Thank Dave Davies, metal kids. Punk kids, too. His idea to take a razor to his Elpico prior to the Kinks’ recording the distortion-soaked “You Really Got Me” birthed a thousand garage bands. “Little Green Amp” takes you right back there.
Part of Davies’ forthcoming solo album I Will Be Me, due on June 4, 2013 via Cleopatra Records, this exclusive advance stream of “Little Green Amp” directly references that tattered amplifier in its title — and the old Gillette-shredded sound in its riff, making for this glorious throwback to a culture-shifting Kinks gem.
As that seminal band continues a lengthy (and perhaps permanent) hiatus, however, Davies and his sibling and erstwhile bandmate Ray Davies have focused on their own separate projects. The Kinks’ final studio effort was 1993’s Phobia; they last played in concert three years later.
Dave, more recently, has persevered through a period of personal difficulty, having suffered a stroke in 2004 while promoting his then-new solo effort Bug. It was 2006 before Davies made a complete recovery, but only after relearning how to walk and talk — and then, later, to play guitar again.
Davies then issued Fractured Mindz in 2007, extending a solo career that actually dates back to 1967 with the single “Death of a Clown,” co-written by Ray.
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