Weekend self-care open thread: It's the Kinks!

Posted by Victor the Crab May 02, 2026

Weekend self-care open thread: It's the Kinks!

The Kinks, 1964; Clockwise, from left: Mick Avory, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Ray Davies

Happy weekend, peoples! Once again, LL, our fearless leader and gracious host, has handed the self care reigns over to yours truly! And for this self care, I present to you one of the more influential and notorious bands to emerge from the 1960s British Invasion, the Kinks!

The Kinks are basically the story of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave. Born three years apart, in the mid 1940s in North London, Ray and Dave were the two youngest, and only, Davies boys in a family of eight siblings. Growing up listening to, and inspired by, the music their parents enjoyed at the music halls and at home when they were hosting weekend parties, the Davies boys, along with Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums, formed a band in 1962, and initially called themselves the Ray Davies Quartet. They renamed themselves the Kinks, two years later, at the suggestion of their manager, in order to differentiate from other rock bands, and to give themselves a bit of an edge.

The Kinks scored their first major hit in 1964 with You Really Got Me, which stood out due to the distortive sound younger brother and lead guitarist Dave created by slicing the speaker cone of his guitar amplifier with a razor blade. The sound that came out of it caused a sensation in rock circles, as You Really Got Me made it to the top of the British charts. The Kinks followed that up with the equally riffing sounding All Day And All Of The Night, and soon other rock acts picked up on Dave's innovation. The results of that were many new genres of rock that would evolve, such as heavy metal, punk, and grunge.

But the Kinks were more than just impressive guitar riffs.

The older Davies, Ray, who was the band's front man, rhythm guitarist, lead singer, and lead writer, penned songs that delved into British society, with a satirical bent to them. A Well Respected Man looked at the pressures of conforming in the UK, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion lampooned the British fashion scene of the Sixties, Sunny Afternoon poked fun at the British upper class during the high taxation era of Harold Wilson's Labour government, and, their last hit, Do It Again, is about doing the same routine every day hoping for a different outcome.

There was also Waterloo Sunset, considered one of Ray's best written songs, which looked at finding beauty and joy in one of the more grimier, depressed parts of London. And Lola, about a guy who meets a woman at a bar, only to later discover she's a man in drag, which was considered one of the Kinks more controversial songs, and was banned, for a while, from being played on the BBC.

Between Ray's songwriting and Dave's guitar work, the Kinks became one of the more prominent and successful bands coming out of the British Invasion, selling over 50 million records worldwide during their existence. And, while band members came and went, and the band grew then shrank, the Davies brothers were the one constant in the Kinks' history. This, despite the brothers' infamous reputation of constantly arguing, fighting and occasional fisticuffs with each other over creative and personal issues. Their bickering may have kept the band from reaching bigger heights, and from being mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. Yet they were good enough to be welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, on their very first try.

Here is but some of the best work mentioned from the Kinks: