Green Amp Records/Red River EntertainmentKinks guitarist Dave Davies has dug into his archives to create the new compilation Decade, featuring unreleased solo recordings he made throughout the 1970s.
The 71-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer tells ABC Radio that the album was “quite a labor of love” that took him three or four years to put together, “with the help of my son Simon, who produced it, and my son Martin, who helped coordinate the whole project.”
“The songs have been living in me for a long time,” Davies says, “and it’s good to get them out there.”
Dave explains that, at the time, he had “no plan or agenda” in recording the tracks, which weren’t intended for a solo album or for The Kinks.
“I’d get an idea for a song and I’d think, ‘Oh, we got some downtime at the weekend. I’ll go in the studio and twiddle knobs and play drums and see how these ideas came out,'” he points out. “So it was a lot of fun, really.”
Dave collaborated with various musicians on the tracks, including Kinks drummer Mick Avory, who lent his talents to a song called “If You Are Leaving.”
Davies also made some new contributions to select tracks, including a song called “Mystic Woman,” to which he says he added new vocals “because we didn’t have completed verses.”
Reflecting on the various tunes on Decade, Dave tells ABC Radio that “most of the album is very personal, about how I feel about my friends and about the state of the world.”
He adds, “Each time I play it, new memories [and thoughts] come up.”
Davies has announced a series of U.S. solo dates in support of the album that are scheduled for April 2019. Check them out at DaveDavies.com.
Here’s Decade‘s track list:
“Cradle to the Grave”
“Midnight Sun”
“Islands”
“If You Are Leaving”
“Web of Time”
“Mystic Woman”
“Give You All My Love”
“The Journey”
“Within Each Day”
“Same Old Blues”
“Mr. Moon”
“Shadows”
“This Precious Time (Long Lonely Road)”
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