies continued, “Because we had a gig that night. It was done in three hours. Page was doing a session in the other studio, and he came in to hear Dave’s solo, and he laughed, and he snickered. And now he says that he played it!” Making reference to the Led Zeppelin man’s passion for the occult, Davies continued: “So I think he’s an asshole, and he can put all the curses he wants on me because I know I’m right, and he’s wrong.”
Of course, it would be quite challenging to know for sure who was behind the monster solo in the middle of ‘All Day and All of the Night’, whether it was Davies or Page who laid down that fiery lick, but what we do know is that the song will likely outlive the dispute. An anthem for the youth no matter what generation The Kinks track will be played at ragers forever.