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Who and Kinks



Interesting that there`s not been more discussion on the list of the many
links between the Who and the Kinks, at least since I`ve been on the list. I
got to thinking of this recently while listening continually to
Coolwalking....  and other PT solo material. Many of PT`s slower, folkish
tunes are reminiscent of Ray Davies` quieter, more reflective songs, both in
sound and lyrical content. Think of Keep On Working or Uniforms - these are
similar in tone or feel to Art Lover, for example. There are many such
intersections between the two bands - eg. sharing Shel Talmy as a producer
and the crunching riff-rock of I Can`t Explain and You Really Got Me; the
influence of PT`s stage act on Davies` 70`s and 80`s shows - eg. Ray doing
those high splits must have come straight from Pete; the shared interest in
the concept album; the shared interest in details of English social life,
and so on, although there are many differences too. Obviously the Kinks did
not aspire to the high levels of creativity and musicianship evident
particularly in the Who`s golden period of 1968-1971, but arguably the Kinks
were more consistent as a band by the mid-70`s and early 80`s. Thus, by then
the Kinks were again putting out excellent hard rock like Around the Dial,
Prince of the Punks, Father Christmas and the very Who-like, superb Do It
Again, whereas the Who had abandoned the genre. This leads to three
questions: did members of the Who ever perform on stage with members of the
Kinks? Second, did the Who ever record a Kinks song? I believe Glow Girl was
written by Davies, but I may be mistaken. Third, did the Who ever perform
Kinks material on stage?......Gary M.