THE TITLE AND subtitle ought to be flipped, it seems to me, but it's good to have a book this readable on one of my favorite groups, the Kinks, and one of my favorite songwriters, Ray Davies. Hasted's book is not a masterpiece of rock biography (a category in which I would include Bob Mehr's book on the Replacements and Paul Trynka's book on Iggy Pop), but it's workmanlike and solid.
Hasted is good on the Davies brothers' neighborhood and family background and good on the group's various crises (being banned from touring in the USA thanks to a dustup with the musicians' union, the collapse of Ray's marriage in the early 1970s, Ray's lengthy fascination with writing concept albums). He is especially good on Dave Davies, whose guitar, voice, and songwriting were rarely in the spotlight but nonetheless a crucial presence for the whole of the band's existence. I had no idea of the ups and downs of Dave's story, but they turn out to be vertiginous. I did know there was a good deal of sibling tension, which Hasted does a fine job of reporting on without taking a side.
Hasted got interviews with Ray, Dave, drummer Mick Avory, and the brother of the late Pete Quaife, the group's original bass player, so the book has a strong primary-source core. Extra points for talking to Bob Henrit.
Although Hasted does justly by the band's career high points--the volcanic eruption of "You Really Got Me," the London anthem "Waterloo Sunset," the run as an arena-filling live act in the US--I wouldn't say he's as eloquent and insightful about the peculiar, unique beauty of the group's work as a few other writers have been (John Mendelsohn, Greil Marcus, Erik Campbell). So there's still room for that. Whoever does eventually write the definitive assessment of the Kinks, though, will benefit from Hasted's book.
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