You Really Got Me

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You Really Got Me
The Kinks
publication 4th August 1964
length 2:14
Genre (s) Hard rock , garage rock
Author (s) Ray Davies
album Kinks

You Really Got Me is the title of a rock - songs , that of Ray Davies wrote and his band The Kinks was recorded in the 1964th

History of origin

In the summer of 1964, the band had come under great pressure from their Pye record company after their first two singles were unsuccessful. It had to be a success now. The song was originally written as a jazz piece in the style of Gerry Mulligans . Ray Davies was inspired on the piano by Jimmy Giuffre's composition Train and the River (recorded for the first time on December 3, 1956 in the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles; LP The Jimmy Giuffre 3 , January 1957) and developed this consisting of only two notes Riff that Dave Davies played on guitar. Ray Davis wanted to write You Really Got Me, a song similar to Louie Louie from the Kingsmen . You Really Got Me came about when Dave Davies was trying to play Louie Louie's chords . In another interview in 1998, he described the song as a tribute to the great blues people Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy . The song Tequila der Champs is said to have inspired him to the guitar riff of the piece .

Overall, music producer Shel Talmy recorded the song You Really Got Me with the Kinks three times in three London recording studios . The first recording on March 18, 1964 at Regent Sound Studios in London had a slow blues feel; there was a lot of echo behind it. Shel Talmy believed her to be a hit too. Ray Davis insisted on a faster pace. On June 15, 1964, a faster-paced version was created in Pye Studios (Studio 2), whose production cost of £ 85 Talmy had to pay himself. Davies was not satisfied with this either. Next Recording date was July 12, 1964 in the IBC Studios where, along with It's All Right on a 3-track - Ampex an even faster version was leveled. She was selected for the later single.

Guitarist Dave Davies achieved the distinctive distortion sound of the guitar by cutting open the speaker membrane of his El Pico guitar amplifier with a razor blade and sticking needles into it. The guitar signal was then routed to a Vox AC-30 . He used the semi-acoustic Harmony Meteor as guitar .

One of the earliest hits that made use of power chords emerged from this last recording session and influenced rock musicians in the styles of heavy metal and punk rock . American musicologist Robert Walser writes that it was “the first hit built around power chords,” and Allmusic critic Denise Sullivan writes that “'You Really Got Me' is a song template for the hard rock and heavy metal genre “Is. The almost punk-rock-like drive is striking .

occupation

More recent publications give group members Ray Davies (vocals and rhythm guitar), Dave Davies (lead guitar) and Pete Quaife (bass) as the full official line- up . These were supported by the studio musicians Bobby Graham ( drums ) and Arthur Greenslade ( piano ). The actual Kinks drummer Mick Avory only played the tambourine .

The piece's guitar solo sparked one of the longest running myths in rock music. It is said that it was not played by the lead guitarist of the Kinks, Dave Davies, but by the then studio musician Jimmy Page , who later joined the Yardbirds and later founded Led Zeppelin . Among other things, this was claimed by Jon Lord , who later became Deep Purple's keyboardist, who claims to have played piano on the recording. Jimmy Page himself has always denied this; In the interview he stated, "I didn't play on 'You Really Got Me' and that's why he [Ray Davies] is pissed off." Producer Shel Talmy ended the controversy in an interview: "Honestly, Jimmy Page doesn't have that Played solo on 'You Really Got Me' which I said about 5000 times to people who insisted it was him. The reason I put Jimmy on Kinks records was because Ray Davis didn't really want to play guitar and sing at the same time. That means Jimmy played rhythm guitar back then . "

Publication and Success

Kinks - You Really Got Me

The title You Really Got Me / It's All Right ( Pye Records 7N.15673) were on 4 August 1964 as the third single released the band. It reached number 1 in the British singles charts , in Germany only number 39. The single meant the breakthrough for the band and established them as one of the top acts of the British Invasion in the USA, where they reached number 7. It sold 250,000 copies in the UK and over 750,000 in the US, becoming the band's first million seller worldwide .

The music magazine Rolling Stone placed the piece at number 82 of their 500 best songs of all time and number 4 of the "100 best guitar songs of all time". In 2005, the song was voted best British song in the decade 1955-1965 in a BBC radio vote. That same year, Q magazine ranked it 9th on their list of "100 Best Guitar Songs". In 2009, VH1 ranked it 57th among the “best hard rock songs”.

Cover versions

Of You Really Got Me , there are at least 61 cover versions . The American hard rock band Van Halen covered the song on their debut album Van Halen in 1978 . It became a popular radio hit as a single release that kicked off the band's career, much as the Kinks had done 14 years earlier.

There are other cover versions of:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Top Hard Rock Songs . Allmusic. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b Toby Creswell: 1001 Songs. 684. Hardie Grant Publishing, ISBN 1-74066-458-2 .
  3. ↑ Rockaeology ( Memento from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ): You Really Got Me
  4. ↑ a b c Sound on sound: Shel Talmy
  5. ↑ a b You Really Got Me on Songfacts.
  6. ^ Stuart Maconie, The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records , 2013, p. 105
  7. ^ "Ray Davies Lyrics - The Third Single (dialogue)" ( Memento March 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). LyricsTime.com
  8. ↑ reports the Guardian Dave Davies How we made You Really Got Me , The Guardian , June 20, 2013
  9. ^ Jon Savage, The Kinks: The Official Biography , 1984, p. 28
  10. ↑ SoundOnSound from September 2009, Classic Tracks: The Kinks 'You Really Got Me'
  11. ↑ Kinks Alive: Dave Davies
  12. ↑ "Guitars" on davedavies.com ( Memento from April 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ a b Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music , p. 9, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2
  14. ↑ Denise Sullivan's review of Allmusic
  15. ↑ James E. Perone, Mods, Rockers And The Music of the British Invasion , 2009, p. 107
  16. ↑ Picture Book Box Set (Allmusic)
  17. ↑ Jon "Lord's Purple Reign" Joe Lalaina, Modern Keyboard Magazine , January 1989. Archived on "The Highway Star"
  18. ↑ “I mean, Jimmy Page did not play the solo on 'You Really Got Me' which I've said about 5,000 times to people who insist that he did. The reason I used Jimmy on The Kinks stuff is because Ray didn't really want to play guitar and sing at the same time. In fact, Jimmy was playing rhythm guitar. ” Finding Zoso Interview with Shel Talmy
  19. ↑ Chart surfer
  20. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, pp. 193 f.
  21. ↑ Rolling Stone 100 best songs of all time ( Memento from June 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ^ "Greatest Guitar Tracks" March 21, 2005. Ultimate Guitar.
  23. ↑ VH1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs
  24. ^ "Van Halen - Inductee 2007" , Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.