“I Believed You” is one of the demo tracks recorded by the Ravens, an early version of the Kinks led by Dave Davies, in 1963.
“Time Will Tell” is an excellent Kinks track that for some reason wasn’t released at the time.
Next come three Ray Davies songwriting demos, never recorded by the full band, all from 1965. “All Night Stand” was given to the Thoughts, a UK band also produced by Shel Talmy, but I prefer Ray’s demo.
“Creeping Jean” is a fairly obscure song by Davie Davies and the Kinks. After hitting big with his solo 45, “Death of a Clown”, it looked like Dave might start a full solo career. An album was planned and more 45’s released under his name. None of those did very well, so the lp was canceled. This song was only available on the b-side to “Hold My Hand” from early 1969, until Pye issued “Dave Davies – The Album that Never Was” in 1988.
Thankyou for sharing astonishing Davies demos!!
I was well pleased to hear these! Thank you so much!
Thanks heaps for these. I’ve always loved The Pretenders’ version of I Go To Sleep but I’d never heard it by Davies, it’s great.
Great! Thanks a million for that Kinks (well, Davies) material. They are so underrated compared to Beatles, Stones, Who and Small Faces. And so influential. Even Yo la Tengo and Okkervil River have Kinks influenced ditties on their new albums. Which goes to show…
Grand thanks for postin’ from Russia!
I have heard those songs on Kinks bootlegs – but not sure about those versions.
Dave has the Ravens stuff on his Best-Of CD.
Speaking to someone below’s point about the Kinks being underrated…. that is for sure, but much of it is self-inflicted.
But even within the Kinks, Dave is himself much underated; as a guitar player and definitely as a songwriter.
You know…. the Kinks could reform the original 4 members right now. And also put together later versions. I think they are all living.
Imagine that show (and DVD) the 4 originals start the show and then the replacement players come out as the show continues.
It is a crying shame that they (i.e. Ray) won’t let it happen. The others would do it in a moment.
Thanks for having these here…There’s never enough KinKs, Ray Davies and Dave Davies music to go around. – God save the kinks, – Frank Lima, The Montvale, New Jersey Hillbilly Boy aka Dan the Fan
The original 45 versions of I go to sleep (either The Applejacks or The Truth, I am not sure who was first) are hard to find themselves…
Thanks for posting these gems (all of them, in fact).
In the name of all that’s great, WHY hasn’t Creeping Jean ended up on a compilation album – it’s fantastic!
The “I Go To Sleep” demo is astounding !Thanks for sharing !
This Pretenders song has also been a favourite of mine. Great to hear it again sung in such an origional and enjoyable way.
Peggy Lee also recorded a version of “I Go To Sleep” believe it or not and her version closely follows the Ray Davies demo. “Creeping Jean” appeared on the Sequel CD compliation “Quick Before They Catch Us” (gulp, that was 20 years ago).
“Creepin’ Jean” also appeared on a British 2 LP set of Kinks material issued by Castle Communications LTD. in 1985. I believe this set may have been one volume of a series of albums called “The Collector Series.” The album was titled “The Kinks Collection” (CCSLP 113.) I remember this was the first opportunity I had to hear “Creepin’ Jean,” “Act Nice & Gentle,” and “Sittin’ on My Sofa.” Some of you will no doubt remember how hard it was to find select early albums and single cuts by them in the ’80s because Reprise didn’t have all of their stuff, such as their first five American LP’s in print. So imports like the album I mentioned here were essential in order to hear some of these songs.
It could be so hard to locate the music you wanted back in the ’80s, people today have no idea. Especially in the ‘burbs where I was. There were some albums I had to look for years to find just a reissue of, let alone an original pressing, and many legendary records were just not available.
I remember being very happy to find cheap Spanish reissues of the Pye LPs like Kontroversy, Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green. Finding a used copy of Kinks Kronicles helped fill in some of the early stuff.
Fortunately, it was less difficult to find those Spanish and Greek copies in my area. Thank goodness for them though! I still have my copies of “Kinks,” “Face to Face,” and “Arthur.” Although I had the domestically available mid ’80s copy of “Arthur,” I wanted to compare sound quality.
There was also a company out of Canada called Phonodisc who made available the “Kinda Kinks” and “Village Green Preservation Society” albums, as well as just about all of the CCR catalog. “Kinda Kinks” they issued using the Marble Arch label, while “Village Green” they issued using the green and red PRT label. That was how I first heard those two albums.
“Kinks Size” and “Kontroversy” were absolutely non-existent here. I got those used through a place in the Bronx called Time Square Records who carried an ad in the back of a record collector’s book. They were original issue Reprise albums. Short on high end, long on bass.
Thank you…never knew about these songs. Nice insight to the early sound.
Wasn’t there a song by the kinks about breakfast and food?